SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 28, 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 Tweaks Its Rel=Author Display, Promotes Google+ In Search Results

  Google has rolled out a few changes to how it shows results that use the rel=author markup. Some of these are things that have been spotted in testing in recent weeks, so today’s announcement formalizes how that markup will display in Google’s search results. Here’s how it currently looks using one of Danny Sullivan’s recent […]

• Eyetracking & SEO: Fad, Fact, Or Fiction?

  Do SEO professionals use eyetracking usability studies as a link-juice fad? Can eyetracking tests yield useful information about Web searchers?

• Search In Pics: Yahoo Octoberfest, Google +1 Plate & Angry Birds At Google

  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 Octoberfest: Angry Birds At Google: Yahoo Basketball: Google + Profile Collage: Jerry Yang Visits Yahoo […]

• Powered By Nokia, The New Yahoo Maps Goes Live

  Former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will be remembered mainly as a cost cutter who outsourced numerous functions to third parties. A partial list of those includes outsourcing Search to Microsoft, Shopping to PriceGrabber, Real Estate to Zillow and Maps to Nokia/Navteq. And now, the new Nokia-powered Yahoo Maps (NokiHoo) have just gone live in the […]

• The Career Path Of The Search Marketer

  For those of you who read my columns regularly, you know that I’m fascinated with watching the paid search industry develop. Having been one of the lucky ones who fell into this marketing niche early on, I’ve seen it grow from a little seedling into a giant oak. In fact, one of the major draws […]

• 3 Metrics Google Analytics Beginners Should Watch

  The first login to a Google Analytics account can be daunting. There are so many things to see, and so many different ways to tweak data, that deciding which are the most important metrics to watch can be an insurmountable decision. Ultimately, in my opinion, you are the only one who can decide what metrics […]

• SEO Mustache Competition Backed By Google’s Matt Cutts & Bing’s Duane Forrester

  Mike Halvorsen has set up a special competition this November to help raise money for Prostate Cancer Foundation and Livestrong. The competition is on growing a mustache and both Google’s Matt Cutts and Bing’s Duane Forrester are participating. Duane blogged about it on the Bing Search Blog saying, “Schema, Sitemaps and ‘staches: What do they […]

• Google Analytics Random Site Bug Has No Privacy Concerns

  This morning Alex Moss reported a weird bug with Google Analytics where going to the “landing page” or “exit page” reports and clicking on the URL would pop open a random site, instead of the URL of that page. Here is a screen shot shared by @SEOsherlock. Alex Moss claimed this was a privacy issue […]

• Guest Opinion: Is Google’s Privacy Move Really An Anti-Competitive Practice?

  Fresh on the heels of a free pass from a befuddled congress after admitting that they are a monopoly, Google’s decision to cloak search query strings under the guise of privacy makes it clear they are doubling down on their abusive, anti-competitive practices. Consider the following points: Cloaking the referrer and the query string it […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• An Update on Google TV, The Official Google TV Blog
• News joins Google Dashboard, Google News Blog
• Yahoo and Google said to debut new digital newsstands, CNET News
• Yahoo! Mail and More on iOS5, www.ymailblog.com

Business Issues

• Yahoo, bidders at impasse over nondisclosure, Reuters
• Baidu sees strong Q4 sales driven by ad spend, Reuters
• Chinese Search Engine Baidu’s Q3 Revenue Up 85 Percent To $655M; Profit Up 80 Percent To $295M, TechCrunch
• Yahoo: Center of a Global Chess Game, Wall Street Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Check Out Incredible Interactive 3D Business Tours on Google Places, marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com
• GetListed Adds YellowPages.com Functionality, blog.getlisted.org
• Samsung surges past Apple in smartphones, upbeat on Q4, Reuters

Link Building

• Directory Links Still Work These Days, Search Engine People
• Google Awards Sites With Poor Inbound Links Since October 14th?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Reverse Image Search Strategy for Outside the Box SEO Link Building, zetainteractive.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Highlighting ad titles, Inside AdSense

Searching

• Google Removes Not Visited Yet Search Option, Search Engine Roundtable

SEM Industry

• Bookshelf of Horrors: 66 of the Worst Search Marketing Books You’ll Never Read, AIM Clear Blog
• Video: Google Panda Updates, Link Algorithms, Google SSL, & More, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• 9 reasons to go black hat, Conversation Marketing
• Black Hat SEO: Forget The Taboo, Boost Your Rankings Today, Search Engine People
• How Big is Your Long Tail? – Whiteboard Friday, SEOmoz
• SEO – Is ROI Overrated? SEM Synergy Extras, BruceClay.com
• The Ultimate Keyword Sorting and Organization Spreadsheet, Search Engine Guide
• Who Are You Writing For? SEO Copywriting vs. Social Media Writing, Search Engine People

Social Media

• Hitwise: Google+ traffic up in October over last month, Computerworld
• 600,000+ compromised account logins every day on Facebook, official figures reveal, Naked Security
• Steve Martin turns tweets into book, Reuters
• Using Google+ for Google Apps? Your admin has access to all of your data, thenextweb.com

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

• Using Daily Deals for Retargeting Purposes – A very creative idea: intergrate retargeting with daily deals. Love it!
• Yes, Page Speed Matters – Using minimalism to make a powerful point…
• Celebrities Killed The SEO Star – Rob Kerry crafted a powerful rant: "How do we expect the next generation of SEO consultants to analyse a website and its industry competitors, when all they've read about is how evil paid links are and how to tweak Google Analytics?"
• 50 Kloutless Ways To Get Value From Twitter – If you’re not sure how your business, as unique and distinct as it is, can get value from Twitter, start here. Maybe go grab a pen or something and take notes.
• Winning PPC Ads that Bury the Offer? – This unconventional strategy for writing text ads shows positive results.