SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 23, 2010

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Santa Pegman Comes To Google Maps

  “Pegman” is the little icon in Google Maps that you can drag to enable the Google Street View feature. Tomorrow, he’s getting into the Christmas spirit by becoming “Santa Pegman” and sporting a Santa Claus hat. Google’s sent a few preview pictures of how Santa Pegman will appear beginning tomorrow at 2am Eastern time through […]

• The Secret Life Of The Black Hat SEO

  The black hat SEO flies under the radar. He doesn’t want to attract too much attention — he knows attention brings bad things. Essentially he lives in the shadows. He doesn’t speak at conferences. He doesn’t publish articles. He hangs out with other black hats at conferences and road trips. An affiliate-oriented conference like Pubcon […]

• Google’s 2010 Holiday Logo: From St. Basil’s Cathedral To Chili Pepper

  Google has posted its 2010 Christmas holiday logo. It may be the best yet! A Holiday Card From Google by the Wall Street Journal has a detailed article on what went into the logo. Google reportedly started working on this logo back in July, spending 250 man hours between five different “doodle” designers to create […]

• PPC Academy Final Exam: Test Your Paid Search Knowledge

  Here we are. I hope your time here at PPC Academy was productive and you learned a lot because it’s now time for your final exam. Were you paying attention? Have you bloomed into a search marketing pro with the knowledge and skills to kick major PPC butt, or do you still have things to […]

• Programming Your DVR Made Easy: Google TV, Dish & The Logitech Revue

  Google TV has taken its share of lumps since it launched in October, but it shines bright in one particular aspect, making it simple for Dish Network subscribers to find shows and program their DVRs. Below, a look at Dish integration, as well as some hands-on with the Logitech Revue version of Google TV. Background […]

• Google’s Click-to-Call Growing Amid Booming Mobile Activity

  The number of advertisers using click-to-call features on Google ads has grown an average of 28 percent month-over-month over the last few months, the company confirmed. The 28 percent stat represents all of Google’s advertisers, in both search and display, around the globe. As first reported by GigaOm and confirmed by Search Engine Land, Google […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Facebook Passes Yahoo To Become Second Largest Traffic Source For Videos On Media Sites, TechCrunch

Business Issues

• Google In Talks With Next New Networks, AllThingsD
• Ex-Google exec’s venture firm to raise $100 million: source, Reuters

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Dashing through the snow… with NORAD and Google, Official Google Blog

SEO & SEM

• 7 Predictions for SEO in 2011, SEOmoz
• Content Strategy and the Dirty Lie about SEO, Online Marketing Blog
• Duplicate content penalty: Myth or fact?, Search Engine People
• Improving our help content: stocking stuffers in our Help Center, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Search Engine Optimization: 5 Keyword Research Tips, Bill Hartzer
• SEO for User Generated Content, Distilled blog
• Video Sitemaps & mRSS vs. Facebook Share & RDFa, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Social Media

• Is Myspace protecting user data?, Myspace

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

• About non-junky HTML title elements targeting humans, Google & Bing – In response to some horrible SEO advice in John Gruber’s article on "Junk Titles", Danny Sullivan sets the records straight. HTML title elements do count in search engine rankings. Actually, they are crucial.
• Why Your Smartphone Will Replace Your Wallet Soon #NFC – Big players in multiple industries have made strides toward putting virtual wallets on consumers’ mobile phones. Mashable elaborates how some of them have been approaching the opportunity to transform the way we make purchases.