SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 7, 2008

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 In Pictures: Halloween Pictures From Google, Yahoo & Ask.com
  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
• MSFT CEO Ballmer to Yahoo: No New Bid
  Speaking at the “Web 2.0″ conference in San Francisco earlier this week Yahoo CEO seemed to invite Microsoft to make another acquisition bid for the portal. “To this day the best thing for Microsoft to do is buy Yahoo,” the BBC quotes Yang telling interviewer John Battelle. This morning, from Australia, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer decided not to take Yang’s advice. “We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition,” Ballmer said.
• Sensing An Opening, Microsoft Moves to ‘Steal’ Verizon Search Deal From Google
  The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that Microsoft is offering substantial financial incentives to “steal away” the mobile search relationship with Verizon from rival Google. Verizon is the US’s largest wireless carrier (given the recent approval of the Alltel acquisition) with more than 80 million subscribers.
• How Google Improves Search Quality Through The User Interface
  Dan Russell from Google’s search quality team has a post at the Google Blog on the art of field study. In short, he describes how the search interface plays a role in search quality, and what measures Google takes to study and improve the user interface, to ultimately help improve search quality.
• Google Sued For Patent Infringement Over AdSense, Again
  Profy reports that a Russian company is suing Google for $3 billion over Google’s contextual ad program, AdSense. The Russian company, Era Vodoleya, claims they patented contextual ads a year before Google came out with AdSense. The funny thing is this is not the first time Google was sued for patent infringement over AdSense. We reported back in August that Daniel D. Wexler is also suing Google for the same thing. Anyone else want to take shots at Google for AdSense?
• The Most Dreaded Keyword Phrase
  In website usability, one of the hardest obstacles to overcome is the mentality of “This is what I would do.” Whenever we hear Person A (or B or C or D, etc.) say this phrase, it means that Person A is not focused on users. It means that Person A is superimposing his or her personal beliefs and characteristics onto users. Alan Cooper developed the concept of personas — to get the team to focus on user archetypes and not the opinions of individuals. In search usability, we also dread hearing this phrase. Whenever we hear, “Well, this is what I would do,” then we know that Person A (or B or C or D, etc.) is not focused on searchers. However, if you tell Person A that he/she is not focused on searchers, the immediate response is typically denial or defiance. Of course Person A is focused on searchers! If Person A were not focused on searchers, then he would not be implementing search engine optimization (SEO) strategies in the first place.  Search usability professionals must deal with these preconceived notions about search all of the time. Here are some guidelines to help other SEO professionals effectively respond to this somewhat misguided mentality.
• A Business Idea For Joe The Plumber: HyperLocal Blogging
  The 2008 election is over and so, in all likelihood, are Samuel J. Wurzelbacher’s appearances on cable news shows. Wurzelbacher, better known as Toledo’s own “Joe the Plumber,” gained national celebrity, of course, as the symbolic everyman both presidential candidates hoped to reach with their economic messages. Joe’s 15 minutes of fame are about up (or are they?)-which may not be a bad thing. His thoughts on everything from Middle Eastern relations to fiscal responsibility are the subject of frequent press ridicule. Sadly, the economic downturn will last longer than Joe’s 15 minutes. So after his farewell tour of CNN, if he ends up buying that plumbing business he supposedly had his eye on, he’ll need to think up an actual cost-effective marketing strategy to keep its supposed profits at the $250,000-a-year level. Well, Joe, I’ve got one for you: it’s called HyperLocal Blogging.
• SEO For Big Brands
  For the 13+ years that our SEO company has been in the biz, we’ve consulted with businesses of varying sizes and types. From one-person professional practices–to huge, globally branded corporations–and just about everything in between. While SEO best practices are nearly the same for most websites, there are different tactics and strategies you need to keep in mind when SEOing big brand sites. Historically, big brands have not put much thought into SEO, as it never seemed necessary. Typically, as long they were found in Google for their brand names, they (and their C-level execs) were happy. However, the level-playing field of the Internet and seeing what smaller companies are able to do with SEO have caused many big brands to start taking notice. The problem is that SEOing a big brand site is not the same thing as optimizing an ecommerce site.

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Hitwise Ranks Election Traffic To News Sites, TechCrunch
• Farlex Further Expands TheFreeDictionary.com’s Multilingual Offerings, Farlex.com
• Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer, AppleInsider
• New enhancements to Google Message Security and Discovery, Official Google Enterprise Blog

Business Issues

• Google’s favorite penny stock: Nexicon, ZDNet
• Oh, dear, here come the ‘Facebook to buy Twitter’ rumors, News.com
• Facebook chief: We’re hiring, not firing, CNN Money
• Google’s China market share to grow in 2009 – exec, Reuters
• Google’s Eric Schmidt One Of Obama’s Economic Advisers, Google Blogoscoped
• Quintura Launches First Ad Campaign in its Search Cloud Widgets, Quintura blog
• Yahoo plays catch-up with offshore tax move, MarketWatch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Drag your Way to Customized Directions!, MapQuest Blog

Link Building

• Outbound Linking For Fun And Profit, SEO Book
• How Can You Get Links Via Offline Methods?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Recruiting? AKA A Very Easy But Effective Form of Link Building., Site Visibility

Paid Search & Contextual

• Obama’s Online Ad Spend Approached $8 Million, ClickZ
• Put Them to the Test, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
• Top 5 holiday tips for Google Product Search merchants, Google Base Blog
• Google AdWords No Longer Supporting Code Verification, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Do You Spot Multiple Keywords Across Ad Groups in Google AdWords?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Keyword Research: 7 Keyword Modifiers to Optimise New Websites For, SEOptimise
• Quick Tips to Boost Retails Sales on Black Friday and During the Holidays, PPC Hero

Searching

• People Search Engines Take On LinkedIn , MediaPost
• Spock To Offer Public Record Search Subscription Service , Read/Write Web

SEM Industry

• Justin Seibert: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop
• OMG! Omnicom Units Unveil Plan To Dominate Asian Search Market , MediaPost
• Poll: 55% Said Schmidt Should Not Have Endorsed Barack Obama, Search Engine Roundtable
• Poll: SEOs Should Get Degrees in Marketing , Search Engine Roundtable
• SMX East: Give It Up, Search Engine Roundtable
• SMX London 2008 Recap, SEOmoz

SEO & SEM

• New Google Help Forums, Official Google Blog
• SEO Methodology, Shimon Sandler
• Search Engine Optimization and User Behavior, Hastings Research
• Whiteboard Friday – What’s PageRank Got to do With It?, SEOmoz

Social Media

• Why hasn’t Digg made any progress? It’s worth only $164M now, VentureBeat
• Yahoo Buzz plugs into social network, News.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Who Dunnit?, VideoSurf Blog

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

• An SEO is Not a Link Builder | Link Building Best Practices
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• How to Build Links and Awareness by Pitching Bloggers
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• Google Blog Search Link Command Now Scanning Blogroll Links
• CRM: The Key to Online Growth in a Downturn Economy
• SMX London – 25 Killer Tips, Tools And Strategies
• The "Long Tail of Search" Is Really Really Really Long
• SEO Tweets for 2009
• Study: Fortune 500 Doesn’t Get SEO
• SEO for Web 2.0 session – SMX London Day 2 recap
• Green Social Network Hugg.com to Close
• Turning Customers Into Salesmen With Word of Mouth Marketing