SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 21, 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:
- Google Maps Aggregates Midterm Election Forecasts
Google has joined forces with a handful of political web sites to track forecasts for the upcoming U.S. mid-term elections. Those forecasts are available now at maps.google.com/elections2010.
By default, the map begins by showing the outlook for nationwide Senatorial races. You can filter to see a specific state, data from a specific source, or you can […]
- Google Updates Anti-Censorship Weapons
Earlier this year Google launched an innovative “Government Requests map,” which showed how regularly governments around the world were asking Google to remove information or content from its index and services. Google won plaudits for the initiative, as well as criticism from some governments that the map allegedly made look like censoring regimes.
Yesterday Google folded […]
- Privacy, Profit & The Emergence Of Google’s “Evil Twin”
There’s a funny and satirical 1989 British film called “How to Get Ahead in Advertising.” The movie focuses on an ad executive, played by actor Richard E. Grant, who experiences an ethical and mid-life crisis. He develops a boil on his neck, which grows into a literal head (a kind of evil twin) and eventually […]
- Microsoft adCenter Adding “Real-Time” Budget Tracking & Improved Budgeting Tools
The Microsoft adCenter blog announced they are adding budgeting improvements to their search ad tools.
Tina Kelleher from the Microsoft team explained that in the upcoming “days” advertisers will be able to track their ad spend in “near real time.” Tina went as far to say that there will be “almost no time […] - Google Earth Ocean Layer Available On iOS & Android
Google added the ocean layer to Google Earth back in February 2009. In August, Google added the layer to Google Maps for Android and now it is available on iOS, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads.
With this update you can now scan the ocean using an Android of iOS device to learn more […] - Digg v4: How To Successfully Kill A Community
Late last month, Digg.com released version 4 of the popular social news site and the response was horrific. In a web poll from Mashable.com, users overwhelmingly selected the previous version as the better site with version 3 garnering 78.4% of the total votes.
I have been an avid user of Digg since 2007, spending countless hours […] - Numbers: The Most Universal Language Of Search
Numbers can actually help you to market your product if you understand how important they are — especially to significant far eastern markets such as China. Universally understood, numbers may well have wider applications for your international search marketing campaigns than you, at first, expect.
- Who To Follow For Political Tweets? Bing Endorses Sarah Palin!
Do a search for politics on Bing Social Search, and its new “who to follow on Twitter” feature offer exactly one person: Sarah Palin.
Gary Price of ResourceShelf tipped me to this gem. Hey, perhaps it’s designed to help balance out the seemingly left-leaning recommendations that Twitter makes:
No Fox News or Tea Baggers there among the […]
- How Google Saved $100 Million By Launching Google Instant
It seems fitting that from the moment it was announced, Google Instant became an instant headline news story.
For the past few week, industry pundits have been talking, tweeting and writing about Google Instant and offering their theories on its implications for SEO and paid search. On one hand, there are Googlers like […] - Hot On Sphinn: White Hat Cloaking, Groupon Disasters, Anchor Text’s Influence & More
Have recent changes at Google devalued the importance of inbound links anchor text, and raised the importance of brand-related signals? One popular story on Sphinn last week suggests so. Is there such a think as “white hat cloaking”? And what about Groupon — one of the trendiest local services online today. But is it always […]
Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
- Say hello to performance & security, Microsoft Translator (and Bing Translator) Official Team Blog
- A more fontastic Google Docs, Official Google Blog
Business Issues
- Anne Toth, Yahoo’s VP of Policy & Head of Privacy Interviewed on C-SPAN, ResourceShelf
- Google broke Carter memoir embargo last week, Embargo Watch
- Google M&A boss presides over record year, Reuters
- Yahoo! ‘owns several patents’ on Google Instant, The Register
- Yahoo’s Bartz Makes Her Pitch To Wall Street, paidContent.org
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Introducing foursquare 2.0: Tips To-Dos Add to foursquare More!, blog.foursquare.com
- 10 Google Earth myths busted, Google Earth Blog
- Foursquare, Events & The Impossibility Of Badges, daggle.com
- Google Maps Street View Bring Back The Dead?, Search Engine Roundtable
- Updated Gmail app in Android Market, Official Google Mobile Blog
Paid Search & Contextual
- Twitter To Serve Targeted Promoted Tweets Based On Who You Follow, TechCrunch
- Will CPC Prices Increase With Yahoo & Microsoft Search Ad Deal?, Search Engine Roundtable
Searching
SEO & SEM
- Google Instant: “All That” or Overblown Hype?, Marketing Words Copywriting Blog
- Next-Level Optimization for Search: When And Why You Need It, Industrial Strength SEM
- Web Accessibility and SEO, BruceClay
- Can Google Detect an Affiliate Website, Michael Gray
- Find The Questions Potential Visitors Ask [Google Webmaster Tools], Search Engine People
- Google Says They Fixed Site Performance Report Updates, Search Engine Roundtable
- Holiday Preparation Series: Travel PPC Insights and Optimization Tips (U.K. Market), adCenter Blog
- How precise is the number of results in a site: query?, YouTube
- Should SEO Copywriters Worry About Word Count?, Search Engine People
- The SEO’s Handbook – 53 Resources For First Time SEOs, www.quicksprout.com
- Users Don’t Always Buy What They Seek, Rimm Kaufman
- When SEO is Not the Right Solution, Search Engine Journal
Social Media
- Facebook Is Top Source of Malware, ‘Status-Jacking’, MediaPost
- Girl, 14, fears 21,000 party guests after Facebook invite blunder, Telegraph
- Facebook Has Quietly Implemented A De-Facto Follow Feature, TechCrunch
- 2800 Social Media Zombies Need Feeding On Friendfeed, andybeard.eu
- All about the "onMouseOver" incident, Twitter Blog
- Auto-complete and Reply to All come to Twitter, thenextweb.com
- Do Customers Want To Punch Your Site In The Face?, outspokenmedia.com
- The Legend of Mark Zuckerberg, huffingtonpost.com
- Twitter ‘onmouseover’ security flaw widely exploited, Graham Cluley’s blog
- XSS attack identified and patched., Twitter Status
Other Items
- Show me the honey, Official Google Blog
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
- 4 Valuable Link Building Services (Zemanta, MyBlogGuest, EightfoldLogic & Whitespark) – 4 interesting major new link building services, as well as some long-standing options that some SEOs may not have discovered – selected by Rand Fishkin.
Explore more on
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