SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 1, 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: Now Likely Using Online Merchant Reviews As Ranking Signal

  Earlier this week, the New York Times spotlighted how a merchant with bad reviews nonetheless was ranked well in Google. Today, Google has announced that changes to its ranking system are in place to prevent such things from happening again. Collecting Reviews But Dodging If They’re Used Google aggregates reviews about merchants from across the […]
• No, You Can’t Rank Well Just By Cultivating Terrible Reviews

  Over the weekend, the New York Times carried a great article on DecorMyEyes.com, an eyewear site whose owner claims that bad reviews got him to page one of Google. Danny Sullivan responded to the piece with a look at why Google’s algorithm fails and why reviews should be a bigger part of rankings in this particular case. […]

• Ask.com In 2010: Now Giving Answers

  Less than a month ago, we reported that Ask.com was giving up on search technology (see: Ask.com To Focus On Q&A Search, End Web Crawling, opting to return to its roots as a Question & Answer site. Now, Ask.com’s sending off the year (and their search offering) for good (maybe) by releasing the first ever […]

• What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count?

  Both Google and Bing have added many social search features over the past year. There’s also been talk about using “social signals” to help rank regular search results. But are either of the major search engines actually using those social signals to rank regular search results? A bit, they tell me. In particular, your stature […]

• The In-House Search Engine Marketing Holiday Wish List

  Now is the time of year for putting together wish lists for Santa, and it got me thinking about what I’d most like to get as an in-house search engine marketer. While the gifts search engines send advertisers are sometimes appreciated (does another USB drive mean I was naughty or nice?), I think all in-house […]

• 5 Tips For Looking Beyond Wins And Losses In B2B Metrics

  While the final score matters, any coach will tell you that the more granular stats — RBIs, home-runs, sacrifice flies, errors – provide the insight needed to drive a team’s performance. Similarly, B2B marketers need a mix of keyword performance indicators (KPIs) to truly make their campaign a winner. Why Granularity Matters In B2B The […]

• Bing Shopping Adds List Sharing Through Facebook

  One of the things that people do with their smartphones in stores is take pictures of products and send them to friends and family for feedback and advice. A version of that process has been developing in parallel online through the numerous “social shopping” sites and has existed forever in good old-fashioned email. Now Bing […]

• EU Minister: Google Street View Controversy Shows Need For Uniform Privacy Standards In Europe

  Will 2011 be the “year of privacy”? There are many reasons to think so. In the US, the Obama administration is planning to establish a committee or “czar” to oversee potential new internet privacy rules. Republicans and Democrats alike seem to be concerned about online tracking and privacy issues. The question would appear to be […]

• Google News Testing More Social Features With “Most Shared” Box

  Google Operating System noticed Google News added a new box to the side bar named “Most shared.” The most shared box must be using social sharing features to see the most shared stories via Google Reader, Twitter, Gmail, Google Buzz and maybe even Facebook? You can sort the most shared box by Past 24 hours, […]

• The Google Rosa Parks Logo

  Google is remembering the historic day when Rosa Parks refused to listen to the bus driver when she was told to give up her seat for a white passenger. Today, 55 years ago, was that day in Montgomery, Alabama. Although she wasn’t the first to make such a statement, her action on that day initiated […]

• The Creative Revolution 2.0

  The Quixotic quest for iconic internet ads is a perennial call-to-arms for advertisers, agencies and entrepreneurs. Surely there must be a way to make online advertising—specifically display advertising—truly impactful. Yet this somewhat misguided mission overlooks the possibilities of entirely new modes of marketing. A $50 Billion Missed Opportunity Last Year? At Web 2.0 Summit last […]

• Yahoo’s Year In Review 2010 Of Top Searches: My, How Much You’ve Grown

  Sound the vuvuzelas! In what surely will take top honors for the list(s) to end all lists this year, Yahoo! has unveiled its annual Year in Review for 2010, featuring at least 25 categories of Top 10 most searched for topics. This year’s special searches cover everything from the usual celebrities and gossip headlines, to […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• MSN Rolls Out A Health And Fitness Site With Rodale, paidContent.org
• The Android Google Reader app is here!, Official Google Reader Blog

Business Issues

• Brain Drain: Google’s Green Guru is Latest to Step Down, Fast Company
• Facebook Engineering Director Aditya Agarwal Depart, AllThingsD
• Groupon Board Will Meet Tomorrow To Decide On Google Deal, TechCrunch
• Bidding War For Twitter Raises Valuation To Nearly $4 Billion. Kleiner Perkins Currently In Pole Position, TechCrunch
• Groupon buys 3 discount sites, expands into Asia, Reuters
• Happy 1st birthday Google Commerce Search!, googleenterprise.blogspot.com
• Mozilla fumes at Google, Apple and Microsoft’s illegal plug ins, www.fudzilla.com
• Yahoo’s Bartz Says Company Can Co-Exist With Facebook, Google, Bloomberg

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Places Verifying Business Listing Discrepancies with Owner, Mike Blumenthal
• Coming Soon: Groupon Stores and the Deal Feed, Groupon

Searching

• Introducing Yahoo! KPost in Korea and Hong Kong, Yahoo Search Blog
• Ready… set… track Santa!, Official Google Blog

SEM Industry

• New Design & Site For The Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Roundtable
• Sharing knowledge: inevitable and recommended!, Search Engine People

SEO & SEM

• 5 Ways to Get More Customer Referrals, Michael Gray
• A Recommendation for Google’s Webspam Team, SEOmoz
• Canada Business Directory – Best of the Best of Local Citations, www.searchinfluence.com
• Google Instant Previews Loading AdSense?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google May Add META NOINDEX Details To Google Webmaster Tools Report, Search Engine Roundtable
• Identifying and Combating Duplicate Content Issues, SEO.com
• Six On-Page Basics Revisited, Search Marketing Standard
• The Evolution of Google Ratings (Experts Delegating Authority)?, SEO By The Sea

Social Media

• Twitter’s Great Big Problem Is Its Massive Opportunity, John Battelle’s Searchblog
• Changes to Save and Share, delicious blog
• How Do You Socialize an Already Social Brand?, Techipedia

Web Analytics

• Optimize And Analyze For Mobile, part 2, Google Analytics Blog

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

• DOTW: What Should Google Do About Negative Activity Being Good for SEO? – An online retailer harasses customers, doesn't fulfill orders, and goes out of his way to practically ask for negative reviews on popular (and powerful) web sites … then claims this has been great for business. And let's face it: That kind of behavior can (and does) attract inbound links, online discussion, social activity, and other forms of attention/popularity — all of which can increase visibility in Google's search results. Put yourself in Google's shoes for our "Discussion of the Week" and tell us … what should Google do (if anything) about situations where negative actions and activity is good for SEO?
• Search Engine Optimization in an Increasingly Social World – Eric Enge supplies food for thoughts: "SEO is changing rapidly, and one of the biggest forces driving those changes is the increasingly social nature of the web. Instead of focusing on the negative, focus on the positive. Embrace the social web, feed it good stuff, and it will embrace you back.", he closes with "
  This isn't meant as a "build and they will come" statement. You need to actively promote your stuff. You need to tell the world about it.
  But, if you're truly a contributor, no one will mind. In fact, they will jump right in and do some promoting for you. Now that's a positive signal!
  "
• Google Instant Preview- Influence on User and Its Optimisation – Why and how to start your Google Instant Preview Page Optimisaton. The article has been mentioned in a few blog publications. Hope you like it.
• Marketing: A Brand's Best Bet in Social Media Is Randomness – "Relevance has long been a central tenet of effective advertising, but the rise of Facebook and Twitter are forcing a redefinition of the term. As it turns out, many people in social networks don't want to talk about your product, they just want to talk.We've long known that inserting brands into social-media channels requires a conversational touch, but many are surprised by just how conversational. There's increasing evidence that the most-effective kinds of marketing communications on these websites are simple, random, even banal statements or questions driven by the calendar or the whim of a writer that may not have anything to do with the brand in question"
• GOOG-pon: A Facebook-, Foursquare-, Yelp-, CityGrid- and-Everything-Else-Killer – David Mihm analyzes a possible Groupon acquisition by Google from a local search perspective.
• The Incredible Stupidity Of Investigating Google For Acting Like A Search Engine – I did a search at Google today for “cars” and was shocked. Rather than list links allowing me to search for “cars” on Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Voila, Naver and Yandex, Google instead favored its own search results. I’m glad the EU will be investigating whether this favoritism violates anti-trust laws.
• E-Commerce SEO – What To Do With Dead Product Pages? – there is one common issue that seems to come up with every single e-commerce website I work on. What do to do with dead product pages? This can be a tricky situation and I believe there are other questions that need to be answered before you can make a decision.