SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 3, 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:

• Report: Digital Marketing Budgets To Increase In 2010

  Econsultancy and ExactTarget released a new report today that says digital marketing will account for 24% of overall marketing spend this year, and 28% of firms are shifting at least some of their overall marketing budgets from traditional to digital channels.
  The research was based on a survey of more than 1,000 companies around the world, […]

• Third Annual Doodle 4 Google Contest

  Google announced their third annual Doodle 4 Google contest today. In this year’s contest, the competition is around the theme, “If Could Do Anything, I Would…”
  The prizes include, the logo being features on Google.com on May 27, 2010, plus receive a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop computer and a $25,000 technology grant for their […]

• Do Search Engines (Google) “Harm Minority Owned Businesses”?

  Yesterday WatchdogWatch.org, which monitors NGOs (”watchdogs”) found and blogged about a filing with the FCC in the larger context of its proceedings on net neutrality. The filing is by an organization representing minority owned media and business. The issue raised is whether the concept of “net neutrality” should be expanded to include search engines and […]

• Google Logo For Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post

  If you visit Google.com today, you will see a special doodle, aka logo, with a boy and a girl sitting on a bench together. The painting was one of Norman Rockwell’s most famous, which was on the front cover of the Saturday Evening Post on April 24, 1926. It was known as the […]

• Organic Search Strategies For Driving Traffic To Channel Partners

  B2B brands are often reliant on channel partners to sell products and services to end users. And while manufacturers and others offer traditional co-branding marketing tools, they often fail miserably at driving traffic to distributors, dealers, and other channel partners through B2B search marketing. Optimized channel partner landing pages, bulk uploads of locations to Google […]

• Shake Up In-House SEO By Adding Social Media To The Mix

  Mixing Social Media into your daily in-house SEO routine is not the easiest thing to do, nor is it simple to merely add it to one of your strategies. You already have enough on your mind to stress and worry about with regard to SEO, adding Social Media into the mix could make it a […]

• Bruce Clay’s Advanced SEO SMX West Dream Agenda

  Experienced SEOs understand the need for keeping up on changes in the constantly evolving search space. That’s why I’m so passionate about continuing SEO education and training. The upcoming SMX West conference taking place March 2-5 in Santa Clara, CA, is one such opportunity I recommend to fellow advanced-level SEOs.
  The advanced-level content that will be […]

• He Calls Google A Vampire, But Mark Cuban’s Mahalo Is Doing The Sucking

  Yesterday, Mark Cuban warned media owners in a keynote speech that Google is a vampire trying to suck them dry, giving them nothing back and daring owners to block it. This is the same Mark Cuban who is an investor in Mahalo, which touts to advertisers how it taps into Google to generate page views. […]

• Using Affiliates To Protect Your Brand With Paid Search

  If brand advertising using paid search is hotly competitive for you, your affiliates to help you win in the market. To determine if this strategy is right for you, evaluate the competitive landscape on your brand terms. A quick test: Do any of these statements apply to you?

  There are more than 3 advertisers […]

• SEMPO Invites Search Marketers To Take Its Annual Industry Survey

  SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, has launched its sixth annual “State of Search Engine Marketing” survey. Search marketing professionals — either in-house or at an agency — are welcome to participate, and you don’t need to be a SEMPO member.
  The study will project planned spending across the industry for search, advertising, and […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Spend less, love more, Bing Search Blog

Business Issues

• Microsoft’s Bing will make money: executive, Reuters
• AOL Revenues Dropped 17% Year-Over-Year In Q4 2009, TechCrunch
• Video Ad Network BrightRoll Gets $10 Million, paidContent.org
• Yahoo Finds Its Latest UK Sales Director, paidContent.org

Local, Maps & Mobile

• All About EPUB, the ebook Standard for Apple’s iBookstore, ResourceShelf
• Google Map Enhanced Listing Billing Tab Visible in ALL LBCs?, Mike Blumenthal
• Wander the seafloor like never before, Google LatLong

Link Building

• 50 Ways To Lose Your Link, SEO Chicks
• Creating Internal Link Structure After Google Indexes Your Site, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• Difficulties in Starting an MCC Account, Search Engine Journal
• Google AdWords Hides Their Tax ID From Invoices?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Double Pays Publisher, Apologizes Via Email, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Google Straw In Czech & Find Dead People, Search Engine Roundtable
• How many bots does Google have?, YouTube
• LinkedIn Search: A Look Beneath the Hood, thenoisychannel.com

SEM Industry

• 2010 Social Media Marketing Guide – MarketingSherpa, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• How did you do on the Webmaster Quiz?, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• A concise list of SEO black hat tactics, Best SEO Blog
• Keyword Research Offs Writer’s Block [SEO Writing], The SEO Scoop

Social Media

• The Economist – Special Report on Social Networking, ResourceShelf

Video, Music & Image Search

• List: Top 10 YouTube Mashups of All Time, ResourceShelf

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

• Tripping Link Filters
• Blogify Your Static Website for Google
• Using the hReview Microformat for your Review Pages
• Link Building Gems from User Behavior Patterns
• Why Search Engine Optimization Isn’t Snake Oil (Even If Dave Sifry Says It Is)
• 20 PR Blogs You Should Be Reading

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz 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's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.