SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 7, 2013

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Penguin 5, With The Penguin 2.1 Spam-Filtering Algorithm, Is Now Live

  The fifth confirmed release of Google’s “Penguin” spam fighting algorithm is live. That makes it Penguin 5 by our count. But since this Penguin update is using a slightly improved version of Google’s “Penguin 2″ second-generation technology, Google itself is calling it “Penguin 2.1.” Don’t worry. We’ll explain the numbering nonsense below, as well as […]

• Google’s Matt Cutts: No More PageRank Updates This Year

  Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said on Twitter yesterday that Google won’t be pushing out a new Google Toolbar PageRank update this year. Niels Bosch asked on Twitter if we should expect an update to PageRank before 2014. In response to that, Matt Cutts said, “I would be surprised if that happened.” It […]
• Google Launches Fix To Stop Mugshot Sites From Ranking: Google’s MugShot Algorithm

  On Thursday, Google released yet another algorithm update, no – not the Penguin update, but an algorithm to combat mugshot web sites from showing up highly in their search results. In February, Jonathan Hochman wrote a story here named Why Google Should Crack Down Harder On The Mugshot Extortion Racket. That story, according to Google’s […]

• New Disconnect Tool Enables Private Searches Without Logging Out Of Online Accounts

  Online security software provider Disconnect launched their latest search tool, Disconnect Search this week. According to the announcement, Disconnect Search allows users to perform private searches on sites like Google, Yahoo and Bing via their address bar or omnibox, “without having to change their behavior.” Disconnect says their new tool routes search queries through the […]

• Local Google Shopping PLAs And Local Storefronts Roll Out To Limited Set Of Retailers

  Today, Google is making public what several speakers at SMX East alluded to last week: local availability for Product Listing Ads. The latest iteration of Google’s wildly successful Product Listing Ads, which will be referred to simply “Local PLAs” in this article, are currently available to a select set of US based retailers such as […]

• Lowest Rates for SMX Social Media Marketing Expire Friday

  Attend SMX Social Media Marketing for cutting-edge tactics to capitalize on opportunities and overcome the challenges of social media. Whether you are responsible for buying social media advertising, managing communities or customer service, you’ll get the techniques and best practices you need to increase traffic, boost engagement and drive sales. Register now and you’ll get […]

• Future SEO: Understanding Entity Search

  Last month, I asked you to imagine the future of SEO with a focus on Entity Optimization as I interviewed veteran semantic strategist Barbara Starr. We discussed an “answer engine” that uses relevant, machine-recognizable “entities” on Web pages to answer specific, well-refined queries. The Hummingbird Update On September 26, Google took another step toward becoming […]

• How To Use The New AdWords Estimated Cross-Device Conversions

  A couple of months after the paid search world had to transition to AdWords Enhanced Campaigns in the name of simplified and more relevant cross-device ad management, we are finally getting some initial food for thought with regard to cross-device performance. I called it the “next frontier for online marketers” in a previous post, and we are now officially getting […]

• Paid Search And Marketing Grow Further & Further Apart

  A few months back, I wrote an article for Marketing Land called “Is The Art Of Paid Search Marketing Dead?” in which I foolishly suggested there was still a small bit of art left in search marketing. Art? Are you kidding me? Ugh. I haven’t been so wrong or felt so foolish in a long […]

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Google Glass Software Update XE10 Adds Transit Directions, Not Much Else
• Nielsen Launches Twitter TV Ratings, Potentially A Key Social Metric For Advertisers
• Photo Recap: Google Glass Road Show Event In Durham, NC
• Google’s New Fight Against Mugshots Sites Fails For Victim Profiled In New York Times
• Microsoft’s New “Bing Offers Card-Linked” Aims To Streamline Local Deals For Merchants, Drive New Customers
• Mobile And The Rise Of “Real World Analytics”
• Lowest Rates for SMX Social Media Marketing Expire Friday
• Earned Media Rising – The Earned Media Ripple Effect
• The Growing Divide Between Paid Search & Marketing
• The Future Of Online Analytics: New AdWords Estimated Cross-Device Conversions
• Survey: Millennials More Likely To Rank Tech Brands, But Google Still At Top Of Everyone’s List

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• Baidu Appoints Founder Of NetDragon, One Of China’s Top Online Gaming And Mobile Developers, To Its Board, TechCrunch

Local & Maps

• Amtrak Now Provides Real-Time Train Tracking Map For Entire Country, LJ INFOdocket

Link Building

• A Google Penguin Recovery Case Study: How We Did It, From Beginning To End, E2M Blog
• Don’t Just Earn Links, Build Links Too, State of Digital
• Penguin 2.1 Analysis | Findings from the Google Update on October 4, 2013, hmtweb.com
• Using Twitter to Find Link Prospects, Search Engine Journal

Searching

• Google in Jeopardy: What If IBM’s Watson Dethroned the King of Search?, Wired
• Disconnect Search, Built By Ex-Google And Ex-NSA Engineers, Lets You Use Google, Bing And Yahoo Without Tracking, TechCrunch
• National Library of Israel Establishes ARCHINET, Israeli National Internet Archive, LJ INFOdocket
• Network Administrators Can Turn Off Google SSL Search, Here Is How., Search Engine Roundtable

SEO

• Common SEO Website Issues And How to Fix Them, koozai.com
• Google Are Not Human. Stop Treating Them Like One, State of Digital
• Google’s Penguin 2.1 Update Was Big For Webmasters, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google’s Angry Birds, Act-On
• SEO Isn’t Dead: How SEO is changing and what to do about it, Search Engine People
• Sitemaps & SEO: An Introductory Guide, Search Engine Watch