SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 16, 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:

• 
  When Should You Outsource Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns?
  If you are a one-person show, you have to balance everything for your site — from writing content, doing backend and technical work, research, promotions, advertising and just about everything else that goes along with being a self-employed webmaster. Managing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns is just one of the many…
• 
  Microsoft And EDGAR Online In Content, Ads Deal
  Microsoft and EDGAR Online have formed an alliance to provide content and ads to one another’s sites. According to a press release just out: “Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party provider of display, contextual and video advertising for EDGAR Online and its global audience of more than 2 million unique…
• 
  B2B SEO: Capturing Geo-Specific Search
  Local search results are great for B2B if your physical location is in the middle of the city you serve—and your prospects actually use search terms that include the name of your city. But what if you serve a broader region (e.g., Northern California)? Or what if your office…
• 
  Why You Should Reveal SEO Secrets To Clients
  When you buy search services, some agencies merely provide a general overview of their SEO methodology without revealing any details. They claim this relieves the client from being bogged down in the minutiae of implementation. In reality though, these firms are simply trying to keep their intellectual property under…
• 
  Google “Online Marketing Challenge” Has 724 College Teams Signed Up To Be Local SEMs
  The Google Online Marketing challenge seeks to turn college and business school students into search marketers (in most cases local). We wrote about it when the program was announced. Google says that there are now 724 teams in the US (two weeks before the competition begins) and there appear to…
• 
  Hungry For Yahoo? Feed Yourself From Ya-Hoo! Baking Co.
  Did you know you could get some tasty food from Yahoo? Well, not Yahoo the search company, but Ya-Hoo! the baking company at YahooBakingCo.com. Notice, part of the Ya-Hoo! name is the exclamation point at the end. The main difference between Yahoo! and Ya-Hoo! is the hyphen separating “Ya” and…
• 
  Yahoo’s Senior VP Of Entertainment Business Leaves
  Another Media Exec Leaves Yahoo from the New York Times blog reports Vince Broady, a senior vice president of Yahoo’s entertainment business, is leaving the company. The article shows how media executives at Yahoo have been leaving one after another. Maybe it is Yahoo streamlining? Maybe it is a difference…
• 
  Google Writes Google Sitemaps FAQs
  The Google Webmaster Central Blog has posted a Sitemaps FAQs blog post. In this blog post, Google responds to some of the most asked questions on the Sitemaps protocol and how Google supports it. Some of the questions include:…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Important changes to email deletion on the iPhone mail client, Official Gmail Blog
• Gmail Blank Login Screens For Internet Explorer 7 Users, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Account Consolidation – Real World Security Concerns – An Involuntary Case Study, Search Engine Journal
• New iGoogle Themes and Personalization, SEOish
• Yahoo Declares War on Zombies, ClickZ

Business Issues

• Google VP Sells Shares, CNN Money
• Inside look at Google Seattle: Puppies, lava lamps, etc., Seattle Pi
• Answers.com: Hope To Fund Lexico Buy With $100 Million Stock Sale; $8.5 Million Convertible Notes, paidContent.org
• Google-DoubleClick merger brings EU into uncharted territory, EurActiv.com
• Proximic Syndicates Yahoo, eBay Listings for Ad Network, MarketingVOX

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Lost on Maps, Google LatLong
• Grayboxx Now National, Adds Reviews, Screenwerk
• Westport in Ireland Gets 3D in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog

Link Building

• What’s Your Link Building Marketing Mix? – Part 2, Search Engine Watch

Paid Search & Contextual

• Editing a Google AdWords Ad, Technically Makes a New Ad, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google AdSense Team Comes out with Glossary of AdSense Terms, Search Engine Roundtable
• More AdWords Seminars coming near you, Inside AdWords
• Stop Your Google Ads From Displaying in Gmail, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo I don’t like this !, www.davidnaylor.co.uk
• Engaging users with policy-compliant images and video, Inside AdSense
• Should you be paying for the clicks on your brand keywords, Search Newz

Searching

• "Google Generatios" is a myth, says new research, ResourceShelf
• College Kingdom Educational Search Shows Desperate Need to Clean Up EDU Sites, Bill Hartzer
• Could PayPerPost Have an Antitrust Case Against Google?, Wired

SEM Industry

• Universities Are Failing the Next Generation of Great Internet Marketers, Search Marketing Sage
• 5 Tips for SEOs to Survive a Recession, All Things SEM
• Maturity is Knowing You’re not All That, John Andrews
• Sour Grapes and Bad Vibes Fester in the Search Marketing Industry, Cre8PC
• The SEMMYS Launch, The Whineys TBA, Sugarrae
• The Tough Parts and the Great Parts of Being An SEO, SEO Aware
• Why I do not like 95% of SEO Experts, ShoeMoney

SEO & SEM

• Yahoo Replaces PageRank Assumptions with User Data, SEO By The Sea
• Public Spam Report: Google Your Honeymoon with Rip Off Report has to Stop, 97th Floor
• Chris Bennet on Rip Off Report, SEOmoz
• 6 Easy Ways To Get Eaten By the GOOG Monster, Performancing.com
• Google News Does Not Index Article Updates, Search Engine Roundtable
• 4 Copywriting Steps that Will Sell Ice to Eskimos, Search Engine Guide
• Democrat Debate in Nevada & How the Presidential Candidates Promote it Online, Search Marketing Gurus
• Do search engines index references to password protected smut?, Sebastians Pamphlets
• Guest Post: SEO Kaleidoscope: Exploring the various facets of search engine optimization, SEO Book
• Top 7 Reasons Why Optimizing Porn Sites is Hard, SEO 4 Fun

Social Media

• 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners, DoshDosh
• Announcing The Social Media Directory, SEOmoz
• Five Steps for Recovering from an Online Reputation Crisis, Marketing Pilgrim
• What if Social Media were a Disorder?, Collective Thoughts
• Christmas day data proves that Facebook is more than just a fad, Dixon Jones
• 6 Reasons Why I Won’t Stumble! Your Page, Search Marketing Gurus
• Happy Birthday: Wikipedia Turns 7 Today, Read/Write Web
• Examining Feeds in Social Networks, Read/Write Web
• Happy Birthday Geni!, The Geni Blog
• SNAP Interactive Earnings: Are Facebook Application Users Worth $1.40 a Piece?, Mashable
• Ximmy: A Digg Clone That Offers Users Money To Participate, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Google Developing Mac Version Of Picasa, Due To Be Released This Year, TechCrunch
• China’s YouTube: Trouble for Beijing, TIME

Web Analytics

• Big drop in Feedburner stats today?, BlogStorm
• Google Analytics 101 (Part 1), Inside AdWords

Other Items

• Google Checkout for political contributions, Google Public Policy Blog
• Interview: Andy Berndt, Managing Director, Google Creative Lab: Bridging Digital And Traditional, paidContent.org
• Search Doesn’t Matter, Search Engine Watch
• The Brains Behind Google’s Primary Logo, Wired

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

• Fresh Content: Myth or Magic?
• 4 Copywriting Steps that Will Sell Ice to Eskimos
• 2008: The Year in Preview by Bruce Clay
• WSJ Forgets to Hire a Social Media Expert (me)
• The Key To Optimal SEO Is Critical Thinking
• StumbleUpon Day
• What if Social Media were a Disorder?
• Silly Marketers… Sphinn is for Kids
• Search Engine Reps Need to Provide More Value To Agencies
• Yahoo Replaces PageRank Assumptions with User Data
• Building Authority With Blogroll/Sitewide Link Exchange
• 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
• 10 Steps to Tango – The Social Media Cookbook
• Sour Grapes and Bad Vibes Fester in the Search Marketing Industry
• Google Directory Update Showing
• New Sphinn Feature – Desphinn – Give Us Your Feedback
• We’ve Saved One Portland Searchfest Speaker Spot For…You?
• The Diminishing Value of the SEO Shop
• 7 Tips To Win The Social News Beauty Pageant
• Google Seems To Ignore Massive TOS Violation. Huh?
• Buy Expired Domains For SEO Link Value?
• Inactive Blogs Can Still Make Money
• Get Out of Your Incestuous Circle Jerk Already
• How to Create Passionate Readers
• Sphinn Spam Hunters – We Still Hear Your Calls!