SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 4, 2013

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Searching For The Voice Of Siri: Voiceover Actor Susan Bennett Says, “It’s Obviously Me”
  A story on CNN.com claims that Atlanta voiceover professional Susan Bennett is the original voice of Siri, Apple’s iPhone voice application. According to the story, Bennett did voice work for the software company ScanSoft in 2005. CNN says ScanSoft was then purchased by Nuance Communications, a company that is credited with providing Apple the technology […]
• Search In Pics: Android Mini Golf, Google Garage, & Glass At The Emmys
  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. Android Mini Golf: Source: Google+ Google Top Contributor Summit Awards: Source: Google+ The Google Market: Source: […]
• Structured Data Superstars @ SMX East
  Structured data has become a hot topic over the past year or so, and at SMX East, the room was packed for the Structured Data Superstars session. Evan Sandhaus of the New York Times kicked it off with a very impressive look at how the Times spent the last three years developing and implementing structured […]
• Ezine Articles & Press Releases Supplied As Bad Backlink Examples In WMT
  Ezine Articles and press releases have long been utilized by SEO professionals for building backlinks. In late July 2013, news broke that links should be no followed in press releases. Right around this same time, Google also mentioned that if you are guest blogging for links this could be a violation of their guidelines. Apparently, […]
• Google Makes Mobile Search Faster With Ping Attribute
  Ilya Grigorik, a Google developer advocate, announced last night a small tweak Google made to the mobile search experience that will speed up the mobile search experience on mobile Safari and Chrome by 200-400 milliseconds. By implementing a attribute named <a ping>, Google is able to asynchronously do the click tracking and redirect virtually at […]
• New Data Suggest AdWords Enhanced Campaigns Actually Work
  Nearly two months after the forced roll-out of Enhanced Campaigns in AdWords, at least one key question remains unanswered: are we better off today than we were before? In my column this week, I’ll try to answer that question using some data-driven analysis — but first, I thought it would be fun to take a […]
• Top Social Tactics For Search Marketers
  When it comes down to social’s impact on search, it all comes down to three things: Trust, credibility and quality. This was a common theme throughout the Top Social Tactics for Search Marketers session at SMX East. As Google continues to penalize links, and search marketers shift away from traditional link building tactics, social is […]
• SMX East 2013 Day Three Live Blog Recap
  The final day of SMX East took place today in New York City. Below is some of the live blog coverage of the final day’s sessions, but make sure to see day one and day two coverage if you missed it. Casie Gillette on Content: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: SMX East 2013, […]
• Essential YouTube Optimization Tactics
  During the YouTube: Optimization Tips For The Second Most-Popular Search Engine session at SMX East we were treated to smorgasbord of tips, tricks and sound advice for marketers wanting their video marketing to leap-frog the competition. Manny Rivas, Online Advertising Director at aimClear got us all excited by saying “B2B can be sexy” and started his […]
• The Challenge Of Getting Mobile SEO Right When Google Is Inconsistent
  The Getting Mobile SEO Right, Because Now Google Really Cares session at SMX East had a stellar group of presenters including Google’s Pierre Far, Resolution Media’s Bryson Meunier, Move.com’s David Roth and Local Market Launch’s Gideon Ruben. This was a fantastic panel with lots of great information, but there were a few topics that I […]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Twitter: No Current Plans To Put Ads On Vine, #Music Apps
• Smartphone Market: Android Plateaus But Google Near 100 Percent Audience Reach
• Would The Real Siri Please Stand Up: Susan Bennett Identified As Woman Behind Iconic iPhone Voice
• Twitter’s S-1 Highlights Strength Of Mobile, International Advertising Opportunities
• 3 Ways To Use Social Media To Target High-Net-Worth Consumers
• Showrooming: An Incentive To Create Terrific O-To-O Customer Experiences
• Twitter Usage Numbers, From The IPO S-1
• Twitter Files IPO, Issues S-1 Form, Looks To Raise $1 Billion

Search News From Around The Web:

Link Building

• Link Building 101: Competitor Analysis, Search Engine Watch
• Is Link Building Dying?, Renegade Search

Searching

• Google’s Timer No Longer Counting Down, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO

• 7 Ways to Use Nerdy Data for SEO, State of Digital
• For International SEO: Google Says Server Location Almost Irrelevant, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Streamline Time-Consuming White Hat SEO Techniques, Search Engine Guide
• Six Google Hummingbird Optimisation Ideas, koozai.com
• Sort by Flow Metrics in Majestic SEO Standard Reports, Majestic SEO Blog
• Taking Advantage of Google’s Bias Toward Hyper-Fresh Content – Whiteboard Friday, Moz
• Let’s Not Freak Out About Hummingbird and Not Provided, John Doherty
• Using SEO to Drive Content Marketing, Practical E-Commerce
• What SEO’s can make of Google In-depth articles, Search Engine Journal
• When will we notice the Google Hummingbird update?, Bazaarvoice blog

SEM / Paid Search

• 6 Excel Tricks to Save Your PPC Life, PPC Hero
• 9 PPC Tips to Kill it in Q4, SEER Interactive
• Get Your Search Campaigns Ready for the Holidays Now!, Yahoo Advertising Blog
• Life as a PPC Person in a SEO Agency, 3qdigital.com
• We’ve Got You Covered with 5 Tips for Search Advertising Success During Healthcare Reform, Bing Ads

Search Marketing

• Video: Google’s Hummingbird, Facebook Search Useful & AdSense Drops On Government Shutdown, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Partners: More Of The Same?, Beyond the Paid
• As Health Exchanges Open, Search Marketing Is Key | DigitalNext: A Blog on Emerging Media and Technology, Ad Age
• How to Use Estimated Total Conversions, SwellPath

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's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.