SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 18, 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: Facebook’s Focus Is Friend Search; Bing ‘Sort Of’ Adds Value When it comes to search, Facebook’s focus was, is, and apparently always will be on the idea of “friend search.” That’s […]

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

From Search Engine Land:

  • Facebook’s Focus Is Friend Search; Bing ‘Sort Of’ Adds Value

    When it comes to search, Facebook’s focus was, is, and apparently always will be on the idea of “friend search.” That’s the main conclusion you draw from reading paidContent’s interview with Akhil Wable, the man leading Facebook’s search product.
    Friend search is becoming a core part of the social web experience, and it’s an area where […]

  • Google News Labels Some Sources As “Blogs”

    The Google News blog announced that they have begun labeling some sites, sites they consider to be a “blog” as blogs in the Google News search results. For example, here is a snap shot of how Google labels this site in Google News.

    How does Google determine which site is a blog versus a newspaper? […]

  • Wikipedia As A Website Usability Role Model

    For all its faults, Wikipedia has a lot to teach us about usability. Here are three things that Wikipedia does right that I think websites should emulate to better engage users, boost time on site, and hopefully lead to more conversions.
    Summary sections
    Wikipedia offers summaries at the top of its feature-length articles. While I haven’t got […]

  • DOJ To Drop Hammer On Google Book Search Settlement?

    Friday could be an important day in the ongoing battle over the Google Book Search settlement. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US Department of Justice is expected to announce its concerns over the proposed $125 million settlement of the lawsuit over Google’s scanning of copyrighted books and making them available online.
    The DOJ formally […]

  • Google Formally Announces New DoubleClick Ad Exchange

    DoubleClick’s advertising exchange has been in the works since at least 2007 and before Google acquired the company. But this morning Google is formally announcing the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange, which reflects a milestone of technology and platform integration between Google and its DoubleClick unit.
    Google sees this an an opportunity to attract more display and brand […]

  • Search In Pictures: Bing Soda, Taxi & Beer, Yahoo’s Team & Google’s Flutebox

    In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
    Bing Soda Can:

    Bing Taxi:

    Bing Beer:

    Yahoo Search Team:

    Yahoo in Hungary?:

    Nathan “Flutebox” Lee and Beardyman @ Google, London:

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

Web Analytics

Other Items


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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