SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 25, 2010

From Search Engine Land:

• Playing Games With Customers: Is Foursquare The Future Of Local Search?

  Congratulations! You are now the Mayor of Search Engine Land!
  If that sounds familiar you are one of the growing number of people using/playing Foursquare, a mobile app that uses the location of your mobile device to encourage users to “check in” wherever they might be in exchange for points and recognition like becoming the […]

• Five Quick Tips For Success On Google’s Content Network

  According to Google’s recent quarterly earnings report, the company earns about 34% of its revenue from AdSense, placing contextual ads on its content network partner websites. This proportion has stayed steady year over year. It certainly reflects overall growth, but some might be surprised at how conservative the pace is.
  One of the reasons for this […]

• One Week to Save on SMX West – Register Now!

  The Early Bird Rate for Search Marketing Expo – SMX West expires Saturday, January 30th. Save up to $350 on your All Access ticket by registering now! Here’s why:

  More than 150 of the world’s most knowledgeable speakers will present at SMX West. They’re selected based on ability AND willingness to share the tactics and strategies […]

• Twitter Testing Local Trends

  Lisa Barone has screen captures of Twitter testing a localized version of Twitter Trends. Twitter Trends shows you what Tweet topics are currently hot and trending on Twitter. The local trends version does all that but breaks it out by region, country and city.
  Here is one of the pictures from @LisaBarone:

  You can see […]

• Science Fiction Writer Le Guin Launches Petition Against Google Book Settlement As Opt-Out Deadline Looms

  Renowned science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin has launched a petition to “exempt” the US (US authors) from the terms of the Google Book Search Settlement. The text of the petition says that “Ireland, India, South Africa, and New Zealand (countries with active publication in English) protested the settlement and have been […]

• Dress Up Ask Jeeves In The UK

  Ask UK (uk.ask.com) has a new game where you can dress up the lovable Jeeves character. Just search for [want to dress up jeeves] at Ask UK and you will be presented the opportunity to place khakis on the famous butler. You can dress up Jeeves at uk.ask.com/dressupjeeves.
  UTalkMarketing.com reported “Gieves and Hawkes together with […]

• Factery Labs’ New Fact Engine: Just What Real-Time Search Needs

  Not a month goes by without someone launching a new real-time search engine; but after trying out most of them, there are few I use on a regular basis. Factery Labs is about to change that with today’s launch of its real-time fact engine at 1:00 pm ET. Where other real-time search engines focus on […]

• Enterprise SEM: Q&A With Zappos’ Darrin Shamo

  Zappos.com, the online retailer with legendary customer service, has been on a meteoric rise during the last few years. After achieving revenues of over $1 billion in 2008, Zappos was acquired by one of the biggest players on the web in late 2009: Amazon.com. Behind Zappos’s amazing customer service and great brand, lies a sophisticated […]

• Some SEO Advice For Bill Gates

  What do you get for Bill Gates, the richest person in the world? How about a little free SEO advice for his new blog? It could use some.
  Bill, I went looking for your blog today on Google. Sorry, like many people, I have a habit of using that search engine first. What did I find […]

• Satellite Images Of Haiti Earthquake From Google & Bing Maps

  Both Google Maps and Bing Maps offer ways to see the devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti. Below, a look at how to see before and after images, taken by satellite. Plus, several 360-degree ground level videos you can view.
  360-Degree On-The-Ground Video
  Immersive Media has released a number of 360-degree view videos of someone actually […]

• Ballmer Critical Of Google’s China Decision

  At a conference in Houston on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke critically of Google’s recent decision to stop censoring its search results in China. Paraphrasing some of Ballmer’s statements, Forbes says Ballmer called it an “irrational business decision” on Google’s part.
  Ballmer suggested that Google’s decision to no longer filter out internet searches objectionable to […]

• Google Founders To Sell 10 Million Shares Over Five Years

  According to an SEC filing late this afternoon, Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin “each intend to sell approximately 5 million shares” — over a period of five years. This is not a reaction to any particular development in the market or perception of the outlook for Google; rather this is part of a […]

• The Pitfalls Of Budget-Constrained Bidding

  The downsides to overbidding on keywords are both plain and painful: low-quality traffic at a high cost-per-click (CPC) and a limited budget quickly blown away with little to show for it. But bidding too little, or just not properly accounting for budget constraints, also has consequences, some subtle and some more obvious. Here we will consider some lessons that will help you to avoid the pitfalls of budget-constrained bidding.

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Voice Extension For Chrome Adds Click To Call And Other Killer Features, TechCrunch
• Google Entices Africans to Contribute to Swahili Wikipedia, New York Times
• AOL Acquires StudioNow, Will Merge It With Seed.com, MediaPost
• Extensions, bookmark sync and more for Google Chrome, Official Google Blog

Business Issues

• A Big-Picture Look at Google, Microsoft, Apple And Yahoo, New York Times
• Facebook User Agreement Upheld in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over Third Party App–Miller v. Facebook, Eric Goldman
• The Next Bill Gates, Forbes
• Google’s Legacy – the Internet Cesspool, John Andrews
• Lombardo Exits Yahoo! to Go Glam, Adotas

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Motorola offers Baidu as default Android search engine in China, mobileburn.com
• Seeing more from GeoEye, Google LatLong

Link Building

• Is cross-linking websites bad?, YouTube

Paid Search & Contextual

• AdSense Revenue Share: 72% for partners, 28% for Google, Traffick
• Kaspersky Blocking Google Ads Again, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Analyze This: Crime Data in Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• Google News Comes Back For More, Google News Blog
• Hewlett Packard Building Intent-Based Search Engine?, Go Rumors
• How Fast Do Friendfeed Results Appear in Google Web Search?, Google Blogoscoped

SEM Industry

• SEMMYs, SEO & Evolution: Matt McGee Interviewed, AIM Clear Blog
• 2010 SEMMY Finalists Announced, Small Business SEM
• Offline Reading List: Magazines and Books for SEOs, SEOmoz
• SEMMYS Finalists Announced, Honor Content, outspokenmedia.com

SEO & SEM

• Reason #1 a Domain Name is Better than Facebook URL: You Control It, Elliot’s Blog
• Black Hat SEO Case Study: How Mahalo Makes Black Look White!, SEO Book
• Google AdWords Tax Calculator, SEO Book
• Beyond Awesome: Intelligent Use of Affiliate Datafeeds within WordPress, DazzlinDonna
• Evaluating a Paid Search Program, Rimm Kaufman
• More Google Caffeine Sightings Over Weekend, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO: Why Google Can’t Take It Away From You, Search Cowboys
• The Google Webmaster Tools iGoogle Gadgets Are Broken, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Top 100 SEO & SEM Resources, Sam Tilston SEO
• TopRank Blogging & SEO Survey – Impact of Blogs on Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing Blog

Social Media

• One Astronaut is Now Tweeting Directly from the International Space Station, ResourceShelf
• Twitter Disables Widget Feature Due To Security Glitch, Donna’s SecurityFlash
• Orkut’s 6th birthday!, Orkut Blog
• For My Security, Facebook Demands My Birthday Then Blocks Me From My Account, daggle.com
• TweetDeck Launches ‘JobDeck,’ Teaming Up with Twitter Job Search Engine, ClickZ

Web Analytics

• Spotlight on new Google Analytics features: More goals and Engagement Goals, Conversion Room