SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 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 Labs To Be Closed As Larry Page’s Product Streamlining Continues Is there any doubt that things at Google have changed under new CEO Larry Page? Today the company has announced […]

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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 Labs To Be Closed As Larry Page’s Product Streamlining Continues

    Is there any doubt that things at Google have changed under new CEO Larry Page? Today the company has announced the impending closure of Google Labs, its experimental playground where many popular Google products were born. In its announcement, Google says the decision to shut down Google Labs is part of its new focus on […]

  • Google Reaches Out To Texas Businesses With Free Websites, Marketing Help

    Google’s latest effort to increase small business adoption of its products and services is a program called Texas Get Your Business Online that offers a free website, free hosting, domain name, a business listing on Google Places and additional marketing help. The effort is being accompanied by an aggressive promotion campaign, like the heavy and […]

  • A B2B Community Manager’s Guide To Identifying True Twitter Friends

    The role of the online community manager (CM) was born out of the need for brands to connect with relevant people in a meaningful way. To establish authority and offer value to a relevant community by way of sharing awesome, complimentary content, to solve problems as they arise, to monitor and moderate topical conversations—that was […]

  • Looking Up The Funnel: Web Conversion Strategies By Traffic Source

    Many marketers start their conversion optimization efforts by looking at the behavior of a visitor once they arrive on a website. Which buttons are effective in attracting clicks? What type of product images encourage cart additions? What messaging seems to work on a particular landing page? But a journey down the conversion funnel always starts […]

  • After Weak Q2 Time May Be Running Out For Yahoo’s Bartz

    She was supposed to help turn around the company, but Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz may soon be the one in turnaround because of another mixed or mediocre quarter. The search alliance and revenue share with Microsoft was partly blamed for Q2 revenues being down compared the same period last year: Revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs […]

  • How To Maximize SEM Efforts With Search Retargeting

    Last month, we discussed how display media has evolved to be more quantitative in Why Search Marketers Are The Future Media Planners, and ironically, how the skillset held by search marketers has become more relevant to display media than the skill set held by current media planners. Using the real-time environment of the media exchanges, ‘search […]

  • Google Pea Logo For Gregor Mendel

    Today on Google you will find a special logo for the 189th birthday of Gregor Mendel. Gregor Mendel discovered the science of genetics while studying the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Because of this discovery, Google wanted people to remember who he is, what he did for science and medicine today and simply […]

  • Final Nail In The Google Directory Coffin

    In 2008, Google removed directory links from Webmaster Tools and in December 2010, Google dropped the search box from the Google directory. Today, Google has completely removed the Google Directory as a Google service. Going to directory.google.com will show you a notice that reads the “Google Directory is no longer available.” Yesterday the directory was […]

  • +1 For The In-House Search Engine Marketer

    After years of minimal change to the format of AdWords ads (some ad extensions are the only radical change), all paid search ads now have the +1 button right after the headline on their right side. How will this new social aspect impact paid search marketing? And what can in-house search marketers do now to […]

  • Google Warns Of Malware Redirecting To Its Search Results

    Do a search on Google, and you might get an unexpected surprise. A big notice at the top of your results warning that your computer has been infected with malware. Here’s an example of how it looks: What malware? Produced by whom? Google’s not giving any details there yet, simply blogging: This particular malware causes […]

  • Google Working On Opt-In Settlement Of Book Search Lawsuit

    A Google attorney told a federal judge today that the two sides involved in the long-running Google Book Search lawsuit settlement are negotiating an “opt-in settlement” in an attempt to finally put the case to rest. As The Laboratorium reports, Google’s attorney Michael Boni told Judge Dennis Chin that both sides “have been aiming for […]

  • When A Welcome Tab Isn’t Enough: Use Custom Facebook Tabs To Give Fans More

    When it comes to custom landing tabs, all the big brands have them, all little businesses want them, but just how effective are they in engaging your Facebook Page’s following? Since landing tabs primarily target those who don’t already “Like” your Page, what’s in it for your fans, and are your fans even aware of […]

  • Local Search: Mostly A Small City & Southern Activity, Report Says

    Do Internet users in the southern US do more local searches than the rest of the country? Are searchers in smaller cities more likely to conduct local searches than those in New York City, Chicago and the San Francisco area? The answer to those questions is “yes,” at least according to recent data compiled by […]

Search News From Around The Web:

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Local, Maps & Mobile

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SEO & SEM

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Video, Music & Image Search

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

  • Discussion: Are links less important today for ranking than they were 5 years ago? – Few would argue that the SEO landscape has changed at least a bit over the past five years. We're using new tactics and platforms for visibility, for starters. In our "Discussion of the Week," we want to know if the changing landscape has impacted the value of links and linkbuilding? Are links less important for ranking today than they were five years ago? Or are they more important, perhaps? The floor is open for your comments!
  • An ex-Googler's inside view on Google+ vs. Facebook – Dhanji R. Prasanna is a Sydney-based software engineer. He recently left Google after a nearly three-year stint working on projects like Google Wave.
  • Fixing 5 common SEO problems with HTML5 – Much of HTML5 is ready go right now and can be used to help with real SEO problems. This article outlines a few HTML5 features and how they can be used for SEO.
  • 4 Ridiculous Digital Marketing Topics That Won’t Die – Says Adam Singer: "There are no shortage of absurd conversations that keep coming up in technology and marketing blogs. But there are a few especially ridiculous topics that simply won’t die."
  • Google+ has a 'celebrity acquisition plan' – Following in Twitter’s footsteps, which quickly realized that brands and celebrities want a way to claim their identity on the service, Google plans to verify the identities of public figures on its social network, Google+, CNN reports.

About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and 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.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.

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