SearchCap: The Day In Search, Dec. 21, 2006

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: Wish List: Interactive Help From Google’s Matt Cutts & MattPasses I’ve been making up a Google wish list to update from my earlier one this year. Pandia just came out their […]

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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:

  • Wish List:
    Interactive Help From Google’s Matt Cutts & MattPasses

    I’ve been making up a Google wish list to update from my earlier one this
    year. Pandia just came out their own wish list, as did David Wallace more
    generally. And for whatever reason, it came to me. I want an interactive
    Matt Cutts to provide Google webmaster assistance. Think Ms Dewey meets Matt
    Cutts. Plus, I also want MattPasses to be issued for fast support….
  • Why Did Google
    Stop Supporting The SOAP API?

    Earlier this week, Google dropped some support for the SOAP API, finally
    making a formal announcement about it here. New sign-ups aren’t allowed, but
    the API calls will continue to be served. Why did they drop sign-ups? Google
    doesn’t explain, and so others are speculating. Techdirt feels they did this
    for business reasons over technical reasons. John Battelle quotes Tim Bray’s
    thoughts, where Bray explains that without the SOAP API, Google is forcing:
    you to hand over part of your web page to Google so that Google can display
    the search box and show the results the way they want…
  • Taiwan’s Chunghwa
    Telecom Signs Mobile Deal With Google

    Chunghwa Telecom, Google Sign Agreement from the Associated Press reports
    Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom has signed a mobile deal with Google. Google will
    provide mobile web search services to Chunghwa’s user base starting this
    January. According to the story, Chunghwa Telecom is the largest phone
    company by revenue in Taiwan, with 840,000 3G users and is aiming for 1.5
    million in 2007. They have 8 million mobile phone subscribers to-date….
  • Yahoo China Wins
    Suit Against Hongyi’s Qihoo For Unfair Competition

    Reuters reports Yahoo China has won a lawsuit brought against Qihoo search
    engine for unfair competition. The lawsuit first came to light back in
    September. The court found that “Qihoo’s 360safe software prompted users to
    de-install the Yahoo Toolbar by making users believe the toolbar was malware
    — software that users download unknowingly and is difficult to remove.”…

  • Screaming About
    The Search Tail

    Over the years, I’ve done many introduction to search marketing sessions
    where I talk about the value of having good, descriptive pages. Those let
    you tap into the search tail, the “onesies and twosies” terms, as I’ve
    called them, that might come up only once in a month. Add all those up, and
    they can outweigh or be as important as the top terms you deliberately
    target. Today, I had to chuckle at one particular query that brought us a
    visitor that illustrates the search tail concept:…
  • Germany Leaves
    Quaero To France, To Start Theseus Search Project

    Threadwatch points to a PC Advisor report that the euro search engine
    project Quaero between France and Germany is now being split up. France will
    continue developing Quaero to help counter American-based search giants like
    Google and Yahoo. Germany is to start their own search technology project
    called Theseus. The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
    spokesperson said, “We will still see cooperation but in another form, such
    as workgroups. But the consortium between the German and French governments
    is over.”…

  • New Delicious
    Tagometer Badge

    Yahoo’s Delicious has rolled out a new Tagometer allowing people to better
    bookmark your pages plus see how they have been tagged. In addition, it
    shows the number of others who have save a page — reminiscent of Digg’s
    Digg Count button….
  • Yes Virginia, SEO
    Is Rocket Science – Defending Search Engine Optimization Once
    Again

    Like Greg Boser, I saw the articles and counter-articles emerge from
    Did-It’s swing at search engine optimization back in October, rolled my eyes
    and moved on. The argument’s been done before, done to death. But Greg’s got
    his back up now, and he provides an excellent read in The Half-Truths of
    Talking Frogs. I’ll highlight part of his post defending SEO plus jump in
    along with him….
  • Search Patents
    Filings from 12-20-06 – Reranking on Information Redundancy and on Searcher
    Affinities

    Some processes covered in patents granted last week by the US Patent and
    Trademark Office: Microsoft reranking results based upon redundancy of
    information, Ask reranking pages based upon affinities between searchers,
    Hewlett-Packard creating queries for searchers to investigate from scanned
    documents, and; Exalead forming dynamic query refinements from words found
    in documents located within search results. A number of new patent
    applications were published also, which involve search in some manner.
    Microsoft describes targeted contextual advertising in alerts, and debuts
    two versions of a way to transform large screen web pages to smaller sizes
    for handheld devices. Nokia echoes Microsoft…
  • Search Blog
    Awards By Search Engine Journal

    Loren Barker’s Search Engine Journal is running his annual Search Blog
    Awards contest. You can vote for your favorite blog over here. The
    categories available for you to vote for include:…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:


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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