SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 22, 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:

• Is Yahoo Trying To Sell Small Biz & HotJobs?

  Yesterday on the Yahoo Q2 earnings call, CEO Carol Bartz spent time talking about local and small business (SMB) advertising. She said that these overlapping segments were increasingly important to Yahoo and she announced a new deal with AT&T (to sell display ads on Yahoo to SMBs). She added that between AT&T’s yellow pages sales […]

• Keyword Bidding Counterpoint: It’s Not Automation That’s The Problem

  In a recent Search Engine Land opinion piece entitled Automated Keyword Bidding? More Like Automated Money Sink, the author espouses the view that automated keyword bidding is flawed because it is impossible for agencies to scale their systems to deliver positive results to clients.
  While I agree with most of the points the author has raised, […]

• Twitter Search Tips For B2B Marketers

  By all measures, business use of Twitter continues to expand. Twitter can be a great tool used to follow others in your industry, keep track of what’s being said regarding issues relevant to your customers, as well as identify and learn more about potential prospects. Yet finding relevant Twitter users to follow (and making it […]

• Has Google’s New Trademark Policy Caused A Spike In Use?

  As you may know, Google recently loosened its policy in the USA related to the use of trademarks in ad copy text, which went into effect on June 15, 2009. The big question is: has this change resulted in an increase in trademark use? The answer is yes.
  The Search Monitor tracks and monitors trademark sponsorship […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• A New Home, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

Business Issues

• AT&T To Sell Yahoo Display Ads; More Competiton For Yahoo’s Newspaper Partners?, paidContent.org
• Digital activism on YouTube, Official Google Blog
• Yahoo to Acquire Xoopit for About $20 Million, AllThingsD

Link Building

• 10 Link Building Strategies For New Website Or Business Owners, SEO.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• 56% of Google AdSense Publishers Say Earnings Are Down in July 2009, Search Engine Roundtable
• Beware of Low Bids and Low Budgets When Setting Up Your Google AdWords Account, PPC Hero
• PPC Agencies: Ad Brokers or Client Advocates?, Rimm Kaufman

Searching

• How misspelling "Google" landed me back at Bing’s, San Francisco Chronicle
• Cuil Tries to Rise Again, Technology Review

SEM Industry

• 96% Say Clients Need To Be Involved In the SEO Process, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO Business Planning – Allocating Capital, SEO Book
• SEO Companies, Get Yourselves Solid Contracts, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Dear Business Community, the Time for SEO is Now!, BruceClay.com
• 5 Factors When Choosing an SEO Company, HighRankings Forums
• Best Tools to Explore Which Questions People Ask in Your Niche, Search Engine Journal
• Google: Location Specific Queries Now Requiring More Location Specific Links?, Search Engine Roundtable
• High Impact/Low Effort SEO from a Developer’s Perspective, SEOmoz
• How a Search Engine Might Determine the Relevance of Search Results from Related Queries, SEO By The Sea
• The Value of Image Optimization – Further Testing, SEOpittfall

Social Media

• What about the Risk of Social Media?, Search Engine Guide

Video, Music & Image Search

• 8 Photo And Video Sharing Tools For Twitter You May Not Have Seen, www.twitip.com

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics goal conversion funnels across subdomains with regular expressions, David Naylor
• First click & keyword funnel tracking with Google Analytics, BlogStorm

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

• StumbleUpon Users… Be Careful What You Stumble