SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 27, 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:

• Going Places? Bing Maps Optimizes Your Trips

  Bing has added a new tool to its Bing Maps App Gallery — a tool that aims to optimize road trips when you have a lot of places to go at once. The app comes from OnTerra and is called the “RouteSavvy” Route Optimizer.
  The idea is that, when you have several places to go […]

• FTC Ends Google WiFi Inquiry, No Penalties Announced

  Satisfied with Google’s recent emphasis on improving user privacy practices, the FTC has ended its investigation into Google’s collection of personal data earlier this year via its Street View photography service. The commission is not penalizing Google for what happened.
  In a letter to Google attorneys dated October 27, 2010, David Vladeck of the FTC’s Bureau […]

• New Place Search Shows Google’s Commitment To Local

  Today Google formally rolls out its new presentation of local results, called “Place Search.” It offers a dramatic change to the look and feel of SERPs on Google.com. The first and most obvious change is that the “7 Pack” is gone. And there appear to be some fairly major SEO implications, which should provide many […]

• Managing Sentiment – Using Your Inhouse Social Program To Shape Actions

  Yes, this is going to be another social article. I reasoned there just aren’t enough of them online, and one more would complete the stack nicely. Rather than cover what it takes to build a social program for your business, I want to examine specific areas of your social media program. Last month, I noted […]

• SEMPO Wants Your Input For Its SEM Salary Survey

  The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) is undertaking its first industry-wide salary survey to assess the state of compensation of search marketing professionals by region, experience and responsibility. Previous SEMPO salary surveys have been limited to in-house and agency professionals, whereas the current one is broad-based and open to any search marketing professional.
  Want […]

• StumbleUpon Introduces Video Discovery Enhancements

  StumbleUpon, the web content discovery site that uses ratings from users to form collaborative opinions on website quality, has improved its video discovery process. Users can now watch, rate and share videos from multiple sites, including YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, CollegeHumor and TED, as well as discover and watch their friends’ favorite videos and recommend videos.
  StumbleUpon […]

• Can Article Marketing Work For B2B SEO?

  One of the hot topics in the SEO world is consistently “article marketing.” Primarily, there are conversations around how SEO professionals are using article marketing as a method of link building.
  The practice is not without controversy. In an article titled, Dear Google… Stop Making Me Look Like a Fool!, Jill Whalen, of High Rankings, expressed […]

• Yahoo Search Ads Now Fully Powered By Microsoft adCenter

  The Yahoo to Microsoft adCenter search ad transition in the U.S. and Canada is now complete. Both Microsoft and Yahoo confirmed the transition is now complete.
  Yahoo said:
  Today is a momentous day for us, as Yahoo! has completed the process of moving search ad serving for Yahoo! to the Microsoft Advertising adCenter platform in the […]

• Google Maps Test New Interface For Layer Buttons

  The Google Operating System blog has a picture of a possible maps experiment for testing how users interact with the layers available in Google Maps.
  The new buttons seem to be cleaner and easier to read and use.
  Here is a picture of the new test:

  Here is the existing user interface:

  As you can […]

• Google May Buy New York Office Building

  Google’s big buy by the New York Post reports Google may shell out $2 billion to buy the New York office building they currently rent a portion of.
  The building is well known, previously the home of the Port Authority, with space of about 2.9 million square feet. It fills an entire city block, from […]

• Yahoo Mail Beta Improves Searching Yahoo Mail

  The big buzz last night was from Yahoo releasing the Yahoo Mail Beta globally. The new beta vastly improves speed, security, email search while offering a “more social email experience,” said Yahoo.
  The Yahoo Search Blog briefly explained “you’ll find a faster email search using Yahoo’s wealth of search science and technology.” The new […]

• Report: Voice Searches 3X More Likely To Be Local

  Chitika has just published some very interesting data about voice search on the iPhone. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said that about 25 percent of queries on Android devices are voice-initiated. That’s an unexpectedly large percentage.
  By comparison Chitika’s research director Dan Ruby said that he found about 7 percent of Google searches on the iPhone […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• New in Labs: Auto-advance to the next conversation, Official Gmail Blog
• Bloglines Express, or How I Joined The Google Reader Team, persistent.info

Business Issues

• Whoops, Barry Diller misspoke – again, Reuters
• Google donates $5 million for news innovation to Knight Foundation and new international efforts, Nieman Journalism Lab
• Lack of use of privacy features leaves Google executive searching for answers, The Boston Globe
• The FTC Forgives Google’s WiFi Sniffing, Forbes

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Gowalla Continues to Innovate Beyond the Check-In, Mobile Local Media
• 5 Quick Impacts of Google’s New Local Search Results, Small Business SEM
• Gemalto Sues Google, HTC, Samsung Over Java Technology, San Francisco Chronicle
• Google exec: Android was “best deal ever”, VentureBeat
• How Does Google’s Predictive Traffic Maps Work?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Mobile Users Prefer Browsers over Apps, eMarketer
• Reviews: Lipstick on a Pig Leads to User Backlash, Mike Blumenthal
• We’re giving away 10,000 Google TV devices. To you., Google Code Blog

Link Building

• SEOs: Do You Do Link Building At All?, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Link Landscape, David Naylor

Paid Search & Contextual

• Discover 201008: CustomerSyncService – So what’s new?, AdWords API Blog
• Make the most of your AdSense experience with our new checklist, Inside AdSense

SEO & SEM

• Spooky SEO: Don’t Let Black Hats Cross Your Path!, BruceClay.com
• 7 Deadly Sins of Search Marketing – Part 1, Vertical Leap Blog
• Hacking AdWords – Who Said Black Hat Was Just Organic?, Search Engine Watch
• SEO In An Intimate Setting, Search Engine People
• Bing/Yahoo! Migration Update: A Look at the Data, Performics Performance Marketing Blog
• Google Ranking Update or May Day Impacting More Sites?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Turn a Negative SEO Experience Into Success, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• Info on site changes and test accounts, Digg About
• Social Media Automation – How Much Is Too Much?, outspokenmedia.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Flickr is more fun with friends!, Flickr Blog

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

• DOTW: Does Google have an Eric Schmidt problem? – It seems that barely a week goes by anymore without some strange/creepy quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt. He might be talking about privacy, about Google's future intentions, or anything else. His quotes are being aired by mainstream media and seen/read by millions. In this week's "Discussion of the Week," the question is: Is this becoming a problem for Google?
• 6 Cool Link Building Tips for E-Commerce Site – Practical tips to help you in your link building of an e-commerce website.
• Curating Information as Content Strategy – Valeria Maltoni explains why, sometimes, the best content strategy for your own web site or blog is to feature/curate the best content from other web sites and blogs. "Your advantage will come from having a person dedicated to curating the information. If you're working at a business that caters to other businesses (B2B), you have a specialized kind of knowledge that can set you apart. As a small business, or in a crowded industry, you could find your advantage in curating because…."
• 5 Ways to Get a Job Through YouTube – Not only is it possible to use YouTube to get a job, but it’s becoming a more popular option. Zachery Sniderman explains how to use YT to land a job and provides sample video's for ideas on creating your own.
• Back When Social Media Was Human… – Lisa Barone's latest post questions whether the focus on ROI in social media – and if  the focus on it's usage is for selling/marketing only – is the right approach or the best long term strategy for acquiring customers, and building customer relationships.