SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 23, 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:

• Blekko & DuckDuckGo Partner On Search Results

  It’s not exactly a case of If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, because Blekko has insisted all along that it’s not trying to beat Google or any other search engine. It is trying to beat web spam in search results, and that’s what has fueled today’s announcement that Blekko and DuckDuckGo — another upstart […]
• How To Make Your Social Media Strategy Accountable

  Most businesses either already have a Social Media Strategy, or know they need one. But what makes a good strategy? And how can you set – and measure – success in terms of bottom line business benefit?

• Bing Embraces OpenStreetMap, Hires Founder

  Microsoft announced that it has hired CloudeMade and OpenStreetMap (OSM) founder Steve Coast as “Principal Architect for Bing Mobile,” as well as a kind of liason to the “open map community.” According to data in the Bing post announcing Coast’s hiring, there are “more than 320,000 people” who have participated or are participating in the […]

• Google Fans Throw Eggs At Houses Blurred In Google Street View

  Some people who chose to blur their houses on Google Street View in Germany received an unexpected real life blurring: Google fans who threw eggs at their homes. Deutsche Welle reports that on Saturday, several homes in the Bergerhausen area of Essen that opted to be blurred were hit with eggs. “Google’s Cool” notes were […]

• Should We Stop Focusing On Keyword Driven Anchors?

  With the rush to move sites up to the top of the SERPs, all of my clients want keyword-rich text links. It makes sense, as if you’re trying to rank number one for the phrase “cheap environmental home design” you’re obviously going to want that in your anchor text. However, there’s much more to the […]

• Pre-Thanksgiving Google Logo Leads To Chef Ina Garten Recipes

  If you visit Google.com today, you may notice a special Thanksgiving logo from Google. Yes, Thanksgiving is not until Thursday, but this year, Google is showing a logo days early. The logo leads to a Thanksgiving landing page with six recipes from Food Network TV Chef, Ina Garten. There is a link on the landing […]

• Yelp Targets Foursquare, Facebook With Check-In Offers

  Yelp continues to play catch-up with some of its competition in the local search landscape. The company’s latest move is the announcement of “Check-in Offers.” If you’re familiar with the premise behind Foursquare’s business users rewarding “mayors” and others who check-in to local businesses, you’ll be familiar with Yelp’s product. The idea is the same: […]

• Clickability & Search Engine Friendly Web Design

  Clickability, or perceived visual affordance, is a key element of search-engine friendly website design. How do searchers and search engines perceive clickable and unclickable elements?

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google: Chrome OS Still Coming This Year (It Just Might Be In Beta Form), TechCrunch

Business Issues

• Google Reportedly Bidding For Miramax Movie Rights, AllThingsD
• Google sued for scanning emails of non-Gmail users, The Register
• Twitter co-founder hopes to create news network, Reuters
• Yahoo Says Still Working With Alibaba on Ads, Mail, BusinessWeek

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Even smarter Street View navigation: single click to go (anywhere!), Google LatLong
• Google Maps Transit Data Not Working, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Places Quality Guidelines Comparison, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• Link Building via Curation, Search Engine Watch
• The Redeeming Qualities of Links with a Bad Reputation, Search Engine Watch

Searching

• Bing Top online shopping trends for the holiday season, Bing Search Blog
• No "Gay" or "Sex" In Yahoo! Clues: The Emergent Trend of Filtered Results, ZDNet
• Tim Berners-Lee: Facebook could fragment web, The Guardian

SEO & SEM

• Low Cost PPC Traffic Driving (without using Google and MSN), PPC Hero
• 5 Lessons Affiliates Can Learn From SEOs, shoemoney.com
• Google’s Site Operator Now Less Buggy & More Accurate?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How To Prevent The "Googlebot Found an Extremely High Number" Message, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Simple Story of The Tortoise and The Hare: Google AdWords Standard and Accelerated Delivery, The Search Agents

Social Media

• Facebook Alternative Diaspora Launches Their Private Alpha With Some Bet Hedging, TechCrunch
• How to Create a Useful Twitter Archive, blueglass.com
• How To Find Yourself…On Your Blog, outspokenmedia.com

Web Analytics

• Segmenting Social Traffic in Google Analytics, SEOmoz
• YWA 101: Tracking Code Installation And Testing, Yahoo! Web Analytics Blog

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

• 7 web tools to detect useful insights and trends – In order to create a successful SEO campaign, you need to have a good understanding of the way that people search, predict what keywords they will use for a given query and have a good knowledge of the market and of the industry. In this article we will examine 7 tools that if you use correctly, they can help you find the current trends, understand how people search and use this information to design a successful SEO campaign.
• 10 Questions With Donna Fontenot – A former tradition on my old “SEO Honolulu” blog  was that I would fire out a 10 question list to someone in the industry that I wanted to know more about.  Also, it was a great way to meet this person, and of course, possibly introduce them to new people.  Today, I am proud to announce that I have re-ignited that fire, and my guest of honor is the awesome Donna Fontenot.
• The Redeeming Qualities of Links with a Bad Reputation – Jennifer Van Iderstyne explains why all links that can trigger human traffic are worth getting: "Some links are the redheaded stepchildren of the link building world. They are considered the low-hanging fruit, or even the spoiled fruit, but they're nowhere near the pick of the bunch. But even though we'd never put apples from the ground into a pie, they are good for making cider."
• Segmenting Social Traffic in Google Analytics – A reasonably basic analytics post that is still powerful because many folks aren't doing this that should be.
• SEO is Undead Again (Profiles, Phrases, Entities, and Language Models) – Bill Slawski takes a look at how search engines have evolved their ranking methodology, and the various patents that support a shift from keywords and links to phrases, semantics, and user behavior/intent – and why SEO as a practice needs to continue to evolve alongside.
• Stating the obvious: On Social Media & Marketing – Terrific post that covers the fundamentals that are often lost amongst buzz words and trends – that social media is just another marketing channel focusing on customer relationships, and should approached and executed as such. From the article – "Marketing on social media channels isn’t “social.” It is just marketing. Just as publishing marketing content on a blog doesn’t make marketing content any less manufactured and biased, publishing content on social media channels isn’t “social.”