SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 16, 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 Lets You Tell Them Which URL Parameters To Ignore
  

  A new feature has appeared in the Site Configuration Settings Sections of Google Webmaster Tools. The setting, called Parameter Handling, enables site owners to specify up to 15 parameters that Google should ignore when crawling and indexing the site. Google lists the parameters they’ve found in the URLs on your site, and indicates whether or not [...]

• 7 Touch Points For In-House SEO Success
  

  The goal here today is not to cover every single point in an internal SEO plan, but to provide you a reasonable framework to work from. Using these points and fine tuning to your unique situation, will help you create a detailed plan which will be successful. Domain expertise No program will function without domain expertise. There, [...]

• Google Acquires reCAPTCHA To Improve OCR & Rumors Of Brightcove Acquisition
  

  The big news is that Google has officially acquired reCAPTCHA. reCAPTCHA are those funny looking letters you see when you fill out forms, asking you to enter in the letters into a box, in order for you to validate that you are indeed a human. Why did Google buy them? Not for [...]

• Yahoo Search Engineers, Google Wants To Hire You
  

  Matt Cutts of Google has blogged that Google is willing to hire Yahoo Search engineers. Matt said, “if you’re an excellent Yahoo engineer with solid experience in search, Google is hiring.” Clearly, since the Microsoft & Yahoo deal, engineers at Yahoo might be a bit concerned about their job stability. Ask.com ran [...]

• A Services “Open Table,” RedBeacon Wins TC50’s Top Prize
  

  Startup RedBeacon, a self-described “Open Table for service businesses,” has won TechCrunch 50’s top prize and $50,000. I wasn’t at TC50 but I watched the demo pitch on video. RedBeacon is the just the latest startup to take aim at the massive local services segment. The demo was elegant and the theory behind the site [...]

• Search, Video & Your Brand: Hello YouTube!
  

  I often write about what you can do to protect your brands when it comes to the major search engines: Google, Yahoo and Bing. But did you know that the second most popular search engine today is YouTube? (according to Hitwise, ranking ahead of Yahoo search). You can buy self-service advertising on [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Translator battles: Bing edges forward, Google pulls ahead, Ars Technica
• Google’s Virtual Language Keyboard Doesn’t Work With Prototype JavaScript Library, RustyBrick Blog
• Our Craigslist, Subtraction.com

Business Issues

• Another AOL Org Chart Shuffle: COO Partoll, Search Boss Kannapell Out, AllThingsD
• Alibaba Turns 10 – Aims To Create 100 Million Jobs, Employ 10 Million People, TechCrunch
• All Quiet at Google’s Oklahoma Data Center, Data Center Knowledge
• AOL Tosses Out COO Partoll, Search And Local Head Kannapel, paidContent.org
• Baidu CEO reveals strategies to thrive during financial crisis, news.xinhuanet.com
• Carol Bartz is friggin’ interesting, Fortune
• EU in informal talks on Microsoft, Yahoo deal – source, Reuters
• GOOG, YHOO, MSFT : Search Stocks Gaining on the Rebound, Search Engine Journal
• SEC Watch: The Story Of Google’s Offer For On2, paidContent.org
• Twitter Closing New Venture Round At $1 Billion Valuation, TechCrunch

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdWords Bidding Tutorial, YouTube
• New AdWords Bidding Tutorial, Inside AdWords

Searching

• Get Your Questions Ready for Stephen Wolfram’s Live Webcast, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEM Industry

• Timeline of Search Engine History, Search Engine Journal
• Tip: Don’t Spam Official Search Engine Forums, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Duplicate content and multiple site issues, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Keyword Research and SEO Expectations Featured in SEO Newsletter, BruceClay.com
• Should I use pipes or dashes in my titles?, YouTube
• 8 Ways to Target Keywords for Ranking and Usability, 10e20
• 87% Won’t Allow Google To Manage Their AdWords Accounts, Search Engine Roundtable
• Connecting Search to Social Networks, Search Engine People
• Crawling & Indexing – It’s Not as Simple as Just In or Out, SEOmoz
• Google, How Are "Business Web Design" & "Semi Repair" Related Keywords?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Google Treats Affiliates In Web Search?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to be an Excel Ninja (and how it helps your SEO), Distilled blog
• SEO Dilemma: How to Get Rid of Hundreds of Short-Term Pages, Search Engine Journal
• Wordpress SEO: How to Use RSS and Scrapers to Build Links, Michael Gray

Social Media

• 5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook, Read/Write Web
• Can You Trust Crowd Wisdom?, Technology Review
• How exactly is Facebook making money?, The Guardian
• MySpace Music Rolls Out A Sleek, More Interactive Homepage, TechCrunch
• Second Life Sued For Allowing Sale Of Impostor Virtual Goods, MediaPost
• Sound Index: Charts for the People, By the People, Communications of the ACM

Web Analytics

• Will Microsoft Make A Bid For Omniture?, paidContent.org

Other Items

• Cablevision to Launch Clickable TV Ads, newteevee.com
• Why doesn’t google.com validate?, YouTube