SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 8, 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:

• Grayboxx Now National In The U.S.
  Grayboxx announced today that it now has coverage in 175 cities (large and small) across the U.S. The site uses a proprietary method to collect “implicit” local recommendations rather than relying on users to write reviews (it calls them “neighbor recommendations”). In this way Grayboxx contends that it can provide…
• SMX Social Media Preview: Keynote Q&A With StumbleUpon & Delicious Founders
  At our SMX Social Media show next week — Search Engine Land’s first Search Marketing Expo show focused on social media marketing — we have a special keynote Q&A session with the founders of delicious and StumbleUpon, Joshua Schachter and Garrett Camp respectively. I’m looking for your help with the…
• When Link Building Is Pointless
  As a link builder and content publicist, I rarely see a link building challenge that cannot be overcome. Today there are many unique and legitimate ways to attract and generate links that didn’t exist ten years ago. There are different styles and approaches to link building, all of which…
• Online Moms: Where Local, Social And Vertical Worlds Collide
  Not long ago I had an appliance repairperson to my house in the San Francisco Bay Area to fix my clothes dryer and, while he was at it, my dishwasher, which what stopping in the middle of cycles. I had used the Internet to find his company, however he…
• Google & IBM Team Up On Cloud Computing Research
  Google announced they have teamed up with IBM to “provide hardware, software and services to augment university curricula and expand research horizons.” Google and I.B.M. Join in ‘Cloud Computing’ Research from the New York Times explains the two companies are building out a ‘cloud computing’ environment to help students obtain…
• Yahoo Search Feeds: Rediscovering RSS Autodiscovery
  Ekstreme noticed that Yahoo Search is supporting autodiscovery for searches. Yahoo has been doing this since at least 2005, but it’s still not known to many people. Here’s how it works:…
• Google Transit Now In Google Maps
  Google Operating System reports Google Transit data can now be found in Google Maps for select cities. If you plot driving directions between Norwalk, California and Orange County, California, you should see an option on the left for “Directions: Drive There – Take Public Transit.” Clicking on “Take Public Transit”…
• Court Reinstates Google Age Discrimination Suit
  Court reinstates age-discrimination lawsuit against Google from ComputerWorld reports that an age discrimination case against Google that was dismissed two years ago will now go back to court. Brian Reid, an ex-AltaVista employee who went over to work at Google, was fired at age 54 and filed suit over the…
• GPhone Likely A Mobile OS To Compete With Windows Mobile
  Earlier this year, Google’s Marissa Mayer argued that Google wasn’t coming out with a piece of mobile hardware, as she explained that the iPhone has dramatically boosted use of Google Maps and other mobile services. Yet there have also been articles quoting people who say they’ve seen a “GPhone.” Miguel…
• Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google
  More and more, I’ve been seeing people wondering if they’ve lost traffic on Google because they were detected to be selling paid links. However, Google’s generally never penalized sites for link selling. If spotted, in most cases all Google would do is prevent links from a site or pages in…
• Google Book Search Improved(?)
  According to the Google blog ‘Inside Google Book Search’ they have recently made some changes to Google Book Search, so I took this as my cue to go and visit to check these out. To say that I was disappointed is to put it mildly, and if you don’t have…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Try Google Desktop 5.5 Beta!, Google Desktop APIs
• More types of gadgets for iGoogle, Official Google Blog
• Microsoft’s Ballmer: Google Reads Your Mail, CRN
• Happy 10th Birthday, Yahoo! Mail, Yodel Anecdotal

Business Issues

• Google Rules, Forbes
• Fear & Irrational Exuberance: Alan Greenspan Explains Why Google is Worth Trillions of Dollars, SEO Book
• Yahoo! for Yahoo? Maybe not., Reflections of a Newsosaur
• The Big News About Yahoo!, Forbes
• Users’ complaints to FTC show another side of Google, San Francisco Chronicle
• Ask and ET: Will TV Exposure Change Online Search Preferences?, MarketingVOX

Conferences

• Internet Marketers of NY Charity Party, Shimon Sandler

Local, Maps & Mobile

• 2007 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup, Google Earth Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• Mastering Yahoo’s Panama, ClickZ
• Discover how to improve ad click through rate and conversions with an effective call to action!, adCenter Blog
• Tiny start-up rival to Google, Mercury News
• adCenter Blog: adCenter Feature Review: bulk management tools, adCenter Blog
• AdSense Policies updated for AdSense for Mobile, JenSense.com
• Optimizing Instablogs, Inside AdSense
• AdWords Ads: what’s your location?, Inside AdWords
• Google AdWords Help Centre adds keyword insertion info, SEOptimise
• Microsoft to Launch adCenter "adExcellence" Program in UK this Year, Search Engine Roundtable
• Beware of Google AdSense Hackers Using Their Code On Your Site, Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Marketing Strategy: Don’t Look Like a Duck?, Traffick
• Rubicon Project – Optimized Advertising For Everyone, ShoeMoney

SEM Industry

• If you want to be a part of the SEO industry, ACT LIKE IT, Bob Massa
• Interview with SEM Artist Todd Malicoat, AIM Clear Blog
• Matt Cutts Interviewed by Eric Enge on September 24, 2007, Stone Temple
• I Was Diagnosed With Stage 3B Lymphoma, AIM Clear Blog
• Mike Moran IBM – Why Search Marketing is so Hard, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• Google Determining Search Authority Pages and Propagating Authority to Related Pages, SEO By The Sea
• Google Toolbar PageRank Update (October 2007), Search Engine Roundtable
• Google PageRank Update & Link Selling, Search Engine Journal
• Google Webmaster Link Tool October 2007 Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• Tips on how to SEO a non-existent site, SiteMost
• Getting a Jump on the Business Intelligence Imperative, Search Engine Watch
• A Comprehensive Guide to Hidden Text , SEOmoz
• Google Clarifies its Stance on Hidden Text, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO In-house Spotlight: Bill Macaitis with Fox Interactive Media, Search Engine Journal
• Data freshness, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Yahoo Search Showing Less Links in Site Explorer?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Facebook Music Rumors, TechCrunch
• How to use the "Shout" feature on Digg, 10e20
• Two Days in the Facebook Gold Rush, Jonathan Mendez’s Blog
• How Yahoo (or Facebook) Could Really Kill Google, SEOmoz
• Google’s Orkut: A World of Ambition, BusinessWeek
• Breaking: Newsvine Acquired By MSNBC.com, TechCrunch
• How this Blog received 100,000 Pageviews in 14 Days, ViperChill
• Inviting your friends, made simple, Orkut Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Deepens Commercial Relationship With Al Jazeera, TechCrunch
• YouTube: The Big Copyright Lie, Coding Horror
• Video Search Blinkx Meets Meta-Search Engine Ixquick, Search Engine Journal
• Yahoo’s Ian Rogers To Music Industry: "Inconvenience Doesn’t Scale", TechCrunch

Web Analytics

• Feedburner Bug, Or We More Than Doubled Our RSS Subscribers, TechCrunch
• Urchin Fans are Getting Impatient with Google, PC World

Other Items

• Google Rubik’s Cube, Googlified
• Bosworth Re-Appears, John Battelle’s Searchblog
• IAC’s Ask: Most Effective Ads Are TV Show Integrations, Silicon Alley Insider

Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Want Some Links & Buzz? Go Green
• Six Strategies for Building Viral Content
• Is Outing SEO’s Unethical or The By-Product of Yellow Shoes?
• Matt Cutts Interviewed by Eric Enge
• Let’s focus on something positive – say something nice about an SEO professional or recent SEM news article
• Should Designers Know SEO?
• How I reversed my Google ranking penalty :: David Airey
• SEO industry has a bad rep – SO WHAT?
• I Was Diagnosed With Stage 3B Lymphoma..
• Yes, Virginia, Google Will Hurt Your Site For Selling Links
• Dancing With The Gevil – Defamed By Google?
• Exposed! Sphinn, Live, Yahoo, Digg, Seomoz, even Google: All Buying Links From fantomaster! ::
• If you want to be a part of the SEO industry, ACT LIKE IT
• How to Build a Somewhat Successful Blog: 16 Lessons I Have Learned
• aimClear Interviews Todd Malicoat
• Rose Says Delete All Google AdWords Broad Match Keywords for Higher Profitability and Lower Risk
• Google PageRank Update This Weekend? Backlinks and PageRank Changes Reported
• We’re Saved! Rand Fishkin Gonna Tell Google How It Is!
• How to become disgustingly rich in SEO, by Neil Patel