SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 13, 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:

• An Open Letter To Derek Powazek On The Value Of SEO
  

  Derek Powazek launched an attack on SEO yesterday that really said nothing that others haven’t ranted about before. I’ve responded to many of these attacks over the years in hopes of educating people about mistaken assumptions. I’ve largely given up. But I figured this time I’d give it another go with some [...]

• See What Googlebot Sees On Your Site
  

  Google Webmaster Tools has just launched a “labs” section, where you’ll find new features that may be early in the development cycle and not quite as robust as the rest of the tools. The features available so far are Fetch as Googlebot, which lets you see exactly what Googlebot is served when it requests a [...]

• The State Of Search: Q3 Data From Efficient Fronter And SearchIgnite
  

  Two reports have come out almost simultaneously, from Efficient Frontier and SearchIgnite, offering insights into the US paid search market for Q3 2009. The two data sets are based on client search campaigns managed by both firms. The data are directionally consistent in most cases but slightly different in terms of specific percentages and figures. Search [...]

• Six Deadly Mistakes Of Web Page Testing & Tuning
  

  The importance and impact of online testing on your conversion rates cannot be understated. Yet as powerful as testing can be, it is a double-edged sword that can actually set you back if you are not careful. Poorly designed tests can take years to complete, and even worse, they might not provide concrete insights to [...]

• Bing… In… Space! (& Google, Too)
  

  A reader pointed us to the Delta 2 rocket launch where Microsoft was a co-sponsor. If you look closely, you can see the Bing logo on the rocket ship.

  While Bing’s logo went into space, Google today announced a partnership with DigitalGlobe to launch a satellite into space to provide “high-quality imagery in Google Earth [...]

• Watch Those Rules & Regulations With European SEM Campaigns
  

  In my last column I addressed cultural differences within European countries. The main point was that Europe may be one continent, but you cannot treat every European the same way—there are many cultural differences among people in different countries, and in some cases, even within a single country. This is even more true from a [...]

• 8 Tips For Getting Your Fan Page Found In Facebook Search
  

  Have a Facebook page or creating a new one? Do yourself a favor and be proactive in setting your page up, so users can find you when they are looking. Too often, companies and brands don’t take the proper steps to be found and have to make adjustments in order to show in Facebook search. [...]

• Link Building: Not Just Off-Page Anymore
  

  Link building tends to be viewed as on off-page activity – you’re not messing with title tags or site architecture and you don’t actually have to touch the site itself or write new content. However, if all you are doing is building more inbound links to your site without doing any analysis of on-page factors, [...]

• Yahoo Pay Per Click Settlement Details Goes Out To Advertisers
  

  This morning, many Yahoo advertisers received an email from Rust Consulting letting them know, they are included in a legal settlement over Yahoo search ads. The settlement web site, which is at inreyahoosettlement.com explains that the “lawsuit alleges that customers contracted for targeted ad placements through two products, “Sponsored Search” and “Content Match” (and [...]

• Marchex Releases Powerful SMB Reputation Management Tool With “Search Inside”
  

  Consumers care about online reviews; small businesses (SMBs) care about what’s being said about them online. Most small businesses that are aware of the phenomenon of online reviews (and care) try to monitor those reviews by using a search engine or alerts with their business name. They also visit specific sites like Yelp or Citysearch [...]

• Factual: Parting The Curtains Of The Invisible Web
  

  This year, we’ve seen several ambitious new efforts to mine and make searchable the vast part of the web that remains largely hidden to search engines—often referred to as the deep, hidden or invisible web. The latest foray into the reaches of hidden web is actually a hybrid, of sorts: Factual, founded by Gil [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Invite a friend to Google Voice, Official Google Blog
• New in Labs: Got the wrong Bob?, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• Akamai Rallies On Rumor Of Google Bid, Barrons.com
• Google’s Ad Gadfly, Forbes
• How Google Is Trying To Hold Up The Microsoft-Yahoo Deal, Business Insider
• Industry Moves: Google Looses Product Manager To Rambler, Quintura blog
• Twitter moving to larger SoMa office space, San Francisco Chronicle

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Street Views Now Showing Street Numbers, Search Engine Roundtable
• Insights for Local Business Owners, Google Barometer
• Mobile Questions for Google: It’s Google Mobile Week, Search Engine Roundtable
• When Google Maps Satellite & Map Detail Don’t Line Up, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• Funniest Ways to Get Links, Vertical Measures
• Headsmacking Tip #14: Offer Testimonials, Get Links, SEOmoz

Paid Search & Contextual

• Mobile Ad Revenues To Top $4 Billion In 2015, Mostly From Search (Report), TechCrunch

Searching

• Web Search in Your Country, Google AJAX Search API Blog

SEO & SEM

• How To Use Virtual Assistants To Eliminate SEO Chores, seoroi.com
• 7 Worst Things (Bad) SEO’s Do, Search Engine Guide
• Does Google consider the URL of an image?, YouTube
• Google & SEO’s: The Symbiotic and Parasitic Relationship. Who’s Who?, KoMarketing Associates
• International SEO – 10 Tips for Multilingual Search Engine Optimization from WebCertain, Online Marketing Blog
• PPC: the Importance of Click Volume, Rimm Kaufman
• Trafigura, Twitter and Google, David Naylor

Social Media

• Can Viral Marketing Be Manufactured?, BruceClay.com
• Facebook Asks Page Owners to Prove Authenticity, Inside Facebook
• Facebook database outage cut off about 150,000, CNET News
• Google’s Michael Jones on Crowdsourcing, DirectionsMag.com
• Creating & Defining Relationships on the Web, outspokenmedia.com
• Facebook Now Has 30,000 Servers, Data Center Knowledge
• Some Stats about Twitter’s Content, zooie’s blog
• Twitter can’t be gagged: online outcry over Guardian/Trafigura order, The Guardian

Other Items

• Yodel like you mean it, Yodel Anecdotal