SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 7, 2011

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Instant Replay: Where To Find The Super Bowl Ads

  Are you one of those people who get upset when the Super Bowl gets interrupted by football or corny half-time events? You know, those sideshows to the real reason people watch—the ads. Fortunately, you can find all of the Super Bowl ads online. Even better: there’s no need to sift through parodies or spam on […]

• Google I/O Conference 2011 Sells Out In 59 Minutes

  Now in its fourth year, Google I/O is more popular than ever. The company’s annual conference for the developer community opened for registration today and promptly sold out … in just 59 minutes. Vic Gundotra, Google’s VP of Engineering, posted successive tweets earlier today about the speedy sellout, saying it took 90 days and 50 […]

• Google To EU: We’ll Consider Changing The Algorithm

  According to the UK-based Telegraph Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday that “Google could be willing to change some of its algorithm methodology in search,” to avoid potential fines or other penalties that might be coming as part of the European Commission’s antitrust investigation against Google now in progress. The investigation was formally undertaken last […]

• Hot At Sphinn: Google Vs. Bing, Affiliate Review Sites & More

  If you guessed that last week’s Google vs. Bing “copycat” saga was the main discussion topic on Sphinn, you’re right. There were several stories published that attracted comments and other activity, and a separate story about affiliate review sites was the most popular Sphinn story of the week among Twitter users. Our “Discussion of the […]

• SMX Biggest Search Geek Challenge: Still Time To Win A Trip To SMX

  Tired of winter? Want to win a trip to SMX West in sunny California? Click on over to take the 3rd annual SMX Biggest Search Geek Contest sponsored by Marin Software. The contest consists of 20 challenging questions related to search marketing. The highest scoring contestant will win a trip for two to SMX West […]

• Early Look, Google’s Cool Interactive Jules Verne Logo Now Live

  Tomorrow is Jules Verne’s 183rd birthday and Google is showcasing a special logo to remember him. Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828 and died on March 24, 1905. He was known as a French Breton author who pioneered the science-fiction genre. He is also referred to as the “Father of Science Fiction.” His […]

• Blekko: Actually We Have A Million Slashtags

  Embargoed news for this morning was published last week. That news was that Blekko had 30 million search queries in January and “users have created more than 110,000 slashtags since the company’s launch in November, an indication the search market is thirsty for innovation.” Blekko has recently gained attention for banning the “top 20 spam […]

• Google’s Egypt Executive, Wael Ghonim, Should Be Released From Egyptian Custody Now

  TechCrunch reported that CNN’s news anchor Hala Gorani tweeted that the Egyptian PM, Ahmed Shafiq said Google’s executive based in Egypt will be released today at 4pm Egyptian time. Being that it is after 4:30pm local time in Egypt, I’d hope he has been released. Although I still do not see any confirmation from Google […]

• The United State Of Social & Mobile Marketing

  Raise your hand if you’ve had to choose between mobile and social for your emerging media budget this year. Budgets sometimes have a line item for social and a line for mobile, but in truth, sometimes it’s difficult to tell them apart. Case in point: this past week Facebook CTO Bret Taylor said “My sense […]

• Google Instant Now On Product Search

  Google announced they have added Google Instant to Google Shopping Search view within the web results. If you are on Google.com, search for a product and then filter your search on the left hand side by “Shopping”, Google Instant will allow you to search for new products. Interestingly enough, this does not seem to work […]

• Twitter Study: Mainstream News Are Carbs, Blogs Are Protein For Your Marketing

  What do I mean by that headline? A study from Stanford University, summarized by the NY Times, found “that bloggers, over time, had more influence than mainstream publications in areas like technology or entertainment.” In other words a mention or write up in a top publication will generate a “sugar rush” of interest and activity […]

• Scoring the 2011 Super Bowl Commercials For Search Visibility and Visitor Engagement

  Every year, advertisers pay millions to air commercials during the Super Bowl. (The price this year is around three million dollars for a thirty second slot.) Advertisers are looking not only for conversions (sure, Hyundia would love for you to run out and buy that new Elantra tomorrow) but also heightened awareness and engagement. The […]

• What Time Does the 2011 Super Bowl Start? A (Continuing) Lesson in Search Visibility

  (For those wondering what time the game really does start, the 2011 Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers kicks off on Fox at around 6:30pm ET.) Before the Super Bowl in both 2009 and 2010, I checked out the search engine results for the Super Bowl start time. In 2009, […]

• Turning The Tables On The Google Toolbar & Disclosure Claims

  Part of this week’s debate over whether Microsoft’s Bing search engine is learning from Google involves data that Bing gathers through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Google has suggested Microsoft isn’t giving fair disclosure. I disagree. To better illustrate, let’s turn the tables and look at the Google Toolbar and disclosure. Over the past week, Google has […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Priority Inbox in Gmail for mobile, Official Gmail Blog
• Register for Google I/O 2011, Official Google Blog
• Yahoo Is Said to Move Toward Personalized Content, New York Times

Business Issues

• Susan Wojcicki: The most important Googler you’ve never heard of, Mercury News
• Twitter CEO: Profile of Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, chicagotribune.com
• AOL Buys Huffington Post for $315 Million in Cash, AllThingsD
• Google Ventures Invests In Web Security Company Dasient, TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Giant archaeological trove found in Google Earth, newscientist.com
• Google Local Search Strategy Needs Marketing Muscle, Google Watch
• Google Places: Testimonials as Reviews Now Viewed As Spam?, Mike Blumenthal
• Google’s Rich Snippets For Local FAQ Update, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• Are There New Link Building Techniques?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Mea Culpa: How I Failed At Link Building, Search Engine Watch
• Nofollow Link Attribute – So How Does Google Treat It (& Do We Need to Care?), Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Merging AdWords Extensions, AdWords Help Experts

Searching

• You Say It’s Your Birthday; It’s My (Martian) Birthday Too! Yeah!, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEO & SEM

• Optimizing your site for TV is now easier, The Official Google TV Blog
• Google AdWords Now Allowing Exclamation Points In Titles, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Merchant Center Launches in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, Google Merchant Blog
• Google Removes Beta From Fetch As GoogleBot Within Webmaster Tools, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google: "Expect Some Big Changes Here Very Shortly", Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Avoid Being Labelled as a Content Farm, SEOptimise
• How to transform content from blah to bang with SEO copy editing, SEO Copywriting
• The True Impact of Duplicate Content, Search Engine Journal
• Training Tips for SEOs, SEOmoz
• What are some examples of SEO misinformation?, YouTube

Social Media

• How Google removed the muzzle on Twitter in Egypt, Yahoo! Finance
• Zuckerberg’s Old Best Friend Poaches From Facebook, As Quora Hires A New Product Leader, businessinsider.com
• Facebook Celebrates Birthday And 600 Million Users?, All Facebook
• 5 Ways to Tie Social Media to Business Goals, oneforty.com
• Live Commenting: Behind the Scenes, Facebook
• Why Quora & Social Media Experts Don’t Mix, The Quora Review

Video, Music & Image Search

• Take your photos with you anywhere, Google Photos Blog

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

• The Rising Importance of Flexible Web Layouts – Just a few years ago, creating a fixed-width design and the coding to stick to that width was practical, as long as it could accommodate a wide range of users. However, just a few years ago, having the Internet on a cell phone was a luxury, netbooks were rare, and the convenient tablet device, such as an iPad, didn't even exist. Now, a fixed-width design is almost inconvenient.
• Why Does Google Police Links While Ignoring Garbage Content? – Aaron Wall offers up an interesting take on how Google's treats paid links vs. how it treats content farms.
• What are the core UX considerations when targeting the 50+ demographic? – A great questions that refers specifically to web applications.  There are currently 3 quality answers that are each unique and helpful.
• Scoring the 2011 Super Bowl Commercials For Search Visibility and Visitor Engagement – Every year, advertisers pay millions to air commercials during the Super Bowl. (The price this year is around three million dollars for a thirty second slot.) Advertisers are looking not only for conversions but also heightened awareness and engagement. The more you engage with a brand and have a positive association with it, the more likely you’ll buy that brand in the future, so conventional wisdom goes. Here is a breakdown of the ad class of 2011…
• Mea Culpa: How I Failed At Link Building – Adam Audette's post where he details how he lost a valued client due to a low quality link-building strategy.