SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 2, 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:

• Who Coined The Term SEO?

  Someone’s trying to trademark the term SEO, which has roiled the SEO community. The someone is named Jason Gambert and he has persistently filed with the Patent and Trademark Office, claiming to have coined the term “SEO” (for Search Engine Optimization) in 2007. SEOMoz and other entities have moved to challenge Gambert’s claim. [...]

• Making Sense of Google’s New Dynamic URL Recommendations

  Google’s recent blog post recommending that webmasters avoid rewriting dynamic URLs caused a minor furor in the search marketing industry. Reactions ranged from nervous fears that sites with rewritten URLs should suddenly reverse out their extensive work, all the way to amazement and even anger that Google should recommend a halt to something that [...]

• Google Blogs & Other “Front Pages” For The Blogosphere

  When Techmeme opened in 2005, I’d found a new online newspaper to begin my day with. It quickly and neatly organized top stories as reported by various blogs and news sources for the area I cover. But if you weren’t into technology, you seemed kind of out of luck. Now Google Blog [...]

• SMX East Begins On Monday

  On Site Rates Go Into Effect Monday, October 6th, 7:30am ET
  Procrastinators. Most of us.
  Good news is there’s still time to register for Search Marketing Expo – SMX East in New York City. But time is running out, so register today and join the search marketers from more than 1000+ companies who will attend SMX East.
  Still [...]

• Google Gets Political With Voting Tools

  Google is mounting a multi-facted campaign to get people to register to vote and actually show up at the polls. There’s a voter information/registration map and a mobile version. There’s also a widget/gadget you can embed in your blog or site. It provides registration information, tied to home address.
  Google is also helping promote a celebrity [...]

• YouTube Now Showing Post-Roll Video Ads

  NeeTeeVee reports that YouTube is now defaulting videos that contain ads to show post-roll ads. In the past, YouTube would only show the ads if those inline ads were clicked on. But now, when the videos end, they should show a post-roll ad.
  Greg reported earlier that Google would try preroll ads on YouTube as a [...]

• New: Browse Top Stories At Google Blog Search

  Google Blog Search just had a big change announced today — top blog posts are now clustered on the home page around particular story topics, similar to how Google News (or Techmeme) operates. You can also drill into various categories of posts, such as technology or politics. It looks interesting and [...]

• Google Rolls Out New Video, Image Search Features; Tests Banner Ads in SERPs?

  Anyone using YouTube for business purposes has a nice, new analytics tool at your disposal: data that shows the popularity of your videos down to the second. Talk about getting granular with analytics.
  It’s called “Hot Spots,” and Google announced it yesterday as an extension to the YouTube Insights analytics tool.

  The Hot Spots tab in Insight [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• And then Google News came to Poland, Google News Blog
• AOL’s Unhappy TVSquad Bloggers Stay, But Also Launch Competing Site, TechCrunch

Business Issues

• Ballmer Sees Global Crisis Hitting Microsoft, New York Times
• Google ‘Goliath’ Microsoft says, BBC NEWS
• A meek new Microsoft?, BBC NEWS
• Sen. Kohl Seeks Ongoing Monitoring Of Google-Yahoo Ad Deal, www.smartmoney.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Geocoding with the Virtual Earth Web Service, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Google on Android: Search, Official Google Mobile Blog
• New 3D Textured Cities in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• Imagery Metadata and Reverse Geocoding with the Virtual Earth AJAX Control, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog

Link Building

• Link Marketing — Solve a Customer Problem, Search Engine Watch

Paid Search & Contextual

• (Ad)Word of the Day: Landing Page, Inside AdWords
• Why Placement Performance May Stop Showing Your Ads, PPC Hero
• AdSense for content, now in Thai, Inside AdSense
• Yahoo Charging More & Giving Less, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Google Blogsearch Already Getting Spammed by PayPerPost, Read/Write Web
• Welcome Travel Search Engine Whole Travel, altsearchengines.com

SEM Industry

• Is Google’s Matt Cutts Telling the Whole Truth & Nothing But The Truth?, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• 3 Factors of International SEO, McAnerin Muse
• An Ethical Debate On Which We Can All (Maybe) Agree: The Average Webmaster And Dodgy SEO, SEOmoz
• The SERPs are Alive with the Sounds of Microblogs, www.searchenginepeople.com
• Economic Depression 2.0, Search Engine Watch
• How a Search Engine Might Provide Searchers with Related Search Queries For Web Pages, SEO By The Sea
• How It’s Feasible to Manually Review All Domains, SEOmoz
• How To Choose Domain Names For SEO, SEO Book
• Link Algorithm Changes, Stone Temple
• The Brand Anarchy Of Search: Who Reaps Your Equity?, MediaPost
• Do SEO Guarantees Protect the SEO or the Client?, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• 5 Things to Consider When Hiring a Social Media Consultant and/or Company, SEO Speedwagon
• SocialText 3.0 blends Facebook, Twitter, and the Enterprise, TechCrunch
• The Future of Widgets on Facebook: Dead, allfacebook

Video, Music & Image Search

• Stay in sync, Google Photos Blog

Other Items

• Here’s a surprise (not): Christian group calls for Google boycott over gay marriage support, Inquisitr

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

• Linked, Tagged, Tweeted, and Feeded – Three Real Time Link Trackers
• Avatar Theory #3: The DoFollow Link Builder
• IM Charity Party SMX East | A Party for A Good Cause
• Advanced Website Diagnostics with Google Webmaster Tools