SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 7, 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:

• YP Wants To Compete Directly With Google And Yelp In Local
  When one looks across the local digital landscape there are many companies and apps but few consumer “brands.” In specific verticals, like travel or automotive, there are companies such as TripAdvisor or Cars.com. But “horizontally” on a national level there are very few top-of-mind, major players. That list starts with Google and Yelp and could […]
• Suspected Paid-Link Penalty Hasn’t Hit Expedia Bottom Line — Yet
  Yesterday online travel giant Expedia announced Q4 2013 and full year results. The company “beat the street,” reporting strong room night and revenue growth across all geographies. So far a suspected penalty from Google hasn’t hurt the company’s bottom line. See our earlier stories: Expedia Lost 25% Of Their Search Visibility In Google Possibly Over […]
• Advanced SEO Analysis – Part 1: SEO Research & Wisdom Of The Crowd
  A couple of years ago, I was invited to speak at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle on the topic of SEO and competitive intelligence. It is an area of SEO I’m passionate about, not only because it is one of the most difficult things in SEO to scale and do right, but also because […]
• How Google Glass Will Change Search — And What It Means For You
  Last week, Google officially announced that Glass will be made available for purchase to the general public by the end of the year. The impending launch of Glass is exciting, but it does present some new challenges for search marketers. Given the differences between how Google Glass handles search versus a desktop or traditional mobile device, we […]
• For Product Brands, Consider Paid Search Ads On Retailers’ Sites Instead
  Last year, Google made what was to some a surprising announcement: its previously free Google Product Search would become Google Shopping, which would ask a fee of product brands and retailers that wanted to be included in new Product Listing Ads. I can’t say that I disagree with Google’s decision. The company has hit on […]
• Search In Pics: Golden Tate With Glass At Super Bowl, Google Indoor Clouds & Android Socks
  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. Google Mobile Barista: Source: Google+ Clouds Inside Google’s Office: Source: Google+ First Google Glass Explorers Get […]
• Google Now Adds Google Now “Launcher,” Video On Demand Providers, Airbnb Reservations & More
  Engadget reports Google has quietly rolled out several enhancements to Google search app for Android, bolstering Google Now features on the Nexus 5 and some other devices. Here are the changes that were labeled “bug fixes and performance improvements” in the Google Play store for the app. The most noticeable change is that the Nexus […]
• Google’s “Olympic Charter” Logo Stands Up To Russia’s Anti-Gay Legislation
  If you had any doubts over how Google feels about Russia’s legislation against gay “propaganda,” just go the Google home page. The company has started what will be a string of special logos for the Olympics with one that includes a quote stressing that the official Olympic Charter is against discrimination and using the colors […]
• Google Penalized A Germany Agency & Their Clients For Link Schemes, Says Matt Cutts
  Soon after Google has warned Germany SEOs about paid links and link schemes, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted on Twitter that they took action on a German agency and their clients for link schemes. Matt Cutts wrote, “this week we took action on a German agency’s link network/clients.” He added that Google […]

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

• Court Tells Google It Must Admit Privacy Penalty On Google.fr
• Facebook Admins Will Soon Be Able To See The Exact Admin Who Authored Each Post
• LinkedIn To Close Controversial “Intro” Service, Plus Slidecast & More
• For Product Brands, Paid Search On Retailers’ Sites Pays Off
• Twitter Makes Tracking Winter Olympics Easy With Long List Of #Sochi2014 Accounts
• 7 Ways Google Glass Will Change Search, And How It Should Change Your Marketing

Search News From Around The Web:

Searching

• Follow the Olympics with Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• Ultra Religious Magazine, Ami Magazine, Filtered By SafeSearch, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO

• Content Distribution Management To Halt Search Engine SEO Chaos, internetmarketingninjas.com
• Does Authorship Affect Rankings? A Rand Fishkin Study, David Naylor
• Google URL Removal Tool Bug Leads To Site Removal?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Halifax Bank Google SEO Penalty, Web Marketing School
• The Death of Keyword Ranking Reports? 10 Superior SEO Stats – Whiteboard Friday, Moz
• What I Learnt From Beating Google’s First Update of 2014, Search Engine Journal
• GuestPostShop Customers Are Penalized by Google, Search Engine Leaks
• SEO Performance Reporting in the Datapocalypse, Practical E-Commerce

SEM / Paid Search

• Google Conversion Name Change, PPC Hero
• Google Shopping Campaigns Get Results, Portent
• Grow Leads 17% By Segmenting Search Partners During Bid Changes, PPC Hero

Search Marketing

• Video: Microsoft’s New CEO, Google Actions For Spam, Germany Penalized, Facebook 10 & Olympic Charter Gay Pride Logo, Search Engine Roundtable