SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 19, 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:

• Matteo Lopez Wins The 2011 Doodle 4 Google Competition

  Google has announced the winner of the 2011 Google 4 Doodle, “What I’d like to do someday.” The winner is Matteo Lopez of South San Francisco, California for his logo named “Space Life.” Matteo Lopez’s answer to the question “what I’d like to do someday?” was “become an astronaut and explore space life.” Here is […]

• Search Engines Don’t Like You? Don’t Jump To Conclusions

  One of the most frustrating things about technical problems with a site is that the ways they show up in search engines are usually unexpected or subtle. What looks like a penalty can actually be a problem introduced with a new version or new feature of a website. Because the true causes of problems like […]

• Skyhook Case Giving Google PR Headache

  Ultimately Google will probably prevail in the lawsuit that Skyhook Wireless filed last year, but not without taking a few hits along the way. In that action Skyhook claims Google interfered with its relationships with two hardware manufacturers, Motorola and “Company X” (Samsung). Both OEMs were reportedly committed to using Skyhook’s location-positioning system vs Google’s […]

• How To Avoid SEO Pitfalls With Timely Alerts

  In the world of SEO, there are big updates like Panda, Mayday, Vincent, Florida, but there are also smaller internal issues that can creep up on you leading to traffic and revenue loss. The ability to identify and prevent self inflicted nicks and cuts along the way is key to a successful SEO program for […]

• Bing Webmaster Tools Enables HTML5 Interface

  I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable this morning that Bing Webmaster Tools no longer requires Silverlight. Now, if you login to Bing Webmaster Tools without Silverlight installed on your computer, you can see all the reports, graphs and charts that you were unable to see days ago. In July 2010, Bing revamped Webmaster Tools […]

• Google Launching Social Search In 19 New Languages

  Google announced they have begun their international rollout of Google Social Search, which launched in October 2009. Social Search is being pushed out to 19 new languages over the upcoming days and weeks. Google promises even more languages in the near future. Google said, “with these changes, we want to help you find the most […]

• Google’s Search Team (Finally) Gets Its Own Blog

  Google launched a new search blog today: Inside Search – The official Google Search blog. You’re probably thinking one of three things right now: Cool! I’m tired of finding search news and articles from them scattered in several places. Didn’t they already have one? Great. Just what Google needs: another company blog. Don’t they have […]

• New Google Tool Lets You Preview Instant Previews In Webmaster Tools

  There’s a new toy available now in Google’s Webmaster Tools: It’s an Instant Previews preview tool that lets you see what any page on your website will look like in Google’s Instant Previews. The tool actually pulls double-duty, also showing a preview of what the page will look like in the Chrome web browser, too. […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Define, translate and search for words in Google eBooks, Inside Google Books
• Yahoo! Messenger App Brings Video and Voice Calling to the iPad, Yodel Anecdotal

Business Issues

• Google Pledges Europe Privacy Controls, Bloomberg
• LinkedIn Will Price at $45 a Share, AllThingsD
• Oracle and Google file joint memorandum in reply to tentative case plan, FOSS Patents
• Yahoo! to Acquire 5to1, Yahoo Press Releases
• CHART OF THE DAY: Where LinkedIn’s Revenue Comes From, Business Insider
• Eight New Yorkers sue Baidu for $16m, The Register
• Google to acquire Modu patents for $4.9 million, bgr.com
• Google warns against facial recognition database, Telegraph
• Online ad growth sparks rush for Yandex IPO, chicagotribune.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Better access to your content is, well, better, Google LatLong
• Google Love Story: Man Builds Android App To Propose To Girlfriend, Fast Company
• Google opens new website for ‘lost towns’ in quake, asahi.com
• Google Places: Access your Places reviews as a feed – NOT!, Mike Blumenthal
• Now Available Online: Utah: A Collection of Historic Digitized Sandborn Insurance Maps, infodocket.com
• View Our Changing Earth: Esri Provides Free Access to More than 8 TB of Landsat Satellite Data 2 Online Viewers, infodocket.com

Link Building

• 30 Link Building/Link Baiting Techniques That Work in 2011, SEOptimise
• Majestic Million, Majestic SEO Blog

Searching

• Google News Drops Starring Feature, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Making Friends with Microsoft Advertising adCenter: A Cost-Per-Click Comparison with Google Adwords, adCenter Blog
• Conduit Deal Boosting Bing.com Paid Clicks Near 10%, Rimm Kaufman
• Google Quality Scores for Publishers: The Carrot and the Stick?, SEO By The Sea
• How To Use Real Searches From Real People For Keyword Research, Search Engine People
• The SEO Files: The Truth is Out There, Search Engine Watch

Social Media

• ‘Like’ Button Follows Web Users, Wall Street Journal
• NLRB Faults Company for Firing Workers Over Facebook Posts, Wall Street Journal
• This Is Your Brain on Twitter, New York Times
• Why Social Media will be bigger than Ben-Hur., Bruce Clay Australia
• New Research: "The Tweet Smell of Celebrity Success: Explaining Variation in Twitter Adoption among a Diverse Group of Young Adults", infodocket.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• comScore Releases April 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings, comScore
• Facebook’s New Way to Combat Child Pornography, New York Times
• Flickr Designer Publicly Criticizes Flickr’s Design, TechCrunch

Other Items

• Dame Nellie Melba honoured with a Google Doodle, Official Google Australia Blog

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

• AdWords Showing Display URL Domain in Headlines for Select Ads – Another move to help searchers identify authoritative sites and to help deilver a searcher performing a navigational query to the domain they’re looking for.
• How to improve the usability (and conversion rate) of your forms – "Nobody enjoys filling out forms…but at least you can minimise the pain for your users by ensuring that your forms are as easy to use and as well designed as possible."
• 10 Terrible Tweet Types Killing Your Twitter Strategy – Through handpicked tweets, the impetus had now fallen on companies to teach prospective clients and customers how to regard them. For those companies (be they SMBs or big Bs) not too well-versed with social media awareness, or who simply don’t have the manpower to oversee it, such ambition can lead to bad habits that, over time, can grow into brand-killers.
• Google Instant Preview: A Game-Changer For Landing Pages – Very smart post about the importance of landing page design in the age of AdWords Instant Preview.
• Drip, Drip, Drip – Building Prospect Trust One Drop at a Time – This piece is mainly focuses on B2B, but I think that it also applies to a variety of consumer-centric online marketing segments.
• Google Introduces Official Search Blog – Inside Search – Google launches a new blog specifically for search including "regular updates on our algorithms and features."