SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 27, 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:

• Geekynomics? Finding The Hidden Government Within Google’s Magic Money Machine

  Joseph Heath, a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto, has published the timely Filthy Lucre: Economics for People Who Hate Capitalism (HarperCollins, 2009), a clever romp through formal economic theory. As even-handed as any intellectual inheritor of The Simpsons sensibility, it debunks six economic myths of the right, and six of the left. Heath […]

• When Big Brands Discover Social Media Marketing

  “What’s our Social Media Strategy?”
  Has anyone in your company asked you this lately, or at all? Chances are if you haven’t heard this question from a VP yet, you will soon. It’s what everyone is trying to figure out – not if we should be using social media, but how we should be using […]

• Reports: Bing Users Click More, Search Deal With Yahoo Coming This Week

  A report analyzing traffic and click-through rates from ad network Chikita finds that “Bing users are over 50% more likely to click an ad on your site than Google users.” What this means, according to the post, is those who arrive at third party sites via Bing click more frequently on ads on those sites […]

• Google Street Views Allows Zooming In On Panoramio Photos

  In February, Google added Panoramio pictures to Street Views, and today, Google is giving users the ability to zoom into those pictures. The new feature visually shows you which parts of the image has higher resolution, and then allows you to click on that section of the picture to zoom in. This is […]

• Yellow Reflects on Chrome

  Is the much ballyhooed Google Chrome — the new open source browser — as shiny for advertisers as it is for those testing the Microsoft beta version and commenting via online posts? Those of us in local search are sitting on the edge of our seats to find out for sure, since Google is considered […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Publish PDF Files in Google Docs, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• For Mozilla and Google, Group Hugs Are Getting Tricky, New York Times
• Google May Lose Fairfax, News Corp. Advertising, Herald Says, Bloomberg
• YouTube FreeWheel Ad-Server Test Could Draw CBS, Warner, Ad Age
• Will The AP Get Sued For Violating Copyright?, daggle.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Android team member says Donut isn’t 2.0, doesn’t have multitouch, Engadget
• Amazing Lunar Lander Game Using Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• Google Local Business Center Update Coming?, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• What is a Natural Link Growth Profile?, SEO Book

Paid Search & Contextual

• Using Tags for Better Ad Targeting on Your Blog, Michael Gray

Searching

• Status Search: A Search Engine For What Your Friends Are Saying Online, TechCrunch
• A New Commercial Ontology from hakia, Hakia Blog
• Announcing the 10 Days in Google Books game, Inside Google Books

SEM Industry

• Raising Prices in a Recession? WTF ;), SEO Book
• Do Former Search Engine Insiders Make Great SEOs?, SEOmoz
• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: July 24, 2009, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Most of SEO a Boondoggle? Jill Whalen Sticks to Her Guns, Traffick
• Nudge: Lessons for SEO and Business, SEOmoz
• SEO Tips-ALT tags, Bruceclay.com.au
• The Future Of SEO : Natural Search Blog, Natural Search Blog
• Bing July 2009 Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• If Your SEO Skills Were a Song, What Would The Song Be?, SEO.com
• Small Google July 2009 Update?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Writing Your Way Into Search Marketing Visibility, Search Engine People

Social Media

• Debunking Rumors about Advertising and Photos, Facebook
• Facebook Makes Baby Steps Towards Its Twitter-Like ‘Follow’ Feature, TechCrunch
• Obama White House loves BlackBerry but bars Twitter, Los Angeles Times
• Retweet.com Looks To Be A TweetMeme Competitor With A Killer Domain Name, TechCrunch
• 5 More Things You Do To Get Business On Twitter, Twitip.com
• 5 Tips To Help Active Sites On Digg Become More Successful, 10e20 Blog
• Twitter Adopting The Word ‘Tweet’ On Its Website, TechCrunch
• Twitter Not Blocked In White House, As It Turns Out, Mediaite
• Twitter Over SMS with 02 in the UK, Twitter Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Justin.tv Opens Its API For Free, Hopes Live Video Will Explode, TechCrunch
• Helping partners help themselves, YouTube Biz Blog
• YouTube Video View Counts Freezing at 300 Views?, Search Engine Roundtable

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics Fun: Configuring Goals & Funnels, Shimon Sandler
• Advanced Segments for Event Tracking Now Available, Google Analytics Blog