SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 17, 2010

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Makes Deal To Scan Some French Books While a US court is still deciding the fate of the Google book scanning settlement, the company has announced a deal with the […]

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

From Search Engine Land:

  • Google Makes Deal To Scan Some French Books

    While a US court is still deciding the fate of the Google book scanning settlement, the company has announced a deal with the biggest publisher in France that gives Google the go-ahead to scan some French books. But the key word there is “some.” As The New York Times reports, publishing company Hachette Livre will […]

  • Twitter Selling Tweets For Analysis, Not Display

    Twitter’s business plan has taken another step today: Twitter and Gnip, a social data provider, have partnered to offer up to half of the Twitter “firehose” of tweets for sale with a couple conditions: Companies buying the tweets can’t display them, nor can they resell them; they’re for analysis only. According to Gnip’s announcement, the […]

  • Google Instant, Meet Yahoo Instant – Er, Yahoo Rich Search Assist

    Yahoo is following Google by rolling out its own version of Google Instant, with a twist. Called “Rich Search Assist,” the feature automatically shows results as you type, though only in the top half of the page. Meet Rich Search Assist The screenshot below shows an example of this: As you type, Yahoo suggests search […]

  • Hulu Plus Rides To The Rescue Of Google TV?

    Hulu Plus, the ad-reduced subscription service from Hulu, just dropped its price to $7.99 from $9.99. It just launched on the Roku box as well. It’s also on the iPad and a range of TVs. The company plans to push distribution to a wide range of devices, reportedly including Google TV. That would circumvent some […]

  • Finding The Right Calls-To-Action For Your B2B Website

    Marketers continue to search for ways to convert more website visitors into actual leads. Using the power of website analytics can help make that search a little easier. By understanding the type of information your prospects are looking for, you can create unique Calls-To-Action specific to their needs. Let’s walk through an example of using […]

  • Report: Online Ad Revenues Hit $6.4 Billion, Search Dominant

    The IAB reported today that US online ad revenues were $6.4 billion in the third quarter of 2010. That compared with $6.2 billion in Q2 of 2010 and represented 17% growth over the same period a year ago. Through three quarters US online ad revenues totaled $18.1 billion. That would put online ad spending on […]

  • Google Maps Improves Directions Interface & Adds Navigation To Australia

    Google Maps has improved the directions user interface and added Google Maps Navigation to Australia. The new user interface for directions is aimed at making it easier to understand requesting those directions and then following them. They me take you through some of the user interface changes. Besides for the new icons, you also now […]

  • Boutiques.com: A Very Different Shopping Site For Women, From Google

    Earlier this week Google launched offline product inventory for Google Shopping/Product Search. And this morning the company is going live with the decidedly un-Googly Boutiques.com. On the surface Boutiques may resemble other “social shopping” sites such as Polyvore or Stylehive, among others. But the underlying technology, I’m told, is much more sophisticated than comparable female-centric […]

  • CPG & Paid Search: 4 Tips to Build Deeper, More Cost-Effective Bonds With Consumers

    Paid search at its core is a dynamic, competitive, ever-changing auction space where retailers and brands alike are competing to get in front of the same consumer. But with so many different calls to actions, different price points, and different sources of information appearing within every search, how do you set your brand apart and create a loyal consumer in an efficient and affordable way?

  • Your Secret Conversion Lab, Part 2

    A conversion lab equipped with powerful content marketing and analytics tools, free of organizational obstacles and site politics will give marketers and business owners a quick way to begin experimenting.

  • Too Late For Thanksgiving & Too Early For Diwali

    So global search marketers, should you be studying major religious festivals to understand their impact on your peaks and troughs — after all they may explain why your seasonal patterns globally don’t match what you’re used to. Making notes of the major festivals which will take place during your campaign year in the markets you are targeting can help.

  • Google & Facebook: If You’re So Smart, Work It Out!

    Last week, things boiled over between Google and Facebook over data sharing. This week, the CEOs from both companies took the stage at Web 2.0 Summit. Despite the obvious conflict, neither CEO would just clearly say what they wanted from the other. It’s a pity two innovative, groundbreaking companies can’t show any innovation when it […]

  • Yahoo’s Local Focus: Offers, Sketch-A-Search & Restaurant Search Upgrades Coming Soon

    In conjunction with an appearance at the Web 2.0 Summit today, Yahoo made several announcements of new products with a local focus. Here’s a look at what Yahoo is rolling out now and planning to introduce down the road. Yahoo Local Offers Deals and coupons are a pretty hot item these days in the local […]

  • From Web Analytics & SEM To Business Intelligence

    The roles of people involved in both web analytics and PPC management is changing. Both are becoming more important and mainstream within many organizations. And the skills needed to master them are becoming more complex. Here’s a look at the how things have changed, and what to expect going forward. The Evolution Of Web Analytics […]

  • Live Blogging Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg At Web 2.0 Summit

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be speaking today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. I’m here and will be live blogging his remarks, when the session begins. Zuckerberg was set to speak at 4:50 Pacific Time, but it’s looking more likely he’ll be on around 5:10. He’ll be interviewed on stage by John […]

  • Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone, Busting Internet TV Myths

    Is the future of “internet TV” those little boxes that are appearing everywhere? No, says Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone, who also busted a number of other net-to-TV myths, from his perspective. Lanzone gave a short address at the Web 2.0 Summit today. He oversees Clicker, which is a guide to television, movie and select other […]

  • Live Blogging Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz At Web 2.0 Summit

    Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will be speaking today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. I’m here and will be live blogging her remarks, when the session begins. Bartz is set to speak at 2pm Pacific, and she’ll be interviewed on stage by John Battelle. Live blogging to start shortly. There’s also a live […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Paid Search & Contextual

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SEO & SEM

Social Media

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

  • Article Spinning – Spin like a pro – To avoid duplicate content links, everyone is spinning their articles these days.  Yes, even spammers.  Learn how to spin like a pro, so you won't be mistaken by the search engines for a spammer.
  • DOTW: What's the Best Piece of SEO-related Advice You've Ever Received? – We all give and get advice: on our blogs, at conferences, on the phone with co-workers and peers, etc. But what's THE BEST piece of SEO advice anyone's ever given you? That's the subject of our "Discussion of the Week" this week.
  • Recent Insights Into Search User Behavior – David Harry at Search News Central provides a really nice roundup and summary of data gathered by a Performics study on user behavior with search engines. Data includes SE usage, preference, loyalty as well as query refinement behavior, vertical usage, interaction with organic vs. paid, and more.
  • Now All Blogger Outreach Campaigns Will Be Considered Spam Too :) – Aaron Wall: It helps to create things in entirely unique formats. The gamers exploiting stuff burn out one opportunity after another, but most of their new & creative slants are simply extensions of things that worked for others. Getting out in front of the scammers on a new trend & format is far more profitable than following in their footsteps.
  • Spam the hell out of Google’s new source attribution meta elements? – The moment you’ve read Google’s announcement and Matt’s question “What about spam?” you concluded “spamming source attribution tags is a breeze”, right? You’re not alone.
    Before we discuss how to abuse it, it might be a good idea to analyze Google's new toy within its context. Maybe it's not that spammable …
  • Yahoo Clues: New Fun Search Keyword Tool – Is it just me, or does this look like a pretty cool keyword research tool? And it's from Yahoo?! Who'da thunk it?
  • Changing Site Structures with Care – If you must change a web site's structure, this offers an overview of what to consider before and after flipping the switch.
  • Youtube SEO Experiment & Useful Tips – Interesting post from Distilled with a step-by-step walkthrough a YouTube experiment that began with a new account and ended with good visibility.
  • The Blekko SEO Guide You've Been Waiting To Read – This guide explains how to use Blekko for checking links and other common SEO tasks.
  • Why You Should Stop Using CAPTCHAs – Oskar Smith explains why CAPTCHAs create a horrible user experience, can even cost sales / leads / whatever,  and discusses alternatives.

About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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