SearchCap: The Day In Search, Jan. 2, 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:

• YouTube’s “Content Identification System” Delay May Hurt Google’s Plans
  YouTube software threat to Google plans by the Financial Times shows that an anticipated software release by YouTube to crack down on pirated videos with an “content identification system” software was delayed…
• More Google Q&A Spam
  Nathan Weinberg spotted Google Q&A spam yesterday for a search on how tall is paris. The results led to an adult site (I saw it myself yesterday), but have now been plugged. This is not the first time Google…
• Google Patches Serious Gmail Contacts Bug
  Via Threadwatch, Engadget’s summary of a serious bug in Google’s Gmail, where web sites can retrieve your Gmail contact list, through a JavaScript loophole, has now been fixed. The bug allowed web sites to pull…
• Google To Make Stronger Effort With Blogging & Communication In 2007?
  Over the new years weekend, there have been a lot of posts about Google and their blogs and bloggers. I think Matt Cutts sums it up pretty well with his the real lesson from this week post. In short, Google Pushing…
• Google’s Manhattan Office Attractive & Inviting
  Can Google Come Out to Play? by the New York Times has a detailed look at Google’s Manhattan office. The article shows Googlers inviting their friends over to play Guitar Hero, the free food and snacks, the fun and…
• New Duplicate Content and Mapping Patents from Google – January 2, 2007
  Google was granted new patents this week on a methods for estimating similarity between web pages and documents which may help to filter duplicate content, and upon a digital mapping system which appears…
• 14 “Is Google Evil?” Tipping Points Since 2001
  Earlier I wrote how Google seems to have had a bad week, with some recent negative publicity making it seem like the tipping point of Google becoming the big bad company they don’t want to be happening — at least…
• Search Month: December 2006 Search News, In Review
  Welcome to the first edition of Search Month! Search Month is a monthly newsletter that recaps stories we’ve covered on Search Engine Land over the past month. It’s also available by feed here. On to the recap…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:

• Google,
  Apple, Yahoo boost valley market in real estate, MercuryNews.com
• Google
  Hiring for YouTube Sales in Six Cities, ClickZ
• Google
  Stops Increasing Gmail Storage, SEO News Blog
• Google
  Wins Publisher’s Lawsuit over AdSense Termination–Bradley v. Google,
  Eric Goldman
• Google
  Calculator Gone?, Google Blogoscoped
• In
  the First Week of New Year’s, My SearchDay Gave to Me:, Search Engine
  Watch
• Matt
  Cutts to leave Google?, David Naylor
• Winner-Take-All:
  Google and the Third Age of Computing, Skrentablog
• Top
  Factors in PPC & AdWords That Determine Your Click Through Rate in
  Google, Search Engine Roundtable
• WebmasterWorld
  Threads of 2006, Search Engine Roundtable
• The
  World of Search on Flickr, Andrew R H Girdwood
• Lowdown
  on Spamming Social Media, Online Marketing Blog
• Google’s
  Gaga Year, RED HERRING
• 7
  tips on writing good content for the Search Engines, Ramblings About SEO
• France
  to Google: On vous aime (we like you)!, Digital Markets
• SEOmoz’s
  2006 Financial Statements, SEOmoz Blog
• The
  State of Blog Search Engines: Depressing, ResearchBuzz
• 11
  Reasons Why You Should Consider a Job in Search Engine Marketing, Search
  Engine College
• Google
  sees S.C. potential, The State
• Penalizing
  Pages in Search Results Based upon Language (Except English), SEO By The
  Sea
• Google
  Video Contact Manager, Google Operating Systems
• ‘Lonely
  Irish’ using Google to escape, Times Online
• In
  Silicon Valley, the Race Is On to Trump Google, New York Times
• The
  GHN Bootilicious Quiz of the Year, Gray Hat Blog
• Help
  Us Win the Yahoo! Charity Badge Challenge!, WorldChanging
• Google
  Is “A Very Different Model”, Google Blogoscoped
• Default
  search engine quest ends, SEO Scoop
• Google
  Ad Configurations, Quality Scores, and Ad Types, SEO by the SEA
• Happy
  2007 New Year From The Search Engine Industry, Search Engine Roundtable

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.