SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 1, 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 Adds Visited Pages, Past Hour & Fewer Shopping Sites Filtering
  

  You like it! You really like it! It being the Google Search Options feature that Google added to its search pages back in May, the company says. So as a reward, Google is adding options to filter out (or highlight) pages you’ve visited before, pages that Google’s found in the past [...]

• Up Close With Google Search Options
  

  Now that Google Search Options has added new features, I thought it was a good time to revisit how everything works — and in some cases, doesn’t work. Let’s get up close and personal with all the filtering options! By the way, this is a long article. If you want a digest of what’s [...]

• 10 Last-Minute SEO Tips For Holiday Shopping Season
  

  The holiday shopping season is coming up fast. Don’t worry, there’s still time to do some quick-turnaround SEO that can have an impact on your natural search traffic (and resulting revenue!) in time for Black Friday and CyberMonday. For many online retailers, November and December are the busiest months of the year. Of course, this is [...]

• 5 Easy Ways To Make Sure Your Website Is Good To Go!
  

  I have worked in the online ad world for a few years now, and have had the opportunity to review a large number of websites. Many were full of information with lots of bells and whistles and features that made them appear sophisticated, while others were skeletal in content and simple in their organization. Either [...]

• Google Execs Looking At Potential Jail Time If Convicted In Italian Privacy Case
  

  Right now there’s a court case in Italy that involves Google executives, who are being tried for violating Italian privacy laws. The case illustrates international conflicts of law issues and challenges for companies doing business (via the internet) in multiple nations with differing cultures and corresponding legal rules. In a less serious way Google has [...]

• Google Strategically Syncing Mobile And PC
  

  Yesterday Google debuted a new, enhanced local search capability on mobile. One of the new features that was added was “starred places” — a favorites list that could be created online and then retrieved (if signed in) through a mobile browser. This useful feature is part of an emerging, larger strategy to more closely link [...]

• Google Execs Among The Very Richest
  

  Forbes has published its annual list of who has the most money in America and Google’s co-founders and CEO Eric Schmidt are among the very richest of the lot. At the top is perpetual leader Bill Gates. Among the top 100 roughly 10 percent made their money from tech or the Internet. However four of [...]

• Google Shows Ad Conversions Without Clicks
  

  The Google AdWords Blog announced that Google is now showing you conversions, within the AdWords console, for when someone sees your ad but does not click on your ad, but yet, still buys within 30 days after seeing your ad. Got all of that? No? Okay, let me give you a fictional example. I [...]

• Last Call – SMX East Starts Next Monday
  

  It’s time. Search Marketing Expo – SMX East begins next Monday at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. Register now to reserve your place. Join Us in NYC Oct 5-7 for the Exceptional Content and Invaluable Connections at SMX East. Your investment in attending will pay off many times. We guarantee it. Conference chairs Danny [...]

• Google Rolls Out Sitelinks Display For Forums
  

  Discussion forums are a popular way for people to find answers online, but forums often have multiple “threads” or conversations on the same topic. Now Google’s listing forums in a new way to better expose relevant threads. In searches that bring up a forum listing, Google’s now showing additional forum threads below the [...]

• Google Improves Local Mobile Search, Links Maps & Mobile
  

  In simple but still dramatic fashion, Google has upgraded browser based local search on mobile handsets. It has also tied Maps on the PC to mobile in a very effective way. And recognizing the limitations of keying in queries into a search box on a mobile handset, Google has taken a page from its Places [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Translate your website with Google: Expand your audience globally, Official Google Blog
• Coming Soon: DocumentCloud, A Place to Access Primary Source Documents, ResourceShelf
• Delicious’ New Flavors: Refined Search, Interactive Graphs, & Much More, Read/Write Web
• How To Add Twitter To Google Wave, daggle.com
• MSN Introduces Online Tools to Help People Make Smarter Health and Lifestyle Decisions, Microsoft

Business Issues

• Microsoft opens Chicago and Dublin datacenters; preps for more hosted offerings, ZDNet
• ‘Sea turtles’ powering China’s Internet growth, CNN.com
• Google’s Venture Arm Invests in Biotech Start-Up, New York Times

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Earth Will Track Cars and People In Real Time, Fast Company
• Apple purchased Placebase in July to replace Google Maps?, Computerworld Blogs
• Foggy Google Maps Satellite Pictures?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Maps: A Near Death Experience – Why did my listing Disappear?, Mike Blumenthal
• Women, Teens, and Seniors Help Fuel 34% Mobile Web Spike, Nielsen Wire

Paid Search & Contextual

• A Week Later, Google AdWords Fixes "Low Share of Voice" Bug, Search Engine Roundtable
• AdWords Removes Max CPC from User Interface, AdWords Help Experts

Searching

• Bing Adds Visual Search & More Links On Home Page, Search Engine Roundtable
• New Article: How to Beat Information Overload, ResourceShelf
• Redesigned PubMed Goes Live & Getting to Know Rapid Research Notes, ResourceShelf

SEO & SEM

• New Seminars for Success locations, Inside AdWords
• Bing – Staying Healthy With MSN and Bing, Bing Search Blog
• Changes to website verification in Webmaster Tools, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Great SEO Starts with the Right People, BlogStorm
• PPC Conversion Rate Drop? Time to dig in, Rimm Kaufman
• Quality Score is Based on Precise Match Not Exact Match, Brad Geddes
• The merciless malignancy of malware Part 4 (SEM 101), Bing Webmaster Blog
• User Generated Content: Basics of UGC for SEO, Online Marketing Blog
• Why Blog Titles Are Like Your In-laws, outspokenmedia.com

Social Media

• Soon to Launch: Lists, Twitter Blog
• The Need for an Adult Filter on Twitter, 10e20
• Social Media: US Dept. of Defense to Allow Troops, Family Members to Use Social Network Sites, ResourceShelf
• Twitter’s Geolocation API Appears To Be Live. But Most Of You Are Lost., TechCrunch
• UK court orders writ to be served via Twitter, Reuters

Video, Music & Image Search

• Ustream Launches Partner Program, Enabling Members to Generate Revenue via Google In-Video Ads, InteractiveTV Today

Web Analytics

• Will Google ever provide statistics on browser market share?, YouTube

Other Items

• Ask.com Celebrates the 25th National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Ask.com Blog
• Celebrating National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2009, Official Google Blog
• Google Celebrates 60th Anniversary of Founding of PR China, Google Blogoscoped