SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 22, 2013

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Microsoft Shows Off Coming Improvements To Bing App’s Voice Search
  Microsoft has shared video of what was a confidential, employee-only demonstration of new voice search capabilities in its Bing app for Windows Phones. The demo, reported by MSFTKitchen, shows a substantially faster and more accurate voice search experience that also performs better in noisy situations. In the demo, Bing’s new voice search system appears to […]
• Google Pushes Google Search App With Commercials
  The commercial in the middle of an episode of “Worst Cooks In America” this weekend caught me off-guard. Was that an ad for the Google Search App? It sure was, and the restart of Google’s campaign to push its cross-platform search tool. It was the first time I spotted this particular campaign on TV, though […]
• How To Determine Your Mobile & Geo Bid Multipliers For Enhanced Campaigns
  As every search marketer should be aware by now, AdWords enhanced campaigns now allow you to set campaign-level bid multipliers for your mobile impressions, and also by geo. While mobile bid multipliers seem to be more of a step backward compared to mobile targeted campaigns, geo bid multipliers are actually a nice feature and definitely […]
• Google Says No To Phone Numbers In PPC Ads, Forcing The Use Of Call Extensions
  You may have missed Google’s quiet and brief announcement that starting in April, AdWords ads with phone numbers in the text will be disapproved. Advertisers who want to display phone numbers will have to use the call extensions feature instead. Google states in the announcement, “We are making this change to foster a safer, more […]
• Google Webmaster Tools Improves Verification Reporting & Process
  Google announced they have added three improvements to the Google Webmaster Tools verification system. View Verification Methods Now, you can not only see who the verified users on your sites are, but the verification method they used to achieve that status. Where appropriate, the verification details will have links to the correct URL on your […]
• Search In Pics: Google Wonder Girls, Fish, Cylon & Seniors Workshop
  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the Web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Google Seniors Workshop: Source: Flickr Google Fish: Source: Google+ Google Wonder Girls Sign: Source: Flickr Games […]

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

• Yahoo Toolbar Serving Up Questionable Affiliate Links As Coupons
• Marin Software Officially IPOs: Stock Up 20%
• Google Opens Universal Analytics To All Users
• Marketing Biz: Spreadsheets On Steroids, Color-Coded Optimization & Trust
• Quantcast “Compare Sites” Feature Disappears, Company Says Will Return
• Filter Feature Allows For Photo-Only Google+ Searches
• Firefox & Blocking 3rd-Party Cookies: What It Means For Affiliate Marketing
• YouTube Eclipses The One Billion Unique Users A Month Mark
• Study Finds Rich Media and Video Improves Digital Ad Engagement [DG MediaMind]
• Calendar Live Enables Twitter Ad Targeting During TV Shows And Events
• Facebook Loosens Their Belt On Page Cover Image Guidelines
• Twitter Turns Seven Years Old Today #HappyBirthday #Twitter7

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• How Microsoft’s Bing-related research is funneling back into products, zdnet.com

Local Search & Maps

• Google’s Android unit reportedly building a smartwatch, The Verge

Link Building

• 4 Tips for Getting into the Right Link Building Mindset, Search Engine Guide
• Getting A Better Understanding Of Hreflang, Search Engine Journal

Searching

• Bing Much Better At Browsing Biographies, But Boo-Boos Abide, ReadWrite
• Facebook’s Graph Search Results Page: An Eye-Tracking Study, MarketingProfs
• Yahoo! Searches this Week Show Excitement for March Madness, A Comeback for Justin Timberlake, and Casserole Love, ycorpblog.com

SEM Industry

• Google Panda Hides, Google Penalizes BBC, Digg & Craigslist, Porn In Knowledge Graph & Bing Knowledge, Search Engine Roundtable
• SMX Toronto 2013 Post Mortem: A Wonderful Success, eh!, CanuckSEO

SEO & SEM

• Changes to Content Bidding, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Like AdWords Enhanced Campaigns? Here’s How To “Enhance” Your Bing Ads Program, Bing Ads Blog
• A Step By Step Guide For Switching To AdWords Enhanced Campaigns, koozai.com
• International SEO: Creating a Great Web Experience Worldwide, BruceClay.com
• Is Your PPC Campaign Passive or Active?, Marketing Words Copywriting Blog
• Personalization and SEO – Whiteboard Friday, SEOmoz
• WTF is SEO?, Portent