SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 3, 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:

• Google Targets Spammers With New Local Business Listing Guidelines
  

  Google has tweaked its guidelines for local businesses that use the Google Maps Local Business Center. The new guidelines are listed on Google’s Business Listing Quality Guidelines page. On Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz shows both the old and new guidelines, while on his blog, Mike Blumenthal charts the differences between the two versions. According to [...]

• Google AdWords Sitelinks Now Available For Some Advertisers
  

  The Google AdWords blog announced that the Sitelinks within AdWords, which we saw in August, is now officially available for some advertisers. A Google AdWords ad can have up to four Sitelinks in the ad. Google named them “Ad Sitelinks” and are similar to the organic Sitelinks. Google said these ads give users “more [...]

• Google Maps Creates New UK Town Called Argleton
  

  Google and its UK map provider, Tele Atlas, are cleaning the egg off their faces this week over the appearance of a town called Argleton in Google Maps. It’s right there on Google Maps, and there’s even an Argleton place page with photos and more. Problem is, Argleton doesn’t exist.

  The Telegraph picked up the story over [...]

• A Look At NASA’s Social Media Program
  

  Whenever I talk with new clients about social media initiatives, one of the key points is having a social media plan or strategy. Social media is a time and resource intensive effort, and if you spend the time up front developing a plan, you can distribute the work and make the overall project more effective [...]

• Turkey Claims Google Owes Them $47 Million In Back Taxes
  

  TechCrunch reports Turkey is claiming Google owes them 71 million Turkish Lira or 47 million US dollars in back taxes. In fact, the Turkish government is fining Google for the money. Google claims all the funds are through their Ireland branch and Google does not owe Turkey any taxes. Google technically has a company [...]

• Google Tries Related Links Again
  

  Back in 2006, Google had a product named related links, which showed related sites on the internet based on your content. Google just recently relaunched related links at relatedlinks.googlelabs.com. The major difference between the old related links and the new one is that the new one only shows related content from within your [...]

• Google Adds “Page Preview” To Search Options
  

  Google Operating System noticed Google has added a new search option named “page preview.” If you go to Google, search on something and click on “show options,” you can then look towards the button on the left hand side and click on “page previews.” For example, here is a view of a search [...]

• Rise Of The Web Librarian: An Elegant DMOZ Solution
  

  Last week Debra Mastaler posted the most illuminating DMOZ article I have ever read. In DMOZ: A Solid Directory Or The Great Pumpkin Of Search?, she got through to the right people and asked some hard questions. Many SEO folks consider DMOZ irrelevant. After years of angst and sleepless nights waiting for a link that never [...]

• The New Rules Of International Link Building
  

  Links in one country have a different value than links in another—and the average PageRank of sites in particular countries is not the same. So best not to start an international link building project with PageRank considerations, but rather to consider the impact of location of linking sites.

• Yahoo Wins Mobile Carrier Relationship From Google In Germany
  

  Yahoo reported today that the company had “entered into an exclusive, multi-year, partnership with O2 Germany to become the preferred partner for mobile search and services, displacing Google.” Paid search results are reportedly part of the deal (and likely a revenue share as well). According to press materials: O2 users now have direct access to Yahoo!’s [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Yahoo! Announces Open Source Distribution of Traffic Server, Yahoo Press Releases
• With Google Sites and Docs planning Thanksgiving is easy, Official Google Docs Blog

Business Issues

• Google-backed Unity Cable Lands in Japan, PC World
• Joe Kraus Moves to Google Ventures, AllThingsD

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Autumn updates for Google Transit, Google LatLong
• Mobile Madness Round 2… Then and Now, Bing Search Blog
• Bing Maps Imagery Release, October 2009, Bing Maps Blog
• Google Can’t Show You Your Maps Listings? Let Them Know, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Maps Learns About E-Mail – Is this a Trend?, Mike Blumenthal
• New Google Earth Imagery – November 3, Google Earth Blog
• The Weather Network Broadcasts with Bing Maps, Bing Maps Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• New holiday ad templates available in Display Ad Builder, Inside AdWords

SEM Industry

• Bye Bye Beta, Hello Members!, The Sphinn Blog
• PubCon 2009 Liveblogging & Speaking Schedule, outspokenmedia.com

SEO & SEM

• 30 SEO Problems & the Tools to Solve Them (Part 1 of 2), SEOmoz
• 8 Utilities to Track Keyword Rankings [SEO Tools], The SEO Scoop
• Budget Social SEO – How to Save Money on Social Media Optimization Consulting, Online Marketing Blog
• How Search Engines May Rank User Generated Content, SEO By The Sea
• Optimizing Display Ad Creative for CTR & Conversion, Jonathan Mendez’s Blog
• Practical Guide to 404 Error Pages: What WordPress is Missing, Yoast
• Preemptive Google Reconsideration Requests, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• An Early Look at News Media Twitter Lists: Not Much Traction, AdamSherk.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Coming Soon: Your Resource for Good Things to Come, Hulu Blog
• Introducing The App Garden, Code: Flickr Developer Blog

Web Analytics

• Introducing Google Analytics for Mobile Apps, Official Google Mobile Blog

Other Items

• Day of the Dead, 2009 – Google Mexico, Google Logos Collection