SearchCap: Santa tracker, Yahoo Answers app & digital assistants

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Yahoo introduces ‘Answers Now’ app but will users respond?
  Dec 9, 2016 by Greg Sterling

  The company hopes to address historical quality problems with a matching algorithm.

• Three steps to customer experience excellence
  Dec 9, 2016 by Digital Marketing Depot

  Customer experience is the modern competitive battlefield. Eighty-nine percent of marketers today compete primarily on the basis of customer experience. Despite being a cross-functional initiative, marketing leaders are on the hook and on the front lines to deliver results in support of the customer experience mandate. This guide from Gartner for Marketers shows you how […]

• NORAD’s Santa Tracker counts down the days until Christmas 2016 with Bing’s help
  Dec 9, 2016 by Amy Gesenhues

  In 1955, NORAD’s number was mistakenly printed in a 1955 Sears Roebuck & Co. holiday ad. The organization has been tracking Santa ever since.

• Digital assistants, conversational search and the future of local
  Dec 9, 2016 by Brian Smith

  As digital assistants like Alexa and Google Home become more popular, how can local search marketers adapt? Columnist Brian Smith shares his tips.

• Search in Pics: Google sandbox, indoor rowboat & umbrellas
  Dec 9, 2016 by Barry Schwartz

  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 YouTube sandbox: Source: Instagram Google notepad and brownie: Source: Instagram Google rowboat with ducks inside: […]

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

• NASA has created official accounts on Pinterest and Giphy and they’re pretty great
• Invoca embeds IBM’s Watson so call centers can better understand their customers
• PullString opens up its conversational platform for Amazon Alexa skills
• “Power of search” keeps Google #1 with WPP; Facebook poised for #2; Snapchat gaining
• For online retailers, second time’s the charm
• Invaluable B2B marketing hacks we can learn from publishers
• When to launch holiday-themed email campaigns: A playbook for marketers
• A CMO’s View: For PepsiCo, martech is central to shaping the consumer experience
• Facebook discloses new measurement errors, continues to hone its math

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• Reflecting on the Right to be Forgotten, blog.google

Local & Maps

• A burnt out plane and some imagery errors, Google Earth Blog

Link Building

• How to Disavow Links in Bing Using Automation, Bill Hartzer

Searching

• Cortana for Android and iOS comes to the UK, gets a fresh new look, Windows Experience Blog
• Bing Adds Facebook Posts to Brand & Business Knowledge Panels, thesempost.com
• Google Adds Query Refinement Carousel for Some Search Queries, thesempost.com
• Search serving and ranking at Pinterest, Pinterest Engineering

SEO

• 6 Ways to Optimize for Searches Other Than Google, Search Engine Guide
• Google’s Webmaster Presentation On Internationalization & Search, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Outrank Your Competition’s Best-Performing Page, www.quicksprout.com
• Rich snippets everywhere, Yoast
• The 10 Types of Content That Work Best for SEO – Whiteboard Friday, Moz
• To AMP or Not to AMP: What is Best for Your Website?, semrush.com
• Video: Google Trust, New Design, News, Charity Links & Holidays, Search Engine Roundtable

SEM / Paid Search

• 24 Experts on the Big 2017 PPC Trends You Need to Know, Search Engine Journal
• How to Master PPC Targeting and Choose the Right Ad Platform, ConversionXL
• Major Differences Between Bing Ads and Google AdWords, Luna Metrics
• Using DSA Campaigns For Effective Keyword Mining, PPC Hero

Search Marketing

• New Data: Is Google or Facebook the main traffic source for publishers?, sistrix.com
• SEO vs. PPC for Companies New to Digital, marketing-mojo.com