SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 26, 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 “Augmenting” Street View With Local Biz Information

  Google started playing with “augmented reality” — I’m using the term here loosely — in the PC version of Street View several months ago, but now appears to be rolling it out more extensively.
  Local business listings now appear as small icons connected to their buildings in the Street View image.
  Clicking on one brings up an […]

• Yahoo, Samsung Announce Expanded Mobile Partnership

  Yahoo announced this morning that its services will be pre-loaded on millions of Samsung phones worldwide. The new deal expands a relationship between the companies that began in 2007. Samsung is the second largest handset maker in the world, by unit sales, according to hardware tracking firm Gartner.
  Samsung is the third largest handset maker in […]

• Google Adds Episodes Filter To TV Searches

  Google noted that they added a new search option for TV show related queries that let you filter by show episode.
  For example, here is a search query with the search options showing video and episodes:

  This is a pretty neat filter to have, especially when you are trying to find that show you remembered, but didn’t […]

• Goodbye Google Advertising Professionals Program, Hello Google AdWords Certification

  Google’s longstanding Google Advertising Professionals program is going away, to be replaced with a new Google Adwords Certification program, Google has announced. The change means those certified through GAP will have six months to recertify under the new program. The change may also allow more companies to gain certification, as the overall required spend level […]

• Google Fined In Brazillian “Pedophile” Defamation Case Tied To Orkut

  For the second time in the past few months Google has been punished by a court outside the US for content posted by users on one of its owned and operated sites. In February an Italian court imposed a criminal privacy conviction on Google executives for the appearance of a video, showing the bullying of […]

• Google’s Usability Fixation Reveals Local Ranking Factors

  Google’s obsession with usability is well-established. They use human evaluators to test search results and many algorithmic methods to establish quality scores that can impact rankings, such as the recently introduced site speed value. There are a number of common usability elements of business websites which I believe could be leveraged for rankings in local […]

• Out Of Keyword Ideas? These 7 Tools Will Help

  There are times when you want to expand your keywords but you have run out of ideas and places to look. In this post I will examine some alternate tools to help you come up with new keywords.
  Always remember, just because a tool suggested a keyword does not mean you should use it. Consider the […]

• SEO: To Outsource Or Develop In-House Resources?

  Online marketing is complex, and it seems that the number of factors you need to consider to make sure you have the optimal strategy is only increasing. Therefore, it might be tempting to conclude that SEO, or more broadly, online marketing, is something that needs to be outsourced. There is certainly a strong […]

• Don’t Penalize Yourself: Mobile Sites Are Not Duplicate Content

  One of the great things about SEO is the almost scientific way the community approaches the unknown to discover something true that they can apply to their sites. This applied to desktop SEO more than ever in the early 2000s, prior to SEOMoz’s first ranking factors study, when pioneers in the field experimented with their […]

• Attribution Modeling: It’s Here, It’s Now And You Need To Embrace It

  So, a bold statement: Attribution’s time is here. I’m totally drinking the koolaid, and it’s delicious.
  Easy for me to say, right? I work with top-tier clients who “get it.” For the most part, they understand the value of planning, budgeting and measuring every marketing touchpoint with specificity and efficiency. That said, I have heard from […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Transliteration API adds 6 more languages, Google AJAX Search API Blog

Business Issues

• Word War III: Google vs. Governments, Wired
• Google Has Over One Million AdSense Publishers, Search Engine Roundtable
• Long-term prospects hang over Google’s results, Reuters
• Yahoo! and Samsung Extend Strategic Global Partnership for Mobile, Yahoo Press Releases

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google to introduce more smartphones, Mercury News
• Foursquare Doesn’t Allow Specials At Business Venues, RustyBrick Blog
• Google Places Quality Guideline Update, Mike Blumenthal
• Google Scales Back Nexus One Plans, Wall Street Journal

Link Building

• 5 Types of Link Building, Search Engine Journal
• How Not To Sell Links On Your Newspaper Site, Hobo

Paid Search & Contextual

• Enabling social sharing with FeedFlare, AdSense for Feeds
• Measure the success of your AdWords campaigns, Inside AdWords

Searching

• ‘Tis the Season for Scrabble, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEM Industry

• Basketball, Star Wars, And Audience Questions With Matt Cutt, YouTube
• How can people ask questions outside of conferences?, YouTube

SEO & SEM

• Client Based Keyword Research: How to Grow Plants Up a Wall, SEOmoz
• How Google Figures Out Page Date, Michael Gray
• Is Google Crippling The Site: Command?, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO: One size doesn’t fit all, David Naylor
• The Definitive How-To Guide For Conversion Rate Optimization, SEOmoz
• Writing blogs about blog writing. And SEO, naturally, Vertical Leap Blog
• YouTube SEO – How to Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO, Daily SEO Tip

Social Media

• Facebook Overhauls Page and App Insights, Adds Domain Analytics Features and an API, Inside Facebook
• Foursquare Will Decide on Sale in Weeks, CEO Crowley Says, Bloomberg
• Location Check-In Gowalla Tries to Set Itself Apart From Pack, Wall Street Journal
• Sharing News on LinkedIn just got easier, The LinkedIn Blog
• Answers to Your Questions on Personalized Web Tools, Facebook Blog
• Facebook privacy hole ‘lets you see where strangers plan to go’, The Guardian

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Direct 2.0, New and Improved With Photos, a Mobile App, and more, YouTube Biz Blog

Web Analytics

• Google Trends for Subdomains, Google Operating System

Other Items

• Google Doodle 3D Sculpture Art, Search Engine Roundtable

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