SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 5, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• What Could Save The Yellow Pages? 10 Ideas
  It’s something of a “perfect storm” for the embattled yellow pages companies right now. Not only has the usage of print yellow pages books declined in recent years, but they’re also facing heavy competition in the online space from each other in addition to other local business directory providers and the big search engines. With consumers using YP printed books less, they’re now facing irritation from the environmentally-conscious throughout the country where people no longer see a reason for having big, paper-heavy books dropped on their porches. Economic pressures are hitting many businesses, and a lot of them have slashed some advertising spending, adding to revenue pressures at YP companies.
• Will Google Book Search Help Or Hurt Libraries And Book Sales?
  The NY Times runs a longish article about Google Book Search, its outlook and some fears surrounding its further development. Book Search was freed from legal entanglements when Google settled a class action suit against it. That opened the door for a range of new services and the expanded scanning of out-of-print and copyrighted material.
• Choose Your CMS With Care
  The best time to start working on SEO is before you start building your site. It goes back to that old saying: “If you don’t have time to do it right, will you have the time to do it over?” And, of course you don’t have time to do it over. One of the biggest ways to shoot yourself in the foot is at the very, very beginning, when you select your Content Management System (CMS). With a poor CMS selection you can truly ruin your chances of success. The reason for this is that SEO is a …
• Marissa Mayer Denies Rumor She’s Leaving Google, Comments On Search Being “90% Done”
  In some ways the “future of search” is a tired topic that has already seen hundreds (maybe thousands) of speculative articles. But it’s also a topic of critical importance for search leader Google, whose entire franchise is built upon doing it better than anyone else. Just as Microsoft didn’t anticipate the rise of search and search advertising and Google didn’t anticipate Facebook, it’s possible that something as yet unknown could displace traditional search’s (and Google’s) centrality in the internet experience. Citing her blog post on the future of search, the UK publication TechRadar uses an interview with Marissa Mayer as an occasion to discuss the issue and the future of Google more generally.
• Google & Baidu Fail China’s Pornography Test, May Lead To Penalties
  The Associated Press reports China has begun the process to “purify the Internet’s cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors.” This has resulted in the Chinese government finding that both Google and Baidu have failed to take “efficient” actions to remove content from their results after being notified of issues. The AP added that China said violators will be “severely punished,” but did not go as far to say, how they might be punished.
• SMX West: Exceptional Value & Price – Register Before Jan. 10…Save $400
  Attending Search Marketing Expo – SMX West is a sound investment. Implement what you’ve learned and you’ll see more qualified visitors to your site. Awareness, consideration, lead generation and, most important, sales will increase. Attending SMX West could be the best investment you make this year. Register for SMX West now and save $400 off the on-site rate. Until January 10, your investment is just $1195 for 3 days of content, keynotes and community networking activities. Don’t miss SMX West, February 10-12 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA.
• Top Googlers Donate $150,000 To Obama’s Inauguration
  Google execs among big donors to inauguration from The San Francisco Chronicle reports that several of Google’s top executives have donated significant amounts towards Obama’s inauguration galas, dinners and receptions. The max allowed contribution is $50,000. A total of six Google executives gave $150,000 in total to the special day. CEO Eric Schmidt, co-founder Larry Page and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley all contributed $25,000 individually. Plus former Google manager, Chris Sacca, contributed $50,000.
• Beat the Competition by Anticipating Traffic Changes
  The holidays are over. Clicks and conversion rates are dropping back to pre-holiday levels. Instead of mourning the loss of the holidays; it’s time to evaluate the success of last year’s campaigns and set new goals for this year. List your goals and primary metrics First, list your primary and secondary goals. Take stock of what you want to accomplish with your PPC marketing. Is it both eCommerce and a newsletter subscription? Maybe it’s page views per visitor first and paid newsletter subscriptions second. Secondly, list the primary metrics in your PPC account that you need to track to reach those goals. Lastly, hopefully …
• Google Timeline Experiment Seen In Main Search Results
  Google’s “timeline view,” which was previously only available as an opt-in experiment in Google Labs, is now being seen on some queries in the main Google.com search results. Todd Mintz tipped us to the query [“book of revelation”], which shows the timeline results pictured above at the bottom of the first page. The timeline can also be seen on queries such as [thomas jefferson] and [albert einstein]. Clicking the “More timeline results” in the main search results leads …

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Chrome Provides Dedicated Privacy Options, Matt Cutts
• Craigsphone brings Craigslist to the iPhone, TUAW
• Google in push to gain e-mail market share, FT.com
• Google Viewer for Gmail Attachments, Google Operating System
• Make "Add-ons" for Google Chrome Using Bookmarklets, Read/Write Web
• On Gmail’s Success, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• $6.2 Million: Wikipedia Reaches Fundraising Goal for 2008, Read/Write Web
• Facebook Defends Its Turf, Sues Power.com, TechCrunch
• Failanthropy: Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Out of a Job, Gawker
• Microsoft Readies Cost-Cuts; Though Massive Layoff Unlikely, MSNBC
• Wikimedia Foundation: Jimmy Wales ‘absolutely’ not out, News.com
• China Yahoo Bids Goodbye to Non-Core Business, JLM Pacific Epoch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Building a bridge in Google Earth, Google LatLong
• Google Earth: now you CAN take it with you, Official Google Enterprise Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• Out With the Old, in With the New (Creatives), Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
• 5 Common AdWords Myths Absolutely Destroyed, Search Engine Journal
• Using Symbols in Ad Copy can have Dramatic Effects on CTR, Brad Geddes

Searching

• CatholicGoogle: Your Search Engine For All Things Catholic, TechCrunch
• 6 Social Search Engines to Start 2009, Online Marketing Blog

SEM Industry

• Redirect 301 /jane.html, SEOmoz
• Eric Enge interviews Angust Norton, Stone Temple
• 10 Best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Blogs, Blogs.com
• Big List of 2008 Recap Posts, Small Business SEM
• David Naylor: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop
• Have a Question For Google? Using Google’s New Discussion Area Might Not Help, Search Engine Roundtable
• IM Spring Break Tickets On Sale : April Search Marketing Conference, Search Engine Journal
• Video: Chris Boggs with Optimized Site Vs. Search Friendly Site, WebProNews

SEO & SEM

• 14 Essential Greasemonkey Scripts for Google Search, Search Engine Journal
• Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008: Social Media, SEO, and More, Techipedia
• Best Practices for Content Optimization, SEOmoz
• Custom 404 Error Pages , SEO.com
• Google & Date Formats : US vs UK Date Formats, Search Engine Roundtable
• Newbie Thread of Week: Alphabetized META Tags, Search Engine Roundtable
• Poll: Do You Like Video Thumbnails Near Google Search Results?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Gone Phishing, Twitter Blog
• The Facebook Breastfeeding Debate Continues, All Facebook
• Twitstat Study: BlackBerry Users Are Totally Addicted To Twitter, TechCrunch
• TwitterCounter Dashboard Widget, Yoast
• What FriendFeed Needs to Do To Grow and Keep New Users, louisgray.com
• Facebook Quietly Pulls Polls, TechCrunch
• Link By Link – All a-Twitter About Stars Who Tweet, New York Times
• A New Social Media Search Engine: Who’sTalkin.com, ResourceShelf
• As Lively Goes Down, NewLively Springs Up, Google Blogoscoped
• Celebrity Twitter Accounts Hacked (Bill O’Reilly, Britney Spears, Rick Sanchez), TechCrunch
• Monday Morning Madness, Twitter Blog
• Sponsored Links on reddit, reddit Blog
• Twitdom: A Directory of Twitter Applications and Tools, ResourceShelf

Video, Music & Image Search

• Americans View 34 Percent More Online Videos in November 2008 Compared to Year Ago, comScore

Web Analytics

• Microsoft Live Analytics SSL Expired?, Scott Hendison

Other Items

• For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can’t, New York Times
• Google Euro Logo, Google Blogoscoped

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About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.