SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 3, 2008

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

• Yahoo News Tests New Look, Targets Social Media Users
  Yahoo News is inviting its throngs of readers to try its next version, which has new design and content features. Readers will immediately notice a wider footprint on the new Yahoo News, as well as larger text and other new design elements. Content has also been rearranged, with easier access to the most popular stories […]
• Google Maps: #1 In Features, Market Share Rising
  As Google Maps continues to roll out new features that competing map services don’t have, web users are rewarding it with big gains in traffic. A recent analyst report says Google is the number one maps site in terms of features and usability, and new Hitwise.com traffic data just shared this week with Search Engine […]
• Search In Pictures: Google Masters, Google Bus & Google Time
  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.
• Many San Diego SMBs Advertise Online, Or Do They?…
  Here at Palore, we recently finished working on a large scale project in San Diego County, covering all businesses in all categories, from more than 10 leading local, vertical and IYP sites – a total of 168,466 businesses.  The fact that the number of total businesses we reached exceeds the one published by some data providers […]
• Google’s Gradual Embrace Of Conventional Marketing
  The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) covers Google’s slow, ambivalent move toward traditional marketing. During its first 10 years, the company grew almost entirely on user word of mouth and PR-driven news coverage. That has helped create a culture that is somewhat biased against traditional advertising. Yet we’ve seen more traditional ad buys from Google in […]
• Much Ado About Yahoo-Google & The 95 Character Poet
  Today: thoughts on this week’s news about the Yahoo-Google Ad deal and adCenter updates; in-depth look: the 95 character poet: using variations in ad copy; and “do you hate checking boxes? ” in this week’s free tips and tools.
• Yahoo Introduces Elections Shortcuts
  This morning Yahoo has introduced Elections Shortcuts (screenshots below). Working in concert with Yahoo Search Assist, when users search for candidate names or on related political queries these new Shortcuts provide quick access to presidential and local information about the forthcoming US election and related issues. The information is drawn from Yahoo news and the […]
• Google Removes Directory Links From Webmaster Guidelines
  Brian Ussery reported that Google has dropped two important bullet points from the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Those bullet points include: Have other relevant sites link to yours. Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.
• Google Adds Geographic Data To AdWords Quality Score
  Brad Geddes reports that Google has updated their AdWords Quality Score to now include geographic information in the quality score algorithm. If you take a look at the Google page on the Quality Score, you will see a line that reads: Your account’s performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown.

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• New Google Calendar features for the iPhone, Google Apps Team
• The New Real Time Monitoring: Streams Updates and Feeds Added to Google Code Project, Google Open Source Blog

Business Issues

• Yahoo quells layoff talk as ‘rumor and speculation’, MarketWatch
• Yes, Yahoo Cuts Coming. How Many? (YHOO), Alley Insider
• Don’t Let Google Freeze the Airwaves, Wall Street Journal
• Exits: Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, star engineer quit, Valleywag
• Google: Time To Cut Estimates, Barron’s
• Jackpot: Facebook stock sales scheduled for November 1, Valleywag

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Yahoo to push into mobile travel, Travolution.co.uk

Link Building

• Is Buying Links Stupid? , SEO Book
• Link Forensics: Finding shady links before taking on new clients, SEOmoz

Paid Search & Contextual

• Common issues that lead to SOAP faults (Part IV), AdWords API Blog
• Sneak peek into the adCenter Fall Upgrade – adCenter Blog for Advertisers, adcentercommunity.com
• The Evolution of Online Advertising Technology – More Targeting, Less Privacy (Part One), Search Engine Guide
• When Will Google AdWords Prevent Account Hijackings?, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• 7 blog news trackers compared, news.cnet.com
• What’s Missing from Google’s New Blogsearch?, HyperLocal Blogger
• A minor update to Live Search homepage, LiveSide

SEM Industry

• We’re Liveblogging SMX East Next Week, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Google Still Showing Different Results for Upper Case vs Lower Case?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Small Live Search Update or Hiccup?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Webmasters Report October 2008 Google SERP Changes, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo Site Explorer gets a redesign, BlogStorm

Social Media

• Branding Strategies for Your Social Media Profiles on the Web, SEOmoz
• Friendster announces support for Facebook apps, News.com
• Is the link economy really broken?, www.mathewingram.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Flickr’s iPhone-friendly (beta) redesign, News.com
• Picasa 3 (beta) for Linux, Google Photos Blog

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

• Streko’s Survival Guide to NYC During SMX
• 40,000 Reasons to attend the IM Charity Party at SMX East
• Bloggers trashing your company? Online reputation managers are here
• Advanced Twittering: 5 Tips For More Effective Tweets
• Search Marketing in a Recession
• What SEO Software Means For the SEO Community
• How To Become A Twitter Rockstar – Sort Of
• An Ethical Debate On Which We Can All (Maybe) Agree: The Average Webmaster And Dodgy SEO
• Social Media Management: The Role of an Agency or Service Provider
• Defining SEO Information Environments Through RSS
• The SERPs are Alive with the Sounds of Microblogs

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.