SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 9, 2010

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• YouTube Topic Search Offers Way To “Explore” Related Videos

  Around 6pm tonight Pacific Time, YouTube will be making YouTube Topic Search available through its TestTube “labs” area. The new feature allows people to easily explore videos by topic. I got a demo of this about three weeks ago, and it’s pretty cool. For example, you can search for videos and then narrow them down […]
• Google Testing Infinite Scroll Web Results?

  Update: It seems like this was caused by a Chrome extension named FastestChrome. So Google is not testing infinite scroll in the web results. Matt Beck, a reader, emailed me a video of Google testing a form of infinite scroll in the search results. Infinite scroll is when you do not have to click the […]

• Ask.com To Focus On Q&A Search, End Web Crawling

  Talk about getting back to your roots. Ask.com, which originally used humans to find answers to questions, is going further back to its origins by abandoning its web crawling technology. The Need, Or Not, To Crawl Search engines like Google and Bing try to have answers to anything someone might search for by “crawling” the […]

• Study: Clear Ad Labeling Reduces Paid Clicks By 25 Percent

  Google has just changed the labeling on its paid search ads from “sponsored links” to “ads.” Described by Google as being in a “limited trial” there was no further explanation behind the change. Harvard Business School’s Ben Edelman is ambivalent about the change. While it more clearly identifies what the links are, the word “ads” […]

• How To Implement Exclusive Content For Fans On Facebook

  Trying to bolster the number of people that like your Facebook page? Try giving users a reason to like you by offering a special only to those that actually ‘like’ you. Facebook allows for you to deliver different content on FMBL tabs between users that are already connected to your page and users that aren’t. […]

• 6 Daily Habits That Make Up My Link Reading List

  I’m frequently asked what resources I read to keep up with the latest trends and information on link building. While it’s an easy question, answering it takes a while since I follow a long list of sites. Here’s a list of resources I find invaluable and try to review every day. I’ve grouped them by […]

• Google Launches Instant Previews

  At last, Google has finally gained a page preview feature. Called “Instant Previews,” this is a way for you to see what’s on a page that’s listed in Google’s search results without having to leave Google. The new feature seems promising, another way to save time in the searching process, because there’s less need for […]

• Google Maps Street Views May Have Caught A Criminal

  The Telegraph reports the Derbyshire Police in the UK have released a photo of a man captured on Google’s Street Views as a possible suspect for theft of a car. There is a man standing by the stolen car who no one really recognizes and believes should be standing next to the car. The Street […]

• Google News Mobile Design Tweaks

  The Google News Blog announced a few tweaks to the mobile News site for Android, iPhone and Palm Pre devices. The changes include: Easier to click on stories, making the click area larger Default to collapsed “more stories sources” to make more articles viewable Here are screen shots: This small update comes after a year […]

• Google Legal Headaches Roundup: Angry Chinese Resellers, Toolbar Snooping, Texas Conspiracy Theories

  No stranger to lawsuits and regulatory complaints, Google is dealing with a trio of new claims and contentions. Ad reseller partners in China are suing Google for lost commissions and other damages tied to Google’s recent pullout of that market. According to an article in Shanghai Daily: Seven former advertising resellers for Google China in […]

• A Guide To European Search Conferences

  If want to learn from other search marketers about your trade, one of the best ways (next to reading sites like Search Engine Land) is to attend search conferences. And there are many out there to choose from. Within the US you can probably pay a visit to a conference weekly if you wanted to. […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Changes to the Answers Profile page, Yahoo Answers Blog

Business Issues

• Google TV Gets Static, AdWeek
• Alibaba’s Ma seeking funds to buy back Yahoo stake, Reuters
• Google Copies Bing. There. I Said It., ZDNet
• PE group approaches Alibaba’s Ma on Yahoo bid: source, Reuters
• Tokyo ‘seizes Google user records’ over video leak, Yahoo! News
• Yahoo Music Head Leaving For AOL, www.billboard.biz

Local, Maps & Mobile

• 2 million Spots created on Gowalla to date, thenextweb.com
• Five features Google needs to deliver in Android 2.3, Ars Technica
• Google Places – Are Reviews Now Being Filtered?, Mike Blumenthal
• Local Heatmaps = More to Think About with New Google SERPs, Small Business SEM
• Mapping Cemetery Plots on Google Maps, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft aims to improve maps with GPS data from 33,000 Beijing cab drivers, Engadget

Link Building

• 5 Tasks Toward Planning A Manual Link Building Campaign, Search Marketing Standard

Paid Search & Contextual

• Creating Targeted Ads in Facebook, PPC Hero
• New resource launch – Agency Help Center, AdWords Agency Blog
• Technical Issues With The Google Certification Program, Search Marketing Communications
• Using Opera? Well, You Might Not Be Able To Manage Your AdWords Account, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Competitive Keyword and Link Research that Works, Search Engine Journal
• Content Optimization: Revisiting Topic Modeling, LDA & Our Labs Tool, SEOmoz
• Quality Score: the Great Misnomer, Rimm Kaufman
• 8 Lesser-Known SEO Techniques for Landing Pages (Part 2), blog.performable.com
• Facebook SEO, Ranking Factors & Visibility Hacks, AIM Clear Blog
• Google Instant Preview Search Puts An Emphasis On Good Web Design, Five Technology Web Design Blog
• Google News spammer has new site, same trick, CNET News
• How Not To Ruin Content With SEO, Search Engine Guide
• The 10 Most Incredible Google Bombs, Search Engine People
• Tips to Help Local Businesses Succeed on Yelp, webranking.com

Social Media

• Facebook Mobile Elevates Checkins to Same Status as Photos, thenextweb.com
• Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data, TechCrunch
• Facebook Testing New ‘Mention’ Feature On News Feeds, Forbes
• Twitter Co-Founders To Appear On ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’, Forbes

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

• Scaling SEO by Eliminating Pain Points – Good piece from Ross Hudgens about improving SEO processes with a list of tools in different categories that can help ease the 'pain points' of doing SEO.
• Disturbing study suggests where Web spam is heading – Michael Martinez explains why spammers and low-quality-high-output content farms not only can fool search engine algos easily, but gain credibility in your brain cells, too. Worth a read for every copy writer and marketer.
• Google Gets Instant Previews – Now Google is showing large images of pages right within the search results, called "Instant Previews." My detailed look at how the system works.
• How to Use Blekko to Rock at Your Job – Marshall Kirkpatrick compares Blekko to Google CSE and explains how to use custom search to quickly gather relevant information on any topic. A good read with lots of tips and partly funny background information.
• Why Social Media Is a Better Investment than SEO – Interesting article on ProBlogger, where Gary Arndt lays out several reasons bloggers should focus on social media instead of SEO. His summary: "What I am saying is that outside of a few things you can do in the creation of your blog, don’t worry about SEO. Make sure your permalinks make sense, create a site map, install the appropriate plugins … and then stop worrying about it." Agree? Disagree?