SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 10, 2008

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

From Search Engine Land:

• 
  Understanding Search Usability – Part 2
  In part 1 of Understanding Search Usability, I looked at search usability and the wide variety of search behaviors it addresses. SEO professionals tend to focus on query-related behavior, and web site usability professionals tend to focus on browsing behaviors. When both groups open their eyes and realize that…
• 
  When Small Businesses Shouldn’t Act Like A Small Business
  I think one of the most significant problems small businesses have when it comes to growth is that they maintain a small business mindset. Now if you’re one of those that likes being “mom and pop” then this article isn’t for you. On the other hand, if you’re a…
• 
  TV Is Dead, Long Live Distributed Video
  Almost since its mainstream introduction in the 1940s and 1950s, television has been the dominant mass medium. Today, television ad revenues in the US are estimated to be between $60 and $70 billion. But the internet, like cable TV and DVRs before it, is shaking up the industry and fundamentally…
• 
  Introducing SphinnCon & SphinnCon Israel Agenda Posted
  The agenda is now up for our first SphinnCon internet marketing event — SphinnCon Israel, to be held on February 5 in Jerusalem. Below, more about the inaugural event and details about the low-cost networking series that is backed by Search Engine Land’s forum site, Sphinn. The idea behind…
• 
  Zillow Comes Out Of Beta, Improves Zestimates
  Real estate may be slumping in the real world, but online, the opposite is true. Zillow and Trulia in particular have been driving lots of change and innovation in the online real estate segment. Yesterday Trulia released a free publisher platform. And last night Zillow made several announcements. Among them,…
• 
  Spice Up Your Google AdWords Ads With ASCI Art
  The BannerBlog wrote that they wanted their German car rental client, Sixt, to stand out in the sponsored listings for a search on “Mietwagen” (car rental) in Google. They came up with the idea to display ASCI art of cars in the ad spot. I tried to duplicate the results…
• 
  A Search Product CEO – Necessary To Win The Search Engine Game?
  With Jim Lanzone being replaced as Ask.com’s CEO, I thought it time to do a piece that’s been banging about in my head. Do successful search companies have to have CEOs or top execs who "grew up" from the search product side? The jury is probably still out, but it’s…
• 
  Google Maps Gaining On Market Leader Mapquest
  Mapquest arguably “owns” the mapping brand online. It has been the dominant mapping site for years by a wide margin. But that dominance may now be slipping under pressure from Google. Hitwise reports that “traffic to Mapquest has remained flat year on year and is down 20% in the past…
• 
  SEMPO Releases In-House SEM Salary Survey Results
  In-house search marketers are doing quite well financially, according to salary survey results released by SEMPO today. Respondents reported a wide range of salaries, from virtually minimum wage to those exceeding several hundred thousand dollars per year, with the average falling in the $60-70,000 range. And not surprisingly, experience was…
• 
  Jim Safka To Replace Jim Lanzone As CEO Of Ask.com
  IAC, Ask.com’s parent company, has announced that Jim Lanzone, the CEO of Ask.com, will be replaced immediately by Jim Safka as the new CEO of Ask.com. Safka was previously the CEO of Match.com, IAC’s online dating company, from 2004 to 2007. He will also retain his job at as CEO…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Gears and Personal Finance, Google Gears API Blog
• Make it better, and tell your users!, Google Desktop APIs
• Yahoo TechTicker Launch Date Pushed Back, Wired

Business Issues

• Google’s Eric Schmidt: "What kills a company is not competition but arrogance. We control our fate", ZDNet
• Baidu And HiChina Found Not Guilty, Pacific Epoch
• Microsoft to Buy Yahoo Again!, Silicon Alley Insider

Conferences

• Closed Loop Marketing Team Members to Speak at SMX West, Closed Loop Marketing Blog
• It’s "Horses for Courses" at SES London, Search Engine Watch
• SphinnCon Heading To Jerusalem, WebProNews
• The Secret Value of Attending Conferences – and Why SMX West is a Must-Attend, SEOmoz
• This 20 Year Old Pisher Speaking at SMX West; Are You Going? | SEO ROI Services, seoroi.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• How to Get From Here to There, Google Blogoscoped
• New Features to Real-time Earthquake Monitoring, Google Earth Blog
• The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry, Wired

Link Building

• Make the scrapers work for you! – SEO WordPress, Joost de Valk’s SEO Blog
• Top 5 SEO and Link Building Challenges for 2008, Search Engine Watch

Paid Search & Contextual

• 1-800 Contacts Sues LensWorld for Keyword Advertising, Eric Goldman
• 7 Lessons From the Blogging Trenches: Cracking $200 per Month in Adsense, Performancing.com
• Google Still Working On Fixing Approval Process for AdSense , Search Engine Roundtable
• PPC Copy Changes Can Hurt You, Rimm Kaufman
• Predict’s Search Auto-Complete Pays on CPC, What’s the Catch?, Search Engine Journal
• Some Google AdSense Referrals No Longer Working, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• CIA’s Electronic Reading Room Releases Top 25 Searched Phrases and Top 25 Searched Documents, ResourceShelf
• Databases: Legistorm: U.S. Government Salary Database (Browse and Search), ResourceShelf
• Microsoft Acquisitions Executive Bruce Jaffe to Leave , Bloomberg
• Use Google Web History Without Installing Google Toolbar, Google Operating System
• Baidu to Start Japanese Search Service After One-Month Delay, Bloomberg
• Briefs: News from MS Live Labs, Google, and Ask.com, ResourceShelf
• Google Moves "Cache" & "Similar Pages" Links One Line Down, Search Engine Roundtable

SEM Industry

• Don’t Alienate The Brand Evangelists, BruceClay.com
• My 2007 traffic stats, Matt Cutts
• Are You a White Hat or Black Hat Web Analyst?, Search Marketing Gurus
• Best Blogs of 2007 Your Not Reading | Quiet Blogs That Make Big Noise, Search Marketing Gurus
• Married in Zanzibar, Jeremy Zawodny

SEO & SEM

• How a redesign gained me 9000 blog readers, BlogStorm
• SEG Bootcamp: Robots.txt File, Search Engine Guide
• Democrat Bill Richardson: 2008 Presidential Candidates & Online Marketing Strategies, Search Marketing Gurus
• Google vs. MSN on Paid Links and Cloaking, WebProNews
• I Robot’ with SebastianX of "Sebastian’s Pamphlets" > Robots.txt Help, Hobo SEO UK
• January 2008 Google Toolbar PageRank Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• Prioritizing SEO Tasks, Shimon Sandler
• Promote Your Fans To Evangelists And Watch Them Become Linkbuilders For You, The SEO Scoop
• Remove your content from Google, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Republican John McCain: 2008 Presidential Candidates & Online Marketing Strategies, Search Marketing Gurus
• Why Would Google Webmaster Guidelines Say So?, searchenginedetails.com

Social Media

• 40 Social News Websites You Can Use, DoshDosh
• 3 Important Facebook Updates Coming Soon, Inside Facebook
• A Festivus Gift for My Readers: 9 New Niche Social Media Sites, Tropical SEO
• Analysis: Plaxo and Friendfeed, pushing the "feed", VentureBeat
• Facebook tops one list of ‘slow and inaccessible’ social networks, Webware
• How to beat the Digg auto bury algorithm, BlogStorm
• Report: MySpace issued subpoena in teen suicide case, News.com
• We’ve joined Google; now what?, Jaikido Blog
• What is Google’s Plan for Jaiku?, Read/Write Web

Video, Music & Image Search

• Is YouTube Looking At Live Streaming Video?, TechCrunch
• Wizzard Media: 1 Billion Downloads in 2007, Podcasting Far from Dead, Read/Write Web

Web Analytics

• The 7 Most Important Metrics for Bloggers, SEOptimise

Other Items

• Bay Area Biz : Google execs to address ‘Charity Gap’, San Francisco Chronicle

Last 20 Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Social Media Made Easy with 10 Simple Steps
• Promote Your Fans To Evangelists And Watch Them Become Linkbuilders For You
• Google: Bored at the Core
• Why You Should be Using A Performance Based Salary Program
• Exposed!! 10 Secret Habits of Top Successful Bloggers
• Top 100 Internet Marketing Blogs As Voted By You
• How to contact Google.
• Four Tricks to Gain An Unfair Advantage on AdWords
• MSNBC opens a can of worms in the SEO world
• The Search Party: Google squares off with its Capitol Hill critics
• Small Google UI Change But Big Impact?
• Using Social Media to Name a Child
• Top 5 SEO and Link Building Challenges for 2008
• Google & Facebook Join Support For Social Content: DataPortability
• 11 Advantages of Interviewing Others and Being Interviewed
• Network Solutions is Going to Scam Sphinn
• ‘I Robot’ with SebastianX of ‘Sebastian’s Pamphlets’ > Robots.txt Help
• January 2008 Google Toolbar PageRank Update
• Where SEO Belongs In The Web Site Development Cycle
• 5 Easy Steps to Get More Comments on Your Blog
• Building Credibility: 11 Ways to Show You’re a Professional
• Hey Network Solutions Sniffing Domain Searches By Chance …
• Slashdot Weighs in on Matt Cutts Post About CEO in Jail
• Maki Recomends 40+ Social News Websites You Can Use
• Matt Cutts Tells How Google Can Read Your Flash Files

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.