SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 8, 2008

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

From Search Engine Land:

• SMX East ‘08 Day Three Live Coverage

  Below is live coverage from day three of the 2008 Search Marketing Expo East conference. To be honest, I have to push this out early, so make sure to check out the Bruce Clay Blog for additional live coverage throughout the day. A Day In The Life Of A Successful In-House SEO, Search Engine Roundtable Advanced [...]

• Tracking Offline Conversions in Paid Search

  Despite the black blindfold tightly cinched around my head, I desperately tried to see through it and giggled with anticipation. But then they began to spin me. Dizzy with excitement and determined to take my best shot, I lunged forward. Amid the howls of laughter erupting from my friends huddled around me, I anxiously tore [...]

• Google Releases AdWords Editor 6.5

  Google announced the release of version 6.5 of the AdWords Editor. It was only about four months ago when AdWords released version 6.0. Here is a detailed list of new features for 6.5, as per the release notes: Keyword Opportunities (Beta) The Keyword Opportunities tool can help you generate new keywords. Go to the Tools menu > [...]

• Yahoo Upgrades Calendar, Integrates With Other Yahoo Properties

  Yahoo! Calendar, one of the company’s early “Web 1.0″ properties, is getting a major facelift for the first time in 10 years. Yahoo announced details of the new Yahoo! Calendar beta today, which uses technology from their 2007 purchase of Zimbra. In addition to improving integration with Yahoo! Mail, the new calendar will be more compatible [...]

• In-House Search Analysis: Who and When

  Numbers don’t lie. For in-house search marketers analysis is critical for reporting performance, identifying trouble spots, and finding your next great opportunity. If you hire an agency or consultant to help with your search marketing, the numbers reflect success of that agency’s work, and can tell you ultimately if the agency is worth what they [...]

• Online Ad Revenues Up Vs. 2007, Down Vs. Q2; Search A Relative Bright Spot

  Overall online ad spending in the US was up almost 13 percent compared with Q2 2007, but down slightly (0.3 percent) from Q1 2008. Online ad revenues for the second quarter were $5.7 billion, compared with $5.8 billion in Q1. Revenues were $11.5 billion for the first six months of 2008 vs. approximately $10 billion [...]

• Google AdSense For Games Beta

  Google has announced the beta launch of Google AdSense for Games. Basically, with the acquisition of AdScape, Google is now able to place ads within online games. The ad formats include video ads, image ads, or text ads. How do you sign up for the beta? You need to complete this form and the [...]

• Wikia Search Releases Third Party Search Enhancement Platform

  Wikia Search, the “open source” search engine that launched to great fanfare earlier in the year, has introduced a new platform (Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions or “WISE”) that allows third parties to provide an enhanced search result—known as a “WISEApp”—for specific keywords. WISEApps allow publishers or searchers to enhance search results, in a similar way to [...]

• Personalize Your Link Building

  The ethnographic method is an approach of studying a person or group of people by participating in the culture of interest while still remaining a bit of an outsider. At its core is the focus on cultural relativism, which is seeing something through the eyes of the involved. Thus, to get to know someone or [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• German NPD Party in Google News, Google Blogoscoped

Business Issues

• Google cancels ski trip to focus on Nasdaq slopes, Valleywag

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Adding another dimension to your city, Google LatLong
• Google Maps: One (data) Ring to Rule Them All, Mike Blumenthal
• Google on Android: Maps, Official Google Mobile Blog
• What’s New With Google Maps for Mobile?, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• 10 Tips for Doing Link Development Research, SEO Speedwagon
• How to Use Comparative Knowledge of Links , SEOmoz
• Link Building for Website Traffic, Link Building Best Practices
• SEO Link Building Fundamentals, Search Engine Watch
• Want To Rank Well? Provide Really Poor Customer Service, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• Clickjacking Details ha.ckers.org web application security lab, ha.ckers.org
• Federated Media Revamps Self-Service Ad Platform, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Paid Search Briefing – October 2008, E-Consultancy

Searching

• Google Health: Do a Google Search And Call Me in The Morning…, Read/Write Web
• Google Health: Is It Good For You?, Diabetes Mine
• Google Russia Classifieds Search, Google Blogoscoped
• What is The Future of Human Powered Search?, Read/Write Web

SEM Industry

• Melanie Phung: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop

SEO & SEM

• Search Engine Optimization Basics Tips – Crawler Friendly Web Sites, Online Marketing Blog
• 14 Tools to Legally Spy On Your Competition, Grokdotcom.com
• Is PageRank the Ultimate Measure of Online Influence?, Vanessa Fox
• Page Rank is the Ultimate Measure of Online Influence, Micro Persuasion
• PageRank Checker Bookmarklet, Google Blogoscoped
• Social Interaction & Advertising Are The Modern Day Search Engine Submission & Link Building, SEO Book
• Stop In-House SEO Disasters Now!, Search Engine Watch
• Two Alleged SEO Spam Tricks, Google Blogoscoped

Social Media

• Twitter Search Showing Phantom "What A Day" Tweets, TechCrunch
• Why Facebook is foundering, Valleywag
• Why Social Media Outreach is the Key to Marketing in a Recession, Search Engine Guide

Video, Music & Image Search

• How to Search Images Online – Most Advanced Methods, Search Engine Journal
• Machine Translation and Speech Recognition at Google, Google Operating System

Other Items

• The Presidential debate: Expanding the town hall, Official Google Blog

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Link Building 101: How to Evaluate the Power of Directories
• Google social profiling for online networks
• SEO, Small Business Websites & Downtrepreneurs
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• 10 Epic Website Failures