SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 30, 2011

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Confirmed: Google Panda 2.4 Update Arrived This Week

  Google has confirmed that the latest iteration of its Panda algorithm update is live. Based on our tracking of the algo changes, this is update 2.4. Google declined to share any specifics about what types of sites, pages or content this update targeted, instead only sharing the company’s default statement: We’re continuing to iterate on […]
• Google Shows “Helicopter View” Of Routing On Maps

  Google will now allow you to take a virtual aerial trip in Google Maps/Earth along a contemplated route. They’ve informally called it “helicopter view.” It’s a pretty cool feature, although perhaps not as “useful” as traffic information. You plot a route (“Get Directions”) between two points and click a button and the animation takes over. […]

• Event Tracking 101 For Google Analytics

  Setting up Analytics accounts has evolved beyond installing “generated” scripts on pages and calling it a day. What started with the advent of software that told us how many “hits” we got a day has evolved into a sophisticated decision assistance engine, and keeping up on the new and cutting edge offers full time employment […]

• Yahoo Favors Its Own Download Site, Then Offers Yahoo Toolbar Download, Too

  While the US government accuses Google of, in part, favoring its own properties in search results, Yahoo appears to be doing the same thing on download-related searches. And, in the process of offering downloads of popular software, Yahoo is also offering searchers additional downloads including the Yahoo Toolbar. This was first spotted by GFI Labs, […]

• Chromezone: Google Opens A Retail Store In London

  Years from now, when we’re comparing the number of Google, Apple and Microsoft branded stores around the world, let’s remember that, for Google, it all began in late September 2011 with a small retail mini-store in London. According to the Evening Standard, Google’s mini-store is called “Chromezone” and is located inside a PC World store. […]

• The Technology Behind Autobidding: Q&A With OptiMine’s Dr. Rob Cooley

  Autobidders. Every SEM management tool has one. The promise is powerful: simply input the performance you’re trying to achieve and sit back, have a sody-pop, and smile as the little robots make your job easy. Ha! If it was only that easy! Most of you reading this post have used one in the past. Have […]

• What Is The Key To Effective SEO Elevator Pitches?

  If you only had 30 seconds to explain search engine optimization (SEO) to others, how would you do it? Would your explanation be different for user experience professionals? Here’s how I explain it.

• Facebook “Frictionless Sharing” Creating Friction With Privacy Advocates, Regulators

  Mark Zuckerberg at F8, the Facebook developer conference held last week, exhorted people to “tell their life story” on Facebook via its new Timeline feature. Facebook also promoted new Open Graph apps integration and so-called “frictionless sharing.” But frictionless sharing is already creating a great deal of friction for Facebook in privacy circles and with […]

• Google Adds “Site Health” To Webmaster Tools Home Page

  Saying that it wants to help website owners prioritize their work, Google has added a new “site health” view to the Webmaster Tools home page. The next time you visit Webmaster Tools, Google will show the sites in your account sorted with those in need of work at the top. Here’s a screenshot of Google’s […]

• Google+ Source Code Reveals Potential Quora-Killer “Google Experts,” Google Voice Integration & More

  A recent post from developer Matt Mastracci uncovered a variety of potential features from the Google+ source code. He stumbled upon these findings when scanning code looking for early access to the circle sharing feature. Here are some of the items he found: Google+ Wall One of the smaller features that Matt found was the existence of […]

• Google Maps Sports New Look & Feel

  Don’t be alarmed the next time you use Google Maps: Yes, pretty much everything looks just a little bit different than it did yesterday. There’s not a single, major change; instead, almost all of the individual pieces of the Google Maps interface have been updated: the red marker pins, the navigation controls, the Satellite/Earth/Traffic/etc. widget […]

• Google: No Longer Guessing About Celebrity Sexual Orientation

  Wondering if some celebrity is Gay, Lesbian, Straight or Bisexual? Plenty of people do and turn to Google to find out. But the search engine just stopped offering direct answers about these questions, after they became more noticeable. Google’s “Best Guess” About Sexual Orientations Here’s an example of one of the answers that were being shown, […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Chrome poised to take No. 2 browser spot from Firefox, www.computerworld.com
• Google News launches redesign in UK and India, googlenewsblog.blogspot.com
• Firefox 8 beta brings Twitter search, tab controls, news.cnet.com

Business Issues

• Google claims revenue growth in China despite relatively low market share, www.zdnet.com
• Googler Builds Site That Shows You What Top Tech Companies Pay, TechCrunch
• Timelines.com Sues Facebook, Says Its New Timeline Feature Could “Eliminate” Them, TechCrunch

Link Building

• Infographic Link Building with StumbleUpon Paid Discovery, Search Engine Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• OnTheFly™ 1.2 for Android just made it easier to plan your trip, googlemobile.blogspot.com

Other Items

• August 2011 – Top US Web Brands, blog.nielsen.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Be a Beta Tester for the Microsoft Advertising adCenter Mobile App!, community.microsoftadvertising.com
• Filtering ‘bad’ traffic: get beyond good and evil, blog.traffick.com
• Paid Search Conversion by Position, Rimm Kaufman
• Whaddya’know Wednesdays: The Top 5 Goals For E-Commerce PPC Landing Pages, PPC Hero

Searching

• About.com Announces Key Findings of "Three Mindsets of Search" Study, MarketWatch
• Bing Unleashing Tiger to Speed Search Results, Search Engine Watch
• Google Stores The Images You Upload To Search By Image, Search Engine Roundtable
• No joke: Google promotes Will.i.Am’s Google+ profile on its search page, VentureBeat

SEM Industry

• Crushing Barriers to Launching an SEO Firm — Part 2: Experience, Search Engine Journal

SEO & SEM

• How to Choose a Domain Name with SEO in Mind. Part 1: Brand vs Keywords, www.link-assistant.com
• SEO For International Domains – 5 Tips, Online Marketing Blog
• Title Tags – Is 70 Characters the Best Practice? – Whiteboard Friday, SEOmoz

Social Media

• AOL Is Building A MapQuest Social Network Called mqVibe, Read/Write Web
• AVOS’ Delicious Disaster: Lessons from a Complete Failure, www.zdnet.com
• 8 Ideas for Producing Engaging Content for the New Facebook, www.riseinteractive.com
• MORE CHANGES!? Facebook Refines Appearance, www.allfacebook.com
• What Brands and Marketers Should Pay Attention To on the New Facebook, socialmediatoday.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Clearing up some policy myths, YouTube Blog

Web Analytics

• How to Use Google Analytics Advanced-Segments for SEO, www.myseosoftware.com
• Review of Google’s Real-Time Analytics, www.distilled.net

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

• Paid Search Conversion by Position – It’s been a little over a month since Google added the {adposition} parameter to its ValueTrack capabilities and we were quick to implement it in order to see what insights we could gain from the ability to see the specific position of all individual ad clicks.
  Position data available previously was far less granular — about the best you could easily do was see the daily average position for each keyword in your program.  This view is still valuable, but it masks the variability in position an ad might see in any given day due to a number of factors including: broad matching, day-parting, quality score calculation at auction and other SERP personalization.
• Facebook's Timeline Will Impact Your Career – Timeline is going to change the way Facebook interacts with our professional lives. Here are the changes to watch for — and the ways you can make them work for you instead of against you
• Google Analytics Premium: Better Support & Goodbye Data Sampling – From Daniel Waisberg: "Google launched a paid version of Google Analytics that processes higher volumes of page views and provides additional support. The general feature set and user experience remain the fundamentally the same as the standard product. "
• Quality Scores are Underrated – Another fantastic atricle by one of the best in the industry on quality scores.
• Social media attribution: friend or foe? – Social media attribution based on influence, actions, and interactions: friend or foe?
• Link Building vs. Link Attraction – I’m suggesting that you focus on link attraction rather than rely solely on link building. If you generate awesome content and then promote it, you’re going to attract natural links. In effect, if you develop really compelling material, links will follow as the content gets shared.