SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 23, 2007

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 Seattle Celebrates a Birthday and Opens A New Office
  Steve Yegge, an engineer at the Google Kirkland office, recently posted to the Google blog about the Kirkland office’s third birthday. He also announced the opening of an engineering office in Fremont. Both locations are in the Seattle area — Fremont is just north of downtown and Kirkland is across…
• Google AdSense To Launch Code Free Ad Changes
  The Inside AdSense blog announced that they will be releasing a new ad management solution to enable code-free ad changes. Currently, if you want to change your AdSense layout to a different color, format, channel or whatever, after you make that change in the AdSense console, you need to copy…
• Mapping The Southern California Fires
  I’m back home (my original home) in Southern California for vacation, and to welcome me back, the Southland is on fire. Ah, just like old times. As I was keeping up with the news, I came across some maps online from Google Earth, Google Maps, Virtual Earth and elsewhere that…
• Report: 7 Out Of 10 Americans Experience ‘Search Engine Fatigue’
  A recent report issued by Autobytel, based on on findings from a poll of 1,001 US adults conduted by Kelton Research, examined “The State of Search” and how automobile shoppers interact with search engines in particular. Below I excerpt some of the general search findings from the report. The big…
• How To Shout On Digg Without Getting Shot Down
  Tons of people have been using the Digg shout it feature lately. A shout is a message that can be sent between two or more users on Digg, making it a very powerful tool for getting many people to take notice of content, and potentially garnering lots of Diggs….
• Landing Page Testing: How Much Is Too Much?
  Your landing page is a key part of any successful paid search campaign, and by now, the value of testing and optimizing your landing pages has become accepted wisdom. However, many testing methodologies—especially multivariate testing—are complex and are only appropriate for sites that get hundreds of conversions a day….
• Google AdWords Adds More Detailed Quality Score Explanations
  Google announced a new keyword analysis page that offers more insight into why Google scored your keywords with a certain quality score. Now, if you have a poor quality score, Google may share a reason. The reason can be found by viewing your keywords tab, then clicking on the magnifying…
• Google Employee #53, Charlie Ayers (The Google Chef) Profiled On MSNBC
  MSNBC has profiled Charlie Ayers, Google’s original chef, in this video. Charlie Ayers was employee number 53. He left Google back in 2005 to pursue his dream of running his own restaurant. He left with a great way to get started — 40,000 shares in Google worth about $26 million….
• Alibaba.com Set For High Flying Chinese IPO
  In what is widely expected to be the biggest technology IPO since Google and the biggest Internet IPO by a Chinese firm, Alibaba.com is ready to sell just over 850 million shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Those shares could fetch as much as $1.49 billion. Yahoo owns 39…
• StumbleUpon’s Toolbar Adds More Search Engines
  StumbleUpon Expands Social Search Across the Web from TechCrunch reports StumbleUpon has expanded their toolbar from enhancing Google, Yahoo, or Windows Live search results to now also include AOL, Ask.com, Google News, Yahoo News, Flickr, Wikipedia, and YouTube. That means, if you use the StumbleUpon and search at YouTube, you…
• Google Translate Drops Systran For Home Brewed Translation
  Google Operating System reports that Google Translate has dropped using Systran as the technology used by Google for translations. Google now uses their own home brewed version of translation technology to translate between the 25 languages available. Yahoo’s Babel Fish still uses Systran technology, so if you are in a…
• Search Illustrated: Keyword Research (Part 1)
  Thorough keyword research, done with the website’s goals in mind, is critical for a successful search marketing campaign. In part 1 of a short series dedicated to keyword research, today’s infographic explores the first—and arguably most important—step in the process: thinking like the customer….
• Google Goes Dark For Lights Out San Francisco
  On Saturday, Google went dark in San Francisco. No, it didn’t lose a data center. It simply turned the home page black for the day to support Lights Out San Francisco. The change from white to black wasn’t to actually conserve energy, as Google has determined this doesn’t reduce energy…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Thanks to Google’s Tools, I’m the Most Efficient Time-Waster Ever, Wired

Business Issues

• Big Media vs. YouTube & Google: Smart or Not?, gigaom.com
• Zango Acquires Smart Shopper For $9 Million: Now More Evil, TechCrunch
• CBS Mobile Teams With Medio For Search-Enabled Ads, MediaPost
• Mozilla banks Google bucks; Builds a portfolio, Between the Lines
• Yang: Being Yahoo CEO is a ‘lonely job’, News.com

Link Building

• Are Link Exchanges All Manipulative of Search Algorithms?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Webmaster Tools Link Page Troubles Again, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• AdSense Forum now in Arabic, Inside AdSense
• Yahoo on Issues and Solutions for a Pay-Per-Action Model in Online Advertising, SEO By The Sea
• Google AdSense Smart Pricing "Sabotage", Search Engine Roundtable
• How Old Are Typical Google AdSense Publishers?, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Remove Spam from Google Blog Search, Google Operating System
• Bountii Launches, Aims At Better Price Comparison Shopping, TechCrunch

SEM Industry

• Bebe Selects iCrossing As Search Agency of Record, MediaPost

SEO & SEM

• Google Removes All FeedBurner Feeds from Search Results, www.labnol.org
• Rewriting the Beginner’s Guide: Part II – How People Interact with Search Engines, SEOmoz
• Get Google Sitelinks Research Project Part 1, SEO Montreal
• Google Sitelinks Increase the Value of Generic Domains, … by a Lot, SEO Book
• SEO versus Branding: Clash of the Titanic Egos, Search Engine Watch
• Unearthing Your Hidden SEO Guru, MediaPost

Social Media

• Why Twitter Isn’t a Waste of Time, www.problogger.net
• MySpace in deal to let users play on-line games, Reuters
• Is Social Media Marketing Sustainable?, Green Marketing Blog
• Reuters Joins Facebook API Frenzy with News Quiz App, ResourceShelf

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Pushes New Design, Googlified
• YouTube seeks different legislation bounds, ABC News

Other Items

• A Day in Their Shoes, Yahoo Search Blog
• Google picks Wise Construction for Cambridge headquarters, boston.bizjournals.com

Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Is Social Media Marketing Sustainable?
• Using Social Media To Help Manage Online Reputation
• The Economics of Blogging: Minimal Cost and Maximum Benefits
• Do You Want Your Ancillary Pages in Googles Index?
• When Should You Stop Building Links?
• Social Profiles Link Generator Tool for Your Blog
• Putting Alexa Rank to the Test
• Todd Malicoat’s Welcome to The Rabbit Hole Alice: A Pre-Sphinn Classic
• The Worst Way To Ask For A Link
• The 5 Easiest Ways To Get Search Engines To Trust You!
• The Link Spiel: Top 10 Ways To Procrastinate Starting A Link Building Campaign
• It’s Not A Blog Post, It’s the First Brilliant Chapter. By Rand Fishkin
• The Dark Art Of Search Engine Optimization