SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 1, 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:

• SearchPerks - Microsoft’s New Prizes For Searches Program Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback program has failed to grow the company’s search traffic significantly (as I expected), so now it’s try again time. Out officially today is SearchPerks, a program designed to be easier to use and more broadly targeted than Cashback. Microsoft says SearchPerks was already in the works and isn’t [...]
• Careful: Video Solutions & Video SEO Are Not The Same Where 2 Get It, a location based services and mapping solutions provider for businesses, recently announced its own video search engine optimization solution: video inside landing pages for local businesses. However is this really Video SEO, or just SEO which happens to include video? With declarations about Video SEO like those in Where 2 Get It’s [...]
• Q&A With Bill Scully, Director eMarketing: Siemens Water Technologies This month for our in house SEO interview series, we sat down to chat with Bill Scully, Director of eMarketing with Siemens Water Group.  Bill’s varied back ground and hands-on history has enabled him to showcase clear successes for his company, which has translated to a solid career path for himself.  Beyond that, Bill is [...]
• B2B Search Marketing: The Cost of NOT Showing Up Much has been written about B2B search marketing programs designed for lead generation and customer acquisition purposes. For lead gen efforts, success metrics typically focus on volume of leads, cost per lead, and quality of lead. Many B2B marketers are starting to question this simplistic approach and are no longer willing to ignore [...]
• Where Have All The Xooglers Gone? Esquire explores what it calls “the Google Diaspora,” chronicling the departures of some of Google’s higher profile employees. There’s a lot of color but nothing really new here. In one sense the real story, which the magazine partly acknowledges, is how the company has managed to hold on to so many folks given the inclination [...]
• Departures & Changes: Natala Menezes, Kevin Ryan & Lisa Barone Three people in the search marketing space have had job changes this week: Lisa Barone, Kevin Ryan and Natala Menezes. Below, a look at where they are heading. Natala Menezes is known to many as a dynamo who advocated for Microsoft adCenter as lead product manager. But it’s her last day today at Microsoft, [...]
• Google: Let’s Query Like It’s 2001 As part of its birthday celebration, Google is letting users search an old version of its index — and the results show just how much things have changed over the years. You can step back in time to search Google’s index from January 2001. What was happening that month? George W. Bush first took office, [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Ballmer: Microsoft Will Soon Release ‘Windows Cloud’ OS, PC World
• Chromium Blog: Google Chrome, Chromium, and Google, Chromium Blog

Business Issues

• Clean Energy 2030, Google Public Policy Blog
• Official Google Blog: Saving electricity one data center at a time, Official Google Blog
• Google No. 2 Cleantech Venture Investor in Q3, GigaOM
• Google’s SketchUp Goes to Work for Green Buildings, GigaOM
• Google Watch - OpenSocial - Did Google Sabotage Ringside Networks?, eWeek
• Search for an eBay item, get $250 back from Microsoft’s shareholders, Valleywag

Link Building

• Did You Graduate From Link Building High School Yet?, Hubspot

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Ucrime.com Google Maps Mashup Provides Campus Crime Info, Natural Search Blog
• Bail Out Twitter Chatter on Google Maps, Google Maps Mania
• Google SMS Channels for India, Google Blogoscoped
• ServiceMagic’s Reviews Quality Control , Screenwerk

Paid Search & Contextual

• Obama Tops McCain on Search Ad Front, per Survey, AdWeek
• The Real Presidential Debate: What’s Up With Candidates’ Email Campaigns?, MediaPost
• SERP-prise! Google Experiments with Banner Ads on Results Pages, SearchViews
• The Nuances of Search Engine PPC Trademark Policies, Brand Verity

Searching

• 4 People Search Engines - Looking for Someone Online, Search Engine Journal
• A Great Little Tutorial on How to Search - Search Engine Guide Blog, Search Engine Guide
• Official Google Blog: Browse what the world is saying on Blog Search, Official Google Blog

SEM Industry

• Bruceclay.com - Schedule for SMX East 2008, BruceClay.com
• In Tough Economic Times, Whither Search?, Search Engine Watch
• A Time for Enrichment, Google Analytics Blog
• Willitblend Keynote At Pubcon, Pubcon
• Recapping Fall Small Business Marketing Unleashed - Search Engine Guide Blog, Search Engine Guide
• Charity Party Monday October 6 in NYC, Jim Boykin

SEO & SEM

• Keyword Ideas for Holiday PPC Campaigns , Get Elastic
• AdWeek 08 Recap: Managing Enterprise Search Is Like Being a Mosquito At A Nudist Colony , SearchViews
• Google Limits 500 Sites in Google Webmaster Tools, Search Engine Roundtable
• Headsmacking Tip #8: Give Your SEO Campaigns Time to Take Effect, SEOmoz
• Making Site Search Work for Your You (and Your Visitors) , Search Engine Guide
• BANS Affiliate Sites - eBay and Google Drop the Hammer, 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Blogs
• Advanced Website Diagnostics with Google Webmaster Tools, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Social Media

• Facebook Group vs Facebook Fan Page: What’s Better?, Search Engine Journal
• StumbleUpon 2.0: Good-bye, software toolbar, News.com
• Turn Twitter Pink, Greg Boser

Other Items

• Weekly Daily SearchCast: Sept 25, 2008, Daily SearchCast
• Now’s the time: Register to vote, Google Public Policy Blog
• Search for a Cause, Yahoo Search Blog

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

• How To Manage the Impossible Client
• Introducing the Social Profiles WordPress Plugin
• How to Use Wildcards in Robots.txt
• How Twitter can harm your brand
• 5 Tips for Promoting Your Business Page on Facebook
• The Art and Evolution of SEO
• Is SEO a Service?
• 10 Checks to the Perfect WordPress Theme
• 1,000 Twitter Followers: Lessons I’ve Learned