SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 23, 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:

• Gems In The Google SEM Toolbox
  

  Already its own specialty of digital marketing and now almost 50% of all online advertising budgets, paid search has fully grown into its own channel. A quick bit of research can quickly uncover a multitude of blogs, books, tools, companies, etc. all focused on the topic and within this channel, there’s even more fragmentation [...]

• Search In Pictures: Yahoo Hack Day, Google Soccer & Bing Party
  

  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Yahoo’s Inappropriate Hack Day Activities: Bing’s Party at ZendCon: Yahoo Fussball: Google Playing Soccer:

• MSFT Quarter: Revenues Down 14 Percent, But Beat Estimates
  

  Microsoft announced quarterly revenues of $12.9 billion, a decline of just over 14 percent from the same period a year ago. Adjusted revenue, which accounts for $1.5 billion in deferred Windows 7 receipts put the quarter at $14.4 billion, just 4 percent down vs. a year ago. Profits were also down. Online services (where Bing [...]

• Google’s Brin: “A Shame” That Yahoo Out Of Search
  

  Try as they might Yahoo is having a tough time convincing people that it’s still “in search.” On Yahoo’s earnings call earlier this week CFO Tim Morse, who led the call because CEO Carol Bartz was ill, used her analogy to describe Yahoo’s new way of positioning itself around search: The next revolution isn’t with the [...]

• Google Custom Search Mobile For iPhone, Android & Palm Pre
  

  The Google Custom Search Blog announced the release of a mobile friendly Google Custom Search engine interface support for devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and Palm Pre. Google will now automatically detect the device you are using to access the Google Custom Search Engine and serve up a mobile friendly version, [...]

• AdWords API v200909 & V13 Sunsets April 22, 2010
  

  The AdWords API Blog announced a new version of the v2009 API and also released a date as to when version 13 of the API will sunset. The new version of v2009, known as v200909 has many changes, but the most important include:

  Asynchronous calls – Asynchronous calls allow you to work with large sets of data [...]

• Jedi Metrics: How To Overcome Resistance To SEO Efforts
  

  “These are not the droids you’re looking for…” Ever wish you had this kind of Obi-Wan, Jedi power to win the resources, funding, and support required for your SEO? Continuing from my last column, here are my three “Jedi Metrics” to effectively overcome organizational resistance towards SEO. Caution: The force is strong. Use it wisely!

• SEO & Searcher Mental Models
  

  Do search engine optimization (SEO) professionals architect websites to match searcher mental models? The answer might surprise you.

• WSJ: Advertisers Doing More And Less With Search
  

  In case you didn’t see it there was an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning that seeks to capture a kind of shift or broadening of advertisers’ attitudes toward search marketing. Formerly search was something of an island and not well integrated into wider marketing campaigns. Many search + display studies and several [...]

• 5 Social Media Lessons For Paid Search Landing Pages
  

  Can you apply the spirit of social media to other marketing channels? At this year’s SMX East, after my presentation on Landing Page Usefulness—emphasizing a “usefulness” mission over “usability” tactics—it struck me: great landing pages can bring many of the ideals of social media to paid search marketing campaigns. Here are five principles of social media marketing [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking, Official Google Blog
• 11 Wave Tools You May Not Know Exist, GO2WEB20 Blog
• Introducing "Kindle for PC" — The Free Application for Reading Kindle Books on the PC, Amazon.com

Business Issues

• AOL: We’re working on something big and secret, CNET News
• Google Co-Founder: I Did Not Try to Buy Twitter, mashable.com
• Sergey Brin On What Keeps Him Up At Night, A Google Phone, And Chrome For Mac, TechCrunch
• Ask.com Commercials Put Baby Seals In Jeopardy, TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Evolving the look of Google Maps, Google LatLong
• Google Placates India, China With Different Map Versions, PC World
• Running Coupons On Google Maps Business Competitors, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• Click Here for 50,000 Free Dofollow Links from a PR9 Domain, Site Visibility

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdWords Litigation Updates–Google Adds One Lawsuit and Ends Another, Eric Goldman

Searching

• Just Published: Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009, ResourceShelf
• Now Available for Mobile Devices: Veterans Administration Grave Locator, ResourceShelf
• The Savings on Bing cashback are “Endless”, Bing Search Blog

SEM Industry

• Search Engine Marketing Trends Briefing November 2009, econsultancy.com
• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: October 23, 2009, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Affording SEO in Tough Economic Times, Search Engine Guide
• Verifying a Blogger blog in Webmaster Tools, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• 9 SEO Takeaways from Google’s Joachim Kupke at SMX East, AudetteMedia
• Bing’s MSNBot Crawl Happy?, Search Engine Roundtable
• International SEO: Need Your Help, Search Engine Journal
• Search Insight: Identifying Consumer Trends Using Google Insights for Search, Google Retail Blog
• SEO Multiple Domains – Same Site, Different Names, best-seo-blog.com
• Shift in Search-Ad Tactics Seeks More for Less, Wall Street Journal
• Whiteboard Friday – Tips, Tricks & Tactics Preview: Seth Besmertnik on Winning SEO Budget, SEOmoz

Social Media

• How to Measure Social Media Success, SEO Book
• New Views for Your Home Page, Facebook
• Sean Parker: Twitter/Facebook Will Soon Dominate The Web — Not Google., TechCrunch
• You Haz No Blog Comments? Here’s the Fix!, outspokenmedia.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Subscribes You to Activity Feeds, Google Operating System