SearchCap: The Day In Search, Feb. 28, 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:

• Yahoo Provides
  NOYDIR Opt-Out Of Yahoo Directory Titles & Descriptions
  Yahoo! Search Support for ‘NOYDIR’ Meta Tags and Weather Update from the Yahoo
  Search Blog covers how at long last, you can now tell Yahoo to not use Yahoo
  Directory information to make a title and/or description for your web page
  listings. It also cover how Yahoo’s currently doing a…
• 40 Percent
  Frustrated With Video Search
  I’m generally suspicious of surveys that say things you’d expect them to say
  by the company that commissioned them. In this case, ClipBlast — a video
  search site — sends word of a survey covering frustration with video search.
  Still, I’ll pass along some stats and the press release, for…
• Google Buying
  TV Scatter Units
  Google Lays Groundwork for TV Scatter Sales Sortie at Advertising Age reports
  that Google is looking to hire a head of national TV sales in New York and
  dive into their TV ad play with "scatter inventory," ads that aren’t sold well
  in advance. Google has been hiring TV engineers…
• The SEOs Doing
  It In-House
  The Natural Search Blog has complied a list of prominent SEOs who work within
  a company, in house work, rather than working for firms that specialize in
  SEO. Often SEOs who work within a company do not get as much recognition as
  those who work at SEO firms. In fact,…
• Are You Putting
  Web Search Results at Risk with Paid Advertising?
  If you bid on keywords for a term or phrase that you rank well for in a search
  engine, might your organic result be filtered in some instances, when your ad
  appears on the same page? A newly granted Microsoft patent is the first I
  recall seeing which discusses such…
• Google Stepping
  Up Governmental Sales
  Google Searches For Government Work by the Washington Post has details on
  Google’s current and future government sales operations. Yesterday, Google
  started a two-day sales event aimed at the U.S. government. The event
  reportedly brought in "200 federal contractors, engineers and uniformed
  military members." Rob Painter, director of the Google…
• Is Voice And
  Mobile Search Company TellMe For Sale?
  TechCrunch speculates that voice services and mobile local search provider
  TellMe is going to be sold to Microsoft. Right now this is unconfirmed rumor.
  But it would be a very interesting acquisition for Microsoft, and addition to
  their mobile local search/voice assets, if true. I’ve written more about this
  on…
• Monitoring
  Buries At Digg
  Earlier this month, I wrote a long article looking at how some people at Digg
  might bury stories just because they disliked the topic rather than the story
  content itself. Indeed, many doing buries might not have read the article.
  Worse, they might use the bury reason of "spam" rather…
• Google Maps
  Tailgates Yahoo, Microsoft With Real-Time Traffic Info
  Google Maps has caught up with Yahoo and Microsoft in adding live traffic
  reporting for the United States to their online mapping service. Google
  Operating System spotted the change today (and Google now has the official
  word up here). To see the traffic yourself, just go to Google Maps and…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications

• 
  Yahoo Slams Google’s Usability, Marketing Pilgrim
• 
  Export a Notebook to Google Docs, Google Operating System
• IBM teams up with
  Google over gadgets, News.com
• 
  Google’s Gadget Numbers Revealed, O’Reilly Radar

Business Issues

• 
  Is a ‘Google killer’ on the horizon?, Christian Science Monitor
• Industry
  Moves: Patrick Keane [formerly of Google] New EVP & CMO, CBS Interactive,
  PaidContent.org
• Search Ad Firm
  Vantage Media Gets $70 Million Round, PaidContent.org
• 
  Yahoo! to Participate at Upcoming Morgan Stanley and Thomas Weisel Partners
  Investor Conferences, Yahoo Press Release

Image Search

• 
  Pixsy and Quigo Announce Strategic Partnership to Develop Customized Visual
  Search Engines, Quigo Press Release
• 
  Pixsy’s Starhabit Database, ResourceShelf

Local Search

• 
  Skype Adds Yellow Pages Tools – Local Search for VOIP, Natural Search Blog
• 
  Virtual Earth’s Curlander on Google Earth, Ogle Earth

Paid Search & Contextual

• 
  Canadian Companies Now Invited To Be Google AdWords Qualified Professionals,
  Search Engine Roundtable
• 
  Paused Google AdWords Ads Still Running, Search Engine Roundtable
• 
  Good Google AdSense Resources, Search Engine Roundtable
• 
  Yahoo! Panama First Look, Search Marketing Trends

Searching

• Searching
  for Current Events on Google and Yahoo, Jeremy Zawodny
• Publishing Houses
  Think That Expensive, Fragmented And Limited Book Search Is Better Than
  Letting Google And Amazon Do It?, Techdirt

SEO

• 
  DIY SEO, ClickZ
• The
  Value of Ranking #1 in Dollars and Cents, Small Business SEM
• Has SEO Ruined PR &
  the Press Release?, Search Engine Journal
• 
  Optimizing for Relevancy, Part III, Yahoo! Publisher Network
• 
  SEO is so Simple, Dave Naylor
• 
  Yahoo Says Buy Viagra From Google, Dave Naylor
• Google
  Reinclusion Requests Going Unheard Or Not? Getting Your Site Back in
  Google.com, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo! Changes
  Yahoo Search Submit Express to Basic & Adds Analytics, Search Engine
  Roundtable

Social Media

• How To Buy
  Stumbles From Stumbleupon NOT, Shoemoney
• Everything you need
  to know about Social Media in One Killer RSS Feed, Clickinfluence

Video Search

• Joost Founders: We’re Going After Cable TV, Not YouTube,
  New York Times

• GooTube lookout: Jeremy
  Allaire debuts "Aftermix" as part of a re-tooled Brightcove, David Berlind
• 
  Over-Aggressive Filtering Snags Video Producers, BusinessWeek
• 
  Academy threatens YouTube, Variety
• Video Sites:
  YouTube, Google stay strong, smaller sites have good showing, Compete Blog

Podcasts

• 
  Design, Google Update, Patent Apps, AdWords Algorithm, & More, Search
  Pulse
• Google Goes For TV
  Ads; How Fresh Is Your Search Engine? Real Time Traffic Data On Map & More!,
  Daily SearchCast=

Other Stuff

• 
  Traveling Down Under: GWC at Search Engine Room and Search Summit Australia,
  Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• 
  Reader Poll: Best SEO SEM Conferences, Search Engine Journal
• Google ReBang :
  Chinese Language Zeitgest, Search Engine Journal
• 
  Applying Styles to Search Results, Google Search API Blog
• 
  Testapalooza, Official Google Testing Blog