SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 5, 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:

• New: Google Showing Recent Stories From News Sites With News Snippet

  Search for [news] or [new york times] or [fox news] or other queries that would bring up a popular news site and you will see a new search snippet displayed within the search results for these news sites. As you can see from the screen shot above, Google is displaying in the search results some […]

• Who Started The “Dear Yahoo, I’ve Never Heard Anyone Say ‘Let’s Yahoo It’ Sincerely Google” Twitter Joke?

  As you might expect, I monitor a number of search-related topics being discussed on Twitter. Over the past few days, there’s been spike in funny bit of advice that Google is giving Yahoo — that no one says, “Let’s Yahoo It.” But how did that get started? Let’s start with the joke first: Dear Yahoo, […]

• Google Announces Local “Business Photos”

  Today at the Social-Loco conference in San Francisco Google’s Doyenne of Local Marissa Mayer formally announced Google Business Photos. This is not a new product but the formalization of an offering that has been available in a more limited way since last year. Google is inviting local businesses in a few cities in the US, […]

• Google Search Globe: See Searches Happening Visually Around The World

  Google announced a neat new visual display of Google’s search volume by search query language. The tool is named the Google Search Globe. Search Globe plots different colored bars protruding from the globe. Each color represents a different language, and you’d see a nice diverse set of colors (i.e. languages) over places like Europe and […]

• Skyhook Lawsuit Lives On To Fight Another Day Against Google

  Skyhook’s lawsuit against Google, for unfair competition, interference with contract and patent infringement, has survived a substantive and procedural challenge to end the case. Google had sought to terminate the litigation before all the factual discovery was completed. Skyhook Gets to Dig More One of the byproducts of earlier discovery in this case was the […]

• Real-Time Call Data Yields Key Insights on Phone Leads

  In my prior article, I focused on the value of pre-call analytics in determining which ads or SEM campaigns drove consumer calls, as well as identifying specific pre-call consumer behavior and engagement points. Now we’re moving into the second piece of the call measurement puzzle—capturing real-time insights from consumer calls. This step allows companies to […]

• How To Find The Right Local & Vertical Sites For Your Small Business

  Most small business owners understand that they should be listed on major national search engines such as Google and Bing, but how do they know which local directories and vertical sites are important for improving their SEO? If you’re a dentist in Boston looking for local sites, you could look at the listings of other […]

• Google Blocked Sites & Why Making A Good First Impression Matters

  We all know there have been a ton of updates to Google as of late. Many of these updates will affect search engine optimization as we know it. In particular, Google is now displaying an option to block results from certain websites. While websites will only be blocked when a user is logged into a […]

• Google Offers $100 Bribe To Bring Lapsed AdWords Advertisers Back To The Fold

  Haven’t used AdWords in a while? Here’s $100. Spend it all in one place — your AdWords account. That’s the gist of a new Google effort to reactivate AdWords users who’ve let their accounts grow dormant. The company reached out to these users yesterday with a plea, “We’re sorry to see that you’ve stopped advertising […]

• Google Apparently Testing Domain Names In AdWords Headlines

  Google seems to be testing a new variation on AdWords display, showing the landing page domain name at the end of the headline, after a short vertical line. The apparent experiment appeared in the top three ads in the center of the page on Google.com, but isn’t showing up for most users. The variation was […]

• Now Vote For The “Doodle 4 Google” 2011 Contest

  You can now officially vote for the fourth annual Doodle 4 Google finalists. Google said this year they broke a record with over 107,000 submissions. The 40 regional finalists were picked by Google’s guest judges, including Whoopi Goldberg, Evan Lysacek, Michael Phelps, Nicole Stott and Jim Davis. To vote, go to the voting page and […]

• Google Steps Up Privacy Requirements For AdWords Advertisers

  If you’re going to advertise on AdWords, you’d better be safeguarding users’ personal and financial information on the landing site. So say new policy guidelines released today by Google. The new global requirements for all AdWords advertisers govern sites that request payment, financial or personal information from visitors. They will take effect May 17. If […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Exclusive: Facebook and Google mull Skype deals, Reuters
• Demand Media Reports A Better-Than-Expected Jump In Sales, paidContent.org
• Google Rivals for Nortel Patents May Mean Price Tops $1 Billion, BusinessWeek
• Google Voice CEO Craig Walker Launches Firespotter, A Google Ventures Funded Incubator, TechCrunch
• Microsoft attacks Google Apps with “Google Tax” claim, WinRumors

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Earth optimized for Android-powered tablets, Official Google Mobile Blog

Link Building

• A link builder’s guide to working with bloggers, Leapfrogg Digital Marketing
• SEO Tips On Competing Against Link Buyers, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Explore the World’s Nuclear Power Infrastructure with Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• "JTA Jewish News Archive Launches Online Archive With a Quarter-Million Articles", infodocket.com
• New Online Digital Archive: "JDC Releases Over 500,000 Searchable Holocaust-Era Names And Historic Photo Collections", INFOdocket
• U.S. Holocuast Museum & Ancestry.com Announce Launch of Project to Create World’s Largest Online Resource About Victims of Holocaust and Nazi Persocution, INFOdocket

SEO & SEM

• Can coding errors affect how a page is indexed?, YouTube
• How Concatenation Schemas Can Make Large Site SEO a Small Task, Search Engine Guide
• 3 Things to Make the Collapsible DIV SEO Friendly, Shimon Sandler
• Google’s Panda Update Cripples Open Publishing Competition, TechCrunch
• How to Survive a Panda Attack!, SEOptimise
• Website Security for Webmasters, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Social Media

• Google Just Leaked Their 1 Chrome Extension On National Television, TechCrunch
• How Businesses Should React to Negative Social Media & Reviews, Michael Gray
• Twitter Begins Sending @ Replies to Users – Not All of Which Are SFW, Read/Write Web

Video, Music & Image Search

• Head Of Flickr On New Mobile App: "We’re Going To Nail It", Business Insider
• A New and Very Cool Cameraphone/Visual Search App: Identify Trees in a Snap With LeafSnap, INFOdocket

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

• Contrarian Perspectives On Link Building – I don't agree with everything Eric states in this article, be he definitely hits the mark on several fronts and offers a refreshing perspective.
• 5 Must-Dos for Effective Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging Campaigns – Although no one has exactly the same reasons why a campaign hasn’t worked out as expected, usually it’s because they’ve forgotten something – some step – along the way. Look at our checklist and see if, just maybe, you’ve missed something.
• How Concatenation Schemas Can Make Large Site SEO a Small Task – If you do SEO for large sites and haven't used this technique, read and digest immediately.