SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 16, 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:

• Back to Basics: A Look at Video Search and SMBs
  Like many of you, I’ve attended lots of industry shows and events during the past several months related to search and directional marketing. What is especially amazing to me is how frequently I am asked about the ‘secret sauce’ behind optimizing online videos for search success, especially with regard to organic search. Truth is, we’ve [...]
• Google & Microsoft Share Advice For Webmasters, SEOs
  The ever-helpful teams writing for Google’s Webmaster Central blog and Microsoft Live Search’s Webmaster Center blog have published a variety of videos and presentations this week in the name of helping webmasters and search engine optimizers. On the Live Search blog, Nathan Buggia recaps his SMX East presentation on Webmaster Guidelines, shares the slides from his [...]
• Giving Them What They Want: Online Video and the Consumer Experience
  As we are in the cycle of the presidential election, there have been several high profile examples of how search is influencing and playing into the consumption formula for online video.  Two specific examples demonstrate how search either reinforces the opportunity big media has in capturing their share of the explosive growth in online [...]
• iGoogle Now Supports Full Canvas Views
  The new iGoogle theme just launched, which adds “full canvas views for gadget and support for full feed reading.” In short, the new view places the tabs that you typically see at the top, under the search box, now on the left hand side. It then allows you to add gadgets that support [...]
• Headup: A True Semantic Web Search Agent
  “Semantic web” is one of those phrases that’s tossed around loosely these days, used to describe just about anything that goes beyond basic keyword search to surface relevant content on the web. But true semantic web applications, those that enable people to share content beyond the boundaries of applications or web sites, are still relatively [...]
• Google Offers DIY Display Ads Builder; Appoints Display Ads Chief; Expands TV Ads Distribution
  Google has long been seeking to diversify its revenue base and ad products to attract more ad dollars and different types of advertisers. There’s a lot more money, for example, in brand advertising than in direct response. The YouTube acquisition was partly about getting more display/brand ad dollars. Google’s DoubleClick acquisition was also about targeting [...]
• Google Android G1 Reviews Flood Market: Mixed, But Mostly Positive
  If the G1 vs. iPhone comparison were a presidential debate, the iPhone would have won — but not decisively. That’s according to a flurry of reviews out today in advance of official delivery of the first Android phone on October 22. As with the iPhone, there are many likes as well as dislikes among the [...]
• Google AdWords Allowing Gambling Ads In UK
  E-Consultancy reports Google has reintroduced the ability for UK AdWords advertisers to place search ads for gambling. In June 2007, Google placed a ban on all gambling ads in the UK, this decision seems to now have been reversed. Blogger, James Little said he received word from Google that this would be allowed and the [...]
• Queen Elizabeth II In Google UK Logo, In Honour Of London HQ Visit
  If you visit Google.co.uk today, you may notice that Google has a special logo up for Queen Elizabeth II. The logo looks like this:

  Why is the special logo up today? Today, the Queen is visiting Google’s central London headquarters to learn about Google’s technology and meet school age kids who are the winners [...]

• Joe The Plumber, The Presidential Debates & Search
  Anyone watching tonight’s US Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama heard both candidates speak directly to “Joe The Plumber” several times. No, it’s not a fictional Joe. No, it’s not Sarah Palin’s Joe Six Pack. He’s a real person that Obama spoke to earlier this past weekend about economic concerns and taxation. But [...]
• VideoSurf Is Now Live
  VideoSurf, the new video search engine that I uncharacteristically raved about a little over a month ago, is now live for everyone to use. As I wrote then, “VideoSurf is one of the most innovative, radically different approaches to video search (or any kind of search for that matter) that I’ve ever seen. Even better: [...]
• Website Visitor Conversion In A B2B Environment
  Last month I had the good fortune of becoming ‘certified’ in Landing Page Optimization through MarketingExperiments out of Jacksonville Beach Florida.  Several times a year, their team brings a hundred or so marketers through the 2-day workshop.  The material is similar to that of their free Wednesday web clinics but in a much more intense, [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• MSN Groups to Close: Windows Live Groups to begin Nov. 17, LiveSide
• Set your store up for holiday success, Official Google Checkout Blog
• Tip: Sending empty messages, Official Gmail Blog
• Yahoo! Releases OpenID Research, Yahoo! Developer Network Blog
• Extended Gmail outage hits Google Apps admins, ITworld

Business Issues

• Technorati makes another acquisition, launches ad platform, News.com
• Ballmer: It’s ok to wait until Windows 7; Yahoo still "makes sense"; Google Apps "primitive", ZDNet
• Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Still Makes Sense, Ballmer Says , Bloomberg
• Transactions In Decline, EBay Cuts Its Forecast, New York Times
• Google, Yahoo Growth Reined In as Ad Cutbacks Spread to Web, Bloomberg
• Yahoo Cracks $12, Valuation Now Officially Ridiculous, Alley Insider
• YouTube Founder Compares Online Video To Nascent TV Market, TechCrunch
• Leaks: Yahoo to cut 3,500 jobs — party on!, Valleywag
• Search Engine "Cache" Function Covered by Implied License–Parker v. Yahoo, Eric Goldman

Local, Maps & Mobile

• NBC Local Affiliates Launch with Virtual Earth, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Multimap Launches Free API (And It Includes Virtual Earth), Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• New KML Interactive Sampler, Google Geo Developers Blog

Link Building

• Content Promotion for Link Marketing, Search Engine Watch

Paid Search & Contextual

• Most Publishers Don’t Believe in AdSense Class Ceiling, Search Engine Roundtable
• Poll Results: Google AdSense Publishers Discuss 2008 Earnings, Search Engine Roundtable
• The case of the delayed data, Inside AdSense
• Obama is Winning the Internet War, Search Engine Watch

Searching

• Reflections on the 2008 Yahoo! Frontend Engineering Summit, Yahoo! User Interface Blog
• How to Use Boolean Search Operators : SEO Application, Search Engine Journal

SEM Industry

• Liana Evans: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop
• Googloomy Times, Desperate Measures , Search Engine Watch

SEO & SEM

• Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part V, Search Engine Guide
• How Define: Operator Works and How To Get Included in Google Definitions, Search Engine Journal
• The Internet Marketer’s Handbook, SEOmoz
• Landing Page Optimization: Guessing vs. Testing, Search Engine Watch
• Tracking the Evolution of Search Spam, SEO Book
• Keyword Confusion – Do your keywords describe more than just your product?, Brad Geddes
• The Ying Yang of PR and SEO, Online Marketing Blog

Social Media

• Facebook announces 25 developer grant finalists, News.com
• New and improved nudge behavior, getsatisfaction.com
• View your FriendFeed in real-time, FriendFeed Blog
• Measure Your Twitter Influence and "Social Capital", Inquisitor
• Twitter steps up its anti-spam moves, News.com
• Yahoo rolls out social Web foundation, News.com
• Your social control panel, Yodel Anecdotal

Video, Music & Image Search

• Facebook hosts 10 billion photos, News.com

Other Items

• Information poverty, Official Google Blog
• Remembering Jon Postel: Looking beyond the decade, Official Google Blog

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

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