SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 9, 2010

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Friday Maps Mania: Street View Back In Europe, “Wi-Spy” Accusations In US, Mapquest Opens Up & Put Your Check-ins On The Map

  With lots of mapping news today, we’re combining it all into a single round up, which focuses largely on Google. The company decided, after suspending, examining and “scrubbing” its Street View equipment in Europe and elsewhere, to resume collecting imagery and related data in several countries:
  Having spoken to the relevant regulators, we have decided to […]
• Webcast Wednesday: “Getting Search Ready For Holiday Retail – Now!”

  Search Marketing Now hosts a webcast next Wednesday featuring research from Hitwise about the online retail markets, as well as practical tips for success from a leading online retailer.
  On July 27, at 1 PM EDT, Heather Dougherty, Research Director at Hitwise, and Lynn Lanphier, Senior Manager, Customer Experience at BestBuy.com will talk about how online […]

• China Renews Google License To Operate In China

  Google updated their blog post on China saying the Chinese government has renewed their licenses to operate in China. Google said they “are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP license and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China.”
  When Google stopped censoring […]

• Where Is Search Going: Google’s Johanna Wright

  With this post, I return to the topic I got sidetracked from a few months back: where is search going? I’ve had the chance to talk to Stefan Weitz from Microsoft, The Search author John Battelle and, this time around, I had the chance to pose a few questions to Johanna Wright, Google’s Product Management […]

• How To Hire A Good Web Analytics Person

  I’ve been asked several times lately how to attract good web analytics talent. It’s a bit of a tough question, but I do think there are some guidelines that can be followed to increase your chances at finding a really talented web analytics person. Here’s my best shot at that formula.
  Threaten yourself
  You need to be […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Rich text signatures, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• The Online Travel Industry Worries About Google, Forbes
• Yahoo Hires Ex-Microsoft Exec Shaughnessy As SVP Of Product Management, paidContent.org
• Baidu employees obtain huge gains through promoting gambling site, People’s Daily Online
• Former Googler And White House Staffer Katie Jacobs Stanton Heads To Twitter, TechCrunch
• Just Released: Complete Video: "Life after the Google Book Search Settlement" Panel at ALA 2010 Annual Conference, ResourceShelf
• NTP Sues Apple, Google, Microsoft And Others Over Wireless Email Patents, TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps Offering 30 days of FREE advertising with Google Tag Sign Up, Mike Blumenthal
• Massive NYC Billboard Nets Gowalla A Whopping 84 Checkins From 64 People, Business Insider
• World Cup Yahoo! Mobile Search Trends, Y! Mobile Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• 3 Months Later, Google AdSense Publisher Still Hacked & Out Tens Of Thousands, Search Engine Roundtable
• iPad Users Can’t Manage Their Google AdWords Accounts, Search Engine Roundtable
• Zillow taking over Yahoo’s real estate listings, VentureBeat

Searching

• New Format for Google’s Definition Results, Google Operating System
• New Pilot Database Project from the Law Library of Congress: The Global Legal Information Catalog, ResourceShelf
• Reference and Research: Timelines: Sources of History from British Library Wins Award, ResourceShelf

SEM Industry

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: July 9, 2010, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Briefing Paper: The Semantic Web, Linked and Open Data and Additional Related Resources, ResourceShelf
• Changing Old Code To CSS Killed One Webmaster’s Google Rankings, Search Engine Roundtable
• Don’t Get Stuck on the SEO, There is So Much More, seoaware.com
• Google Bans AdWords Help For Cloaking, Making It Hard To Help Advertisers, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO Checklist for E-Commerce Sites, Blue Hat SEO
• Whiteboard Friday – 7 Ways to Take Advantage of Google’s Site Speed Algorithm (Pop-Up Video Style), SEOmoz

Social Media

• Last Call for Facebook Gifts, blog.facebook.com
• Exclusive: Want More Followers? Twitter May Help You Buy Some, AllThingsD
• Five tips for B2B social media marketing, econsultancy.com
• Getting All Employees Involved in Your Social Media Plan, Search Engine Journal
• LinkedIn SEO: How To Get More Calls From Recruiters, RustyBrick
• Phony Twitter Profiles Aim to Outwit Spammers, Technology Review
• The Art of Sharing on Facebook, blueglass.com
• World Population Day 2010, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Investing in the Future of Video: YouTube Announces Partner Grant Program, YouTube Blog
• What’s bigger than 1080p? 4K video comes to YouTube, YouTube Blog

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

• 18+ SEO Excel Functions – SEO and Excel are like chocolate and peanut butter – great together. Here are 18 Excel functions (and two formulas) that can make SEO just a little bit easier.
• Mapping Anchor Text To Landing Pages – A simple, but effective overview of something that is overlooked far too often.
• Becoming a More Dedicated Blogger – The best way to achieve a consistent audience for your blog is to practice consistency yourself. To become a more dedicated blogger, set a blogging schedule and do your best to stick to it. A consistent schedule "trains" your readers about when to expect new posts.
• Google Testing New, More Integrated Local Search SERPs – A VERY in-depth post about some experiments Google is running with local search results.