SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 10, 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:

• Local Search Week!
  This week, we’re focusing on local search here at Search Engine Land. Why? Local search, along with its close cousin mobile search, promises to be the next “big opportunity” for interactive marketers. The consensus prediction is for $8 billion in ad spending by 2010 targeted toward local searchers. It’s also…
• Ask City Adds Embed Map Feature
  Gary Price reports that Ask City has added an embed map feature. Now it is easy to post a map or various local business directly on your web site. For example, let’s say I want to meet up with a bunch of my friends at a local pizza shop. I…
• EU Says Searches For Bomb Making Should Be Blocked
  Web search for bomb recipes should be blocked: EU from Reuters reports Franco Frattini, European Union’s Justice and Security Commissioner would like all terrorist aiding searches to be blocked. Specifically searches for bomb-making instructions or other searches that aid in terrorism, he would like blocked. Frattini is expected to deliver…
• The Day The Links Died
  As hard as we work to attract, build and encourage new links to our content, many of us (like me) make silly mistakes that are often overlooked. In August of 1997 I wrote an article that compared and contrasted several press release distribution services. It was titled E-mail Press…
• Search Diary: Searching For Climbing Holds
  As readers of my personal blog know, I’ve been building a tree house over the summer for my kids. It’s about to come out of beta, with me needing to add some climbing holds to one of the outer walls to largely finish it off. That means ordering some, and…
• Google Office Gains New Enterprise Credibility
  Capgemini Backs Google’s Software Push from the Associated Press covers how Paris-based tech and business consultancy CapGemini is going to start recommending and installing Google Apps on enterprise desktops, a move viewed as a big boost for Google’s “office” application aspirations. CapGemini also works with Microsoft and IBM and “influences…
• Australian Watchdog Has Day In Court Over Google “Selling Top Spot”
  Google’s ‘top spot for sale’ from News.com reports the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has had their day in court against Google. We reported earlier that Australian Watchdog Sues Google Over Deceptive Search Ads. ACCC wanted the hearing to be moved to a different jurisdiction. Justice Allsop heard ACCC’s…
• Microsoft Launches Windows Live Translator
  The LiveSide blog points to a blog post which shows Microsoft has launched Windows Live Translator Beta. You can translate from English to German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. It supports up to 500 characters and uses Systran, but can override the Systran source with…
• Google Jet Lands In NASA’s Moffett Field
  Valleywag reported that the Google Jet was spotted on the tarmac of Moffett Federal Airfield, owned and operated by NASA. Moffett Airfield is a very convenient location for Page and Sergey to land at, since it is the closest runway to Google’s headquarters. Can we expect Google to land the…
• Usage Data May Be Your Site’s Most Valuable Asset
  Some will proclaim that the most valuable asset for their web site is their: technology, merchandise, content, service, (fill in the blank), because without it, there is no there there. But the answer may actually be usage metrics. Without metrics, your stuff is there, but you are in the…
• Microsoft adCenter Offers Appealing Upgrade
  Microsoft upgraded the adCenter user interface early Saturday morning. Within each ad group, the Keywords tab now shows complete statistics and provides editable boxes so the user can change bids on that same screen. In previous versions of adCenter the keyword statistics were presented on one page, and editing happened…
• WSJ: After Considering It, Yahoo Declines To Outsource Paid Search Business To Google
  According to an article in the Wall Street Journal today, discussing the “no sacred cows” pledge by Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, the company actively considered — and decided against — what some institutional shareholders are calling for: outsourcing its paid search advertising business to Google (or Microsoft)….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Top 10 little-known Gmail features (Part 2), Official Gmail Blog
• Google Docs Mobile Coming?, Googlified

Business Issues

• Vancouver man’s lawsuit against Yahoo! dismissed, CBC
• Eric Schmidt in German Tabloid, Google Blogoscoped

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Helps in Search for Aviator, New York Times
• Greener maps, Google LatLong
• Google Reader Mobile Improved, InsideGoogle
• Eric Enge and Gary Price talk about Mobile Search, Stone Temple

Link Building

• Google Loves Transparent Links, Search Engine Journal
• I, For One, Welcome Our New SEO Overlords, SEO Fast Start

Paid Search & Contextual

• Allowed and clear, Inside AdSense
• Instant Adsense Graphs With GraphSense, ProBlogger
• adCenter Feature Review: new home page, improved keyword performance tab, and geo-targeting integration with Microsoft Virtual Earth, adCenter Blog

Searching

• Creating Google Custom Search Engines, ONLamp.com
• Google News Adds Barely 100 Comments in 30 Days, Micro Persuasion
• Google’s director of research talks AI, News.com
• How To Search, Vanessa Fox
• Is Google Testing Grouping Results by Category?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Tips for Google Reader Search, Google Operating System
• Updated Google Time Onebox, Google Blogoscoped
• The Wisdom of Search Crowds: Google Research on Datamining Queries, SEO By The Sea
• Google Hot Trends Has a Feed, Google Operating System
• Live Search 2.0 discussions continue, LiveSide

SEM Industry

• Learn How to Get Your Blog Ranking High in Search Engines – An Interview with Aaron Wall, ProBlogger
• More SEO Tips from Aaron Wall, ProBlogger
• Retiring the Guerrilla, Greg Boser
• 7 Useful Webmaster Tools Google Stole From You, SEO Book
• SEOS : The Card Counters of the Internet, John Andrews
• Future of SEOmoz, Search Engine Journal
• Microsoft holds Search PR event on September 26th to announce Search 2.0, LiveSide

SEO & SEM

• Website Creation and the Eye of the Spider, Search Engine Guide
• Complete Blog Optimization Guidelines, Closed Loop Marketing
• Bodog’s Battle of the Brand, Greg Boser
• Google Book Search Results Defy Clustering, Quantity Precedent, SEO Speedwagon
• Why Mashups are Mandatory for Marketers, Jonathan Mendez’s Blog
• September ‘07 Yahoo Search Update?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo! Search Blog: Come and Explore your Site…, Yahoo Search Blog
• How to Make SEO Work for You, BusinessWeek
• Marketers prepare for %u2018blended search’, BtoB Magazine

Social Media

• 5 Reasons Why the New Digg Interface Rocks, SEOCO Blog
• Web 2.0 & SEO: Must We Piss In Every Public Fountain?, SEO Fast Start
• Analysis: Top 100 Digg Users, ViperChill
• Leveraging Facebook Groups, Search Engine Guide
• 3 Ways to Get Screwed by Social Media Marketing, SEO Book
• Brawl Over Islam on Facebook, New York Times

Web Analytics

• Google Checkout Lost Nine Days Of Tracking Data, InsideGoogle
• The Analytics Project is Complete – Tons of Cool Data, SEOmoz

Other Items

• Doodle: Independence Day of Brazil and Rugby, Googlified
• Giving buyers more insight into Checkout orders, Official Google Checkout Blog
• iGoogle Tab for the Rugby World Cup, Google Operating System
• Pavarotti and Brazil Independence Google Doodles, InsideGoogle
• Should Google Sponsor Giant Radio Telescopes?, Wired

Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News

• Blogs ‘Gone Wild!’: Optimization Strategies to Ensure Yours is ‘Of Age’
• SEO Turns to Domaining: An Interview with Todd Mintz
• Is reddit banning sites for no good reason?
• Google Loves Transparent Links & Hit Counter Spam
• 25 Signals of Credibility for Marketing Agencies
• Google Writes A Bad Check!
• Analysis: Top 100 Digg Users
• Is Your Blog Dying?
• How to code categorized sitemaps and topical mini-hubs with WordPress
• Google As Vegas Casino: What Professional Blackjack Players Can Teach You About SEO
• 45 Working Sites to Quickly Submit Your RSS Feeds
• 10 unusual places to drop your URL
• Sphinn Assassinated by SpamAssassin
•  12 Surefire Steps to Make a Big Splash in the Blogging Toilet
• Link Building, Make Money Online Blogs and Wordpress
• Proof that Google does, in fact, own Feedburner! (and related ranting)
• The Amazing success of Jim Westergren and what he did next.
• Matt would like to take you Google Bowling 2.0 style!
• Matt Cutts: Don’t Expect PageRank Update Any Soon
• Alexa.com Speaks: How to Boost Your Alexa Rank
• Web 2.0 & SEO: Must We Piss In Every Public Fountain?
• Is counting cards in the Google casino unethical?
• Using Wordpress as a Content Management System
• 7 Useful Webmaster Tools Google Stole From You : SEO Book.com
• Bloggers, Would You Please Use Spellcheck?
• Marissa Mayer Thought Ads in GMail were Weird and Creepy
• Mike Grehan talks about Universal & the Future of Search
• Compare People Facebook App Pulls a Bait and Switch?
• 7 Abandoned Link Bait Titles from My Idea Pad
• Interview of Debra Mastaler, the Link Guru
• Google pushing US legislation in paid links fiasco
• How viral marketing could kill your Google presence
• Talk About True Dedication To SEO
• How to Become a Top StumbleUpon User (or Why You Really Shouldn’t Even Bother)
• Netscape is closing down social news. Really this time.
• How good blog designs influence RSS readership base
• “There Are No Secrets” and other SEO Myths
• Aaron Wall is put on the hot seat by Problogger and forced to give up the juice
• Dynamic Linking & Nofollow – Practical Examples, Diagrams, + FAQs