SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 14, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Landing Page Testing: Choosing Between A/B Or Multivariate Approaches

  There are quite a few testing techniques available in the market. In this post I will dwelve into the two commonest testing methods: A/B tests and Multivariate tests. What is the difference between them? How can you choose which one best fits your needs?

• Google Defends Its Design Philosophy

  In an interview on TechRadar UK, Google’s director of user experience goes a long way toward responding to claims earlier this year that the company’s design team is too reliant on data.
  “Data informs decision-making but it’s less useful for conceiving and building conceptually new directions,” explains Irene Au. “It’s most useful for optimising and refining […]

• Sorry, Yahoo, You DO Index The Meta Keywords Tag

  Oh, that this weren’t true. Last week, Yahoo made news by disclosing that it had quietly dropped support for the meta keywords tag. As a long time hater of that tag and the insane questions it has produced, I was thrilled! But today, I see conclusively that Yahoo still supports the tag.
  The test was simple. […]

• 3 Lessons Learned From Successful Corporate Blogging

  I’m just back from speaking at MarketingSherpa’s B2B Summits in San Francisco and Boston, where I was giving a joint presentation with a client on SEO. As part of that presentation, we talked about the role and impact of corporate blogging.
  The client is a professional services firm operating solely in the B2B space. Theirs is […]

• Buy YouTube Promoted Videos Through Google AdWords

  The Google Blog announced you ca now buy YouTube Promoted Video ads directly in the Google AdWords console. Google said that any advertiser with video content in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands can do this today.
  Previously, all YouTube Promoted Video ads were managed on YouTube at ads.youtube.com. […]

• Aardvark Revamps Site, Becomes “Social Search Engine”

  Aardvark has redesigned its site and repositioned somewhat as a “social search engine.” The site can be accessed directly, via IM, Twitter and the iPhone. You can also sign in using Facebook Connect, which sends your activity on Aardvark back to your news feed on Facebook.
  What Aardvark is trying to do is not new — […]

• Shopping Site TheFind Relaunches As “Buying Engine”

  If Bing can brand itself “decision engine” as a strategy to differentiate from the leading “search engine” so can shopping comparison site TheFind. The latter is now calling itself a “buying engine” as a way to emerge from the anonymous sea of shopping search sites out there.
  This morning a redesigned TheFind went live with a […]

• Managing Your Brand To Perform In Universal Search Results

  Achieving and sustaining top ranking visibility for your brand on important organic terms is increasingly getting tougher. This is because natural text listings no longer rule on the search result page. There are many other elements that appear sometimes ahead of or intertwined with the natural results, including local listings with a map, […]

• SEO FAQ That’s Not From The Land Of Unicorns

  I guess Derek Powazek isn’t done with attacking SEO. Now he’s published an SEO FAQ page which, sorry, really doesn’t provide much FAQ about SEO. So what the heck. I’ll deconstruct it. Be sure to also read my previous post, An Open Letter To Derek Powazek On The Value Of SEO.
  What’s […]

• Google Continues Crowdsourcing Its Map Data

  Google has announced a new tool called Google Building Maker that lets you make 3D buildings using aerial photos and 3D shapes. Google says early testers felt it was more toy-like than tool-like and suggests that teachers might use it to help teach geography.
  And at this point you might be wondering … 3D buildings? Toys? […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google’s Postini suffers prolonged e-mail delays, CNET News
• Martha Stewart and Yahoo! Mail – It’s a Good Thing, ymailblog.com
• Google Wave Add-on for Firefox, That Smith
• The Google Wave chatting tool is too complicated for its own good., Slate Magazine

Business Issues

• Google CEO creates $25M endowment at Princeton, The Associated Press
• An Open Letter to Elisa Steele EVP & Chief Marketing Officer, Yahoo Inc. on the New “The Internet is You,” Yahoo Marketing Campaign, Thomas Hawk
• Internet coalescing into lump of Google, The Register
• Technorati Japan to end service this month, IDG
• Yahoo!’s Defense of CEO Stock Sales Is Lame, TheStreet.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• WhitePages Now Lets You Control Your Own Listings, TechCrunch
• CyberCity3D releases a ton of 3D buildings in San Francisco, Google Earth Blog

Link Building

• Should I Risk Linking To Competitors?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Linkbait: Good Content Isn’t Good Enough, Wiep.net

Paid Search & Contextual

• Yahoo Class Action Settlement May Lead to Lower Domain Parking Earnings – The Domain Industry’s News Source, Domain Name Wire
• AdGooroo Expands Quarterly Search Engine Advertising Update for Q309, AdGooroo
• Some Users Having Issues With Google’s Keyword Tool, Search Engine Roundtable
• What Are The Top Ten Questions Asked in the Google AdWords Help Forum?, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• New Online Database: The Book of Odds, ResourceShelf
• How Google Uses the Toolbar Data, Google Operating System
• Technorati’s Big Week Just Got Bigger – Now 5th Largest Social Media Property, jalichandra.com
• The New Technorati, TechCrunch
• New from Intel Labs: Dispute Finder: Attempting to Separate Fact from Fiction, ResourceShelf

SEM Industry

• The League of Awesome Optimizers!, Huomah.com
• Search Engine Market Share Update October 2009, Enquisite

SEO & SEM

• Marchex Announces Reputation Management Beta Release, eWeek
• Duplicate Server Ports Showing In Google? Don’t Use Remove URL Tool, Search Engine Roundtable
• Why is Google Showing my Blocked Sitelinks?, Web Analytics World Blog
• Winning the SEO Battle at Every Step of the Purchase Path, SEOmoz
• 7 Worst Things (Bad) SEO Clients Do, Search Engine Guide
• How would you run your own online marketing company?, YouTube
• Why Search Engine Optimization Matters, About Online Matters

Social Media

• Help us nail spammers, Twitter Blog
• Making It Easier to Build with Facebook, Facebook Developers News
• Rapleaf Study on Demographics, Online Activity of Twitter Influencers in CPG’s Customer List, Rapleaf
• Researching username, password change problems, Twitter Status
• As Facebook Nears 100M U.S. Visitors, Twitter Falls Further Behind In The Rear-View Mirror, TechCrunch
• How Social Media & Email Marketing Boost Customer Reach, Online Marketing Blog
• Cleaning Up The Stream: Twitter Kills Duplicate Tweets, TechCrunch
• Digg’s Vote-for-Ads Experiment Is Raising Revenue, New York Times
• Does your social class determine your online social network?, CNN.com
• Hello, Bharti Airtel, Twitter Blog
• LinkedIn: 50 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn Blog
• Virtual goods sales to hit $1 billion in 2009 as social games pay off big, VentureBeat

Video, Music & Image Search

• MIT program looks at ways to change the world using cellphones, The Boston Globe