SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 11, 2011

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 Pitches Google+ Hangout With Full Page New York Times Ad

  How do you spread the word about your awesome new social media network? If you’re Google, apparently you turn to a full page ad in the old media of the New York Times. My copy of the New York Times today contained this giant ad on the back of the main section, pitching how the […]
• Google Display Network Begins Showing +1s With Ads Today

  Visitors to Google Display Network sites will begin seeing +1s and annotations on display ads for the first time today, according to Google. The initiative, announced nearly a month ago, is aimed at adding social cues — recommendations — to display advertising. The addition of social cues at least partly takes its cues from Facebook […]

• New Topsy Index Leverages Influence & Relevance For Google+ Search

  Today Topsy Labs, a real-time social search platform, announced the addition of Google+ as a source in its real-time social search index. Topsy features an influence algorithm to display the most pertinent and popular social results. In addition to social posts, Topsy displays shared links with social context within the results. A little over a month ago, […]

• WordPress & CMS Design Decisions For Multinational Search

  We’ve seen a number of queries on the suitability of various platforms for SEO, and so I’ve pulled together some pointers that may prove useful when choosing a commonly available, free, website platform for a site that will – either immediately or at a later date – be expected to deliver an SEO friendly website that can dominate the rankings in multiple countries.

• 98% Of Mozilla’s $121 Million In Revenue Come From Search Royalties

  Mozilla released their annual report (PDF) yesterday and reports came in that 98% of the foundations revenue comes directly from search partners, including Google,Microsoft, and Yahoo. Mozilla said they earned $121.1 million in revenue in 2010, up 19.3% from 2009′s $101.5 million. Even with the growth of Google Chrome, Mozilla increased revenues through this model […]

• Link Building Tool Review: Raven Tools

  Third in our series are the link building tools from Raven Internet Marketing Tools. Raven Tools, founded in 2007, has a 20-person staff based in the country music capital of the world, Nashville, Tenn. Raven’s development team of eight is hard at work finalizing three new features set to launch between now and mid-November; vice […]

• “Photos” In Google Navigation Bar Now Links To Google+ Photos, Not Picasa, If Signed-In

  Google has replaced the destination URL of the “Photos” link within the Google navigation at the top of the page. Now when you click on “Photos,” and if signed-in, Google will take you to Google+ Photos, instead of taking you to Picasa photos. When I click on photos, I am taken to my Google+ profile […]

• Report: Google Dominates Paid Search, Yahoo-Bing Offers Better ROI

  Efficient Frontier released its Q3 Digital Marketing Performance Report this morning. The document covers a range of trends from search marketing to Facebook and display advertising to mobile and tablets. However the report is primarily focused on paid search trends. Here are some of the bullets from the report: Search spend increased 20 percent year […]

• comScore Search Data: Google Gains, Yahoo Falls To “Lowest Level Ever”

  It’s that time again; the financial analysts are trickling out their advanced look at September search market share data from comScore ahead of the official release of those numbers. Our look at the data comes courtesy of Macquarie Equities Research and UBS. Google regained some share in September, at Yahoo’s expense. And AOL was up […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Court Order Seeks Email Data of WikiLeaks Volunteer Jacob Appelbaum, Wall Street Journal
• Twitter Settles Lawsuit Over “Tweet” Trademark, Wall Street Journal
• Bing sponsors "The Walking Dead" zombie role contest, Seattle Times Newspaper

Local, Maps & Mobile

• A peek at AOL’s MQVibe: Neighborhood hotspots, rankings, & reviews, fusible.com
• Google Maps Adds Layer Previews, Google Operating System
• Google Places International Category Tool Now Available, Mike Blumenthal
• Take the green route in Google Maps, Google LatLong

Link Building

• An Old School Linkbait Campaign That Still Works Wonders Today, Search Engine People
• Link bait creation — are you really getting a return on your investment?, SEO Copywriting
• Which Type of Link Anchor Text is the Most Effective? [An Experiment], SEOmoz

Searching

• Google Updates the Dictionary OneBox, Google Operating System

SEO & SEM

• 10 Cardinal Sins of Paid Search Marketing, PPC Hero
• 30 Ways to Act Like Google to Beat the Monopolist at SEO and Beyond, SEOptimise
• 5 Step Strategy For Handling SEO Pagination Problems, Rimm Kaufman
• BrightEdge Announces New S3 SEO Platform, BrightEdge Blog
• Geographical Targeting by Search Intent, periscopix.co.uk
• More Reports Of Google AdWords At Bottom Of Search Results, Search Engine Roundtable
• October 2011 Google Webmaster Report : Panda, Links, Related & Index, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Evolution of Public Relations Through Web Marketing, BruceClay.com

Social Media

• ThinkUp Adds Google+ Support, Expert Labs
• Social Media Presence More Important Than Social Media Ads, eMarketer
• Wal-Mart to localize offers for Facebook fans, The Associated Press

Web Analytics

• Invite Google Analytics into your Google AdWords PPC reporting, periscopix.co.uk

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

• How I Found 400 Qualified Link Prospects In Eight Minutes – Nice tutorial on how to use technology and automation to scale your SEO link building efforts.
• Legality of Automated Outreach for SEO – Looking at the wording on the FTC compliance guide, it may be that harvesting is not illegal, but if you use the output of that harvest to engage in email practices that violate the CAN-SPAM act, that you’re increasing your violation. This could result in heavier fines and imprisonment.
• 10 Bizarre Things That Influence Customers Online – Nice post outlining a items that move website shoppers.
• The Importance of Split Testing a Prospect Conversion System – If you're spending money on advertising online, A/B testing should not be overlooked.
• How to Optimize 7 Popular Social Media Profiles for SEO – If you want to strengthen your personal or business brand’s visibility, then one of the top things you will want is to have strong social media profiles that rank in the top results for your name along with your website and blog. Having a strong online reputation that is comprised of nothing but content that highlights the best about your personal or business brand will allow you to keep undesirable results at bay, such as bad online reviews or mentions.