SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 18, 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+ Expands Search Options, Adds Trending Topics To Search Results

  Google+ has made a few tweaks to how its search function operates, and has added the obligatory trending topics its search results pages. The first change begins right in the search box itself: As you type a search query, Google+ now separates possible matches in a pop-up window with People or Pages that may match […]
• Google Working With U.S. Treasury Department To Shut Down AdWords Mortgage Scams

  We know the illegal online pharmacies used to love the Google. Apparently, the mortgage scammers have found AdWords to be quite useful in their nefarious schemes, as well. The Treasury Department’s Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced this week that it’s worked with Google to shut down […]

• Yahoo Site Explorer Closing Down Monday, November 21st

  As expected Yahoo will be closing down Yahoo Site Explorer this year. Yahoo has just announced the date for the closure. This coming Monday, November 21, 2011, Site Explorer will cease to exist. The short Yahoo blog post reads: With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing […]

• How To Analyze Your Content Performance In Google Analytics

  Google Analytics is divided in five main categories: Visitors Advertising Traffic Sources Content Conversions In this post, I want to talk about the Content category. I will not discuss all the reports available, but the ones I use most frequently. If you click on Content it will expand to the sections below:   Overview The overview […]

• Search In Pics: Android Wedding, Yahoo Security & Google Clouds

  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Yahoo Security Trucks: Matt Cutts Answering Questions At PubCon: Google Crate: Google Cloud: A Real Google […]

• Google’s Louis Daguerre Logo

  On Google today is a special logo for the 224th birthday of Louis Daguerre. Daguerre invented the daguerreotype process of photography. Daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process commonly used for portraits. The process took a while, requiring the subjects to sit for several minutes as still as possible in order for the photograph […]

• Google Quality Raters Can Rate Your Site Without Seeing It

  PotPieGirl, the one who posted the latest Google quality raters handbook has come back with a new post on Google Raters – Who Are They? She looks into a discussion forum devoted to these quality raters, where they discuss day to day topics that come up for the job. She points out one post where […]

• Google+: Brands Rush In Where Consumers Fear To Tread

  Earlier this week BrightEdge released data on early adoption of Google+ pages by brands. It also offered a comparison with Facebook. The SEO firm said that 61 percent of the top 100 brands in the US have Google+ Pages, in the little over a week since the doors were officially opened. By contrast 93 percent […]

• AdCenter Releases Support For Negative Exact Match Today

  Microsoft adCenter today is releasing Negative Exact Match as part of the series of upgrades and improvements adCenter is delivering for its customers this Fall. The change comes at an opportune time — right before the holiday season begins. AdCenter’s negative-keyword handling has been near the top of the list of core differences between AdWords […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Motorola Mobility Stockholders Approve Merger with Google, Motorola Mobility, Inc.
• Twitter Is Quietly Building A Huge Business, businessinsider.com
• Does the End of Yahoo’s Iconic Billboard in SF Signal Other Things?, Marketing Pilgrim
• Facebook’s IPO Motive: Keeping Employees, Not Compliance, TechCrunch
• Google co-founder Sergey Brin gives $500,000 to help Wikipedia, VentureBeat

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Maps: No Stone Unturned in Search of Ad Space, Mike Blumenthal

Searching

• Cut Through All That Twitter Noise With PostPost’s Improved Search Tool, Read/Write Web
• Search Trends: Thanksgiving & Black Friday 2011, Yahoo Search Blog
• Black Friday Anticipation Builds, weblogs.hitwise.com

SEM Industry

• What Does your Ideal Rank Tracker Look Like? We Want to Know!, SEOmoz
• Video: Google Algorithm Changes, Panda Beyond Content, & Android Wedding, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Believe you dropped in search engine rankings?, filiwiese.com
• Can You Reverse The Google Geographic Target Settings?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Current SEO: SOPA, Bing Bot, Google Algorithm Changes, Rimm Kaufman
• Mapping Keywords to Content for Maximum Impact – Whiteboard Friday, SEOmoz
• The Pros and Cons of Bringing SEO In-House, Search Engine Watch

Social Media

• Google+ continues battle with fading user interest, data say, latimes.com
• 48% of job seekers have used Facebook to look for work, ZDNet
• 5 Tips for Using the New LinkedIn Company Pages, www.socialmediaexaminer.com
• Connect with your community on Google+, Official Google Blog
• Facebook Ticker to Carry Sponsored Stories, ClickZ
• Facebook Users Are Slow to ‘Like’ Brands and Retailers, eMarketer
• Major Newspaper Publishers Band Together On Social Shopping Portal, paidContent.org
• Make Time For Social Media By Not Tweeting BS, Outspoken Media
• New Photo-Tagging Feature on Google+, thenextweb.com

Web Analytics

• You can now see mobile ad performance in Google Analytics, Google Mobile Ads Blog
• Think You’re Anonymous? Google Analytics May Prove Different, Read/Write Web

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

• Everything You Need to Know About Pinterest – It's all the buzz right now, but if you missed what Pinterest is and why it might matter as a social / marketing opportunity, Kerry Jones' article gets you up to speed.
• Lessons from Google about URL Lengths – A great post about URL length by John Doherty
• Use Of Twitter (Or Any Social Platform) Is Not Black And White – Adam Singer makes a case that there's not really Right and Wrong ways for companies to use Twitter (and other social networks). Agree? Disagree?