SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 28, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Bing Logo The Worst Identity of 2009, According To Brand New

  Under Consideration’s Brand New devision posted their best and worst identities of 2009. Guess who made the top of the list for the worst identity? Bing, bing, bing – you got it, it was Microsoft’s new brand for their search engine – the Bing logo.
  Honestly, I am not sure how reputable the […]

• Attribution: What It Is And Why It’s Important

  Forrester Research, Inc. recently released their Interactive Attribution Q4: 2009 report, a 44-criteria evaluation of interactive attribution vendors. The report opens with a statement of why accurate, interactive attribution is so crucial:
  “The de facto industry standard of measuring the value of campaigns or media placements by the most recent click or interaction is ripe for […]

• Google Analytics Adds New Features

  Following October’s release of Google Analytics new features, Google has just released another set of very cool new features. Among them is “Annotations,” a tremendously useful new feature both to analysts as well as executives, who are usually not up to date on granular details about website activity.
  The annotations feature basically allows users to make […]

• Natalie Portman Is Not Dead – Despite What Google’s Real Time Results (Sometimes) Say

  Irony & deja vu. Earlier this year, a rumor swept the internet that Jeff Goldblum had died — and for a short time, searches on Google seemed to confim it. Now the same is happening to Natalie Portman — who like Goldblum, is alive and well despite what Google’s search results say.
  Jeff Goldblum Is NOT […]

• Google Launches AdWords Professionals Search

  Tim Cohn spotted that the Google Advertising Professionals Search is now live. It can be accessed at adwords.google.com/professionals/search and lets you search for certified AdWords professionals based on location and budget.

  After you conduct a search, you can narrow your search even more by checking off additional services offered by the agencies in Google’s database. […]

• IBM CEO’s Take On Google’s World Domination: “No.”

  Sam Palmissano has transformed IBM over the past decade or so that he’s been in top positions in the company. IBM isn’t just a mainframe hardware company any more—it’s involved in a wide range of businesses, throughout the world, and unlike many tech companies is still growing—and some of the best SEOs in the world […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Our Google Government, philosecurity.org
• With High-End Meal Perks, Facebook Keeps Up Valley Tradition, New York Times
• Twitter Is Profitable. Your Argument Is Invalid., lalawag
• China author set to sue Google over web book scan, AFP
• Consumer Groups Lobby FTC To Block Google’s Acquisition Of AdMob, TechCrunch
• Google v. Baidu: Which company will win China?, Fortune
• Torrent Search Engines Unlawful, U.S. Judge Says, Wired

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Location-Based Mobile Advertising Platform AdLocal Enters America, Wants To Win With Japan Know-How, TechCrunch
• How Google Might Let you Shop by Camera Phone, SEO By The Sea

Link Building

• PageRank Sculpting with Nofollow Still Works, SEOmoz

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdWords Paralysis: Advertisers Afraid to Change Campaigns, Search Engine Roundtable
• Is Personalized Search Killing AdSense Publishers?, Marketing Pilgrim

Searching

• Google Seeks to Help Children Search Better, New York Times
• Library of Congress With Help of Internet Archive Releases Nearly 60K Digitized Books Re: U.S. History, ResourceShelf
• Milestones: German Wikipedia Passes One Million Article Mark, ResourceShelf
• NYT Runs Quack, Self-Serving Anti-Google OpEd, Paul Kedrosky
• Search, but You May Not Find, New York Times

SEM Industry

• Helping webmasters from user to user, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Happy Holidays, Inside AdSense
• Merry Christmas All & Googlers Working Today, Search Engine Roundtable
• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: Christmas Day 2009, Search Engine Roundtable
• Happy Birthday TopRankBlog – 6 Years of Marketing Blogging, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• How to Rank Duplicate Content Without Cheating, AIM Clear Blog
• 5 Sure Fire Ways To Win Your SEO Clients’ Hearts, SEO ROI
• Bing’s MSNBot Crawling Fake File Names?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google & Lightbox JavaScript: Can GoogleBot Index Images in Lightbox JS?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How SEOs Win the War on Personalized & Real-Time Search, Search Engine Journal

Social Media

• 133,000 Member Facebook Group is One Big Scam, thenextweb.com
• 5 Reasons to Learn Social Media, Search Engine Journal
• Analyzing Facebook’s Forthcoming Redesign, GigaOM
• Users Still Sharing by E-Mail, eMarketer

Video, Music & Image Search

• A real-world test of Google Goggles visual search (photos), CNET News
• Porn on Google Image Search with Strict Search On, Search Engine Roundtable