SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 14, 2010

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 Webmaster Tools Expands Top Search Reports & (Now) Charts

  The Google Webmaster Central blog announced new enhancements to the “top search report” under Google Webmaster Tools. The new top search report is now filled with more details, more search terms, pretty charts and better filtering of the data. Let me take you through the various options.
  The first thing you will […]

• Twitter Does 19 Billion Searches Per Month, Beating Yahoo & Bing (Sort Of)

  How many searches does Twitter handle per month? We’ve finally got a figure: 19 billion. That has Twitter doing over nearly five times the queries that Bing handles and about 20% of those that mega search star Google processes. But hang on. Even Twitter cofounder Ev Williams says the figures aren’t all apple to apples.
  At […]

• All The Old Tweets Are Found: Google Launches Twitter Archive Search

  Google has launched a Twitter archive service, giving it a more comprehensive index of tweets over time than even Twitter itself. (See Danny’s Where Have All The Old Tweets Gone?) Meanwhile, Twitter gets a logo presence in Google’s search results, the first time Google’s featured a partner like this.
  The Google blog […]

• Google Adds Recipes To Rich Snippet Markup

  The Google Webmaster Central blog announced a new supported rich snippet markup format for recipes. The rich snippets for recipes include user ratings, preparation time, recipe type, a picture and more. Here is an example:

  The full available attributes you can define include name, recipeType, photo, published, summary, review, prepTime, cookTime, totalTime, nutrition, […]

• Branding, Direct Response, Intent & How Search Made Us Soft

  The old has become new again. Back in the day, when setting budgets for mailing paper things in bulk to prospective customers, marketers asked themselves crucial questions. “Will the ROI of this direct response mail piece justify the investment of paper, printing, postage and fulfillment?” If not, “is the objective a more cosmic value, in […]

• How To Help Key Stakeholders Visualize Your Conversion Tests

  So you’ve assessed the feedback from your surveys and usability tests, analyzed the site within an inch of its life for obstructions in the customers’ paths, fixed the glaring errors and now you are ready to start devising some tests that will send the site into overdrive. However, if you are trying to explain your […]

• Bing Testing Twitter In Search Results

  As part of a new test, some Bing users may be seeing Twitter messages mixed in with the regular search results on Bing.com. In a blog post today, Bing explained that the test involves two types of Twitter integration:
  First, on searches that Bing identifies as hot/trending, tweets will show up in the search results page […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• More love for our multilingual Toolbar users, Official Google Blog
• Preview the faster, more feature rich Google spreadsheets, Official Google Docs Blog
• The Iterative Web App: Redesign of the Compose Page, Official Google Mobile Blog

Business Issues

• Is Google’s Eric Schmidt scared of Apple’s Steve Jobs?, Slate Magazine
• Apple Versus Google, Business Insider
• EFF Backs Yahoo! to Protect User from Warrantless Email Search, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Eric Schmidt: Today’s Most Interesting Engineering Problems Are Around Sharing, gigaom.com
• Facebook is stealing Adsense Revenue, Piaw’s Blog
• Former Googlers Launch TellApart, Raise $4.75 Million From Greylock, TechCrunch
• Google backs Yahoo in privacy fight with DOJ, CNET News
• Yahoo! Chat Logs Admitted Over Defendant’s Objections Based on Eavesdropping Statute — People v. Nakai, Eric Goldman

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps May Bring Back 3D Street Views, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Tech Chief Predicts Cell Phones Will Replace Desk Computers, www.wowt.com
• Google: we plan to open up our Goggles platform, TechRadar UK
• Yelp Reveals Details of Small Business Advisory Council, Small Business SEM

Link Building

• Linkscape Update, New Stats and an API Dashboard, SEOmoz

Paid Search & Contextual

• New AdWords Features Explained, Search Engine Journal

Searching

• Custom data rendering in results, Google Custom Search
• What is the future of semantic search?, YouTube
• Zillow rises to No. 2 online real estate site behind Realtor.com, techflash.com

SEM Industry

• Max Kalehoff Interview: Social Media Advertising & Future of Paid Search, Online Marketing Blog
• The SEO manifesto, econsultancy.com

SEO & SEM

• Cooking Up Great SEO: An Analogy in Photos, SEOmoz
• From Web Developer to SEO consultant, Bruceclay.com.au
• Local Business Marketing: Three Most Important Tips for Local Business Listings, dailyseotip.com
• Local Search 101: How to Obtain Top Results in Google Maps [Learn SEO], The SEO Scoop
• Universal Search for Digital Asset Managers, huomah.com

Social Media

• Angry Twitter App-Makers Plan Secret Meetings On How To Replace Twitter, Forbes
• ‘Points of interest’ coming to Twitter, Lost Remote
• Google Follow Finder: Find some sweet tweeps, Official Google Blog
• Is Social Media Becoming Boring?, Techipedia
• Twitter Could Act as Early Warning System for Epidemics, Fox News
• Twitter’s One Real Problem. No Not Developers!, gigaom.com

Other Items

• Google Bangladesh Snubs Their Bengali New Year, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Bing Student Earth Day Photo Contest Finalists, Bing Search Blog

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

• Don't know where to start with CRO? Look for the bright spots
• Why Spamming Social Media Won’t Get You Very Far