SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 8, 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:

• Obama Praises Twitter, Google & Facebook — But Not Microsoft’s Xbox
  

  Does today’s speech from President Barack Obama to school children across the United States need any more controversy? Having listened to it, I personally can’t see many parents objecting. But I could see one tech company not happy: Microsoft. Competitors like Google got called out as “good” things to aspire to while a Microsoft’s Xbox [...]

• How & When To Outsource Search Marketing: Free Webcast Thursday
  

  If you’re thinking about hiring a PPC agency or SEO firm, or looking to outsource all your search engine marketing, there are many factors to consider. This Thursday at 1 PM EDT, I’ll go over the pros and cons of hiring an outside firm in a webcast “When to Outsource Your Search Engine Marketing: Making [...]

• “Foreign” No Longer Means Under The SEO Radar
  

  118 billion words are translated every year by translators and many end up on web sites. Not surprisingly, SEO is becoming of much greater interest to translation professionals—and rightly so.

• Coming Soon: Paid Search Without Keywords
  

  Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about search without keywords. Recently, the topic came up again at SES San Jose in a keynote presentation from Nick Fox, Google’s business product management director for AdWords. In the presentation, Nick outlined where paid search could be in the next 5 to 10 years and covered two [...]

• Flickr Now Has An iPhone App
  

  This morning, TechCrunch reported that Flickr’s iPhone app has finally made it to the iTunes Store. It is free and can be downloaded by clicking here. I gave the app a quick go, and I really think it was done exceptionally well. Here is a walk through, screen by screen. The app icon is plain [...]

• Hasbro To Create “Monopoly City Streets” Game Using Google Maps
  

  TechCrunch reports Hasbro company, the company behind many board games, including Monopoly, is making a new Monopoly game at MonopolyCityStreets.com. The game is expected to launch tomorrow, September 9th and use the Google Maps API. The site explains: On the 9th SEPTEMBER, a world of property empire building on an unimaginable scale will be [...]

• Brad Garlinghouse To Run AOL’s Email, IM & Venture Units From West Coast
  

  Brad Garlinghouse, who was previously an SVP at Yahoo, and the author of the now famous “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” is joining AOL as president of Internet and Mobile communications. What this means is that he’ll be responsibile for email, IM and other communications tools, which implicates a range of properties including Bebo. According to the press [...]

• A Look At The Travel Industry On Twitter
  

  When working with different clients on social media related projects, one of the interesting aspects to look at is whether or not their industry embraced Twitter, and how well are the industry as a whole is using it. In some cases there is little to no engagement, in other cases the industry has embraced the [...]

• Elephants In The Link Building Living Room
  

  The Wikipedia entry for “Elephant in the room” reads that it is an English idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. It is based on the idea that an elephant in a room would be impossible to overlook; thus, people in the room who pretend the elephant is not there [...]

• Multinational Search: New Column From Search Engine Land
  

  Our newest Search Engine Land column, Multinational Search, launches today. Multinational Search looks at the complex challenges of search marketing in multiple countries and languages. Columnists focus both on the technical complexities of creating and managing a campaign spread across the world, and also at the cultural issues that arise when trying to appeal [...]

• SMX East Rate Increases Friday; Register Now & Save
  

  The early bird rate for Search Marketing Expo – SMX East runs out at the end of the day on Friday, Sept 11. Save on your All Access ticket by registering now! More than 150 of the world’s most knowledgable internet and search engine marketers will present at SMX East. They’re selected based on ability [...]

• Google Gives Some Ground In Books Row, France Moves To Protect “Orphans”
  

  Google reportedly made a number of concessions to European officials concerned about the European implications of the Google Books Search settlement deal. The company is fighting on both sides of the Atlantic to gain regulatory and judicial acceptance of the deal previously announced, which has been criticized by a number of self-interested parties and legal [...]

• Happy Labor Day ‘09
  

  Happy Labor Day Search Engine Land readers! Due to the U.S. holiday, we will likely have limited coverage here today. Go out and enjoy the unofficial last day of summer! If you are stuck at work, like me, here are some logos from the search industry to hopefully brighten your day. [...]

• Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Sells $2 Million YHOO Shares
  

  Investors unhappy as Yahoo boss Bartz earns $2m from share sales from the Guardian reports that Yahoo’s CEO sold $2 million worth of shares since March of this year. Clearly, Yahoo investors are not happy that the CEO would make such a significant sale when the company continues to struggle to find its place. The [...]

• SEO “Best Practices” Are Bunk
  

  On this, my maiden voyage as a columnist here at Search Engine Land, I’m going to rant about the empty buzzphrase “best practice.” Nothing like a little rant to get things started, right? This column is called Industrial Strength, with topics centered on search and social media marketing in the enterprise. While “best practice” talk is [...]

• Are You A Member Of The Twitter Chamber Of Commerce?
  

  Twitter is a great tool for local businesses to raise their visibility among potential customers in their area. Here’s how.

• Today’s Google “Unexplained Phenomenon” Flying Saucer Logo
  

  Aliens in a flying saucer have abducted one of the Os out of the Google logo today. Normally when there are special Google logos like this, the holiday or special occasion is pretty clear. But this one is a stumper. What’s it for? I’m trying to find out more. Clicking on the logo brings up search [...]

• Yahoo Neighbors Adds Community Conversation To Local Search
  

  After a trial run in four markets, Yahoo has just launched Neighbors nationwide. Neighbors is an interesting and potentially very strong addition to Yahoo Local’s offerings. It’s been around since November 2007, when it debuted in two California markets. More recently, it’s been available in the San Francisco area, New York, Chicago, and Dallas. There’s [...]

• How To Avoid Getting Your Search Rankings Trashed By Malware
  

  As if SEOs don’t have enough things to worry about already, add malware to the list. Why does malware matter to SEOs? If the site you are working on gets infected, its search traffic will plummet. Search engines attempt to remove infected pages from their search results, or they label them with an ominous warning, [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Wave: 5 Ways It Could Change the Web, mashable.com

Business Issues

• Google bigotry, BuzzMachine
• Google Book Privacy Policy: Good Start, Much More Needed, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Co-founder departs Google-backed biotech 23andMe , Charleston Daily Mail
• Ex-Google China chief to fund Chinese tech start-ups, Reuters
• BT and Google join forces to offer AdWords support to small businesses, TechCrunch
• What Now? Q&A with Ex-Google China Chief Kai-Fu Lee, peHUB
• Why I’m worried about Google Books, Econsultancy
• Antitrust Lawyer Slams Google Book Pact, Wall Street Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Japan fights concerns about Street View, Examiner.com
• Find Local Rideshares Quickly via Mobile Phone, Physorg.com
• Mobile search coming to BBC mobile, Search Cowboys
• Finance, Fantasy Football and Flickr go mobile with a vengeance, Yodel Anecdotal

Link Building

• The crucial steps for creating laser-targeted link bait pieces, Site Visibility
• Link Buying Risks vs Rewards – SEO FAQ, seoroi.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• AdsBot-Google: Tracking AdWords Landing Page Quality Score Bot, Apogee Weblog
• 3 Broken Link Checkers Reviewed and Compared, Search Engine Journal
• Managing Successful PPC Campaigns is a Science and an Art Form, PPC Hero

Searching

• Picture the Impossible (with RIT, Democrat and Chronicle and Bing)!, Bing Search Blog
• Technorati now hiring bloggers (and biting the hand that feeds them?), thenextweb.com
• Are Dictionaries Obsolete in Age of Google?, Wall Street Journal
• Google’s New Settings Drop Down, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google’s Top Navigation Goes Missing Over Weekend, Search Engine Roundtable

SEM Industry

• Google AdWords Advertisers Threatens Suicide To Get Google’s Attention, It Worked, Search Engine Roundtable
• Sneak Preview of London PRO Training Seminar, SEOmoz

SEO & SEM

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: September 4, 2009, Search Engine Roundtable
• Why is a mortgage site Google? Hijjack or mistake?, Search Cowboys
• 9 Ways of Optimizing your Site for Image Search, Pandia
• 10 Practical Actionable SEO Tips To Boost Your Website Visibility, Natural Search Blog
• Evaluating long tail opportunities, BlogStorm
• How Much Can an SEO Company Really Help You?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How To Integrate SEO Into Your Business, SEOmoz
• Measuring Real Value from SEO, Online Marketing Blog
• The Virtual SEO Office, SEO Book
• 75% of SEOs Feel Google Loves Keywords in the URL, Search Engine Roundtable
• Gio Compario campaign by Go Compare taken over by SEO blogs, BlogStorm
• Google reacting slowly to changes, David Naylor
• Google Sitemaps Bug? "Sitemap appears to be an HTML page", Search Engine Roundtable
• Linking Issues: Why a Trailing Slash in the URL Does Matter, Search Engine Journal
• Q&A: Matthew Don on Flash and SEO, Econsultancy
• UK & Ireland Geo Targeting in Google Need Unique Content, Search Engine Roundtable
• 5 SEO Pitfalls to Avoid, Online Marketing Blog
• How are spam reports prioritized?, YouTube
• How Tribune Co. plans to rid itself of SEO-killing duplicate content, Nieman Journalism Lab

Social Media

• Traveling on Social Media’s Dime, 10e20
• AIM Now Goes Both Ways (With Twitter And Facebook), TechCrunch
• How Twitter Could Lose The Game By Design, Andrew Baron
• Twitter as a Job-Searching Tool, Wall Street Journal

Web Analytics

• Keep it Complicated, Rimm Kaufman

Other Items

• Google’s gourmet embarrassed on ‘Top Chef’, CNET News