SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 30, 2007

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

From Search Engine Land:

• 
  This Week In Search From Flickr Images: BETA
  This week I had an idea for a new column, possibly weekly, where I tracked the search industry through images uploaded to Flickr. Although we don’t have an official name for this column, I thought I’d tag this as a BETA release and see how it goes. So sit back…
• 
  A “Swiss Army” Meta Search Engine
  I’m generally not a big fan of meta search technologies—I prefer to go directly to the search service I feel will likely give me the best response for any given query, rather than sifting through the aggregated results from several engines provided by meta search engines. But recently, developer Stephan…
• 
  Searchrazzi: DoubleClick on the Block…Performics too?
  With the Google Phone rumors quashed this week, Searcharazzi was pleased to get a taste of this schematic of a semantic visual search engine purportedly by Nokia. More on that from SEL’s dedicated local and mobile gurus. In the interim, we would be remiss to omit the big rumor…
• 
  Thanks For The Link, Mainstream Media — Now Let’s Have More!
  I’ve been publishing online about search for nearly 11 years now. My work, or my comments, have been quoted in mainstream publications on the topic of search for virtually the same time. Much more often than not, those references never include a live link back to my web site, not…
• 
  The “Is Google Too Powerful” Question Raised Once Again
  Is Google Too Powerful? from BusinessWeek is a fresh look at an old topic on Google’s continued growth and power. A key part of the BusinessWeek’s article: Googlezon, GoogleWorld, just plain Google—whatever you call it, it’s scaring the wits out of everyone from the power lunchers of Hollywood to Madison…
• 
  Top 12 Ways To Win Friends & Write Magnetic Headlines
  As a consultant who specializes in social media, I’ve learned one of the most powerful tools in gaining readers is the title or headline of your stories. Crafting a title that grabs someone’s eye, gets them to stop scanning and pay attention to your story rather than reading another one…
• 
  YellowPages.com Launches YP411 Text Messaging Service
  This morning AT&T’s YellowPages.com announced the launch of text messaging through YP411 (97411). Business name or general yellow pages (category) lookups plus city or zip return up to three listings. This service helps round out YellowPages.com’s mobile offerings, which now include WAP, SMS and enhanced directory assistance through 1-800-YellowPages (still…
• 
  Google Under Fire For Showing Pre-Katrina New Orleans Images; Others Doing The Same?
  Google goes back to pre-Katrina maps from USA Today reports that Google Maps has changed their satellite imagery of New Orleans to show pre-Katrina images, getting some local residents angry and wondering if there’s some type of cover-up in the works. However, it’s unclear if these are pre-Katrina images…
• 
  Cash Bonus Incentives For Yahoo & Google Executives
  A Yahoo SEC filing shows some of Yahoo’s executives are eligible for a cash bonus incentive of up to $1 million each year throughout 2009. News.com points to a Google SEC filing that shows that some of Google’s executives are eligible for a cash bonus incentive of up to $4.5…
• 
  The Critical First Second & The Area of Greatest Promise
  Last week on Just Behave, I talked about the importance of consideration sets in search; how we tend to slice off three or four top listings in our consideration set at the beginning of our interaction with the search results page. Today I want to talk about another concept,…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Business Issues

• 
  The Wired 40 (10th Annual), Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Others Make
  List, ResourceShelf
• Web ad spend
  overtakes newspapers, BBC NEWS
• Google celebrates first year
  in Russia, OSP International
• Yahoo Given Go-Ahead
  to Buy Taiwanese Blog Site, CIO

Legal Issues

• 
  Google Asks for Extension to Reply to Viacom Lawsuit, Google Watch
• 
  An End Run on Copyright Law, Washington Post (Letter To Editor From
  Google)

Local, Mobile & Maps

• 
  Americans Share Some Things In Common With European Mobile Users,
  MediaPost Publications
• 
  Survey: Few Broadband Users Go Mobile For Web Access, MediaPost
  Publications
• 
  Look out Google. Nokia is working on its own Mobile Search Engine!,
  Unwired View

• Google local is confused,
  David Ogletree

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdWords
  & AdSense Users Want Money Transfers Between Accounts, Search Engine
  Roundtable
• Domain vs.
  Account Google AdSense Bans, Search Engine Roundtable
• 
  The AdSense API: All grown up and ready to play, Inside AdSense

• Pay-per-action beta — your questions answered

  , Inside AdWords
• Telling
  A Story Through Google Pay Per Action, Cartoon Barry
• Ad
  Titles and Dynamic Text, adCenter Blog

SEM Industry

• 
  In-house Spotlight: Yahoo’s Director of Search Engine Marketing, Search
  Engine Journal
• Schedule
  for Search Engine Strategies NY 2007*, Bruceclay.com

SEO & SEM

• Can The Nofollow
  Tag Hurt Ones Rankings?, Search Engine Roundtable

• 
  Making the Most of Meta Description Tags, SEOmoz

• 
  How To Shoot Yourself in The Foot With Bad Plan and a Bad CMS
  Implementation, Wolf Howl
• A
  Tale of Two Link Counts, SEO Speedwagon
• Google Alerts Tell Google What
  Topics are Popular, SEO by the SEA
• BlogHer
  2007: Building your audience, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Social Media

• 
  Digg’s Unknown Social Networking Functionality, Pronet Advertising
• Digg
  Coupons – New Category or Yet Another Digg Scam, Marketing Shift

• New to Reddit:
  Ads and Voting Capability, Search Engine Roundtable

Video & Image Search

• NewTube Is Just The Beginning

  , BusinessWeek

Other Stuff

• Accepting
  Google Spreadsheets tab-delimited files, Official Google Base Blog