SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 1, 2009

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 Agrees To Pay $20 Million To Search Marketers Over AdWords “Daily Budget” MediaPost reports that Google has settled on a class action lawsuit brought by search marketers for exceeding the […]

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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 Agrees To Pay $20 Million To Search Marketers Over AdWords “Daily Budget”

    MediaPost reports that Google has settled on a class action lawsuit brought by search marketers for exceeding the daily budget within the AdWords system. The settlement means Google can pay up to $20 million, including over $5 million to the plaintiff’s lawyers.
    The suit was over how Google allegedly charged advertisers 120% of their maximum […]

  • Google Showing Local Results On Non-Local Queries

    Google is rewriting the local search space. They’re now showing local search results — a map, business listings, and more — even when searchers use generic terms that don’t include a local word. This was spotted in London last week, written about on Saturday by a California florist, and spread widely yesterday when Mike Blumenthal […]

  • April Fools’ Day 2009: Google CADIE & More From Search Industry

    It is days like this I dread as a reporter. Today is April Fools Day, and you need to be on the lookout for what is real news and what is fake news. Below, a roundup of some of the April Fools hoaxes from the search industry, starting with Google.
    With Google, it all starts with […]

  • Cuil Launches Timeline To Search Results

    The Cuil Blog announced that for some queries, they will show a timeline box on the right column. For searches such as Abraham Lincoln, Alan Turing, Michael Jordan, Great Depression, Madison Square Garden and others, you may get a timeline.
    Let me show you how it works on the Great Depression search. At the […]

  • Google Mobile Evangelists Argue For “Best Practices” On Widely Read Publications

    Google developed and launched Android for a range of reasons, both selfish and “altruistic.” As I wrote at the time the G1 came out:
    It’s now almost a cliche to call mobile phones the most personal piece of technology. And it’s equally simplistic to point out that there are many times the number of mobile handsets […]

  • Direct Linking Affiliates: Nuisance Or Serious Problem?

    Most affiliate managers and brand owners agree that they are not fond of the practice where affiliate marketers direct link from a search campaign to the advertiser’s web site. While frowned upon, the practice may be simply a nuisance because you just don’t like it or could become a more serious problem that is costing […]

  • Search Community Outrage Builds Over Proposed New Match Types

    On the anniversary of Google’s revolutionary PigeonRank enhancement, rumors were flying today about the potential impending launch of three new match types within Google’s flagship advertising platform. Match type is a feature that allows advertisers to control ad delivery based on the relationship to the query string searched by a user. The […]

  • What If John Henry Managed B2B Paid Search Campaigns?

    According to the The Legend of John Henry, “Steel-drivin’ men like John Henry used large hammers and stakes to pound holes into the rock, which were then filled with explosives that would blast a cavity deeper and deeper into the mountain. In the folk ballads, the central event took place under such conditions. Eager to […]

  • Live Search Testing Icons In Sponsored Search Ads

    Here’s something you probably haven’t seen unless you’re a Microsoft employee:

    The screenshot above shows a Honda logo icon placed inside a Live Search sponsored search ad. It comes to us from a Search Engine Land reader doing search marketing in the auto industry, who explained how it happened: “I’ve been told by Microsoft reps […]

  • Yahoo Gets It Right: New Mobile Website, iPhone App Launch

    At the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona in February Yahoo announced “Yahoo Mobile,” a more integrated presentation of Yahoo’s mobile assets and a successor to the ineffectual Yahoo Go. Mobile represents a more coherent integration of what what had been a fragmented collection of mobile properties: oneSearch, Go, oneConnect and onePlace.
    This evening the new […]

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About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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