SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 20, 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: Google’s Huge Earnings Overshadowed By Leadership Change Google just announced Q4 and full year 2010 earnings. They also dropped the bombshell that Larry Page would be taking over as CEO, with […]

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

From Search Engine Land:

  • Google’s Huge Earnings Overshadowed By Leadership Change

    Google just announced Q4 and full year 2010 earnings. They also dropped the bombshell that Larry Page would be taking over as CEO, with Eric Schmidt becoming “executive chairman.” Danny Sullivan has more on that development. In Q4 Google reported revenues of $8.44 billion, 26 percent growth vs a year ago. Full year revenues exceeded […]

  • Eric Schmidt Stepping Down, Cofounder Larry Page To Be Google CEO

    Wow. Just announced, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is stepping down from that position, to become “Executive Chairman,” with Google cofounder Larry Page stepping into the CEO role. The Announcement From Google’s press release on the news: Starting from April 4, Larry Page, Google Co-Founder, will take charge of Google’s day-to-day operations as Chief Executive Officer. […]

  • Google’s Eric Schmidt: “2011 All About Mobile”

    Google CEO Eric Schmidt, writing in the Harvard Business Review (via RWW), says that Google’s 2011 initiatives are “all about mobile.” In his short piece he explains that geolocation on smartphones enables contexual personalization and a range of new possibilities and user experiences. But to realize that vision there are three infrastructure elements that must […]

  • The New Frontier Of Mobile Optimized Video, Part 2

    In my last column, I addressed the frontlines of mobile video optimization and also discussed the transformation of online video placement as a shift from containers to conduits. Now, I want to turn attention to mobile video SEO and ways you can strategically leverage your parent site for your mobile site. Implementing Mobile Video SEO […]

  • The Two Sides of SEO

    Often, when people in the industry talk about the two sides of SEO, they’re talking about black hat and white hat tactics. Having worked as an SEO since 2003 and in Internet marketing since 2000, both with Fortune 50 and mom and pop businesses with business goals as different as night and day, I think […]

  • Google Voice Tests Number Porting: Turning Point For The Service?

    Long awaited, it was first spotted by Engadget yesterday: Google Voice number porting. Though it’s only available in a limited test to a limited number of users, number porting is coming very soon to everyone with a Google Voice account. Currently that porting option only pertains to wireless numbers and not landlines. Gone Now, But […]

  • Spain To Google: Anyone Can Potentially Censor Your Index

    The Spanish Data Protection Authority is treating Google not as an “intermediary” but as a “publisher” under Spanish law. That brings with it numerous burdens and obligations that potentially create a massive legal and privacy headache for Google. A similar thing happened recently in Italy where YouTube is now being classified and treated as a […]

  • Google Dominates Top Free iPhone Apps In iTunes

    Apple has created a page on iTunes for the top app downloads of all time within the App Store. One of those categories includes the top downloaded apps within the free app category. Of the top ten free iPhone apps, two of them are from Google. Yes, Google is dominating the App Store with the […]

  • John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address Google Logo

    50 years ago today, John F. Kennedy gave his famous inaugural address. It was January 20, 1961 where John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States of America. It was the day where he gave his famous inaugural address and it is the inaugural address that Google used to […]

  • SEO Gets Dissed by CBS TV Series “The Good Wife”

    Finally! SEO gets its first mainstream exposure since 2005, when search marketer David Karandish briefly appeared the Martha Stewart edition of NBC’s The Apprentice (yes, I really did pull that reference out). But this time, the lights of Hollywood didn’t shine so brightly on search engine optimization – SEO was mentioned in a negative clip. […]

  • Real-Time Search Engine Collecta Hits Pause

    Depending on your viewpoint, Collecta has either shut down or hit the pause button while the company “takes a step back” and retools it’s approach. I just got off the phone with Collecta CEO Gerry Campbell who was upbeat about his company’s prospects and next steps. He was candid, however, that the market he and […]

  • Google Exposes Maps Options With New Widget Display

    Some users have been seeing the tests for a while, and now Google has formally launched a new Google Maps display that makes the different viewing options much more visible. The old display, with its horizontal row of text-based buttons … … has been replaced by what Google is calling an “all-inclusive widget.” It’s more […]

  • Study: Google “Favors” Itself Only 19% Of The Time

    For the past year or so, there’s been a rising meme that Google is altering its search results in ways to favor itself over competitors. Now a new study is out showing the opposite. Google is far more likely not to show its own products in the first spot of its search results. The survey […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

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

  • Why Only Idiots Promote Their Brand’s Facebook Page via Traditional Media – Kent Lewis calls out advertisers that pimp their Facebook presence instead of their company assets, and lays out several reasons why it's a bad idea to advertise that way.
  • City Centroids Replaced By Outlines In Google Places – In the past, it was known to local SEOs that Google Maps preferred businesses near city centerpoints. As Google reduced that factor's weight, it appears that they added city and ZIP border outlines in determining local relevancy. Yet, Google can make mistakes which using this criteria, which local marketers should be aware of.
  • In Defense of Social Media – B.L. Ochman writes how for decades, brands lied, exaggerated, omitted facts and glossed over defects, but Social Media changed the balance of power.
  • Google Approaches Its Breaking Point – Aaron Wall questions Google's webmaster guidelines, as well as recent announcements with regard to so called spammy webmaster activities, as smoke on the water, where the fire ain't burning in Montreux but in Mountain View.
  • Google Sucks All the Way to the Bank! – A disenchanted Jill Whalen concludes: "It seems that as an SEO, your choice is to help ruin the Internet by performing spammy SEO for your clients (or to heavily invest in Google AdWords) which of course plays right into Google's hands." — If not Matt Cutts gets his spam fighters back asap.
  • 32 useless SEO tactics to avoid in 2011+ – Lindsay Wassell lists 32 categorized SEO tactics that just don't work (anymore): "If any of these buggers have made it onto your 2011 task list or are still lingering in the queue from years past, go ahead and cross 'em off."
  • Study: Google “Favors” Itself Only 19% Of The Time – Searchers "want relevancy, not regulation" says Danny Sullivan debunking a bogus Edelman "study" claiming that Google favors itself way too much. "There are no 'perfect' search results, nor will you ever find a set that’s 'neutral.' An algorithm, ultimately, is an opinion. Opinions are not neutral." — "I can remember when Lycos favored itself so much back in the late 1990s that it was difficult to do a search that didn’t lead you back into Lycos. Where’s Lycos today? Right. Relevancy will attract and retain users."
  • Are You A Link Loud Mouth? – "To not use a 'type' of link is to leave equity on the table.   If you understand the basic concept of link popularity, then you’ll understand why most link building techniques will work.   That includes the good, the bad and the ugly."  Debra Mastaler concludes:  "I never hear professionals from other industries telling people what they should and shouldn’t do without disclaimers and/or printed research, why should we be different?  If you’re going to publish link building comments as fact, back it up with data or at least a disclaimer that it’s your opinion."

About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is 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 can be followed on Twitter here.

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