SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 3, 2012

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 To Discontinue iGoogle, Once Google’s Fastest Growing Product

  Google announced they are shutting down several products as part of their “summer spring cleaning” efforts. One of those products is iGoogle, once known to be Google’s faster growing product. In fact, iGoogle at one point accounted for 20% of all visits to Google’s homepage! Now, Google decides to kill it off on November 1, […]

• New Orleans Residents: Dear Google, It’s Time To Update Our Street View Images

  A pair of New Orleanians are trying to get Google to update the Street View imagery of their city — some of which is five years old and still shows the ruins from 2005′s Hurricane Katrina. “We basically just want to let Google know that there’s a real need for updated images this many years […]

• Three Free Keyword Research Tools

  One of the hardest things to do in keyword research is to uncover related keywords. With that in mind, the tools I’m reviewing today all help identify related keywords that you may want to search in more detail. These tools are not a substitute for detailed keyword research like I talked about in my first […]

• How To Get Alignment Of Your Global Search Programs

  I just wrapped up a strategy session in Europe with two different companies and wanted to recap some of the issues I encountered and how we are working through them. It was interesting that in both cases, their US programs were fairly advanced and organized, yet their local market programs were under-performing and in a […]

• Google Places iOS App Becomes Google+ Local

  The rebranding of Google Places continues. Google has released iOS version 1.4 of what was called the Google Places app, but is now known as Google+ Local. The Android version of the Google Places app was also updated this week. The name change follows along with Google’s May 30th announcement that Google Place Pages on […]

• Blekko Offers Fresher Index For SEO Purposes

  Blekko announced they have made improvements to their crawler and indexer to provide more up to date and fresher results to SEOs looking for SEO related data. Blekko, the Slashtag Search Engine, offers a nice set of free SEO tools. In fact, they pride themselves as being different by offering all these SEO tools for […]

• Google Bans Weapon-Related Listings From Google Shopping

  Google has begun notifying merchants that it won’t allow them to continue to listing weapons-related items for sale in Google Shopping. Searches in Google Shopping for things like “pistol grip shotgun” (above), “gun scopes,” “shotgun shells” and many other terms are leading to a results page that says the term “did not match any shopping […]

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• ROI: The Most Dysfunctional Metric In Digital Marketing
• How Marketers Can Reach And Capitalize On “Second Screen” Audiences
• Twitter Transparency Report Uncovers Actions On Government & DMCA Requests

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Free Google Apps Sign Up Page Removed – A Sign of New Changes to Come?, TechCrunch
• Huffington Post puts polling power in the hands of developers with new API, Nieman Journalism Lab

Business Issues

• Facebook Eyes Social Network for Acquisitions, Wall Street Journal
• ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Has a Not-So-Amazing Bing Product Placement, Mashable
• GM Talks to Facebook About Returning as a Paid Advertiser, Wall Street Journal
• Google sees advantage in making new gadget in USA, Reuters
• Google’s Chief Innovator Sergey Brin Aims to Make Science Fiction Real with Project Glass, TIME.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Reading the tea leaves of Google Now, CNET Reviews
• Best Practice For Your Google Listing- Record the URLs from +, Maps and MapMaker, Mike Blumenthal
• Dear Google… Please make Local Search Work!, State of Search
• Go indoors at locations across the United Kingdom, Google Lat Long
• Go indoors at locations across the United Kingdom, Google LatLong
• QR Code Fatigue, BusinessWeek
• The Latest With Google+ Local For Your Business, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• Advanced Link Building Idea: Should SEOs Automate Personalized Intro Emails To Check Webmaster Addresses?, seoroi.com
• Link Building After Penguin, Search Engine People

Paid Search & Contextual

• Block ads on your site with the updated Google Publisher Toolbar, Inside AdSense
• Facebook Says It Can Take A YEAR To Get Results From Its Ads, Business Insider
• Rural Mom’s Facebook Penetration, AIM Clear Blog

Searching

• A Search Issue is Affecting Users of Google’s Chrome Browser, thenextweb.com

SEO & SEM

• 3 Ways PPC Averages Lie, Search Engine Watch
• 5 Easy Steps to Combat Negative SEO, distilled
• Content Creation: Why You Should Stop Thinking Customer First, Vertical Measures
• Do Trust Seals Help With Search Engine Rankings?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Great keyword phrases you can’t use: FDA regulations & SEO, SEO Copywriting
• Guide to Real Estate SEO, Outspoken Media
• Heads Up: Action May Be Required for URL by Match Type Updates in adCenter, adCenter Blog
• Hosting Or Posting? What Are The Best Options For Video SEO, stateofsearch.com
• How to Track Sales from Your PPC Campaigns, Certified Knowledge
• July 2012 Google Webmaster Report: Panda & Penguin Updates, Mobile SEO & Disavow Links, Search Engine Roundtable
• Predatory Online Advertising…and not from Google for a Change, Portent.com
• Robots.txt Best Practices for SEO, RKG Blog
• SEO Myths: Don’t Believe Everything You Read – Even This!, Search News Central
• Time Saving Tips for Small Business SEO, BruceClay.com

Social Media

• LivingSocial Experiments With the Future of Daily Deals Industry, AllThingsD
• The Ultimate Guide To Hitting The Front Page on SlideShare, socialfresh.com
• Top Trends of 2012: Social Video Apps (Warning: Seedy Content!), Read/Write Web

Video, Music & Image Search

• Getting the Most Out of Your Photo Experience on Flickr, Yodel Anecdotal
• Immerse Yourself in Summer with Yahoo! Search, Yahoo Search Blog