SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 19, 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:

• Dutch Agency Orders Google To Remove Data About Citizens’ WiFi Routers

  Dutch data officials have ordered Google to give the country’s residents a way to remove data that Google has about where their WiFi routers are located. It’s part of the ongoing dispute over Google’s collection of personal information via unencrypted wifi networks — something the company has said all along was accidental. According to the […]

• The Royal Wedding & What’s Hot In Searches On Google

  The Royal Wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton is about two weeks away, and interest continues to rise — including on Google. Below, a look at some wedding-related search activity. Wedding Terms Spiking On Google Google gave CNN Money a list of some top-rising terms that it deemed related to the wedding. Here’s a […]

• Automatic Algorithms Are Fundamentally Changing The Shape of SEO

  If search engines — such as Yandex in Russia — are generating their search query algorithms automatically using “machine learning,” does that mean we need a re-think of SEO practices? What is “machine learning” in this context and how does it work? Yandex may be a “regional” search engine, but they’re putting forward some challenging views of how search engines are developing and will develop in future!

• comScore: Apple’s iOS Reach Is “Double” Android’s

  Android has been outselling the iPhone for many months now, and it’s widely assumed that Android has all but eclipsed Apple in the market and among developers for mindshare. However today comScore released a more “holistic” look at iOS vs. Android that includes iPod Touch and iPad owners, which contradicts that conventional wisdom. When all […]

• How Viral Marketing Has The Potential To Promote Or Destroy Your Brand

  Everyone wants every piece of their content to go ‘viral’, whether that means a tweet is re-tweeted 500 times, a YouTube video has 2,000,000 views, or a blog post has 300 comments. Many companies believe that social media and online marketing isn’t “Worth it” if they aren’t getting high numbers. While this isn’t always the […]

• Groupon Signals Possible Future Plans With Pelago Buy

  Groupon’s purchase of Pelago, the parent company of Whrrl, offers an interesting glimpse into what the local daily deals powerhouse might be up to next. With the acquisition, which was for an undisclosed amount, Groupon gets a team that’s been focused on consumer check-ins at local businesses and offering relevant suggestions — similar to the […]

• Last Chance to Register for Search Engine Land’s SMX Toronto Conference – April 28-29

  Time is running out! Search Engine Land’s SMX Toronto conference begins next Thursday April 28th at the Sheraton Centre Hotel. Register now to reserve your place. A Full-Conference pass delivers 2 days of exceptional content and invaluable industry connections for only $1395. Or if you want a more intimate full-day workshop or training day, there […]

• Walmart Buys Former Search Engine Kosmix To Power Social And Mobile Shopping

  For those who follow search it was initially one of those “WTF moments”: Walmart acquiring erstwhile Google challenger Kosmix. However AllThingsD reports that the price was $300 million-plus vs. $55 million raised. So the founders and investors get a seemingly nice exit. Kosmix will now become part of the newly established “@WalmartLabs.” When it launched […]

• Microsoft’s Photosynth Gets Its Own iOS App

  Photosynth is one of the many cool-but-underpromoted-and-unknown aspects of the Bing Maps experience. That could change soon thanks to the launch this week of a Photosynth app for iOS devices. With the Photosynth app, users can create panoramic images inside the app — no additional stitching software required — and upload them directly into Bing […]

• Google Map Maker Now Open To US Users

  Google’s Map Maker has been available since 2008 and is now in more than 180 countries and regions all around the world. For the first time, that list includes the U.S. Google has just announced that Map Maker is (finally) open in the U.S. It’s a tool that lets citizen cartographers update or correct Google […]

• Google Still Delivering On April Fool’s Jokes (AKA, I Got My Finger Sweatbands)

  Do you remember this video from a few weeks ago? It was probably the funniest of Google’s myriad April Fool’s Day jokes. Part of the joke is actually real, as I found out Monday when my friendly mailman visited Casa McGee. Much to my surprise, and probably to the mailman’s curiosity, there was a non-descript […]

• Google To Distinguish Poor Landing Page Quality From Policy Violations

  Poor landing page quality scores have been a bit of a mystery for marketers using Google AdWords. A 1/10 score could mean the landing page was poor, by Google’s standards, or it could mean that it, or the site as a whole, somehow violated the company’s policies. Today, the company has introduced changes to help […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Undo certain Gmail actions in your mobile browser, googlemobile.blogspot.com

Business Issues

• Google Wi-Fi Judge Asks if Packet Sniffing Is Spying, Wired
• Twitter in Talks to Buy TweetDeck, Wall Street Journal
• Facebook to Ad Agencies: Let’s Be ‘in a Relationship’, Ad Age
• What’s keeping Google up at night?, Search Engine Guide

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Because ten cameras are better than one, blog.foursquare.com
• Google Places and The Rise of the Vending Machines, www.blueglass.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Bing’s Broad Match Problem, Rimm Kaufman
• Inside the adCenter Quality Score — Or Should We Call It Competitive Score?, www.clixmarketing.com
• PPC Consulting Q&A with Mona Elesseily, ppcblog.com

Searching

• Which News Sites Have the Most Keywords in Common with eHow? – SEMRush Competitor Analysis, www.adamsherk.com

SEM Industry

• Starting Your Own SEO Company, SEO Book
• 10 Keys to Having an Amazing Marketing and Social Media Conference, mackcollier.com
• Poll Results: SEO Education Spending Figures, Search Engine Roundtable
• When Is It OK to Say No to a Prospective Client?, www.dreamsystemsmedia.com

SEO & SEM

• In 2011, Online Success Is As Simple As This, Small Business SEM
• 5 Features I Wish the Google Adwords Keyword Tool Had, www.seo.com
• Bing.com/siteowner shut down: Options for search results, www.bing.com
• Celebrities Who Fail at Twitter, thenextweb.com
• Facebook & Twitter’s Influence on Google’s Search Rankings, SEOmoz
• Google’s Panda Update: how to win the war with quality content, www.seocopywriting.com
• How is Google helping Google Analytics users with site speed?, YouTube
• Just What is Web Site Quality?, SEO By The Sea
• Reading About SEO & Social Media vs. Putting It Together, Search Engine Journal
• Small Business SEO: 45 Experts on the Biggest Mistakes SMBs Make with SEO, blog.diyseo.com

Social Media

• Small Businesses Benefit Most From Social Media, Study Reveals, www.socialmediaexaminer.com
• 7 Social Media Concepts Average Users Don’t Really Know About, Search Engine People
• 8 Ways to Successfully Sell Using Social Media, www.socialmediaexaminer.com
• Facebook Commerce, www.webanalyticsworld.net
• How To Set Fire To Your Blog – In A Good Way, Outspoken Media
• The 7 Types Of People to Avoid In Social Media, smallbiztrends.com
• Understanding B2B Social Media Through Infographics, Online Marketing Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Exclusive YouTube’s Insider Secrets for Successful YouTube Marketing, www.reelseo.com
• MMM MMM Good – YouTube Videos Now Served in WebM, youtube-global.blogspot.com
• Optimizing for Creative Commons Images, www.wolf-howl.com

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

• How to Buy Links Ethically – Yes, Google hates paid links, but as the author says "… there are still other risk-free link buying techniques that are patterned to indirectly acquire links through the same form of incentives – cash."
• The Post Your Fellow Bloggers Don’t Want You to Read – Phenomenal post describing in great detail how Glen makes money online (and how you could as well…)
• Small Business SEO: 45 Experts on the Biggest Mistakes SMBs Make with SEO – Where a large number of top SEO experts discuss the SEO mistakes made by small businesses.
• Starting Your Own SEO Company – A very real-world look at the issues faced when you are your own boss.
• How to Make Your Website Look More Legitimate – Michael Gray tells you how your website will pass the sniff test on the Graywolf SEO blog. Of course it involves work, and some thoughts, and no true shortcuts… but following his advice is worth it if you're on the Interwebs to make serious money.
• 7 Google Quality Score PPC Myths – #2 — Search & Display Quality Score Are The Same –  This is not true. Search quality score and display quality score are calculated separately and one doesn’t affect the score of the other.
• Are You Following a Bot? – Can one person controlling an identity, or a group of identities, really shape social architecture? Actually, yes.