SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 13, 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:

• Use Demographic Targeting to Reach Your Customers in New Ways
  Demographic targeting has long lived within the realm of CPM and banner buys. However, AdWords is becoming much more sophisticated in the ways that you can use demographics within your AdWords campaign. Below are a list of resources for using Demographic Information within AdWords. Find out how various demographics perform for Your account The first step in [...]
• SearchBiz: Online Ads & The Economy; Yandex Postpones IPO; Google Apps In DC & Vulnerabilities; MySpace Offers Self-Serve Ads
  Many in the search industry expect online advertising to take a smaller hit (if any) from the struggling economy than other types of advertising. But that view isn’t shared by all. According to AdAge today, some analysts think online advertising is as vulnerable as other sectors: “Failed banks … job losses and lower consumer confidence now [...]
• Google Logo Celebrates Paddington Bear’s 50th Birthday
  Google has a special logo up on their home page to celebrate Paddington Bear’s 50th birthday. Here is a screen capture of the special logo: I noted at the Search Engine Roundtable that today is also Columbus Day, and Google does not have a logo for the day. At least three people asked [...]
• Google Loses Copyright Cases Over Thumbnail Images In Germany
  Bloomberg reports that Google has lost two related copyright cases in German courts. Both involved display of thumbnails in image search results. Google can appeal the rulings. According to Bloomberg, the German court in one of the cases found that copyright law had been violated because Google displayed images without permission of the copyright holder. [...]
• Google Now Working With Click Forensics
  Google allies with click-fraud-detection firm Click Forensics from ComputerWorld reports Google has now agreed to work with Click Forensics to aid in the detection and reporting of search ad click fraud. Specifically, Google said they would now accept click fraud submissions through the product, FACTr. FACTr is a product Click Forensics created with the help [...]
• Yahoo Improves Content Match Targeting
  The Yahoo Search Marketing Blog announced they have improved the targeting and relevancy of their content match product. The improvements will lead to a higher click through rate on ads and higher satisfaction. The specific improvement is that they now not only target the ads based on the content of the page, but also based [...]
• Google’s iPhone Ad Units, G1 Pre-Sells 1.5 Million?
  On Friday, AdWeek reported that Google was creating and testing specialized ad units for full HTML mobile browsers, such as Safari on the iPhone. The idea is that the iPhone’s Safari browser (or Android, Skyfire, Opera) would be detected and alternative ads, and landing pages or iPhone optimized sites, would be substituted for conventional mobile [...]
• YouTube Gets Full-Length TV Shows, Click-To-Buy Options
  YouTube has experimented with long-form content in the past. However, the site is now rolling out full-length episodes of vintage TV shows like Star Trek, MacGyver, and the not-so-vintage Beverly Hills 90210. Users can also watch these in the recently introduced “theater view,” featuring an expanded player that looks similar to the Hulu player. We can [...]
• Find Cheap Gas Prices With New Yahoo Shortcut
  Looking for cheap gas? Sure, the price has been falling, but drivers are still looking to save. Enter Yahoo, which has rolled out a new shortcut that maps gas stations and gas prices directly within in the search results page. Just use the words “gas prices” or “cheap gas” followed by a ZIP [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• App Engine Community Update, Google App Engine Blog
• Mainstream News Outlets Start Linking to Other Sites, New York Times
• Straight from the horse’s mouth, Google News Blog
• Yahoo! finally using Zimbra, News.com

Business Issues

• Google and MSN disagree on future of search, ZDNet.co.uk
• Amid the Gloom, an E-Commerce War, New York Times
• Googler Burke Invests In UK Edu Site Teachit For US Expansion, paidContent.org

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Exclusive Google Android Phone Video Review, 1938 Media

Link Building

• What Happens After I Submit my Site to DMOZ?, DMOZ Blog
• Two Kick-Ass Link Building Tools, Fantomaster
• Affiliate Links Can Pass Link Juice & Help With SEO, Search Engine Journal
• Are Directories Still Worth Your SEO Budget?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Link Building for E-Commerce Site : It’s Not All About Paid Links, Search Engine Journal
• SEOmoz Linkscape : New Backlink Checking Tool Reviewed, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• adCenter Ads on Facebook, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• MySpace Launches "My Ads" Self Serve Ad Platform: Is This Their Google Moment?, TechCrunch
• Google AdWords To Use Twitter, Search Engine Roundtable
• Search & Display – Research That Proves Multi-Format Campaigns Add Value, adcentercommunity.com
• AdWords Conversion Optimizer Expands Eligibility, Inside AdWords
• Reading the Tea Leaves: Interpreting Keyword Reports, Search Engine Watch

Searching

• Memeorandum Colors: Visualizing Political Bias with Greasemonkey , Waxy.org
• 3 Ways to Customize Google Search in FireFox, Search Engine Journal
• Search history gives insight into lives of AOL users, ZDNet.co.uk
• Can Search’s ‘Beautiful System’ Extend to Display?, AdWeek
• The Reason Behind Changes to Google Base Display, snydeysense.com

SEM Industry

• Brad Geddes from bg Theory, MeetInnovators
• SEMpdx Presents The SEO Strategies for the 21st Century with Aaron Wall Webinar, SEMpdx Blog
• Lucio Dias Ribeiro: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop
• Satya Nadella of Microsoft Live Search to Keynote PubCon Las Vegas 2008, PubCon

SEO & SEM

• Debugging The Network Unreachable / Robots. txt Unreachable Error, HomeWithAndrew.com
• Why My Site Lost All Search Traffic From Google, Huffington Post
• 6 Lessons from the Search Engineers at SMX East, SEOmoz
• How to Alienate Google by Ignoring Browser Compatibility!, SEOptimise
• Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part III, Search Engine Guide
• Help for the Holidays, Wall Street Journal
• How to Get Search Engine Traffic to Your Blog, ProBlogger
• SEO Tops Recession Internet Marketing Tactics, Online Marketing Blog
• The Importance of Sitemaps, Coding Horror
• The Importance of Sitemaps, Coding Horror

Social Media

• Overlooked Justifications For Social Media Budget, AIM Clear Blog
• IM: Not coming soon, Twitter Status

Video, Music & Image Search

• Embed a Part of a YouTube Video, Google Operating System
• No More Annoying Frames in Google Video, Google Operating System
• Which Video Editing Program Should You(Tube) Use?, InformationWeek
• Joost Turns On Its All-Flash Website. Is Anybody Watching?, TechCrunch

Web Analytics

• Complete guide to Google Analytics, TechRadar UK

Other Items

• Google founder Brin visits Russian space cosmodrome, Reuters
• Stories by Googlers, Official Google Blog

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

• 10 Secrets of the Best Social Media Users
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• The Decline of Digg
• Affiliate Mistake: Only Wanting the “Thrill of the Chase”
• 25 Ways to Build Your Community
• SEO Canonical URLs And 301 Redirects In Windows IIS 6, IIS 7
• Personal Branding is BS
• Google Allows Ads Mocking Suicide