SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 13, 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:

• Has Facebook’s Active User Growth Dropped 25% to 50%?
  Are a significant number of people cancelling their Facebook accounts because of privacy concerns? The easy answer would be for Facebook to publish cancellation stats. I asked; they declined and gave me growth figures instead. Those growth figures suggest that yes, the privacy issues might be hurting. Does Interest In Deleting = Quitting? I’ve written twice this […]
• 36 More SEO Myths That Won’t Die But Need To
  The overwhelming response to my last article, 36 SEO Myths That Won’t Die But Need To, it prompted a followup feature, SEO Myths Reloaded: Clarifcations, Consensus And Controversy. In the process, I ended up with a significant number of additional myths: 36 to be exact. That brings us to a grand total of […]
• SEO Myths Reloaded: Clarifcations, Consensus And Controversy
  I have to say I wasn’t expecting the impassioned responses to my last article, 36 SEO Myths That Won’t Die But Need To. But that’s okay, as I wasn’t expecting all the positive buzz and re-tweets either (1,153 and still counting — how exciting!) In this follow-up, I’d like to revisit some of the most fervently […]
• How Traffic Spiked For Site Offering Advice On How To Delete A Facebook Account
  Need another data point from the search world illustrating the rise of concern over Facebook’s privacy changes. How about that chart above? It shows a huge spike to traffic at wikiHow, which has a handy guide on how to delete your Facebook account. Earlier this week, I wrote about how there seemed to be an increase […]
• Survey Says? Just Tell Me What You Want!
  A couple of months ago, I wrote a piece on the importance of research for small businesses; how research provides critical insight to customer wants and needs, and how research may focus the direction of a given business model. Well, now it is time for me to take my own advice! I’ve been offering my views […]
• Radical User Intelligence: Moving Past Keyword Research
  Marketers have been advising strategy and tactics by “search” keyword research for well over a decade. We pretty much all know by now that keyword “inventory” has various tails including search frequency (number of searches), seasonality (when), cost-per-paid-click, CPM (cost per thousand impressions), SEO attainability, geo-location and user-intent (query objective). All these years later […]
• Yahoo Building 13 Six Story Buildings Near Google
  Yahoo’s massive new headquarters plan approved from MarketWatch reports Yahoo can now build enough buildings to house most of their existing worldwide employees, all in Silicon Valley. Tuesday night the Santa Clara City Council unanimously voted to approve Yahoo’s development plan for thirteen six-story buildings. The buildings will be about 10 miles away […]
• The Giant List Of Keyword Tools
  We’ve talked a lot about keywords in the last few weeks. We went over how to drill down and uncover your core list and then how to take those top terms and generate many variations of those terms using keyword modifiers. At this point, you should have a fairly well-developed keyword list, […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• A new look for Wikipedia, Wikimedia blog
• Wikipedia Gets A Revamp, Better Search And Navigation – And An Updated Logo, TechCrunch

Business Issues

• Breaking: Google Loses Senior Product Manager Of Android To Facebook, TechCrunch
• The FTC is out to get Google, some interviewees say, VentureBeat
• Americans Received 1 Trillion Display Ads in Q1 2010 as Online Advertising Market Rebounds from 2009 Recession, comScore
• Australia Hysteria over Google Wi-Fi Scanning, Wi-Fi Networking News
• Leaving Google, Cedric’s weblog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Exclusive: Google To Add Tethering, Wifi Hotspot To Android 2.2 Froyo, TechCrunch
• GM Woos Google: Collaboration Would Compete with Ford/Microsoft’s Sync, Motor Trend Magazine
• Google-Backed SCVNGR Takes On Foursquare, Looks To Boost Fun With ‘Challenges’, TechCrunch

Link Building

• How Do I Make The Logo The “Second Link”?, SEO ROI
• If It’s Too Good To Be Fricking Link True, The Link Spiel

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdWords Technical Issue re: Display Ads, AdWords Help Experts
• Questions and Answers about the adCenter Integration, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

Searching

• Funny Google Search Results, Possibly NSFW, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Germany’s Father’s Day Logo & Google’s ASCII Art Logo, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Story of the Making of Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEM Industry

• Expert SEO Interview with Alex Bennert of Wall Street Journal, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• Are You the Ideal Search Client?, Search Engine Journal
• Can Twitter Alone Help A New Site Get Indexed?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Define Competitors: Step 4 of the 8-Step SEO Strategy, SEOmoz
• DIY SEO Review, BlogStorm
• How (good) SEO copywriting helps people like you online, SEO Copywriting
• Pet Friendly Social Media and Internet Marketing, Vertical Measures
• SEO With Google Webmaster Tools – Part 5: Diagnostics, Search Engine Guide
• Site review for Google I/O attendees, Matt Cutts

Social Media

• Apple Building Facebook Into iPhone OS, Business Insider
• Facebook Calls All Hands Meeting On Privacy, All Facebook
• Ad Agencies: Get on the Ball with Social Media, Yahoo! Advertising Blog
• Facebook And Twitter Are On A Collision Course. And We’re In The Middle., TechCrunch
• Revealed: the secret to social media marketing success, Econsultancy

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

• Step-By-Step Guide For Launching a Virtual Product
• Google Places Service Area Dissected