SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 23, 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:

• Yahoo Reveals Secrets Of “Search Direct” Alogrithm

  I had about 20 minutes with Yahoo’s Shashi Seth after the press conference to discuss a range of things related to the Search Direct announcement. First, he confirmed that Search Direct entirely replaces Yahoo’s Search Assist. Indeed one way to look at it is as Search Assist Plus. The Answer Is Out There Seth said […]

• Head-To-Head: Yahoo Search Direct Vs. Google Instant

  Yahoo rolled out Yahoo Search Direct today, its rival to Google Instant. Yahoo says that its service is focused on providing actual answers, while Google’s is focused on bringing back links. True? Let’s have a face-off. Test 1: Who’s #Winning For Charlie Sheen? Yahoo says one of the 15 areas that it’s especially focused on […]

• Yahoo Search Direct Takes On Google Instant By Providing Answers In The Search Box

  Yahoo CTO Blake Irving introduced Yahoo’s challenge to Google Instant, “Search Direct,” at a press event today at the offices of Yahoo’s PR agency. (See Danny’s head to head comparison of Yahoo and Google Instant.) Before diving into the news, Irving first reviewed Yahoo’s strategy (presented as a periodic table). Yahoo Instant Search Take Two […]

• Location Controls on AdWords Get More Granular

  Google has modified the way its location targeting controls function on AdWords to give advertisers more control over who sees their ads. Most importantly, advertisers can now distinguish between people that signal a location as part of their search query, and others that search from an IP address or GPS location in the area. For […]

• Bing Mobile Updated: Improved HTML5 Features, App Search & More

  Microsoft’s Bing team announced some significant changes and updates to Bing For Mobile. The core changes include better HTML5 support, better and faster image search, real-time transit and directions, iPhone app search, improvements to shopping, weather and movie search results. The new interfaces and features currently work on all smartphone browsers that support HTML5, so […]

• SMBs Need Most Help With Keyword Selection, Tracking

  To promote its Search Manager service (powered by Clickable) American Express has released small business (SMB) survey data about search and social media marketing. The survey was conducted this month and was a collaboration between Amex and SEMPO. The qualifier was that these small business respondents did some sort of online marketing. The sample size […]

• Bing News Adds Tweets To News Results

  Bing has added tweets from Twitter on the Bing News search results pages. The tweets are public updates from the Twitter stream related to the news query. For example, search for [japan] on Bing News and you will see a box on the right that says “Public updates for japan.” You can pause the stream […]

• Sprint Integration Of Google Voice Start Of Something Bigger?

  You no doubt read on Monday that Sprint and Google Voice have done a deep integration. This now enables a Sprint subscriber to either a) make Google Voice into her Sprint mobile number or b) use an existing Sprint number as the Google Voice number. Those who choose to do this get all the benefits […]

• Measuring Brand Lift From Online-Offline Advertising: Search Engine Land Webcast Thursday

  This Thursday, March 24, at 1 PM EDT, Search Engine Land’s Search Marketing Now site hosts a free webcast that looks at measuring the brand lift created when leveraging online and offline advertising. “Measuring Brand Lift With Google TV Ads and PPC: Lenovo Case Study in Online-Offline Attribution” features Gary Milner, Global Marketing Director at […]

• Google Hires Georgia Tech To Build Internet Monitoring Tools

  Ars Technica reports Google has given a $1 million grant to a team at Georgia Tech in order to build tools to help users around the world monitor the internet for free. The goal is to build web-based tools any user can use that enables them to detect Internet throttling, government censorship, and other transparency […]

• Mobile Search Use Stats: Big At Home, When Watching TV, While Running Errands

  For those who believe that mobile search is just done by users “on the go,” guess again. A series of research reports and findings have come out over the past couple of weeks that show heavy smartphone and mobile search use also happens at home and even while other devices are being used, such as […]

• What Can Social Media Teach Us About Conversion Optimization?

  I’ve written before that conversion optimization can learn a lot from content marketing (such as this example). But can conversion optimization also learn something from social media marketing? The answer is yes. In particular, one key lesson: people prefer dealing with other real people. The Social Media Antidote Marketing has gotten a bad rap — […]

• How To Use AdWords Broad Match Modifier: A MallowMayhem Example

  So, you think you created a campaign structure that covers all the bases. You added broad, phrase, and exact match keywords with distinct keyword roots defining meaningful AdGroups. You have ad copy that leverages those core words for that important boost in CTR and conversion rate, and targeted landing pages to match. And you have […]

• 3 Content Strategies To Target Decision Makers By Search Intent

  One of the challenges in B2B marketing is the need to satisfy inquiries and research from multiple decision makers within an organization. Search engines are one of the first places all of these parties will go, but with different search queries in mind. This fact is something search engine marketers working with B2B organizations need […]

• Welcome To The New Search Engine Land!

  Search Engine Land has a new look and features! For our regular readers, as well as new visitors, here’s a guide to what you’ll find on the redesigned site and how everything works. New “Flip Box” For Featured Stories One of our biggest challenges is that we publish so much content that it can be […]

• Google Book Search Settlement Rejected By Court

  Remember the Google Book (Class Action) Settlement? It’s been some time since there’s been any news. After many months of waiting, the court handed down its decision today — a defeat for Google and those who supported the settlement. The Authors Guild brought a class action lawsuit against Google in 2005 for “massive” copyright infringement […]

• DoubleClick Updates Somewhat Neglected Search Management Tool

  DoubleClick today is unveiling DoubleClick for Search version 3, only the third major update in the campaign management tool’s five year history. According to the product’s manager, the move signals the Google division’s renewed commitment to the tool, which ties search in with the core display DoubleClick for Advertisers product. “We talk to customers a […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• F-Word Makes It On Google News Home Page Again, Search Engine Roundtable
• Filter your data in spreadsheets, Google Docs Blog
• Phony SSL Certificates issued for Google, Yahoo, Skype, Others, threatpost
• Revisions, and presence, and painters, oh my. Updates to Drawings, Google Docs Blog

Business Issues

• Google Seeks D.C. "Policy Outreach Manager", AllThingsD
• Google Book Settlement Rejected, INFOdocket
• Google executive gets JFK award for courage, deccanherald.com
• Treasury Pushes Back at Cisco, Google Tax Lobbying Campaign, Bloomberg

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Baidu Does A Google And Looks To Make Its Own Mobile OS, paidContent.org
• Exclusive Data On Groupon’s U.S. Revenues And February Falloff, TechCrunch

Link Building

• Link Building with Photo Journalism, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• In Case you Skipped ‘Skip the Click’, StumbleUpon
• Moving from Agency to Atlas: My Top 10 Helpful Tips & Tricks, Atlas Blog
• New home page for the new AdSense interface, Inside AdSense

Searching

• Search Trends: Japan Earthquake 2011, Yahoo Search Blog
• A New Metasearch Tool To Find and Access Open Government Data Sets: Open Data Search, INFOdocket
• blekko, BrightEdge Team To Bring Brands Into Battle Against Spam, brightedge.com
• New Stats Show PACER Added 50,000 New Accounts in Q1 FY 2010, INFOdocket
• Notating Large and Small Numbers in Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEM Industry

• Microsoft adCenter Forum Not Compatible With Internet Explorer 9, Search Engine Roundtable
• SES New York 2011 – Day 2 Coverage, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Why Search Geeks Are Taking Over Advertising, Ad Age

SEO & SEM

• A 12-Step Program to Improve Your CTR, Search Engine Watch
• Control Your Brand’s Reputation Using SEO, Search Engine Watch
• Evangelizing a Data-Driven Culture, SEOmoz
• Google Places : Local SEO That Influences Global Search Marketing, blueglass.com
• Helping Keywords Find Their Long Lost URL, SEO.com
• March 2011 Google Toolbar Update?, Search Engine Roundtable
• UGC Gets an A on Google Test with Panda Update, SEOmoz
• Why is this so hard? Google, Facebook and adult retailing, econsultancy.com
• Why SEO Companies Should Consider Video SEO For Clients & Customers, reelseo.com

Social Media

• 100 Million, The LinkedIn Blog
• Building a recommendation engine, foursquare style, Foursquare Engineering Blog
• Twitter Gets New VP Operations From eBay, AllThingsD
• An Introduction to the Federated Social Network, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Banning baby-faces from social site Facebook, thetelegraph.com.au
• Facebook Test Mines Real-Time Conversations for Ad Targeting, Ad Age

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

• Discussion: Is DIY Link Building a Good Idea? – We all know links are a key element of SEO. But it's also difficult and monotonous work. The tradition of analyzing competitors' links, creating a list of link opportunities, contacting site owners about getting a link — that's time consuming and often unsuccessful. In our new "Discussion of the Week," what's a webmaster or business owner to do about getting links? Is Do-It-Yourself link building the best way to spend time and resources, or are there other ways to build inbound links? (One obvious answer is to hire a link building company/consultant, but that's not D-I-Y, now is it?) :-)
• How to Build a Six-Figure Blog Without Anyone Knowing – Glen introduces the concept of "email blogging" and shows how it could be profitable.
• 7 Local Web Marketing Infographics To Overload Your Brain – Andrew Shotland covers 7 local web marketing infographics that are sure to overload your brain.