SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 17, 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:

• 
  Google Has Over 75% Of US Search Ad Market
  New figures out on search advertising spend from Efficient Frontier show Google continues to dominate the market, stats that will no doubt complicate the company’s goal to gain approval of its deal with Yahoo on search ads. However it is interesting how in Japan, it’s a much more 50/50…
• 
  Google Video Now Offering “Personalized” Video Recommendations
  The Google Video Blog announced the launch of personalized video recommendations, based on your search history. To see them, make sure you are logged into Google and visit video.google.com. In the middle of the page, you should see, “Recommended videos.” Google uses your past search history and your past video…
• 
  Google AdWords Combines Contextual Targeting Features With Placement Targeting
  The Google AdWords Blog announced that AdWords advertisers can now combine keyword-targeted and placement-targeted campaigns in the same ad group. This allows for the targeting of keywords on contextually relevant pages and at the same time the ability to use placements to set specific bids or restrict your targeting to…
• 
  Social Responsibility and the Small Business
  In the profit-centered business, customer happiness is merely a means to an end: maximizing profits. In the customer-centered business, customer happiness is an end in itself, and will be pursued with greater interest, passion, and empathy than the profit-centered business is capable of. – Putting Customers Ahead of Investors,…
• 
  Google Enables Local Reviews From Mobile Phones
  According to the Google Mobile Blog, the company is now giving users the ability to rate and review local restaurants from their mobile handsets via a browser (screenshot below). On the details page for a local business, users can “sign in and write review.” Though somewhat buried Google has made…
• 
  3 Types Of Blogs That Totally Suck
  Blogs. They’re the best thing since sliced bread. Everyone with a website needs one. Or do they? Lately, I’ve seen numerous instances of blogs that exist because people have heard that they need to create a blog for SEO purposes. The problem with this, of course, is that any…
• 
  What Happens After Google Buys A Company?
  Many people have posed the question: why does Google seem to often fail to efficiently integrate or develop companies and properties it has acquired? Early mobile social network DodgeBall is the most obvious example of promising startup acquired by Google that has languished. But as TechCrunchIT points out there are…
• 
  Having Trouble Getting Your Video Content Indexed? YouTube Can Help
  When it comes to embedded video content in search result pages on the major engines, it still seems like the engines have the easiest time indexing and ranking YouTube content, with some other video content occasionally sprinkled in. The engines will likely start including more video results as publishers…
• 
  Social Media Is Always Changing… But Do You Change With It?
  Social media marketing is one of the fastest changing forms of marketing online. Every time a new site, service, or community is launched, there comes both new opportunity for marketing and the possibility that the site you just spent months participating in will become obsolete.   Social media is…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Templates bring Docs to life, Official Google Docs Blog
• Updates to Gmail contact manager, Official Gmail Blog
• Gmail and Google Calendar to Add Offline Support, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Yahoo Hires Former Twitter Chief Architect Blaine Cook, TechCrunch
• Former Yahoo Exec Karin Gilford Joining Comcast As SVP of Fancast, paidContent.org
• Google’s second quarter: What to expect, ZDNet
• Microsoft’s Trojan Horse (Also Google’s): Display Advertising, AllThingsD
• Seth MacFarlane Discusses His Landmark Google Content Deal, Ad Age
• Yahoo Stands Behind Its Board Again, Wall Street Journal
• Yahoo! Sends Letter to Stockholders Urging Support for Its Current Board, Yahoo!Finance

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Limiting Microsoft Virtual Earth Tile Downloads to the Client, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Mobile browsing gets a makeover, Opera
• My Personal Journey On Google Earth Part 1, Wes’s Blog
• Opera Mobile download, Opera
• The Mobile Search Advertising Landscape, MobiAD

Link Building

• Link Building for Big Brands, Wiep.net
• Internal Links And My High School Evolution, Search Engine Watch

Paid Search & Contextual

• 2008 adChamps London Recap – adCenter Advertiser, adcentercommunity.com
• Are Your Keywords Not Showing Due to "Low Search Volume"?, PPC Hero
• Introduction to adCenter reporting – adCenter Advertiser, www.adcentercommunity.com
• Search Engines From The Engineering Perspective: Notes on MSN’s migration from API v4 to v 5.1, Rimm Kaufman
• AdWords System Maintenance on July 19th, Inside AdWords
• Content network video series on the Google Business YouTube channel, Inside AdWords
• Google Only Uses Exact Match Data for Quality Score Metrics, Search Engine Roundtable
• Tracking Search Traffic Versus Content Traffic in Microsoft adCenter, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• How Long Mail.ru and Yandex Will Lead The Russian Internet Race?, Quintura blog
• Is This The Future Of Search?, TechCrunch

SEM Industry

• Search Engine Optimization: You Don’t Know it All, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEM.edu: College and Career Points, Search Engine Watch

SEO & SEM

• Irish Times Where Art Thou?, Red Cardinal
• Destination Search Engine Marketing, Part IV: It’s Not Just Marketing as Usual, Search Engine Guide
• Improving Your Skillset: Your Path to Becoming a Better Internet Marketer, ViperChill
• Keyword Analysis – Details Explained, Shimon Sandler
• More Yahoo Search Changes in July? Oh, Also Google, Search Engine Roundtable
• Online SEO Tools – the Ultimate Collection, Search Engine Journal
• SEO is About Communication, SEO.com

Social Media

• EasyTweets Offers an Almost Perfect Web-Based Twitter Management Tool, mashable.com
• How to Create Digg-Friendly Content: Cracked.com’s Template, Dosh Dosh
• First look at new microblogging service YouAre: Twitter 2.0?, Inquisitr
• Meebo launches instant message platform so other web sites can build branded chat services, VentureBeat

Video, Music & Image Search

• Amazon Plans an Online Store for Movies and TV Shows, New York Times
• New YouTube Community Help Forums, YouTube Blog
• YouTube Comes To TiVo, Alley Insider

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics Switch Data Processing Times or Reporting Errors?, Search Engine Roundtable

Other Items

• Introducing our European 2008 Anita Borg Scholars, Official Google Blog
• Study: Site Redirects Abundant, Aid Phishers – Security Fix, Washington Post

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

• 3 Types Of Blogs That Totally Suck
• Social Media Is Always Changing – Are You?
• Optimizing For Hyphenated Words – What to Expect?
• Online SEO Tools – the Ultimate Collection
• Taylor Pratt: Search Blogger of The Day
• How Good Is The Mainstream Media At Linking Out?
• Online Reputation Management: What Goes Around May Be Total Crap
• 7 Cheats for Hitting The Front Page of Digg
• Yahoo Directory bug lets you see your competitors clients
• Compelling Reasons Why Search Engines & Flash Don't Mix
• How To Pick A Kickass Domain Name
• 13 Areas to Evaluate E-commerce Solutions – Part 1