SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 18, 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:

• Social Meets Search At Search Engine Land’s SMX West Event

  Everything we program at Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo events are always related to search. So why a post about social media sessions at our upcoming SMX West conference? Because social continues to play a big role in search. Search marketers need to know social. Here’s what we’ve got planned for you at […]
• Search In Pics: Google Lederhosen, Umbrellas & Logos

  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. Googlers In Lederhosen & Dirndls: Umbrellas Made For Google: Google Mexico Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena Logo: Google […]

• Quality Score Tracking Tool: An Interview With TenScores Founder Chris Thunder

  Long time readers of this column know that I am fascinated with the technology behind search engine marketing. In recent posts, I’ve highlighted tools that optimize the Google Display Network, help generate winning text ads, and even a platform for developing thousands of tiny ad groups for Quality Score optimization. With SEM representing almost half […]

• Why SEO Needs Its Own Reputation Management

  A few weeks ago, I saw a reference to search engine optimization (SEO) on the TV Show The Good Wife that made me fall off of my chair. (See SEO Gets Dissed by CBS TV Series “The Good Wife” for the transcript.) I fell off of my chair for two reasons: (1) I certainly did […]

• Google Webmaster Tools Advances Towards Analytics Savviness

  Lately, Webmaster Tools has been improving its analytical capabilities significantly. This trend comes as a great benefit to webmasters and search marketers, both of whom are gaining access to important data in order to understand how their Search Engine Optimization is performing, as well as additional tools to help optimize their efforts. Last year, Google […]

• Obama’s Silicon Valley “Tech Supper” – Who Sat Where? Why Was He There?

  Why was he there? Who wasn’t invited and why? What did they talk about? Why was he really there? These are the questions being debated this morning about Obama’s visit last night to the home (dare I say “lavish Woodside estate”) of tech investor and Google board member John Doerr. Stanford University President John Hennessy […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• 12 new file formats in the Google Docs Viewer, Google Docs Blog
• Google Courts Yahoo Users With New Delicious Bookmarks Importer Tool, TechCrunch
• My Own Handwriting Via My Cool Fonts, ymailblog.com
• Native Client: Getting Ready for Takeoff, blog.chromium.org

Business Issues

• Ex-DOJ Official, Expedia Attorney, Is Google Deal’s Key Critic, www.nasdaq.com
• Google asks US Patent Office to rethink Oracle Java patents, The Register
• Analysis: Google Social Search Is All About Blocking Facebook/Twitter Search, siliconvalleywatcher.com
• Google Pushes To Keep Reams Of Documents Secret In Major Trademark Case, paidContent.org

Local, Maps & Mobile

• When Google Review Clippings Go Horribly Wrong, Small Business SEM
• Explore our U.S. Presidents on a map, Official Google Blog
• foursquare, now for all Nokia Series 40 phones, Foursquare Blog
• Google Dashboard Upgrade: Request a Review Link, Mike Blumenthal
• Mobile e-commerce Traffic Grew Threefold This Holiday Season, blog.conductor.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Navigating PPC Trademark Rules, PPC Hero
• Understanding your eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions): Part 1 of 2, Inside AdSense

Searching

• Future of Search, radar.oreilly.com

SEM Industry

• SearchFest 2011 Mini-Interview: Will Scott, www.sempdx.org
• Video: Google Penalties For J.C. Penney & Forbes, Google & Bing Get Personal & Social, Plus More SEO Rants, Search Engine Roundtable
• What To Expect from GetListed University Spokane’s Site Clinic, niftymarketing.com

SEO & SEM

• Analyze Competition adds new markets and new features, Inside AdWords
• SEO-Support by Google, Christoph´s Blog
• Using Drupal? Here’s the Best Modules for Onsite SEO Optimization, Search Engine Journal
• 15 Questions That Will Change The Way You Think About SEO Forever (Q’s 6-10), Search Engine Guide
• 2 Free Tools to Find and Analyze SERP Dominators (for Competitor Research), Search Engine Journal
• Deeper Integration Expected For Google Webmaster Tools & Google Analytics, Search Engine Roundtable
• Director of Bing Discusses Holistic Search and Clickstream Data – Whiteboard Friday, SEOmoz
• Keyword Research in Google Webmaster Tools, Vertical Measures
• Optmising For Google Places – 7 Great Tips, Search Engine People
• What’s the Matter with the Search Alliance?, Rimm Kaufman

Social Media

• Bad Bots, Bad Bots, Whatcha Gonna Do?, Outspoken Media
• Facebook Places offers big brand Deals to Europe, Search Engine People
• Klout Chrome Extension Brings Scores to the Twitter Timeline, Read/Write Web
• Twitter Suspends UberMedia Clients For Privacy And Monetization Violations, Trademark Infringement, TechCrunch
• UberMedia CEO Bill Gross: Twitter Turn-Off “Took Us By Surprise,” But “We Will Change”, TechCrunch

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

• Ecommerce SEO: Black Hat Tactics That Are Not Black Hat – Good one from Linda Bustos, who looks at "common ecommerce practices that are similar to black hat techniques but are are not against Google’s quality guidelines, provided you play by Google’s rules." Not sure everyone will agree with her tactical definitions, though!
• What It Takes To Be an Independent Search Marketer – A good post on whats involved in going, and staying, an independent search marketing consultant.
• How To Tell If Your SEO Will Get You Banned – Whether you’re in the process of hiring an SEO or you have one you’re already working with – it’s important you know what’s being done to your site. If you’re not sure, here are some good questions to ask either yourself or the person applying their magic.
• Turn Stolen Copy Lemons Into Link Lemonade – This stealing of content is what’s known as copyright theft, and it’s against the law. The minute you create original content, you become the copyright owner which means it’s yours and yours alone, even if you share, rent, or pass it out.  Here's how to combat content theft … and potentially gaining links as well!
• 8 Excellent WordPress SEO Plugins – A list of 8 top-notch SEO Plugins that will help you get maximum exposure for your WordPress blog.