SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 12, 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:

• Gnarly, Dude: Google Solves Rubik’s Cube In 20 Moves

  This’ll make a lot of us feel a lot dumber: Scientists have used Google to prove that Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 20 moves or less. So, that was about two years of my early 1980s life wasted.
  The UK’s Daily Mail says that a Kent State University professor worked with a Google engineer and […]

• Google ‘Voice Actions’ Eases Search (& More) On Android

  Life just got a little easier for U.S.-based smartphone users running Android 2.2 (Froyo). During a press event this morning, Google announced “Voice Actions,” a series of commands that lets users speak tasks that typically require typing. Danny Sullivan was at the event and live-blogged it here on SEL, and now there’s more information from […]

• Twitter Launches Official Tweet Button

  As rumored yesterday, Twitter has launched an official “Tweet” button that’s available to all web site owners. You can see it in action already right here on Search Engine Land — look how well it plays with others in the sharing options for our Tweet button story from yesterday:

  The Tweet button builder has some cool […]

• Why I Still Hate Rel=Canonical

  Note: this article assumes you understand the basics of canonicalization. If you don’t, have a look at my article, 8 Canonicalization Best Practices In Plain English.
  I still don’t recommend using rel=canonical. It should be your weapon of absolute last resort.
  Last February, the Big 3 search engines announced support for this link tag. A lot of […]

• 9 SEO Realities For Small Businesses

  David Ingram and I recently had the pleasure of sitting with Tom Critchlow from Distilled (SEO consultants) for a few hours to asses our local business directory, brownbook.net. A whole load of notes and actions flowed from the meeting — some of which may be very useful to others.
  Here are a few points to consider […]

• Live Blog: Google Announces “Voice Actions” & “Chrome-To-Phone” For Android

  Google’s having an impromptu small press “gathering” today at its offices in San Francisco. Topic? “Cool new mobile features.” Want to know more? Stay tuned, as I’ll be live blogging the event that begins at 10am.
  This is all we know so far:
  We’ll be unveiling a couple of cool new mobile features […]

• Google Does The Wizard Of Oz Logo

  Today is the 71st birthday of the first showing of the movie, The Wizard of Oz. To celebrate the day, Google has a special doodle, aka logo, up for the significant date. The Doodle barely makes out the name Google, but it is clearly a representation of the movie.
  Here is a […]

• Google Doubles Pace Of Acquisitions In 2010

  Google Steps Up Acquisitions as Some Internal Projects Falter from Bloomberg reports Google has doubled their anticipated acquisition levels in 2010 and plans on keeping that pace going.
  In early January 2009 Google halted acquisitions, but in September 2009 said they would begin shopping for businesses to acquire again.
  Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt said he […]

• Revisiting The Basics Of Video SEO

  According to web metrics company comScore, 183 million U.S. internet users watched online video during the month of May, watching nearly 34 billion videos. Marketers hoping their video assets fall into that 34 billion can improve their odds by revisiting and updating their strategies to improve search visibility. Many marketers post their branded videos to […]

• A Successful Launch—What Next?

  So, you’ve actually launched a PPC account! Woo-hoo! I think back to that great IBM commercial from a few years ago where an anxious boardroom launches the company website and the first sale appears on the monitor. They all cheer. Then another sale. And another. The boardroom is going […]

• Twitter Sees Triple-Digit Growth Outside North America

  Twitter usage is growing rapidly around the world, with most regions experiencing triple-digit growth between June 2009 and June 2010. That’s according to a new comScore report out today.
  Nearly 93 million Internet users worldwide visited Twitter.com in June, comScore says — that’s up 109% over the previous June. The growth was even more dramatic in […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Craigslist Starts To Roll Out…Gasp…A Slightly New Design, TechCrunch
• Google Reader Shows If You Are a Skimmer or a Clicker, blog.louisgray.com
• How Google Translate Works, Google Operating System
• The Old Version of Gmail Will Be Discontinued in September, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Google Ventures Invests In iPhone Game Developer ngmoco, TechCrunch
• What Happened to Yahoo, www.paulgraham.com
• Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz: "I’m Just a Manager", Fast Company
• Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal, Official Google Blog
• Google? Where are you?, C-Change Media Inc
• On Google And Other Misunderstood Wireless Data Collectors, Forbes
• The latest digital trends from Google Internet Stats, googlebarometer

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Flipping for Gesture Search, Official Google Mobile Blog
• Beachcombing for New Imagery, Google LatLong
• For Google, the Cloud Is Its Mobile Future, gigaom.com
• Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Device Sales Grew 13.8 Percent in Second Quarter of 2010, But Competition Drove Prices Down, gartner.com
• Instantly zap links, maps and phone numbers to your Android phone with Chrome to Phone!, Official Google Mobile Blog

Link Building

• Link Building Strategy, BruceClay
• 3 New Ways to Reuse Old Articles to Triple Your Backlinks, dailyseotip.com
• 46 New Link Building Resources: the Advanced Operator Edition – v14 8/6-8/12, ontolo.com

Searching

• Google cracks Rubik’s Cube enigma, dailymail.co.uk
• Twitter Search History Dwindling, Now at Four Days, blog.programmableweb.com

SEM Industry

• In-House SEO Excitement with Jessica Bowman, BruceClay.com
• aimClear #SESSF Live Tweeting & Blogging Schedule, AIM Clear Blog
• Google Help Center’s Rap Video, Search Engine Roundtable
• Interview of Jon Glick (of Become.com & Formerly Yahoo! Search), SEO Book

SEO & SEM

• New SEOmoz Web App Now in Beta for PRO Members, SEOmoz
• Here’s Why Companies Still Aren’t Putting Resources Into Bing SEO, businessinsider.com
• How to Write Content That No One Else Has, Search Engine Guide
• SEO for Start-ups: Build Authority Offsite, Search Engine Watch
• Warning: Bevo Media PPC Tracking = Lame Duck, andybeard.eu

Social Media

• Can Google Get Social Networking Right?, Technology Review
• Social network dashboard HootSuite is ready for your money, VentureBeat
• Video: Digg’s Kevin Rose Discusses the Future of the News Discovery Service, AllThingsD

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

• 3 Misunderstood SEO Best Practices – Terry takes another look at the traditional SEO best practices and explains why they aren't always what so many people think them to be.
• An In-Depth Look at Search Auto-Suggestions – Ann Smarty not only has a new pic up, but she's written a great in-depth look at Search Auto Suggestions – something I've seen a couple companies mistakenly rely on solely on for their keyword intelligence.
• Has Bing's $100 Million Advertising campaign been worth it? – Just over a year ago, Bing decided to launch a massive advertising campaign aimed at creating a viable alternative to Google. A year on, we take a look as to how successful this campaign has been

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz 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's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.