SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 11, 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:

• Yahoo Shutting Down Site Explorer This Year

  Yahoo has announced they are shutting down one of the old and beloved SEO tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, later this year. This isn’t unexpected, and I am personally surprised it has been live for so long. That being said, the tool that launched on September 29, 2005 will be closing down “later this year” according […]
• With ‘Millions’ Of Users & Growing, Google+ Set To Power All Google Products

  With the Google+ user base already in the millions and growing, Google is planning heavy investments in it and will eventually use Plus as the infrastructure behind all of the company’s products. Speaking to reporters this week in Idaho, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Google is pleased with the early response to Plus and is […]

• Google’s Locksmith Spam Problem Hits The New York Times

  The New York Times’ interest in the underbelly of SEO continues today with an article that details Google’s struggle to fight locksmith spam in Google Places. While not as deep as the Times’ recent articles on J.C. Penney’s SEO tactics and floral industry SEO, it nevertheless casts Google — again — as unable to keep […]

• Google’s Schmidt Agrees To Testify Before Senate Committee About Search Competition

  It turns out that Google will testify in September before the Senate Judiciary Committee Antitrust subpanel, according to The Hill. Before the formal initiation of the FTC’s antitrust investigation Google had declined to send Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt or new CEO Larry Page to testify following an informal request by the Senate subcommittee. Utah Senator […]

• Pew: 25 Percent Prefer Smartphones To PC For Internet Access

  The Pew Internet Project put out results of its first survey looking at smartphone ownership. Pew found that 35 percent of all US adults own a smartphone. When the base is just mobile phone owners however (83 percent of American adults) the number goes up to 42 percent. The numbers go even higher in certain […]

• Mobile SEO: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

  Let me just start by saying the there is no such a thing as “mobile SEO”, just SEO for mobile search. True mobile SEO could only exist if you only have a mobile site and the only link building you do is from other mobile sites and pursue other SEO activities on only mobile based […]

• Advanced Negative Strategies For Improved Paid Search Performance: Part I

  Negative keywords are a necessity in any well constructed high volume paid search campaign. In a perfect world, large advertisers would run all keywords on exact match to ensure that the keyword bids truly reflect the quality of each keyword’s expected conversion rate. Unfortunately, limiting campaigns to only exact match keywords sacrifices too much volume, […]

• Punchd Acquisition Builds Out Google SMB-Products Suite

  Last week Google bought a company called Punchd (first reported by TechCrunch). It was a small acquisition but may turn out, in several respects, to be more significant than it looks. Loyalty Card on a Smartphone Essentially Punchd enables small businesses (SMBs) to run loyalty programs on smartphones, very much like paper punch cards (e.g., […]

• Want To Speak @ SMX East? Here’s How

  The agenda is live, and we’re now accepting submissions to speak at Search Marketing Expo – SMX East 2011, Sept 13-15, 2011 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. To increase the odds of being selected, be sure to read the agenda. Understand what the sessions are about. Ensure that your […]

• Hot At Sphinn: Value Of SEO Ranking Reports, Bounce Rate In AdWords & More

  The discussion was heavy last week on our sister site, Sphinn, with three stories in particular leading to a lot of conversation. No story generated more comments than our “Discussion of the Week,” which currently has 30 comments and is still going strong. In it, we asked, Should SEOs Provide Ranking Reports To Clients? Aside […]

• Welcome Monica Wright, Search Engine Land’s New Community Editor

  Search Engine Land has a thriving community of readers, and I’m happy to announce that we’ve added Monica Wright as our new “community editor” to help support that community. Monica is a long-time search marketer, known to many throughout the industry. Many have met her at our SMX search marketing conferences or other industry events. […]

• Google Product Search Changes Feed Specifications

  The Google Merchant Blog announced “important changes to Google Product Search feed specification & policies.” These changes go into affect September 22, 2011 and if you are not compliant, you will find your products missing from Google Product Search. To see the changes, you can go to this document and select the country that you […]

• Search Engine Land’s SMX East Agenda Now Posted; Super Early Bird Rates Expire This Week!

  The agenda for Search Engine Land’s SMX East search marketing conference is now posted! Check out the full program and register before Super Early Bird rates expire this Saturday. Attend our SMX East show September 13-15 in NYC and get expert insights and real-world-proven tactics that yield results instantly…and continue delivering for months and years […]

• What Will Google Plus Google Places Equal?

  I have no idea what social network Google Plus (Google+) is going to kill. I have no idea if it is going to be huge or not. But I do have an idea of what it’s going to do to Local Search, or at least I have a vision. Whether my vision is right or […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Yahoo! reads! your! emails!, The Register

Business Issues

• Antitrust officials probing sale of patents to Google’s rivals, Washington Post
• Eric Schmidt: You Don’t Know It’s A Bubble Until The Bubble Ends, TechCrunch
• Google’s Eric Schmidt Feels Pressure of His Book Deadline, Wall Street Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google expands Street View in South Africa, mybroadband.co.za
• Map Maker for carto-masochists, part 1, new jersey geographer
• The first Google eBooks-integrated e-reader: iriver Story HD, Official Google Blog

Link Building

• How to Create Ethical Linkbait from Public Information, Justilien.com

Searching

• Google Moves Similar Pages Link To Instant Previews, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Google Disrespected Mexican History, Miller-McCune

SEM Industry

• Sometimes I really get it wrong; my apology to SEO industry, Scobleizer
• We Keep Moving Forward, BruceClay.com

SEO & SEM

• Google’s Second Most Important Algorithm? Before Google’s Panda, there was Phil, SEO By The Sea
• 25 Must Follow Trunk.ly Users Who Get You the Latest SEO Nuggets, SEOptimise
• 3 Unusual Facebook SEO Tips That Google Panda Will LOVE! I Promise, Search Engine People
• CO.CC’s General Manager Fights Back Against Google, Search Engine Roundtable
• Effects of Panda on Thin Affiliate Sites, explicitly.me
• How Google Might Rank User Generated Web Content in Google and Other Social Networks, SEO By The Sea
• How to submit a compelling reconsideration request, seozen.com
• New Features and Benefits in the Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professional Program (formerly Microsoft adExcellence), adCenter Blog
• News Flash to SEOs: Your developer hates you, outspokenmedia.com
• The Heart Of SEO: 8 Everlasting Truths, Part 1, AIM Clear Blog
• The Top 5 Mac SEO Tools Every Expert Must Have, Search Engine People

Social Media

• Facebook scammers spread app pretending to be ‘Video Calling’, Naked Security
• Google suffers its first major bug: Multiple email notifications, thenextweb.com
• Twitter Ads In Timelines Coming In Weeks, AllThingsD
• Gmail : Google Already At Work On “Several” Gmail/Google Integrations, TechCrunch
• How Google Will Balkanize Your Social Life, Technology Review
• One Million Registered Twitter Apps, Twitter Blog

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

• Common Semantic HTML Mistakes: Are You Making Them? (And Why You Shouldn’t) – If you believe that well structured information architecture can help indexing and rankings by adding context to your content, then remember to cross your semantic t’s and dot your semantic i’s.
• Microsoft Webmaster Tools to support Yahoo! Site Explorer Community – Yahoo! plans to shut down Yahoo! Site Explorer later this year. Microsoft’s Webmaster Tools will be the source for Bing and Yahoo! webmaster site and analytics data moving forward.
• Why SEO Experiments Are Almost Always Invalid – In an environment where anyone can make an unscientific assertion, back it up with invalid tests, and toss in absurd disclaimers that everyone winks at, you cannot expect to find much high quality information.
• User Testing in the Wild: Joe’s First Computer Encounter – A unique and interesting internet usability test performed by Joe, a 60-year-old hospital cafeteria employee who has never used a computer!