SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 1, 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 +1 Analytics Coming Soon; Here’s What To Expect

  Although webmasters can install the new Google +1 button on their websites today, it may be a little while before the expected +1 analytics are available. Google product manager Christian Oestlien tells us that the company is working with launch partners to make sure the reporting is accurate before offering the data on a wide […]

• A Solution To The Facebook fb_xd_fragment Problem

  Back in December, Danny Sullivan provided clarity for us on social signals that Google and Bing count as ranking factors. More recently, I spoke with Stefan Weitz who let me know that my results may be personalized if a friend of mine has “Liked” something related to my search query — i.e., that page my […]

• Move Over Time Sorting: Twitter Gets “Top Tweets” Search Results

  Twitter has added a new “Top Tweets” search results feature, along with “Top Images” and “Top Videos,” a major shift away from showing tweets primarily with the most recent coming first. The change is a really welcome move. Unlike regular search engines, which try to show the most relevant matches by default, Twitter largely has […]

• Live Blog: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo At D9

  Dick Costolo will be interviewed today by Walt Mossberg at the D Conference. Having survived another drive across the nearby Portuguese Bend landslide here in Palos Verdes, I stand ready to live blog. Let’s do this thing. Walt: Asking about the Pew study today with new stats on Twitter usage (see Pew: Twitter Usage Grows […]

• It’s Here: Google +1 Buttons For Websites

  As expected, Google is now offering +1 buttons that can be placed on any web page via a short code snippet. The code/button is supported in 44 languages, but +1 activity continues to show only on English-language search results on Google.com. (Google says it’s working to expand +1 worldwide.) Webmasters can use Google’s self-serve code […]

• B2B Marketers: Is Your Site Immune To Penalties & Algorithmic Updates?

  One thing you hear about a lot lately in search industry news is how B2C websites are constantly being penalized or how a new “filter” has been applied to Google’s algorithm that has dramatically impacted their search results. Do brand names and shopping sites come to mind? What about B2B websites? Are they at just […]

• Pew: Twitter Usage Grows to 13% With African-Americans Leading Adoption

  Thirteen percent of the U.S. online population now uses Twitter at least occasionally, according to new research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, marking a significant increase from the 8% previously measured in November 2010. Growth was especially strong among non-Hispanic Whites and those between 30 and 49 years old. Among online African-Americans, […]

• How Mark Zuckerberg Stole Your Search Traffic & What To Do About It

  Hint: You gave it to him. It’s a familiar story: businesses finally getting their search optimization stratgy down, putting in SEO the hours, and creating the content that draws links and Google love. They’ve paid the SEO experts. They know their keywords. And when the traffic comes, they send it off to Facebook and Twitter […]

• Apple Renews Maps Deal With Google — What’s Up With That?

  Last night Danny posted about Eric Schmidt’s on-stage interview at the D9 conference in Southern California. Among the many things Schmidt discussed was a renewal of Apple’s deal to use Google Search and Maps on iOS devices. Although this was first reported last week, it still comes as a something of a surprise — at least […]

• Official: Google Offers Goes Live, First Portland Offer Arrives

  [As promised below in our post from late Tuesday night, the first Google Offer just arrived minutes ago in my Gmail inbox. Here’s a screenshot, followed by the remainder of Tuesday night’s post about it.] Sometime in the next several hours, presumably thousands of Google users in the Portland, Ore., area will get an email […]

• The Top 10 Things Eric Schmidt Revealed At D9

  Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt just finished being interviewed at the D Conference by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, and there were a number of interesting revelations that came out. I thought a list of highlights was in order. The highlights below are roughly listed in the order they came up during the interview, rather being […]

• Live From D: It’s Google No-Longer-The-CEO Eric Schmidt

  I’m at the D Conference in here beautiful Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt is to be interviewed by our fearless host Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Let’s see what he has to say. Postscript: See The Top 10 Things Eric Schmidt Revealed At D9 if you want the less stream-of-consciousness view […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• 3 Labs graduations, 1 retirement, Official Gmail Blog
• Change Google Calendar’s default meeting length and more print options, Official Gmail Blog
• Ensuring your information is safe online, Official Google Blog
• Our plans to support modern browsers across Google Apps, Google Docs Blog

Business Issues

• (Exclusive) YouTube’s New Strategy: Create a Network Of Networks, TechCrunch
• @ D9: Schmidt Says Google Pulled Back From Potentially Dangerous Technology, paidContent.org
• Privacy group gets part of Google settlement: judge, Reuters
• Google: Group In China Targeted Senior US Officials, Chinese Activists, Others With Phishing Attack, TechCrunch
• Mediatek says to tie up with Yahoo in mobile; shares jump, Reuters
• The Future of Identity Belongs to Apple and Google, Evan Williams
• Under the Hood at Google and Facebook, IEEE Spectrum
• What Is The Eric Schmidt Google Era? (Video), AllThingsD
• Yahoo! Entitled to Immunity for Disclosing User Information in Response to Subpoena — Sams v. Yahoo!, Eric Goldman

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Updated Help Center for Google Map Maker, Google LatLong
• Europe’s best kept secret revealed in 3D, Google LatLong
• Updating the Maps of France, Monaco, and Luxembourg, Google LatLong

Searching

• The Engineering Behind Twitter’s New Search Experience, Twitter Engineering
• Wolfram|Alpha Performs Vector Operations, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEO & SEM

• An SEO’s Guide to HTTP Status Codes (An Infographic), SEOmoz
• Paying for Direction in Adwords. Is it a Money Grab by Google?, GEO Local SEO
• Ticker Tuesday: Setting Up Data Feeds In Google Merchant Center, PPC Hero
• A Practical Guide to SERP Profiling – Part 2, blueglass.com
• An update to tax & shipping requirements, Google Merchant Blog
• Can switching to HTTPS harm ranking?, YouTube
• Google Panda Recoveries Seem Not Existant, Search Engine Roundtable
• Local Google AdWords Ads Campaign Set Up Tips for Small Businesses, SEO Book

Social Media

• Schmidt Says Google’s Social Networking Problem Is His Fault, AllThingsD
• Exclusive: Groupon Books Travel Plans Through Expedia Partnership, AllThingsD
• Exclusive: LinkedIn to Launch Job Application Tool Tech News and Analysis, gigaom.com
• How Social Media Delivers Increased Consulting Revenue, outspokenmedia.com
• Twitter CEO says 80 percent of advertisers renew, Reuters

Video, Music & Image Search

• Microsoft and Korean research duo develop separate technology to block and delete porn, International Business Times

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

• Discussion: Have Social Signals Made Search Results Better or Worse? – Google is making its +1 button available today to all website owners with the promise of improving Google's search results via recommendations from friends. Google, Bing and even Blekko are all increasingly relying on social signals to impact search results and the search experience. In our "Discussion of the Week," we want to know: Do you think search results are better today because of these social signals? What are the pros and cons of this increasing emphasis on social activity on search results? Do you want social signals to have more or less of an influence on search results? The floor is open!
• 3 Effective Ways To Jumpstart Your Link Building – Here are a handful of the more foundational yet highly effective tactics anyone can use to jump-start linking efforts.
• Query classification; understanding user intent – A great piece from Dave Harry. It's useful for any SEO that's interested in understanding how keywords translate into types of user intent.
• Why SEO Link Building Strategies Look More Pathetic Than Ever – Michael Martinez: "From now on, if you’re going to write a 'link building' article for anyone’s Website, start every title with 'How I Obtained a Link For ….'. Give the editors at Sphinn and Search Engine Land something decent to promote because, frankly, the link building articles they have been promoting lately just absolutely suck something awful. Save us from the regurgitated link building advice articles and roundups." Ok, point taken.
• The Matt Cutts Debunking Flowchart – The title says it all…
• Interview with Julie Joyce – The Link Specialist – Julie gives terrific insights into link-building, SEO, and a whole bunch more.
• How The Google Police Nabbed Me For Paid Links – The author shares a priceless story, enjoy and assimilate his experience properly!