SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 14, 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:

• 
  An Apology To Wired & The Search Marketing Community
  On Friday, Search Engine Land published a piece about the Wired How To wiki, and how easy it was to gain a link from it. Our piece — which I gave the go ahead to — generated some serious spam issues for Wired, generated discord within the search marketing community…
• 
  There’s No Such Thing As A Worthless Link
  With certain linking strategies under fire and others frowned on by the search engines, I thought I’d focus on what links do count and share how and where I find them. The short answer to the question “what works” is: they all do. All the link building tactics we’re…
• 
  20 Awesome Images Found In Google Maps
  The introduction of satellite images into map search interfaces has excited both virtual sightseers and local app developers. Further innovations like Google’s Street View have caused consternation from privacy advocates while further pumping up the buzz about online mapping. In 2008, we can expect further innovations that stretch the…
• 
  Google Loves The iPhone, But Google’s Eric Schmidt Won’t “Talk” About It
  MacWorld starts today in San Francisco, and there probably won’t be any announcement to equal the iPhone, which continues to reverberate across the mobile landscape. Google, in particular, continues to reap dividends from its suite of iPhone apps, a new version of which is launching today according to both the…
• 
  Liberty Media Corporation Bought 14 Million Shares In IAC
  Stake Is Bought in IAC/InterActiveCorp from the New York Times reports Liberty Media Corporation purchased an additional 14 million shares in IAC/Interactive Corp, the parent company of Ask.com. The 14 million shares came out to about $339.5 million, but have given Liberty Media Corporation about a 30 percent stake in…
• 
  IncrediMail Gets Crushed Financially By Google AdSense Ban
  Google AdSense Has The Power To Lower Your Stock Price from paidContent reports IncrediMail, an email marketer based in Israel, has been banned by AdSense. The ban seemed to have caused their stock price to drop 45% in one day. IncrediMail did not say why they were banned. Was the…
• 
  Professor Bans Google & Wikipedia In Class Room
  Lecturer bans students from using Google and Wikipedia from The Argus reports that Professor Tara Brabazon from the University of Brighton has banned the use of Google and Wikipedia in her classroom. She said using Google and Wikipedia doesn’t encourage students to use their “own brains” enough. She added: I…
• 
  Isabel Aguilera, CEO of Google Spain & Portugal, Leaving
  Isabel Aguilera abandona la dirección de Google España y Portugal from ElPasis.com reports Google Spain and Portugal’s CEO, Isabel Aguilera, is leaving her position at Google as of January 15th. She became Google Spain’s CEO on March 1, 2006. A translated version of the article has Google’s regional director Southern…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Happy Weekend! Oh, and iGoogle too, SEOish
• Search, No Longer the Main Feature of Google Desktop, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Google to Announce Fourth Quarter 2007 Financial Results, Google
• Google to Jarg: We didn’t infringe, and your patents stink, Ars Technica
• IAC "Very Close" To Acquiring Flixster, TechCrunch
• New jobs planned for Google’s Dublin HQ, Irish Business News
• Internet giant Yahoo! to follow rivals Google, Microsoft to Israel, Haaretz
• Yahoo Operations Worth Less Than Its Assets; MSFT Buy Unlikely: Analyst, paidContent.org
• Yahoo! & Microsoft Still do Not Understand Marketing, SEO Book
• Trying to Fine-Tune Yahoo, New York Times
• Yahoo To Benefit From Ad Demand; Newspaper Partnership: Analyst, paidContent.org

Conferences

• We’ve Saved One Searchfest Speaker Spot For You?, SEMpdx Blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• ClikitySplit Takes On Local Search, WebProNews
• 5 Who Won’t Appreciate Google Android, GigaOM
• Introducing the first Android prototype, USATODAY.com
• Sky Layers Bug – Workaround, Google Earth Blog
• New Map-Based Local Site: ClikitySplit , Screenwerk
• Zagat for Sale, Screenwerk

Link Building

• Link Selling Mistakes: Including the Buyer’s Directives, Brian White

Paid Search & Contextual

• Back Door Arbitrage at Google?, Marketing Pilgrim
• Google Gives Me Special Treatment, SEOmoz
• The Size of the Domain Market and Other Stats, John Battelle’s Searchblog
• Parked Domain Traffic: Does It Convert?, Traffick
• Publisher Central, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog
• Why Call Centers & Live Chat Are Killing Paid Search Conversions, SEM Geek
• Countrywide Buyout May Drag Down Online Ad Rev, MediaPost
• Google Reimburses Australian and New Zealand Publishers, Search Engine Roundtable
• How To Use Google Site Exclusion Tool to Increase ROI, Search Engine Watch
• In good (tax) form, Inside AdSense
• Profitability: Ad Serving vs Listing Serving, Shimon Sandler
• Sign up for the Conversion Optimizer online seminar, Inside AdWords

Searching

• Related Web Results Launched on Google Enterprise Labs, Official Google Enterprise Blog
• Eurekster’s Grant Ryan Talks About Social Search, Stone Temple
• Potrzebie System on Google Calculator, Google Blogoscoped
• Baidu vs. Google.cn (China), Web Analytics World
• How to Create a Customized Google News Page, Search Engine Roundtable
• Jon Swift: Google Bombs Jon Swift, Jon Swift

SEM Industry

• Matt Cutts Made Me Do It, Old School SEO
• Introducing: The SEMMYS, Small Business SEM
• "Get a free Link from Wired" was a Stupid Headline, John Andrews
• More Search Marketing BS: The Players get their Feathers Ruffled, John Andrews
• SEO Pilot Projects Are a Bad Idea, www.allthingssem.com

SEO & SEM

• Everything Is Judged By Its Cover: Classified Ads and "Title Tags", SEOmoz
• How to Troubleshoot Dropped Search Engine Rankings, Stepforth
• I’m not ranking in Live Search, what can I do?, Live Search Webmaster Center Blog
• Update to Robots Meta plugin, Joost de Valk
• Yahoo on Testing Relevance and Variety in Search Results, SEO By The Sea
• Four Ways to Enforce Your Copyright: What to Do When Your Online Content Is Being Stolen, SEOmoz
• Google Directory Updated: Penalized PageRank Scores Not Visible, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google PageRank Directory Clanger, Andy Beard
• Microsoft Live Search Continues Referral Spam Tests With MSLIVSOP?, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO Book Keyword Tool Fixed, SEO Book
• All Search Engines Love Spiders: How Meta Commands Can Help You Love Them Too, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• A Software Company’s Whimsical Widgets Were an Instant Hit. But Its Core Product was Getting Overshadowed, www.inc.com
• 5 Quick, easy and effective SEO tips for bloggers, BlogStorm
• Digg staff guilty of blogspam?, BlogStorm
• My One Month Of Blogging and SMM Results, SEO Smarty
• Facebook Founder on 60 Minutes: Unofficial and Uncorrected Text Transcript of Interview, ResourceShelf
• Mark Zuckerberg Tells 60 Minutes: "Beacon Makes Facebook Less Commercial", TechCrunch
• Xobni: Social Network in Your Inbox, Read/Write Web
• Ask Dosh Dosh: What Should You Know Before You Start Blogging?, Dosh Dosh

Video, Music & Image Search

• Big Think, the "Intellectual YouTube" backed by ex-Harvard Prez Lawrence Summers, Launches with Style and Starpower, Beet.TV

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics E-Commerce Tracking Pt. 1: How It Works, Analytics Talk

Other Items

• Goooooooooogle, Googlified
• Hey ChaCha, I Don’t Like SMS Spam, TechCrunch
• “Subprime” voted 2007 word of the year; “Googlegänger” Wins Most Creative Word of 2007, ResourceShelf

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

• Forget Brains, These Zombies Need Schwag!
• There’s No Such Thing As A Worthless Link
• muhammad saleem Asks: What To Do if the Rule-Breakers Aren’t Punished?
• Silly Marketer… Mixx Is For Kids
• Introducing: The SEMMYS
• 7 Tips For Finding & Expanding Your Negative Keywords
• What Were the Best Social and Viral Marketing Blog Posts of 2007?
• How I Outranked Matt Cutts for the Term SEO in 7 Easy Steps
• Should I DKI?
• Google just let slip the real PageRank of many penalized sites
• Are Social Users Different? A Telling Tim Nash Case Study
• How Crap Content Contributes to the Search Economy
• Back Door Arbitrage at Google?
• Chinese Blogger Beaten To Death By Government Officials
• When Offline Linkbait Ignores the Online Componet
• Everything Is Judged By Its Cover: Classified Ads and “Title Tags”
• Your blog is your power ring
• Friday Funnies: Blog for Food
• Controlling Your Referer, and Hiding Your Traffic Sources : Slightly Shady SEO
• Ask.com Being Sued For Failing to Prevent Click Fraud!
• Are You Making the Most of Your Internal Links?
• “Get a free Link from Wired” was a Stupid Headline
• Social Media Marketing: How to Win Friends and Influence People
• My Name Is BartTheBear – 2008 Social Media Ninja
• Could Google Become the Ultimate Commodities Trading Platform? And Are You a Commodity?