SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 7, 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:

• Hot At Sphinn: Google’s Farmer Update, How It Should’ve Worked & SEO Help For Affected Sites

  It should be no surprise that Google’s Farmer update (AKA “Panda” update) dominated the conversation and activity on our sister site, Sphinn, last week. Several stories related to the Farmer update were popular among commenters, Twitter users, and Facebook users — including discussions about the update itself, articles about how affected sites should react and […]

• Google Navigation Now Avoids Traffic

  Google Navigation is now going to automatically select routes that avoid traffic, according to the Google Mobile Blog. The company says that real-time traffic conditions as well as historical traffic patterns are now factored into the routing: You don’t have to do anything to be routed around traffic; just start Navigation like you normally would, […]

• Report: Expect More Aggressive Acquisitions From Google

  Despite what many believe to be an overheated market for tech start-ups, Google hasn’t been shy about spending. Last week it bought security company Zynamics; today it reportedly agreed to acquire BeatThatQuote.com; it’s still waiting for Justice Department approval on the $700 million purchase of ITA Software announced last year; and it reportedly offered $5 billion for […]

• Google To Acquire BeatThatQuote.com

  Money.co.uk reports that Google will be buying BeatThatQuote.com. Google and BeatThatQuote.com have not officially confirmed this as of yet. BeatThatQuote.com is a price comparison websites for loans and financial products. The site offers comparison pricing on loans, mortgage rates, credit card rates, insurance products and more. Google has been known to offer comparison ads for […]

• Why Mobile Friendly Is Not Mobile SEO

  My Google Reader feed went haywire with “mobile SEO” alerts when Google posted their “Making Websites Mobile Friendly” advice on the Google Webmaster Central Blog. The odd thing is, they didn’t say anything about SEO or search quality in the post, which has to do with how Google crawls and indexes mobile websites today. SEOs […]

• The Importance Of Differentiated Content

  I puzzled over the title of this column for a bit. The initial title I wrote was “The Importance of Unique Content”, and I actually mean something different than that. Most of the time when we talk about unique content we mean not simply using copies of someone else’s text (whether it be plagiarized or […]

• Google Controls 97 Percent Of Mobile Paid Search: Report

  Almost 5 percent of paid search spending in the US is now in mobile, according to a report released last week from banking and investment firm Macquarie Group, using Efficient Frontier data. That mobile search spend could double to almost 10 percent by the end of this year if growth continues at an aggressive pace. […]

• Bing Tests New Top Bar Navigation & HTML5 Preview Coming Soon

  Bing is testing a new top bar navigation and is expected to be testing a new HTML5 version of Bing search. Bing Testing New Top Bar: James from WebRanking captured a screen shot of the new top bar navigation. The new bar is larger, incorporating more of the Bing home page theme from that day. […]

• Improving Local Search Marketing With Dynamic Content

  A few years ago, the Internet experienced a video revolution. As broadband access expanded and more people began uploading content, video became an expected resource for consumers. Businesses could get more mileage out of television commercials and engage users by linking to video reviews of its products. A year ago, we saw evidence of small […]

• Google Germany Mouse TV Logo

  Google has a special logo on Google Germany for the children TV series named Die Sendung mit der Maus (The Program with the Mouse). This children’s show was first run on March 7, 1971 on Das Erste channel. Airing the show was very controversial at the time, being that children under the age of six […]

• Is It Time To Rethink Bidding On Trademarks?

  Trademarks are in the news again. Last week, Microsoft announced an update to its trademark policy. Now, you can poach off your competitors’ trademarks by bidding on them as keywords on Yahoo and Bing, just like you’ve always been allowed to on Google. Okay, so now you can bid on someone else’s trademarks in both AdWords and […]

• SEO Remains A Viable Marketing Strategy For Anyone

  Ah, another SEO is dead post from a non-SEO to get the blood rushing on an otherwise calm weekend. I’ve been ignoring these more and more lately, but in the wake of Google’s Farmer Update, it looks like everyone could use some history lessons. Don’t depend solely on SEO, but don’t neglect it, either. SEO […]

• Israel: Google Street View Will Be “Good For Tourism & Image”

  If all goes according to plan, Google’s Street View service should be driving through select cities in Israel soon and the photos could be online later this year. It’ll be Street View’s first move into the Middle East but, despite the obvious security concerns, the Israeli government says the service will be good for tourism […]

• Will Eisner Google Logo

  Google has a special Google logo, also known as a Doodle, for Will Eisner. The logo is a symbol of one of Eisner’s most notable works, The Spirit. Eisner was a cartoonist, but more importantly, he was one of the individuals who helped popularize the cartoon novel industry. Eisner was so important to the industry […]

• Your Site’s Traffic Has Plummeted Since Google’s Farmer/Panda Update. Now What?

  Google’s latest algorithm change has impacted nearly 12% of queries. That means that a lot of sites, big and small, are looking at their web analytics reports this week and seeing devastating traffic graphs down and to the right. It can be difficult to think strategically and objectively in such a a situation and your […]

• Big Trends (Hint: Mobile) Emerging In Online Advertising’s Next Frontiers

  One of the most competitive and interesting sports in reporting on what’s happening in the online world is the ongoing game of predicting the future. Just as we’re seeing regime change in North Africa and the Middle East, it looks as if we’re experiencing another tectonic shift in the universe of online ads. I spent […]

• Google Releases First AdWords API Upgrade Of 2011

  Google today announced the first upgrade to its AdWords API this year, touting features like the ability to run reports across clients, better filtering, improved geo-targeting, and the ability to deploy and measure “experiments,” or A/B split testing. In coming weeks, API v201101 will also feature the ability for agencies to use interest-based advertising at […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• An Update on Android Market Security, Official Google Mobile Blog

Business Issues

• Facebook Is Said to Resume Talks With Skype on Video-Calling Partnership, Bloomberg
• Opium Wars and the perfidy of Google, China Media Project
• Ex-Microsoft Employee: 5 Things The Kayak Deal Tells Us About Bing, Business Insider
• Patent attack on Google open codec faces ‘antitrust probe’, The Register
• Wow. Just… Wow: Facebook Hits Record $75 Billion Valuation On SecondMarket, TechCrunch
• Twitter share auction suggests $7.7 billion valuation, Reuters
• Google Buys BeatThatQuote, a UK Comparison Site Violating Google’s Guidelines, SEO Book
• Google Denies U.S. Meddling After In Wake of China State Media Criticism, Bloomberg
• Google Poaches From Paramount Again, But Why?, paidContent.org
• Tech giants to advise G8 summit, www.nzherald.co.nz
• YouTube Hires Paramount’s Alex Carloss, AllThingsD

Link Building

• Advice From A Link Building Poet Don’t You Know It, The Link Spiel
• How to Build Links with Infographics, SEOmoz

Local, Maps & Mobile

• comScore Reports January 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share, comScore
• Google Places: New Home Page & Dashboard Statistics Not Updating, Search Engine Roundtable

Other Items

• Introducing the Google APIs Explorer, googlecode.blogspot.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Advertising in Skype, Skype
• New demo launch: AdWords Command Line Interface (AWCLI), AdWords API Blog

Searching

• Meet Google’s Evil Twin, Google Sloppy [VIDEO], mashable.com
• A New Technical Report From Microsoft: “Toward Topic Search on the Web”, infodocket.com
• The Bing Challenge Daily Journal Week 2: Search Tools, Features & Options, www.webranking.com

SEO & SEM

• How to Regain Your Rankings After the Farmer Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO is no longer a viable marketing strategy for startups, chris dixon’s blog
• Telling the Story of Your PPC Ad Tests With Time, Search Engine Guide
• Google Patent reveals plan to fill gaps left by content farms, BlogStorm
• How to Waste Money on SEO, Search Engine Journal
• Six Google Advanced Operators To Help Your SEO Research, Search Engine People
• SpyFu Recon: Your Domain Keyword Position Insight “that Sells for You”, Search Engine Journal
• Traffic Isn’t Everything: Using SEO and Content Marketing to Hit the Numbers that Matter, Search Engine People
• Why Big Brands Influence SEO and How Small Brands Can Benefit, SEO.com
• Will Google penalize sites which only link using the nofollow attribute?, YouTube

Social Media

• AmEx Teams Up With Foursquare, Wall Street Journal
• How Facebook is Killing Your Authenticity, steve’s blog
• Business Blogging Up 17 Percentage Points in 2 Years [New Data], blog.hubspot.com
• Facebook Now Dominates for Europeans on Web, Wall Street Journal
• How to Avoid Becoming Just Another Social Media Burnout, www.copyblogger.com
• Small Businesses Doubled Use of Twitter in 2010, www.emarketer.com
• Why Fans Stop Liking & Following You on Facebook & Twitter, Small Business SEM

Video, Music & Image Search

• Google To Shut Down Gizmo5 On April 3, TechCrunch
• Aerial Imagery: “Britain From the Air” Imagery Now Available Online, infodocket.com
• “Browse 200K Candid Wild Animal Photos From Around the Globe on Smithsonian Wild”, infodocket.com

Web Analytics

• Evolution of Analytics Benchmarking Report, Google Analytics Blog

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

• SEO Remains A Viable Marketing Strategy For Anyone – SEO ain't dead, people!
• Your Site’s Traffic Has Plummeted Since Google’s Farmer/Panda Update. Now What? – This is pretty much a masterclass in SEO from Vanessa Fox for sites that are suffering from the effects of Google's recent algorithm changes.
• Skyrocket Your Productivity by Trimming the Fat – I can attest to the validity of this post via my own personal experience. Worth a read.

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.