SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 25, 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:

• Google Ireland Greeting A Google Street View Car

  Wouldn’t it be cool to know when a Google Street View car was planning on taking pictures of your office or home? Most of us do not have that luxury, but if you are Google you are privy to that information. All of Google Ireland staff stood outside cheering, holding signs, balloons and other items […]

• Google Correlate: More Search Data to Mine

  I love search data. Being able to mine through millions of search queries to find out what people are really interested in is fascinating (and useful!). Google provides search data a number of ways, including Google Trends, Google Insights for Search, and via the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, and Microsoft has some great stuff via […]

• Google’s Matt Cutts Riffs On J.C. Penney, Panda Update & Other SEO Topics In Live Webchat

  Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed this morning that Google has lifted J.C. Penney’s SEO penalty, that the Panda update will continue to rollout internationally and offered numerous SEO- and search-related tips in a live webchat on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel. More than a thousand viewers tuned in but, for those who weren’t able to […]

• The Oprah Effect On User Search Behavior

  Oprah Winfrey, the Queen of Daytime Search Last week, in honor of the ubiquitous daytime talk show wrapping after 25 years of production, Yahoo released some search stats as the buzz leading up to the final show airing today (Wednesday, May 25, 2011) built up, with searches related to Oprah Winfrey rising 56% in the week prior. […]

• Twitter Buys TweetDeck, Promises To “Invest” In It

  When rumors circulated in recent days that Twitter was about to buy Tweetdeck, there were red flags flying everywhere from people assuming that Twitter would buy the popular client software and then shut it down. Not so, says Twitter. In a blog post confirming the acquisition, Twitter promises that “we will continue to invest in […]

• Google’s Matt Cutts Live Q&A On YouTube Now

  Right now on the Google Webmaster Help YouTube Channel Matt Cutts is live answering questions. You can go to that page and ask him questions in the Live video feed chat room. Give it a try now over here. I expected this would happen this morning and as I noted there, Google offered these webmaster […]

• A Year Later: AdMob A Critical Mobile Asset For Google

  There was really never a question that AdMob was going to be a huge asset and accelerator of Google’s mobile ad efforts. However the acquisition has more than cemented Google’s leadership position in mobile advertising. According to some estimates (IDC, December 2010) Google controls 60 percent of US mobile advertising (search + display). Of the […]

• 5 Easy Things You Can Do to Improve Website Conversions Right Now

  The bedrock of conversion rate improvement is testing. However, testing is almost always easier said than done. You might lack the technical or executive support to implement a test program. A test or series of tests might already be in the works, but you’re sitting on your hands while the data is being collected. What […]

• How To Hire A Great In-House Search Engine Marketer (Or Not)

  At search engine marketing conferences, I am often asked for advice on how to hire people for in-house search engine marketing jobs. Usually over lunch a business owner turns to me and says something like, I came here to learn more about all this search engine stuff and what I learned is that I need […]

• Steven Levy, Author Of In The Plex, Interviewed By Google’s Matt Cutts

  Steven Levy, the author of In The Plex, was interviewed in one of the recent “Google Talks” by Matt Cutts. Steven Levy wrote one of, if not the most, revealing books on how Google works as a company in his book. So I found it incredibly interesting to watch a Googler interview the individual who […]

• Yandex Has Blockbuster $1.3 Billion IPO

  Yandex NV, the parent of the Russian search engine Yandex, had a very successful debut on the Nasdaq market yesterday. The company raised more than $1.3 billion in its IPO. It follows last week’s similarly splashy but much smaller IPO from LinkedIn. As with the LinkedIn IPO last week many investors turned right around and […]

• Google Testing URL Above Search Results Snippet

  I am seeing reports from searchers that Google is testing a new layout for the organic and paid search results. In this test, Google is placing the destination or display URL above the search snippet or description and below the title of the search result. Typically the URL is placed under the snippet or description, […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Why email is crucial to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, Royal Pingdom

Business Issues

• "Google Archive Decision "Astonishing" Says Founder of ColdNorthWind and PaperofRecord.com, infodocket.com
• Sources: Yahoo Spurned New Offer By Jack Ma For Part of Alibaba Stake, Forbes
• Twitter About To Hit 500 Employees (And 5% Of Them Still Have The Default Avatar), mediabistro.com
• Yandex (YNDX) Shares Close Up 55% at $38.84 Per Share at First Trading Day, blog.quintura.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Check-ins and rating places get easier with Google Maps 5.5 for Android, Google LatLong
• Compare Gas Prices and Save Money with MapQuest, MapQuest Blog
• Google Commerce Chief: We’re Making A Huge Bet On NFC As A Company, TechCrunch

Searching

• Searching Google… by Author!, seosmarty.com
• "England’s Heritage Open to the Masses in New Online Database", infodocket.com

SEM Industry

• Internet Retailer 500 Companies with In-house SEO Jumps by 24% in Seven Months, Conductor Blog
• Matt Cutts To Offer Live Google Q&A Session On YouTube, Search Engine Roundtable
• So You Want To Start A Big SEO Blog?, Search Engine Journal

SEO & SEM

• A Beginners Guide to SEO’ing Your WordPress Blog, dailyseotip.com
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool Changes Average CPC to Approximate CPC, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Affiliate Network Review, SEO Book
• Google Says They Reserve Right To Ban All Sites On Hosting Company, Search Engine Roundtable
• How SEOmoz Gained 1000s of Visits from Google News (You Can Too), SEOmoz
• How to Use Google Places New RSS Feed To Automate Your Review Spam Farm, Mike Blumenthal
• Keyword rich domains still rife in Google, intelligentpositioning.com
• Poll: Did You Recover From Google’s Panda Update?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Facebook To Launch Music Service With Spotify, Forbes
• The Facebook Like Button, Dissected, BruceClay.com
• Twitter’s European boss Tony Wang warns UK tweeters, BBC News
• Zuckerberg says not opening Facebook to under-13s, Reuters

Video, Music & Image Search

• Thanks, YouTube community, for two BIG gifts on our sixth birthday!, YouTube Blog

Web Analytics

• 5 Free Tools to Measure Online Brand Awareness, Marketing Pilgrim

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

• Discussion: What's the best way to measure social media influence? – Klout score? Number of Facebook friends or page fans/likes? RSS subscribers? LinkedIn connections? There are all kinds of stats and tools available to learn about social media users and/or find the people that are most influential. For our "Discussion of the Week," we want to know: What's the best way to measure social media influence? The floor is open!
• A Campaign Prep Checklist For Link Builders – A really awesome planning document for anyone undertaking a serious link-building effort.
• Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A 'Social Media Expert' – Peter Shankman writes: "Being an expert in social media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make an amazing sandwich, and you can’t do that if all you’ve done in your life is taken the bread out of the fridge."
• Are You Giving Your SEO Consultant The Bird Without Even Knowing It? – Nick LeRoy highlights a few cases where the client-SEO relationship can break down without equal effort put forth by both parties.
• The Coming Tide Of SEO Tattletales – Adam Audette offers the current state of affairs in reference to "narc'ing" out competitors for unethical SEO techniques.
• Google Research Paper on Online Reviews for Merchants and Products – Do those ratings and reviews influence in some way whether or not particular businesses show up in Google Places search results? Do they influence searchers choices in where to visit, after seeing the ratings and the numbers of reviews?
• 90 Days Later, J.C. Penney Regains Its Google Rankings – J.C. Penney appears to be back in Google’s good graces after a 90-day penalty that removed the retailer from appearing prominently in Google’s search results for both short- and long-tail phrases.
• How Page Layout Can Affect Link Placement and Search Engine Rankings (SEO) – Not surprisingly, where links are placed on a website can have an effect on their link value and how the website can improve (or harm) search results. This is because certain blocks, or areas, of a website carry more weight than others.
• Doctors and dentists tell patients, "all your review are belong to us" – When I walked into the offices of Dr. Ken Cirka, I was looking for cleaner teeth, not material for an Ars Technica story. I needed a new dentist, and Yelp says Dr. Cirka is one of the best in the Philadelphia area. The receptionist handed me a clipboard with forms to fill out. After the usual patient information form, there was a "mutual privacy agreement" that asked me to transfer ownership of any public commentary I might write in the future to Dr. Cirka. Surprised and a little outraged by this, I got into a lengthy discussion with Dr. Cirka's office manager that ended in me refusing to sign and her showing me the door.