SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 6, 2009

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• How To Optimize Feeds To Maximize Your Exposure In Shopping Engine Results

  Each day millions of online shoppers turn to comparison shopping engines (CSEs) to compare prices, read reviews, research products and make buying decisions. While comparison shopping engines don’t sell or ship the products featured on their sites, they advertise products from merchants to a diverse online audience. Merchants are using CSEs in a down economy […]
• B2B Purchasing: A Risky Proposition

  In the last couple years, I’ve written that risk is a primary motivator in B2B purchase decisions, and that fear of making the wrong decision strongly influences B2B supplier selection. And rightly so. The wrong choice can have long-lasting business and career implications.
  This week, Enquiro, released a white paper entitled Mapping the BuyerSphere (registration required). […]

• New Local Engine Yellowspaces Debuts

  As a microcosm or mirror of the larger search market, there’s no shortage of entrepreneurs who keep taking a run at local. The newest entrant, launching today, is Yellowspaces. It joins an already very crowded field of consumer destinations that include the major search engines, yellow pages publishers, mapping sites, cityguides and others such as […]

• Google Search, Video & Finance Testing Interface Changes

  It appears that Google is testing new user interfaces for Google Web Search, Google Video Search and Google Finance. On Google Web Search, Google is testing showing “Review This Site” as a link, as opposed to a graphical comments icon. On Google Video Search, Google is testing additional search filters on the left hand […]

• Google Asks Publishers For Site Metrics With Ad Planner

  Four different Google blogs announced the launch of the Publisher Center for Ad Planner. The AdWords Blog, AdSense Blog, Analytics Blog and Agency Blog all made the announcement at the same time.
  The Publisher Center gives publishers a way to validate and update the data found within Google Ad Planner. Google Ad Planner shows […]

• SEMPO Partners With Yellow Pages Publisher Yellowbook

  SEMPO announced an educational partnership this morning with yellow pages publisher Yellow Book, a division of the UK based Yell. According to the press release put out, the SEMPO Institute “will be providing distance learning education for Yellowbook’s media consultant sales team.”
  I believe this is the first such relationship between SEMPO and an individual yellow […]

• A Social Media Reality Check: Time To Get Serious

  “Do you have a social media strategy?” I asked. “Absolutely,” she said. “Of course we’re doing social media. We’ve got a Facebook page!”
  If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a marketer say that, I’d be losing a lot less sleep during this economic crisis. It seems a day doesn’t go by that […]

• Microsoft Announces 3,000 New Layoffs

  Today, Microsoft announced that it had delivered layoff notices to 3,000 employees across several divisions (1,200 in Washington state). This comes just months after an initial round of 1,400 who were let go when Microsft announced second quarter earnings. At that time, Microsoft said it planned to eliminate 5,000 jobs this year, and Microsoft’s CEO […]

• Forbes.com CEO Spanfeller Attacks Google, Stumbles Into His Own Cesspool

  Another publisher is complaining that Google isn’t giving them their “fair share” — this time Forbes CEO Jim Spanfeller. Google makes $60 million off the Forbes brand, he claims (with no proof), and boosting “quality publishers” like Forbes would help Eric Schmidt’s web sewage problem. This is from the publication that sells […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Trends on your website, Official Google Blog

Business Issues

• Google and others urge inventory of national airwaves, Mercury News
• Alibaba CEO Ma Wants to Lure Silicon Valley Engineers to China, Alibaba.com
• Alibaba.com’s Net Falls 16% as Spending Squeezes Margins, Wall Street Journal
• Calif. judge blunts Internet false advertising law, Reuters
• Few Match Google; Does That Make It a Monopoly?, Wall Street Journal
• Live Search PR push in anticipation of “Kumo”, LiveSide
• Murdoch’s Secret Plan to Charge for Content, The Daily Beast
• Senate testimony on the future of journalism, Google Public Policy Blog
• Sorry Apple, Biz Stone says Twitter’s not for sale, Computer World
• South Carolina Gives Craigslist Ultimatum: Remove Prostitution Or Face Criminal Charges, TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Authority In Local Search, Exploring Local
• Introducing ‘Google Earth Featured Modeler Profiles’, Google LatLong
• YouTube uploads and more now available on Android, Official Google Mobile Blog

Link Building

• Consumer Reports Conducting Link Exchange Requests?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Greatest Linkbuilding Story Ever Told, Search Engine Journal
• Linking is Like Love, You Have to Give Some to Get Some, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• New features for advertisers targeting feeds, AdSense for Feeds
• Customer Loyalty: A Case Study, Rimm Kaufman
• Google’s International Trademark Policy Change: "What, Me Worry?", Eric Goldman
• Where Do Your PPC Ads Work Best? Find Out! Improve Your Geo-Targeted Performance With These Reports, PPC Hero

Searching

• What Google Can Do To Make The Web Less Of A ‘Cesspool’, paidContent.org
• Google Vanity Profiles Buggy on the iPhone, SEO Speedwagon
• More tools and tricks for teachers, Official Google Blog
• Sites that Require Registration? Use Google, Google Operating System

SEM Industry

• Respect For DMOZ, SEO Book
• Bruce Clay: "How I Built My SEO Business", seoroi.com
• The Data Kraken: Google’s Deadly Sins – and What They Mean to You, Fantomaster

SEO & SEM

• New SEO Tools and SEMToolBar for Firefox, BruceClay.com
• Do’s and Don’ts of On-Page SEO for Public Relations, Online Marketing Blog
• May 2009 Google Webmaster Report, Search Engine Roundtable
• Small Business SEO: Starting with the Right Success Metrics, SEOmoz
• The SEO Guide to FireFox Keyboard Shortcuts, Search Engine Journal
• Visitor Experience Optimization. Are You Doing It?, Search Engine Journal
• What is “search within search” result box & how can you increase the likelihood of it appearing for your site…, Site Visibility

Social Media

• Screenshot Of Google’s Next Social Step?, TechCrunch
• Updates to Facebook Platform Policy, Facebook Developers News
• A 20-step starter’s guide to using Twitter efficiently, econsultancy.com
• Digg To Launch Facebook Connect Today, TechCrunch
• How to use bots on twitter for something other than Spam My site, David Naylor
• Is Social Media Marketing Illegal?, SEOmoz
• Robot to create Facebook profile, BBC NEWS
• Twitter is to Testing Social, What PPC is to SEO, AIM Clear Blog
• Unmasking Social-Network Users, Technology Review
• URL Shortening Wars: Twitter Ditches TinyURL For bit.ly, TechCrunch

Other Items

• What Does Google Know About TV? Not Much That’s New, Ad Age
• Googleplex in 200 Seconds, Google Operating System

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• 2 Ways to Compare Link Power of Two or More Sites
• Greatest Linkbuilding Story Ever Told
• Don’t Forget About Us, The Web Directories
• 4 Tips to Make the Most of Google Talk
• 5 Steps To Creating A Rockstar LinkedIn Profile
• How you can become a million dollar blogger – Al Carlton
• Using Infographics in Social Media to Promote Content and Visualize Data
• Dear Facebook, I Think You Forgot Your “A” Game…