SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 5, 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:

• Let’s Celebrate Google’s Biggest Failures!

  “We celebrate our failures,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday when speaking at the Techonomy confernce, in response to the surprise closure of his company’s Google Wave product. When it comes to failures, Google’s celebrating more than you might realize.
  Some believe that anything Google touches is golden. Yesterday’s closure of Google Wave is another reminder […]

• Use All Your Data Insights To Improve Both Search & Customer Experience

  Creating a compelling online experience is top of mind for most businesses. Many of us use numerous tools and technologies to ensure we can achieve this goal. Yet a survey we conducted of nearly 600 online businesses found that while companies are employing many different on-site technologies, the majority (68 percent) is unsure about whether […]

• Mobile Social Strategy With Platforms You Already Know

  You actually don’t have to be a mobile expert to do mobile marketing. Believe it or not, you actually don’t even need mobile-specific technology to do mobile marketing. You just need to be creative and use existing mobile platforms—especially social networks—to distribute your mobile marketing message.
  One of the coolest things about mobile social networking is […]

• Advertising Online Costs Too Much Money!

  It’s a perceived problem with small business advertising. Anecdotal evidence from local online customers indicates that one of the sore spots for small business owners involves the cost of online advertising. Hmm. To my knowledge what one spends on advertising is determined by how much the advertiser is willing to spend. Cost is controlled by […]

• Google Power User Tips: Query Operators

  I love showing off my Google power searching skills when presenting or meeting or talking with a prospective client. I just know it boosts my credibility in the eyes of my audience. Invest a bit of time in learning some of the lesser-used Google query refinements — i.e. the operators, parameters, and so forth — […]

• Google CEO Schmidt Fuels Critics With Controversial Privacy Remarks

  Yesterday at the “Techonomy” conference in Lake Tahoe, California Google CEO Eric Schmidt made a number of remarks about user-generated content and data-mining that were somewhat controversial:
  “If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use Artificial Intelligence,” Schmidt said, “we can predict where you are going to go.”
  “Show us […]

• Report: Verizon And Google In “Neutrality” Agreement Over Preferred Content Access

  We’ll have to wait and see what emerges from the reported discussions between Verizon and Google. However prospect of a patchwork of agreements between large internet companies and ISPs like Verizon over web traffic is highly undesirable. (See update below.)
  The private Google-Verizon talks are an apparent response to the slow pace of progress on “net […]

• Ignition! Your PPC Launch Checklist

  The big day has finally arrived. You, my friend, have put in the hard work to get to this point. Launch day. Congratulations! Hopefully, you haven’t pushed this off too far and are ready to go live with your PPC accounts.
  Before you launch, however, let’s make sure that you […]

• Google Wave Crashes

  Last May Google Wave was unveiled as a new communication platform and positioned as a successor to both email and instant messaging. It was also a powerful, real-time collaboration tool. It did other things too.
  Perhaps that was the problem; it offered too many possibilities. Beyond that people didn’t necessarily see the need for Wave, even […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Yahoo! Finance in Hong Kong gets a new look, Yodel Anecdotal

Business Issues

• Google Buys Java/Ajax Tool-Maker Instantiations, TechCrunch
• Yandex Taps Growing Russian Search Marketing Opportunity, Forrester Blogs

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Place “Error on Page” Preventing Editing of Listings with IE, Mike Blumenthal
• Google Upgrades Google Places Monthly Performance Update, Mike Blumenthal
• Send Locations to Your Car with SYNC, MapQuest Blog

Link Building

• How To Sell Links On Your Web Site, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Books of the world, stand up and be counted! All 129,864,880 of you., Inside Google Books

SEM Industry

• Announcing BlueGlass FL, www.blueglass.com

SEO & SEM

• 5 Ways to Improve Your Local Search Marketing Strategy, Search Engine Watch
• Beware The Local Search Glass Ceiling, Search Engine Journal
• Differences Between Speed Tools, beu blog
• Don’t Put the Cart Before the SEO Horse, Search Engine Journal
• Google and Metaweb: Named Entities and Mashup Search Results?, SEO By The Sea
• Google Now Enables International Targeting of .Co Domain Name, Domain Name Wire
• Google’s Norvig: Most Popular Result First, Then A Diverse Result Second, Search Engine Roundtable
• Is it too late for PRs to get in on SEO?, econsultancy.com
• Modified Broad Match — Broad Match as it Should Be, Search Engine Watch
• Using Excel for SEO – the Grand Collection of Tips, Search Engine Journal
• Using Twitter For Increased Indexation, SEOmoz

Social Media

• Facebook Buys Friendster Patents for $40M, gigaom.com
• How to find social media influencers, hugoguzman.com
• Shoutout! Twitter Looks to be Readying New Feature, louisgray.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Hunch Relaunches as Internet Personalization Service, Read/Write Web

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

• Five Things I've Learned About Paid Links – Melanie Nathan shares some great advice from years of link building experience on how to go about buying links and not getting dinged by Google.
• Guidelines Update: Attack/Shame Stories – Heads up to all Sphinn users about an update to our Sphinn Guidelines. We've added text that addresses attack/shame stories that are submitted to Sphinn. Please read the blog post and, if needed, re-read the Sphinn Guidelines in general. Thanks!

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.