SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 22, 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 Does Thanksgiving Logo Early, First Ever One Sharable On Google+

  Like last year, Google has launched their Thanksgiving logo a bit before the Thanksgiving holiday. The 2011 Thanksgiving Doodle is live for all U.S. web visitors on Google.com has of around 3pm EDT. The logo is interactive, letting you click on the head, feathers and feet, in order to change the colors and styles of […]
• Future of the Search Agency; PPC Growth in 2012 – SMN Webcasts Next Week

  Search Marketing Now, our sister site, will host two webcasts next week. On Tuesday, November 29, Sean Corcoran of Forrester Research, Inc., will discuss "The Future of the Search Agency." With agencies competing more than ever, where will growth come from? Sean will address this, as well as how social media and new technologies are […]

• Harness the Power of Facebook, Twitter and Google+: SMX Social Media Marketing – December 5-6 in Scottsdale, AZ

  Drive new traffic to your site. Secure more conversions. Retain existing customers. Manage your company’s reputation and customer service. Social media networks provide the means; you need to master the platform. At SMX Social Media Marketing, you’ll learn free and paid marketing tactics, as well as best practices for maximizing your company pages on Facebook […]

• Infographic: Black Friday As Seen Through Foursquare Check-Ins

  Black Friday is only three days away, and some people are already camping out in front of stores. Judging from Foursquare check-ins from last year in the US, peak shopping will happen at 2pm, Target & Best Buy will be swamped and department stores will be busiest. These stats and more from an infographic that […]

• 8 Tips To Build Successful International SEM Campaigns

  As the majority of online searches are in languages other than English, it’s important to understand how businesses can benefit from search marketing and approach search campaigns in international markets. Marketers can follow these tips to improve their international search engine marketing strategies. 1. Pick Humans Over Machines The pressure to produce a successful, multilingual […]

• Google News Spotlight Now Spotlights Your Friends & Stories They +1

  The Google News Blog announced that the Spotlight section on Google News may contain stories that your Google + friends and Gmail contacts have +1′ed. If you are logged in while using Google News and your friends or contacts have used the Google +1 button to like the stories in your Spotlight section, that information […]

• Thoughts On Random Link Spikes & The Events That Create Them

  If you need some interesting reading material this Holiday season, try Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and in Life. There are some interesting lessons in it that can be applied to link building, especially related to unexpected and random events that not only affect people, the economy, […]

• Feds Shut Down Mortgage Scammers on Bing/Yahoo

  The online advertising mortgage scam investigation announced last week by the Treasury Department involves Bing and Yahoo, as well as Google. the agency has revealed. The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) says 125 scams in all have been shut down, as Bing has ceased relationship with more […]

• Dexter Dings SEO: Why Do Hollywood Writers Keep Giving Search Engine Optimization A Bad Name?

  Yesterday, I saw a few tweets go by noting that the popular show Dexter on Showtime mentioned SEO and said that “Google was so 5 minutes ago” while typing in the URL: eliotsearchengine.com* – which supposedly “uses an algorithm to aggregate content without getting tripped up by SEO bull$h!t.” Because Dexter shows are behind a paywall […]

• Making PPC & Social Media Work Together Seamlessly

  You’ve read time and time again about how social media can fuel SEO and even vice versa, but where does PPC fit into this equation? The answer is in retargeting also known as AdWords remarketing. If you’re not familiar with the concept of remarketing, I’d recommend you read this step by step AdWords remarketing guide. […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Google registers Google Gives Back, fusible.com
• Online Ad Spend in the US forecast: 2011 – 2016, Market Research Reports

Local, Maps & Mobile

• After Privacy Hysteria, Germans Learn To Love Google’s All-Seeing Street View, Worldcrunch
• Google Offers Adds Six More U.S. Cities to its Rapidly Growing Roster, Google Commerce
• Microsoft Rebrands Bing Daily Deals To ‘MSN Offers’, TechCrunch
• Understanding how the Maps API usage limits affect your sites, Google Geo Developers Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• Introducing Living Ads by Yahoo!, Yodel Anecdotal

SEM Industry

• Indeed: seven years on, Blog Indeed

SEO & SEM

• Bruce Clay Europe Publishes Search Marketing Book, BruceClay.com
• Tracking Domain Consolidation with Google Webmaster Tools, infolific.com
• A Quick and Dirty Guide to Content Marketing, quicksprout.com
• Bing Search 2011 Holiday Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• Gaming Social Media Signals For Fun And Profit, SEOmoz
• Google Reconsideration Request "No Manual Action" Response, Search Engine Roundtable
• Holiday PPC: It’s Not Too Late, blueglass.com
• Press Release SEO Tips for Google, The Media & Customers, Online Marketing Blog
• Should I Learn SEO Or Hire An SEO Company?, Daily SEO Tip

Social Media

• 12 Ways To Optimize A Facebook Game Of Like [A Case Study], Search Engine People
• Facebook Still Top Social Marketing Venue for SMBs, eMarketer
• Facebook Users Now 4.74 Degrees Apart, thenextweb.com
• Google+ Now Impacting Klout Scores, Active Users See Scores Go Up, TechCrunch
• How To Monitor Your Three Essential Internet Marketing Strategies, Techipedia
• Introducing Social Analytics in SEOmoz PRO, SEOmoz

Video, Music & Image Search

• Microsoft acquires video search co VideoSurf, Globes

Web Analytics

• Flow Visualization: Traffic and Conversion Reports in Google Analytics, Vertical Measures

Web Analytics

• Site Speed, now even easier to access, Google Analytics Blog

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

• Gmail PPC Ad Targeting – A clever PPC targeting idea for the Google AdWords Display Network.
• 5 *Quick and Easy* Ways to Re-package Your Content into a Viral Image – Some smart tips on how to revitalize your existing written content (or recycle it altogether).