SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 6, 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:

• Consumer Electronics Marketers Take Q4 Paid Search Boom Overseas

  Holiday shopping for consumer electronics is starting earlier than ever in the Americas, according to new research released by Covario, a search marketing agency that works with large global clients such as Intel, Lenovo, Research In Motion and Adobe. Covario found that, among its tech and consumer electronics clients in the Americas, paid search spending […]

• How To Reduce SEM Churn With Integrated Customer Intelligence

  Turnover in the SEM world has been a long-standing challenge as annual churn estimates from Borrell Associates range from 50-70 percent. While every organization cites a slightly different number, the issue represents real revenue dollars as finding and onboarding a new client or a new SEM agency is no small endeavor. However, with new tools […]

• Google Adding New Spam Warnings In Webmaster Tools

  Google is sending new warnings to webmasters when it suspects the sites may have spam-related problems that need to be addressed. Over at Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz points to two new warnings that users have discovered in their Webmaster Tools accounts: a “notice of detected unnatural links” and a separate warning about cloaking. That […]

• South Korea May Arrest Google Execs Over WiFi Data Collection

  South Korean police are planning to file criminal charges against Google executives over the collection of personal data via unsecured wifi networks. According to IDG News/PCWorld, the country’s national police agency has determined that Google acted illegally when it gathered personal data as part of its Street View mapping service. A police official says they’re […]

• Google Mobile Strategy Playing Out Flawlessly: Ads Growing, Android Beating iPhone

  Two sets of data released today show that Google’s mobile strategy is working incredibly well, if not flawlessly. Its AdMob unit reported that it now sees more than two billion ad requests on a daily basis. And comScore also stated that, according to its survey data, Android has just passed the iPhone as the number […]

• How (I Think) Crawl Budget Works (Sort Of)

  Crawl budget – the number of pages a search engine will crawl each time it visits your site – is a huge factor in SEO success. While a number of factors go into determining the amount of pages crawled, one fairly strong one is the site’s overall crawl budget (crawl efficiency being a key component as […]

• Foursquare Puts The Kibosh On Friend-Tip Spamming

  In an apparent effort to cut down on spam, Foursquare has started limiting the number of friends and friend requests that a user can have. The About Foursquare blog explains that some companies have friended tens of thousands of Foursquare users so that, when those users check-in somewhere, the companies’ tips appear more often. In […]

• Google Teases “Honeycomb” Android 3.0 Tablet OS At CES

  Perhaps this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) should be renamed “AES” for Android Electronics Show — given all the handsets and tablets featuring the Google mobile OS that are being shown and rolled out. And today Google provided a sneak preview of the tablet version of Android (3.0), dubbed “Honeycomb.” The screens and the video […]

• Ballmer At CES 2011: “Whatever Device You Use, Windows Will Be There”

  Today in his Consumer Electronics Show keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer declared that Xbox is no longer a gaming device but an entertainment hub. And Windows will be everywhere, from your TV through Xbox, to your phone via Windows Phone 7, and on PCs of any type, especially through a forthcoming version of “Windows On […]

• Facebook Funding Subject Of SEC Review: Report

  Perhaps not surprisingly, the SEC is reportedly looking into the recent Goldman Sachs Facebook investment. The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the situation,” reports that the SEC is in the early stages of an inquiry over rules concerning the dividing line between public and private companies. Goldman Sachs created a “special purpose vehicle” […]

• Two New Mobile SEO Tips For 2011

  Happy new year everyone, and welcome to the year of mobile! I’ll pause to let my mobile colleagues stop laughing, as the year of mobile has been an industry joke since at least 2005, if not before. Did you know O’Reilly declared 2005 to be “the year of local mobile search” in March of 2005? […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Fights API Bloat by Adding Libraries to Google Maps JavaScript API, Read/Write Web
• How To Get Google Offers On Your Google Homepage, searchmarketingcommunications.com
• Spam takes another hit: email authentication now available to millions of Google Apps customers, googleenterprise.blogspot.com
• This week in Docs: Video player in the document list, googledocs.blogspot.com
• Top 10 Google Labs Projects From 2010, Google Operating System
• Yahoo! Demonstrates the Future of Television With Leading TV Networks and Advertisers at CES, Yahoo Press Releases

Business Issues

• Key Yahoo Ad Exec Leave, as Unit Restructures, kara.allthingsd.com
• A Goldman Unit Is Said to Have Rejected Facebook, New York Times
• Facebook agrees to modify terms for states, Associated Press
• Facebook Has a Long Time Before It Has to Make Financial Disclosures, kara.allthingsd.com
• LinkedIn plans to go public in 2011: sources, Reuters
• Skype To Acquire Qik For ~$100 Million — Source, Business Insider
• Twitter Acquisitions, SEO By The Sea
• Facebook Opens Door for Financial Disclosure or IPO in 2012, Wall Street Journal

Link Building

• Link Building Wish List, Search Engine Roundtable

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Yelp Surpasses 15 Million Reviews, 41 Million Monthly Visitors, Small Business SEM
• Google Responds To Android SMS Bug: Fixes Are On The Way, TechCrunch
• New York’s Holland Tunnel Returns To Google Maps, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Great Rise of the Mobile Web, thenextweb.com
• Why now might be the time to check-in with FourSquare, www.utalkmarketing.com
• Mayor Maker iPhone app does what the name says, www.searchinfluence.com

Other Items

• Study: A third of all malware in history created in 2010, www.networkworld.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdWords Certification Program Exams Bug, Search Engine Roundtable
• Of creatives and ads, community.microsoftadvertising.com

Searching

• Google’s decreasingly useful, spam-filled web search, www.marco.org
• Interest increasing for tablets, weblogs.hitwise.com
• Is Google Getting Better or Worse with Age?, www.zdnet.com
• New Products of 2011, Hakia Blog
• Check your local TV listings with Bing, www.bing.com
• Search History Helps Convict Husband Of Wife’s Murder, Search Engine Watch Blog

SEM Industry

• Kim Krause Berg Joins LiBeck Integrated Marketing, Cre8PC
• SearchFest 2011 Mini-Interview: Greg Sterling, www.sempdx.org
• The Last Post on bg Theory, www.bgtheory.com

SEO & SEM

• Duplicate Content: Block, Redirect or Canonical, SEOmoz
• Google Recommends Not Using Robots.txt File If You Want Full Indexing, Search Engine Roundtable
• Why Multiple Domains are Mostly Bad for SEO, www.seo.com
• 3 Ways to Boost Your In-House Marketing in 2011: Part 2, BruceClay.com
• Adding Revenue Streams Into Your Website or Blog, www.wolf-howl.com
• SEO vs. PPC: Response to my friend Krista, blog.traffick.com
• Understanding Site Architecture with Xenu and Excel, distilled

Social Media

• Is Quora Stroking Tech Blogging Egos?, derekandersen.me
• Twitter for Mac, Official Twitter Blog
• Twitter: No Plans For A Windows Client — But Never Say Never, TechCrunch
• Why Quora Will Never Be as Big as Twitter, Mashable
• Will Solicited FB ‘Likes’ Ruin the System?, www.screenwerk.com
• 5 Facebook Applications to Add Useful Tabs to Your Facebook Fan Page, Search Engine Journal
• 5 Ways to Use LinkedIn Groups to Build Influential Connections, www.socialmediaexaminer.com
• The 3 Teams You Need to Organize And Scale Social Media, www.brasstackthinking.com
• The Slow Burning (and Death) of Email Spam – The Marriage of Email, www.blueglass.com
• What Does a Social Media Community Manager Do? Take a Glimpse., Online Marketing Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Introducing Flickr for Windows 7® and Windows Phone 7®, www.flickr.com

Web Analytics

• How to Leverage Year Over Year Data Successfully, SEOmoz

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

• Google’s Decline: Myth or Fact? – A flurry of recent articles are bemoaning Google's decline. But is the decline real, or just relative to a mythical Golden Age of Google perfection that never existed. Your comments, and evidence either way, are greatly appreciated.
• Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2010 – Hundreds (thousands?) of hours are poured annually into this post. Enjoy.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.