SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 21, 2014

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Google Says (Some) Missing Features Will Be Added To New Google Maps
  Google took its new Maps site out of beta this week, but many users noticed that some of their favorite features from Classic Maps were missing. Not to worry, Google says. It’s aware of that and plans to bring at least some of those missing over to the new Maps site in the near future. […]
• Bing’s Satori Adds Timeline Data For About 500k Famous People
  Satori, Bing’s knowledge index, is expanding with the addition of timeline-style facts about important individuals. The new “Timeline” section is now showing up in the right-side search results for famous people such as Abraham Lincoln and Isaac Asimov (shown above), along with athletes (Serena and Venus Williams), artists (Vincent Van Gogh), business people (Bill Gates, […]
• AdWords Top Movers Report Update: Now With Conversion Stats, Device-Level Segmentation
  The Top Movers report debuted in AdWords last June to help advertisers quickly see performance changes in their accounts. It was helpful, but somewhat rudimentary with reporting on just clicks and cost changes. Today, Google announced that conversion data will begin appearing in the Top Movers report as well as device-specific insights. Note that the […]
• Search In Pics: Steve Jobs Pre Google+, Nest Fire Truck & Google Fiber Bunny
  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. Android Status Booty Light Dance: Source: Google+ Google Stuffed Fiber Bunny: Source: Google+ Google’s New Bridge […]
• How To Rebrand Without Losing Your Hard-Earned Rankings
  As an SEO, I’ve worked with many clients during rebranding initiatives to ensure that their sites retain rankings — and, over the past few months, my own firm has been undergoing a brand transition. Thus, I thought I’d use my column this month to share some advice on how to handle a rebrand from an […]
• Google Places Quality Guidelines Updated
  Google quietly announced within the Google Help forums that they have made a clarification update to their Place quality guidelines to help business owners know what they can name their business within Google Local and what they can not. In short, Google is allowing a single descriptor within the business name, if and only if […]
• Bing: Poor Grammar & Typos May Result In Lower Search Rankings
  Duane Forrester from Bing wrote a blog post on the Bing Webmaster Blog suggesting that Bing’s search ranking algorithms do in fact consider poor grammar, typos and poor language to be part of their ranking factors. Duane said, “just as you’re judging others’ writing, so the engines judge yours.” Meaning, Bing does look at how […]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Coke Wants To Give The World A Pet Collar In Spoof Ad Offering A Cure For Social Media Addiction
• Microsoft Assistant “Cortana” Coming Soon To Phones, PC, Xbox
• Google Steps Up Ad Fraud Fight With Spider.io Acquisition
• How To Use Relative Standing For Online Analytics
• New Name, Familiar Partners: Twitter Introduces The “Marketing Platform Program”

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• 3Q Digital Announces Acquisition of iSearch Media, 3qdigital.com
• An Interview with A.J. Ghergich: the Importance of Content in Digital Marketing, Powered by Search
• Google Announces The Annual AdWords Top Contributor Badge Receivers, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google’s Matt Cutts Makes Rare Appearance At WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Roundtable

Local & Maps

• 15 New 3D Cities Available in the Bing Maps Preview App, Bing Maps Blog
• Discover the Taj Mahal and other iconic Indian monuments on Street View, Google LatLong
• Survey: Does Google Local Do Enough About Spam?, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• The Most Devious Link Campaign of SEO History, The Google Cache
• Why Bloggers Need to Audit their Links, Bill Hartzer

SEO

• 5 Excuses Why Ecommerce Merchants Avoid SEO, Practical E-Commerce
• 6 Ways to Earn Higher Rankings Without Investing in Content Creation and Marketing – Whiteboard Friday, Moz
• Evolving Google Search Algorithms, SEO By The Sea

SEM / Paid Search

• 6 Ways To Spot Bad PPC Advice, Beyond the Paid
• Google AdWord Hotel Blunder Case Study, blueinteractiveagency.com
• Google Shopping Update Shakes Things up for Advertisers, PerformanceIN
• PPC Back to Basics – How to Use Reporting in Bing Ads, Bing Ads

Search Marketing

• Video: Bing Updates Webmaster Guidelines, Google Without Links, Halifax Penalized & Raspberry Pi On Spam, Search Engine Roundtable

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.