SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 16, 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:

• Google Expands Use & Display Of Related Searches

  Google has announced an interesting expansion of its related search capabilities. The updates to Google’s search results will show up in a number of different ways: Search References/Lists When the search query suggests results that may involve a list, Google will show what it calls the “top references” for the query. This may show up […]
• Updated: Google Testing Cost-Per-Lead in AdWords

  Google is testing search and display versions of a cost-per-lead ad format that would allow users to request an advertiser contact them. The company confirmed a display test after a political controversy arose surrounding the AdWords feature, and declined to comment on a search test. Other than acknowledging that the display ad test was happening, […]

• Updated: Google Embroiled In Political Controversy Over Cost-Per-Lead Ad Test

  The Obama campaign ad that started it all — a display ad on Real Clear Politics that requested a user’s e-mail address — wasn’t even a Google ad. But someone from the Republican National Senatorial Committee (RNSC) thought it was, so she called her Google sales rep and asked about getting something similar for the […]

• DIY SEO: How To Check On-Page Ranking Factors Using Google Docs

  My kids and I really enjoy watching the MAKE Magazine video podcasts together. It’s one of those rare and happy things that a ten-year-old girl, an eight-year-old boy, and an adult can watch together and find interesting. Inspired by these podcasts, I thought it would be a good idea to create a do-it-yourself SEO project. […]

• Two Lo-Mo Privacy Bills Introduced In Congress

  Two mobile-location privacy bills have been simultaneously introduced in Congress. Both are intended to regulate when location on mobile devices can be accessed and provide penalties for failure to obtain proper consent or authorization. The first of the two bills is from Democratic Senators Al Franken and Richard Blumenthal and would require Google, Apple, app […]

• A Portrait Of Who Uses Social Networks In The US (And How Social Media Affects Our Lives)

  Did you know that out of all social networking users 92% partake in Facebook, 29% participate on MySpace, 18% are on LinkedIn and Twitter is the least utilized network with just 13% usage? Or that males on LinkedIn nearly double the number of females, yet female usage of Twitter almost doubles male usage? Today Pew […]

• Yahoo Builds App Search For PC, AppSpot For iPhone, Android

  Shashi Seth, SVP of Search & Marketplaces at Yahoo believes that mobile apps are like websites in the early days of the internet and will only continue to multiply just as websites have done — seemingly exponentially. Regardless of whether the analogy is 100 percent accurate everyone agrees that app discovery has become a big […]

• Google’s “Me On The Web” Pushes Google Profiles — Take That, Facebook?

  Google has launched a new “Me On The Web” section within its Google Dashboard area, which seems designed to push more people toward creating Google Profiles, as well as create greater awareness of how things that leak out of Facebook and other social networks may end up on Google. The Facebook Factor Perhaps I’m reading […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google eBooks Affiliate program – Open for business, booksearch.blogspot.com
• Google sees 15% speed boost with HTTP tweak, The Register

Business Issues

• Ask.com CEO —“What ‘Bubble’”?, www.cnbc.com
• At 100 Million Users, Android Can’t Be Ignored, www.businessinsider.com
• Ballmer Rumored To Step Down After Windows 8 Launch, www.businessinsider.com
• Google and AOL venture arms fund tool to track retail price changes, Reuters
• Google and Silicon Valley’s cult of innovation, Telegraph
• Jack Ma Dissembling on Yahoo Dispute?, Wall Street Journal

Link Building

• Link Building: How To Make Links More Valuable, SEO Book

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps 24 Hours Business Operations Option, Search Engine Roundtable
• 3 More Unorthodox Ideas For Local Citations, SEM Clubhouse
• 5 Creative Location-Based Marketing Campaigns, www.openforum.com
• Bringing our Third Largest Homepage in the World onto Mobile Devices, ymobileblog.com
• Former Groupon Employee Describes High-Pressure Tactics Culture And Merchants “Freaking Out”, TechCrunch
• Gartner: Global mobile ad market to double in 2011, Reuters
• Google Earth, an iPhone compass and experience playing ‘Call of Duty’ have been vital to Libya’s rebel war plan, www.theaustralian.com.au
• Here’s Google’s Secret Plan To Kill Groupon In New York And San Francisco, www.businessinsider.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Will Google Start Showing Ads and Other Content in Unused Whitespace in Your Browser Window?, SEO By The Sea

Searching

• Google’s Les Paul Doodle Costs the World $268 Million, Search Engine Journal

SEM Industry

• HubSpot Acquires Marketing Automation Company Performable, www.hubspot.com
• Official Google AdWords Meetup In San Francisco On Thursday, June 16th, Search Engine Roundtable
• SES Toronto 2011: Killer Facebook Targeting Tactics, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• Google Ranking Changes At Google UK?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Webinar: Implementing the 1 Button, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• 4 Reasons Why Rank Isn’t the Best Measurement of SEO Success, dailyseotip.com
• 6 Extreme Canonical Tricks, SEOmoz
• A Comprehensive Post on SEO, ProBlogger
• Google’s Panda 2.2 Rolling Out, Search Engine Roundtable
• How do you track phone sales from search?, Search Engine Guide
• How to destroy your search rankings in one easy step, www.mediavisioninteractive.com
• Outsource SEO Content or Train Your Team: How to Choose, BruceClay.com

Social Media

• Eat Your Vegetables, and Don’t Forget to Tweet, Wall Street Journal
• Insiders Tell The Story Of LinkedIn’s Stunning Success, businessinsider.com
• Is LinkedIn the New Old Boys Network?, www.adamsherk.com
• Older Facebook Users Catching On to ‘Liking’ Brands, www.emarketer.com
• Weiner resigns, and Twitter claims its first major political casualty, Washington Post

Video, Music & Image Search

• May 2011: Top U.S. Online Destinations for Video, blog.nielsen.com

Web Analytics

• Competitive Intelligence with Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools, www.blueglass.com

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

• How to Use Xenu for the basis of an SEO Campaign – Sam Murray tells us how SEOs can use Xenu as a basis for technical and on-page analysis and as a basis for client questions and discovery.
• Who Keeps Spreading Silly SEO Stupidity, and Why? – Jill Whalen covers why and how bad SEO information gets circulated both on and off the internet.
• Keyword Research: Did You Dive Deep Enough? – Matt McGee's personal blogging about his Hawaiian Vacation offers an important lesson for longtail SEO.
• 3 Awesome Remarketing Ad Strategies – Advertisers often worry about the creepy “Big Brother” factor in regards to remarketing. What moral code is an advertiser breaking if their ads follow a user around the Internet?…