SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 26, 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:

• Google Social Search Launches, Gives Results From Your Trusted “Social Circle”
  

  Google Social Search is rolling out, a new service from Google that allows you to easily find material written by people you know and trust. It’s a pretty cool idea, especially in that it’s pretty painless to get started using it. The service will be available through Google Labs Experimental [...]

• Will A Free Google Navigation App-System Sink The PND Industry?
  

  Lots of companies make a good living from hardware and software GPS navigation systems. In the US carriers such as Verizon and Sprint and personal navigation device (PND) makers such as TomTom, Garmin, Magellan, among others, earn device and subscription revenues from turn-by-turn routing and directions and points of interest directories. There are a number of [...]

• Video Of Google’s Sergey Brin At Web 2.0
  

  Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin, made a surprise visit at the Web 2.0 Summit last week. The video of his 18 minute interview with John Battelle is now available on YouTube. Here it is:

  In summary, he talked about his thoughts on Twitter’s deal, Google’s Social Search, also a little bit about Bing and even [...]

• Google Testing New AdWords My Client Center
  

  The Google AdWords blog announced Google will begin testing a new My Client Center (MCC) this week. The new MCC will look a lot like the new AdWords interface and promises to help you manage your “clients more efficiently.” The two new features include:

  In-line editing of account descriptions: In-line editing cuts the time [...]

• Integrating SEO Into The Localization Workflow Process
  

  There’s a significant opportunity for marketers who take time to understand markets beyond their home territory and deploy search programs that allow them to connect directly with consumers in their native language. “In their native language” is the make or break part of succeeding in a new market, yet too many companies fail to [...]

• Local Search: A Solved Consumer Problem
  

  It pains me to say it, but local search is a solved consumer problem. I’m in pain admitting this, because I’ve been trying to create better local search mousetraps since 2003. Put simply, major search engines do a good enough job of surfacing local listings and phone numbers to consumers who need a specific product or [...]

• Carl Icahn “Activist Investor” Departs Yahoo Board
  

  When “activist investor” Carl Icahn forced his way onto Yahoo’s board in the middle of last year the company was resisting a takeover attempt from Microsoft. Icahn wanted to see a deal and was trying with all his might to broker one between the two companies. He initiated a very public bid to oust Yahoo co-founder [...]

• PPC Bid Management Tips For The Holiday Season
  

  Data driven anticipatory bidding can turn an ordinary holiday bump into something extraordinary. Here are some tips for how to take apart and act on the data.

• Get Rid Of Unwanted Clicks With Keyword Management
  

  Every search marketer shares one important goal: get more of the traffic you want and less of the traffic you don’t. One of the best ways to get manage your traffic quality is by focusing on keyword selection. By selecting the right keywords you can reduce the number of untargeted clicks you get, reducing your [...]

• Two Golden Keys To Paid Search Success: Scale And Efficiency
  

  There are two key factors crucial to assuring the success of any large SEM optimization process: First, tuning the campaign so that it is efficient and second, scaling the account while maintaining the efficiency you’ve gained. Your key goal should be to identify incremental opportunity without losing profitability.

• The Myth Of Great Search Engine Results
  

  Too much time is often spent about the new features the various major search engines roll out or the latest deals they cut. Here at Search Engine Land, we can be as guilty of that as anyone. To correct it, I’ll be spending more and more time highlighting poor quality search results [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google’s Blogger Service Suffers Widespread Outage, PC World
• Google Docs Batch Export, Google Operating System
• IT leaders trust Microsoft more than Google, 2-to-1, TechRepublic.com
• What’s new with Gmail on iPhone and Android, Official Gmail Blog
• Yahoo Mail Suffers Outage, TechCrunch

Business Issues

• Startup School: An Interview With Mark Zuckerberg, TechCrunch
• Tim Armstrong’s Secret Project Is To Turn AOL Into A Low-Cost Content Machine, TechCrunch
• looking beyond the open source battle, The Guardian
• Sergey Brin Donates $1 Million To Organization That Helped Him Migrate To The U.S., TechCrunch
• AOL Loses Its Chief Lifestreamer, David Liu, TechCrunch
• Facebook Hires Journalist Andrew Noyes To Increase Leverage In Washington, TechCrunch
• Google Envisions 10 Million Servers, Data Center Knowledge
• Microsoft, Google and the Bear, New York Times
• The Way We Live Now – Going Offline in Search of Freedom, New York Times
• Twitter Snags Platform Manager Josh Elman From Facebook, louisgray.com
• Yandex and Google Hold 96% Search Share in Russia, Quintura blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Big Cellphone Makers Shift to Android Platform From Google, New York Times
• IBM Researchers Simplify Mobile Web Browsing, eWeek
• The Iterative Web App: Auto-expanding Compose Boxes, Official Google Mobile Blog
• YellowPages.ca Relaunches Site, Screenwerk

Link Building

• The New Era of Inbound Marketing, SEOmoz
• Will paid tweets become the new paid links?, econsultancy.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Warns, Don’t Block AdSense Certified Ad Network, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Ping – How High Will Real-Time Search Fly?, New York Times
• Getting the best from On-Site Search on your website, SEOmoz
• Microsoft Launches Academic Search (Beta), ResourceShelf
• Yandex goes to Kazakhstan, Search Cowboys

SEO & SEM

• Should You Hire An SEO Who Cold Calls You?, Search Engine Guide
• BackType : Track Keywords & Brand Names in Comments, Search Engine Journal
• Defining Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing Blog
• Google Webmaster Tools Showing Sub-Sitelinks, Search Engine Roundtable
• How a Search Engine Might Distinguish Between Queries from Bots and from Humans, SEO By The Sea
• JavaScript and email addresses, YouTube

Social Media

• Tweets from the jury box: jurors using Twitter jeopardize trials, csmonitor.com
• Twitter Finally Removing Deleted Tweets From Search Results, TechCrunch
• 4 Reasons Why Including Social Networking Results is Smart, Search Engine Journal
• Memories of Friends Departed Endure on Facebook, Facebook
• Redefining social media, Search Engine Guide
• The Super Simple Guide to Setting Up Your First Company Facebook Page Without Blowing a Gasket – Part 2, Search Engine Guide
• Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Users, New York Times

Video, Music & Image Search

• How to Add Search Shortcuts to Google Chrome., Michael Gray

Web Analytics

• The Flaw in Google Analytics “Goal Position Change”, webranking.com

Other Items

• 10 things Google has taught us, CNN Money
• 11 Years of Google in 2 Minutes, Google Operating System