SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 17, 2008

Nov 17, 2008 at 5:30pm ET by Barry Schwartz

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

From Search Engine Land:

  • Search Biz: Google Gets NYC Directions Wrong; Google’s Privacy Headaches; Wal-Mart Doesn’t Want Your Links
    From the “How Not To Promote Yourself” file: Google is advertising its Google Maps service on the New York subway system with a few well-placed ads that give directions between points of interest in the city. Only the directions they’re giving aren’t always right. As AdAge points out, one ad tries to help people find their way from Grand Central Station to Madison Square Garden … but the directions actually send you to Times Square. D’oh! Not exactly how you inspire confidence in the accuracy of your maps service there, G.
  • Wall Street Meltdown and the 2009 Digital Marketing Outlook (Part 2)
    As promised in Wall Street Meltdown: 11 Ways It Affects Digital Marketers, I’m wrapping up with a continuation of the 60,000 foot view of our industry in light of current economic turmoil. No doubt I’ll get back to the close-up view next time, but for now, to get all the bad news talk behind us, let’s do this thing. There are actually some silver linings in here. And unless Google cancels it, even a dance scheduled for Q3.
  • Google To Change Product Development Steps; Means Major Changes To “20% Time”
    Google looks to users’ needs from the Australian IT reports that Google’s, Stuart Smith, their new “strategic planning director” of Google’s Creative Lab in New York is seeking to change how Google develops their products. Instead of Googler’s developing things they personally find useful, Google seems like they may change that process to see what audiences really want. Stuart Smith said, “what typically happens is it is just a load of engineers producing a load of things and then refining until it finds an audience.” What Smith wants to see is for Google “to look at audiences and understand audiences and say ‘perhaps there is a need over here — let’s meet that need.” In short, it seems to me that Google wants to change their product development philosophy, which is famous for coming up with ideas like Google Reader, Gmail, AdSense and tons of their popular products. Yes, these mostly came from Google’s “twenty-percent time.”
  • See Google’s iPhone-Made Sites On Your Browser
    Alex Chitu has compiled a list of Google’s iPhone-made and optimized web sites. So if you want to view them on your own browser, you can, but understand, they look a lot better on your iPhone’s browser. Here is the list of URLs Alex came up with for Google’s iPhone specific web software:
  • Yahoo Layoffs On Dec. 10 & At $11 Yahoo Now Significantly Undervalued?
    AllThingsD reports that Yahoo’s previously announced 10 percent reduction in force (layoffs) is set to begin on December 10. However, the post also says that chief Yahoo, CEO Jerry Yang is not considering leaving his post for now. Yahoo stock is hovering between $10 and $11, off $23 from its previously high during the height of the MicroHoo drama earlier this year. But this price is probably a statement about investor anxiety about Yahoo’s future rather that any kind of rational assessment of the company’s actual value.
  • Getting The Most From Paid Search In A Difficult Economy
    Cost consciousness. Budget cuts. Workforce reductions. Hiring freezes. We’re beginning to see signs of the economic Armageddon everywhere. What a great time to be a search marketer! No, really. I’m serious. Because whatever the economic climate or business objective, search marketing is flexible enough to support it. Don’t get me wrong, I feel your pain. For search marketers, this can be a very frustrating time. We are programmed to build and grow programs rapidly and repeatedly. We get up in the morning and immediately start thinking about ways to increase our spend and revenue. For the past five years, the ascent of paid search as a legitimate direct marketing channel has been nothing short of meteoric. The fact that budgets across the industry are now seeing slower growth, and in some cases a plateau, has many search marketers squirming in their seats. When we’re not allowed to grow programs at an alarming clip, we feel like caged animals. So what’s a search marketer to do? Relax, people. Paid search tactics can support any business strategy you (or your manager) can dream up. Let’s take a look at some different paid search management tactics and what kind of business strategies they support.
  • Maps Of Fires In Southern California: November 2008 Edition
    Fires are burning in Southern California once again. Here’s an update on how to find maps of where the blazes are at:
  • Eagerly Awaiting Google’s Voice Search For The iPhone
    Yesterday arguably the top tech story of the day was Google’s introduction of voice search for its iPhone app. As of this morning the updated app still isn’t available in the iTunes store (that’s not Google’s fault). I spoke yesterday afternoon with Google’s Mike Cohen and Gummi Hafsteinsson about the app and how it would work. What they described was something that sounded qualitatively different in terms of accuracy and usability vs. competitive offerings now in the market.

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

Web Analytics

Other Items

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


Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

See more articles by Barry Schwartz >

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