SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 10, 2007

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• 
  When Links Are Dead But Not Forgotten
  Five years ago, in June of 2002, I was helping announce and build links for Home Depot’s Online Kitchen & Bath Design Center. Have a look at the announcement I ran on my URLwire site here. Notice that the URL Home Depot used for the design center was https://www.homedepot.com/designcenter/….
• 
  Some GMail Accounts Wrongly Disabled As Spammers
  IDG News and Search Engine Roundtable discuss the “inappropriate disabling” of an unknown number of GMail accounts late last week. Google was apparently going after spammers and got a little overzealous. The company said that the outage affected less than 1 percent of all users and reportedly all the accounts…
• 
  Microsoft To Be Exclusive Ad Provider To CNBC.com
  Microsoft announced today that it would become the exclusive third party provider of contextual and display advertising on CNBC.com, which reportedly has 2.6 million monthly uniques. While NBC and Microsoft already have a relationship, this deal is indicative of a bigger push by Microsoft for third party ad syndication. Microsoft’s…
• 
  Coming Layoffs At AOL, Yahoo?
  Silicon Alley Insider is predicting impending layoffs at AOL and recommending them at Yahoo. Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget says that layoffs would be good for Yahoo and “Demonstrate that CEO Jerry Yang can make the tough, unpopular decisions necessary to get this company humming again.” I think that he’s correct…
• 
  LinkedIn Redesigns, Adds Features
  LinkedIn has responded to the challenge of Facebook by joining OpenSocial and today launching its developer platform as well as a new look (still to come) and host of new features. They’re described in some detail on VentureBeat. The design changes include a new homepage, an emphasis on activity feeds,…
• 
  MSN Introduces Advertising On Mobile Portal
  Not long ago Microsoft’s MSN relaunched its WAP portal. Today the company is introducing display advertising (graphical and text ads) to MSN Mobile in the US market. (Mobile display advertising is already present on MSN in Belgium, France, Japan, Spain and the UK.) According to AP, inaugural advertisers include Bank…
• 
  Google Tweaks “Host Crowding” Algorithm To Reduce Results From Same Domain For Search
  Friday I reported that Google would be treating sub domains like sub directories. That turned out not to be a 100% true. Matt Cutts clarified at his blog that Google tweaked their “host crowding” algorithm to reduce the amount of search results shown from the same domain. The examples I…
• 
  TechTicker, Yahoo’s New Tech Focused Investor Portal
  Yahoo to Start Internet Program for Technology Investors from New York Times reports Yahoo is going to launch a new technology finance portal named TechTicker next month. The portal will focus exclusively on technology companies and stocks. Brian Nelson, Yahoo spokesperson said the portal would offer daily streaming-video segments, blog…
• 
  Google News Updates Algorithm: Sourcing Story Updates & Local Context To News
  The Google News Blog announced they have updated their algorithms to become more relevant and fresh with news. The first update Google told us about is that they are not offering news from the original source, but now they will update the news cluster to show updated information from a…
• 
  Links & SEO: The Huge Link Value Factors Survey
  Wiep Knol has surveyed 17 well-known and respected SEOs in the industry all about links. His survey asked questions exclusively about links and the value they had on search rankings. There were about 40 factors included in this survey. You can find the full survey results over here but if…
• 
  Searcharazzi Saturday Spectacular: The Larry Page Wedding Details
  Now that the “who attended which conference this week” gossip chatter is over, we have a bigger question: Who is attending Larry Page’s wedding today? As previously reported, Larry is getting married today and Searcharazzi is reporting to you live from an undisclosed location at the island location, if…
• 
  Local Online Ads Will Reach $12.6 Billion In 2008, Local Search Will Bring In $5 Billion Of That Total
  Using an expansive definition of the marketplace, Borrell Associates says that “local online advertising” is worth $8.5 billion today. That number consists of local search, “local banners” and local video. Banners is the biggest spending category and video the smallest. But Borrell expects local search to grow substantially to become…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• iGoogle’s Winter Theme, Google Operating System
• Using the Chart API in KML for Quick Data Visualization, Google Maps API Blog
• Office Live Workspace (Beta) Finally Goes Live. Still Needs Work., TechCrunch

Business Issues

• Google Privacy: Emails, Off-the-record Chats, Google Blogoscoped
• Yandex Named 2008 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum, Bill Hartzer
• Wikia looking to topple Google, but will fail miserably, Googling Google
• Baidu’s search yields success in China, Los Angeles Times
• Google enters UK schools market, BBC NEWS
• Lists & Rankings: Power 25 (Most Powerful People in Business), ResourceShelf
• Paying for Free Web Information, New York Times
• Twitter’s Bankroll Revealed, Read/Write Web

Conferences

• A Summary & Review of My First SEO Convention, SEOmoz
• Photos from PubCon Las Vegas – Day Three, Marketing Pilgrim
• Pubcon 2007 Round-Up, Online Marketing Blog
• Pubcon Images: Microsoft Party at ghostbar, Online Marketing Blog
• Pubcon Images: The "pub conference", Online Marketing Blog
• Pubcon Session: Blogger Reporter Panel, Online Marketing Blog
• SES Chicago 2007 Wrap Up, Online Marketing Blog
• Pubcon 2007 Recap, Techipedia
• Back from PubCon, Matt Cutts
• Pubcon & SES Recap From a Guy Who Wasn’t There, Small Business SEM
• Pubcon 2007 Photos and Link Love Fest, SEOish
• SES Chicago 2007: Infrastructure Product Manager of Ask.com, Vivek Pathak, WebProNews

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Area man finds onion planted in earth, Google LatLong
• v2.94: Terrain and a New MapTypeControl to show it off!, Google Maps API Blog
• You sleigh me!, Google LatLong
• Two Old Planes Caught Close Up in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• Why today local search fails – and how to fix it, Locally Type
• Google Shows Devices to FCC in Push to Free Airwaves, Bloomberg
• Nokia Pushes to Regain U.S. Sales in Spite of Apple and Google, New York Times

Paid Search & Contextual

• Are We Living In A Quality Score World?, SEM Geek
• More Quick Fixes for Your PPC Account: Get More Clicks, PPC Hero
• Phone verification fixed, Inside AdSense
• Anchor Intelligence To Audit Click Fraud, TechCrunch
• Success without ads, News.com
• Where’s the Content? – Positioning Ads on Your Blog, www.problogger.net
• 10 Tips for Choosing Bid Management Software, Search Marketing Standard
• Google AdSense to Launch "Ad Review Center", Search Engine Roundtable
• Google’s AdSense Preview Tool Not Showing All Ads?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Keep Your PPC Clients Happy, SEM Geek
• Microsoft starts offering U.S. ads on MSN Mobile, Reuters

Searching

• Companies harvesting personal information from Web activits, Dallas Morning News
• Live Search survey hints at upcoming changes, LiveSide
• PicSearch : Intuitive Relevant Image Search Engine, Search Engine Journal
• Twice the Sitelinks, Official Google Blog
• Ask UK Smart Answers Continue to Hit the Web: Weather, Climate, Football, Politics, and Train Schedules, ResourceShelf
• Health Search Patient Social Network = iMedix, TechCrunch
• NexTag Considering a Facelift, ComparisonEngines.com

SEM Industry

• Around the Industry in 50 Posts, Search Engine Guide
• Matt Cutts is Geppetto, We Are the Puppets, Marketing Shift
• Matt Cutts Told Me To Post This (2 Things Google Should Improve 1 Opinion), www.semportland.com
• Interview with Andy Beal, Reachd.com
• Search Insider Summit Utah: Interview Gord Hotchkiss David Berkowitz, Online Marketing Blog
• SES Chicago 2007: Kevin Ryan of SES and SEW, WebProNews

SEO & SEM

• Bulk what?, Google Base Blog
• Google Starts to Index Images Uploaded to Blogger, Google Operating System
• SEO 101: Common Newbie Mistakes, Cshel
• Brand Affect on Search Engine Result Listings, Web Analytics World
• Google Webmaster Tools Greasemonkey Script, Joost de Valk
• When Google Comes Up Number One for Your Domain Name, SEOmoz

Social Media

• Ad Copy Tips For Gadgets , adCenter Blog
• Facebook App Canvas Pages Open to Public, SEOish
• Facebook Members Sell Their Own Ads, New York Times
• Keeping orkut Beautiful!, Orkut Blog
• Social Websites As Games – How to Win at Digg, YouTube, Facebook, Read/Write Web
• A Visual Tour Through the Basics of Social Media Marketing, SEOmoz
• Widget syndicator Clearspring launches ad network, Reuters
• Yahoo on Visualizing Community Use of Social Media Sites, SEO By The Sea

Video, Music & Image Search

• Google releases Picasa 2.7 beta for Linux, Lifehacker
• MySpace gears up for more music with Transmissions, Reuters
• Facebook Photos get an Ajax Upgrade. Will Pageviews Suffer?, TechCrunch
• Homemade YouTube Video Lands Singer in a Web Ad, New York Times
• Partner Program Expands, YouTube Blog

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics Rolling Out New Javascript, Marketing Shift
• Lycos Announces the Most Popular Internet Search Terms of 2007 and the Ones to Watch in 2008, www.prnewswire.com
• Mobile Analytics Measures Mobile Experience, Web Analytics World

Other Items

• Are Outdated Policies Squashing Your Brand Evangelists?, Search Engine Guide
• Google Promotes Lights Out Germany, Googlified
• Google’s (and parents’) role in keeping kids safe online, Official Google Blog
• Great Moments In Pr: Disinvited!, Valleywag
• How to Make Any Website You’ll Ever Create a Success, Dosh Dosh
• Voices without borders, Official Google Blog
• xkcd Google Logo, Googlified
• Brown calls on Google to help world’s poor, The Guardian
• Google Holiday Party 2007, Googlified
• Google.cm and More Used for Typosquatting, Google Blogoscoped
• Larry Page and Lucy Southworth Married Yesterday, InsideGoogle

Last 20 Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Pubcon 2007 Recap by the Great Tamar
• Digg Bury-Brigade Exposed… at Mixx!
• Matt Cutts: Subdomains and Subdirectories
• Reputation Management 101 – 10 posts teaching you how to handle your reputation online
• The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions EVER
• Matt Cutts 3 step process to building up a really good site
• Matt Cutts praises WordPress SEO benefits
• Google Needs to Stop Being a Crybaby About Paid Links
• Copyblogger: Time Management Solution For Creative People
• There’s Something About Sphinn
• A tale of Two Links – Link Value Factors Research
• Matt Cutts Told Me To Post This (2 Things Google Should Improve + 1 Opinion)
• Google Wants to be the King of All Advertising Media
• All Hell Breaks Loose: Facebook Members Sell Their OWN Ads
• Pubcon & SES Recap From a Guy Who Wasn’t There
• Use Twitter To Boost Your Marketing Strategy, No Really
• Sub Domains To Be Treated As Folders By Google
• 83 Social News Sites – Categorized By Niche
• Using Paid Search For Branding
• Does Social Begging Work? Analytics Reveal The Truth
• 12 Ways to Explain Social Media to Your Grandma
• How to Weather the Brain Storm Process For Your Website
• Become THE News Source
• Nasty Negative Thumbs Down-StumbleUpon Reviews Drive Traffic Too
• How to Write a Social Media Proposal