SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 17, 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:

• FTC Commissioner: Google’s Buzz Launch Was ‘Irresponsible Conduct’

  An outgoing FTC commissioner has slammed Google over the way it launched Google Buzz last month, calling the episode a case of “irresponsible conduct.” According to PC World, FTC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour also said Google and other online companies may face tougher penalties if they don’t do a better job of protecting consumer privacy.
  The […]

• 4 Ways To Increase Conversion Rate Without Testing

  So much of conversion rate optimization relies on testing. “Test everything, test often” is a good mantra to keep in mind and will do you no end of good. But you can’t always test everything. In this post I discuss a few ways you might be able to uncover some of those conversion leaks that […]

• Now View The Night Sky In Bing Maps

  Roughly two years ago Microsoft introduced “WorldWide Telescope.” At first it required a software download. It then was made available as a Silverlight web app. Today it’s being integrated into the new Silverlight version Bing Maps. In other words, you can now “look up at the sky” and see how space looks over that geographic […]

• What The Future Of Search And Social Marketing Means To An InHouse SEM

  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future of search. What will it look like? What will the changes ahead mean to me as an inhouse search marketer? Will my work be different? Will I need new skills?
  It’s almost a dead certain reality that any inhouse search marketer today will need to develop new […]

• B2B Hubs Or PPC? Are All Leads Created Equal?

  B2B companies crave leads. Good leads. Quality leads.
  At the right price.
  Both Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) and Buyer Hubs/Lead Generation sites offer opportunities to cap the Cost Per Lead and gain some control (which is not as easy in other media, save Direct Response.)
  In this case, when I am referring to “Buyer Hubs”, I am not […]

• Google’s St. Patrick’s Day Doodle & Logos From Others

  If you visit Google.com today you may see a Google Doodle (logo) for St. Patrick’s Day. Here is a picture of the special St. Patrick’s Day Doodle for this year:

  Google is not the only search engine with a special logo. Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com all have logos.

  I have some additional logos from others […]

• Facebook Adds Auto-Suggest To Search Box

  Continuing to improve and emphasize its search capabilities, Facebook today announced the inclusion of an auto-suggest feature to its search box.
  Just as it does in other settings, the auto-suggest appears as you type a query. But, with some Facebook content and connections behind a wall, the question is, Where will auto-suggest look for suggestions? […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Chrome Blog: At the end of the rainbow, a new pot of Chrome!, chrome.blogspot.com
• More Reader features in your pocket, Official Google Reader Blog
• You Asked for It… A Collapse Ad Button in the All-New Yahoo! Mail, www.ymailblog.com

Business Issues

• Facebook Will Rule the Web During the Next Decade, Ad Age
• Google Partners Call for Clarity on China Plans, New York Times
• Google’s Traffic Is Giant, Which Is Why It Should be Your ISP, Wired
• Yahoo! and Citizen Sports: Ready, Set, Score!, ycorpblog.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Gesture Search now available for Android 1.6, Official Google Mobile Blog
• Complaints Against Yelp’s “Extortion” Practices Grow Louder, TechCrunch
• Gesture Search now available for Android 1.6, googlemobile.blogspot.com
• Google Maps: What Happens When You Lose a Town?, Mike Blumenthal
• Video: Tim Armstrong On AOL’s Big Push Into Local, paidContent.org

Link Building

• 7 Ways to Legitimately Build Backlinks, www.quicksprout.com
• At what level is nofollow honored?, YouTube

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google-certified ad networks now available to all publishers, Inside AdSense
• AdWords Downtime: March 20th, 10am-2pm PDT, AdWords API Blog
• Eight Not To Do Things While Managing Your PPC Campaigns, Web Optimist
• Google’s New Beta PPC Service Dubbed Remarketing, Search Engine Journal

SEM Industry

• SEO Dialogue: Steve Plunkett & Todd Mintz, Search Engine People
• Why Did You Get into the SEO Field?, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• A Cool (Repurposed) PPC Tool Discovery, PPC Hero
• 3 Simple Tools to Find Hidden Links (and Text), Search Engine Journal
• 35 Crucial SEO, Twitter & Social Media Statistics for Business People, www.seoptimise.com
• AdWords: Building an Effective Keyword List, AdWords Help Experts
• An Illustrated Guide to Matt Cutts’ Comments on Crawling & Indexation, SEOmoz
• More Google Caffeine Speculation : Is It Almost Live?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Will including generic product descriptions reduce the significance of my unique content?, YouTube Blog

Social Media

• Who’s checking your Facebook profile? Scammers., CounterMeasures
• 10 Outstanding Social Media Infographics, nowsourcing.com
• EFF Posts Documents Detailing Law Enforcement Collection of Data From Social Media Sites, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Picture This: A Promotion for Lay’s Chips on Flickr, www.brandweek.com
• Responsibilities of Community Managers, Techipedia

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

• Diamond iPad : A Smart Social PR Campaign with SEO Implications
• Five Link-Building Experts, Eight Questions
• 71 Chrome Extensions for Blogging & SEO
• 301 Redirects Do Not Pass Full PageRank & Link Value
• Think Visibility Conference Round-up

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.