SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 22, 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:

• 
  Google-Funded Lunar X Prize Aims To Put Private Rover On Moon
  The latest X Prize is the Google-funded Lunar X Prize, which was announced in September, 2007. It seeks to award $20 million to the first scientific team that can land a privately funded robot on the moon and meet a number of other criteria (explore terrain and relay results back…
• 
  Search In Pictures: Tennis at Google, The Mars Volta at Yahoo & Schwag
  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….
• 
  Brin “Unnerved,” Yang “Girds,” And Microsoft Shops For A New Yahoo Board
  Previewing the teams involved in the Google-sponsored Lunar X prize, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told the Associated Press following the event that he found the prospect of Microsoft owning Yahoo “unnerving.” Meanwhile, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, according to Charles Cooper at CNET, is “girding for the certainty of a coming…
• 
  Six Minutes With Former Ask CEO Jim Lanzone
  AllThingD’s Kara Swisher does a wide ranging video interview with former Ask CEO Jim Lanzone. Among other things Swisher and Lanzone discuss “the future of search” at only the very highest level however….
• 
  Microsoft Launches Search Prizes With Virgin In UK: Big Snap Search
  Microsoft runs prize campaign for Live Search users from NewMediaAge reports that Microsoft is yet running another search and win promotion. This time the contest is based in the UK, in partnership with Virgin. It is named the Big Snap Search. Users can go to bigsnapsearch.com and search, at the…
• 
  Google, Yahoo, Microsoft & Other Search Engines Must Comply With EU Privacy Rules
  EU: Search Engines Under EU Rules from the Associated Press reports that the European data privacy regulators said search engines outside the EU also have to comply with EU’s privacy regulations. The regulations require the search engines to require their users to consent to their data being collected plus give…
• 
  Google Maps Categories: Will The Pain End Soon?
  Over the past several week I have explored some of the issues involved with categorization of businesses in Google Maps on my blog Understanding Google Maps. In Part 1, I detailed the more than year long history of small business frustration. In Part 2, I provided some background on the…
• 
  Two Approaches To Determining Intent: The Wisdom Of Crowds And Personal Values – VortexDNA
  As I said in my last column, disambiguating intent is the holy grail of search. John Batelle called search the “database of intentions”. While technically correct, right now those intentions are only vaguely understood. The breadth and complexity of a concept is squeezed into the restrictive container of a…
• 
  Upcoming Search Marketing Conferences: March-June 2008
  Doing your forward planning for the year? Google’s Matt Cutts is, and this week, he posted where he’s speaking over the next few weeks. In a similar vein, I thought it would be nice to list some of the upcoming search marketing events happening in the coming months:…
• 
  Bush – Tops For “Who Is A Failure” On Google
  For years, US President George W. Bush was tops on Google for searches on miserable failure until last year’s Googlebomb "fix" solved his problem on Google. But Bush is back, sort of. People are spotting that Bush’s official White House page is ranking tops for who is a failure on…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Apps on orkut coming soon, Orkut Blog
• gearsAJAXHelper: Use Google Gears with AJAX APIs for Faster Queries, Google AJAX Search API Blog
• Get Email Notifications for Google Groups Threads, Google Operating System
• Why Google Apps is a Serious Threat to Microsoft Office, Read/Write Web

Business Issues

• Four Publishers Join Yahoo Consortium, Mediainfo.com
• Are IP addresses personal?, Google Public Policy Blog
• Google Very Exposed to US Recession–Expert, Silicon Alley Insider
• Video: Google headquarters through a 13-year-old’s eyes, News.com
• Webcast: Conversation with Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Larry Brilliant hosted by Tom Friedman, ResourceShelf

Conferences

• Birthdays, Elephants, Tools, & Booze: SES London Day 3, SEOmoz

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Putting Google Earth to the test, Google LatLong
• Sometimes simpler is better…, Google LatLong
• Google Maps Upgrade: Report inappropriate photo, Mike Blumenthal
• Citysearch Gets into User-Generated Video, Screenwerk

Microhoo

• Opinion: Can Microsoft use AltaVista without buying Yahoo?, Computer World
• Microsoft Fishes in Silicon Valley For New Yahoo Board Members, AllThingsD

Paid Search & Contextual

• Meet our AdWords Evangelist in San Jose, Inside AdWords
• Spammers gaming Google advertising, InfoWorld
• Brand Vs Generic Keywords, adCenter Blog

Searching

• Specifying patterns for your Custom Search Engine, Google Custom Search
• Clarifications on local – for news readers and publishers, Google News Blog
• hakia versus Google: Anti-gravity machine versus Slot machine?, Hakia Blog
• How to break bigsnapsearch!, SEO Home
• PharmaLiveSearch, the pharmaceutical search engine, Alt Search Engines
• Who Is A Failure, liar or idiot?, Phil Bradley’s weblog

SEM Industry

• The Brash SEO’s Antifesto, SEOmoz
• San Francisco SEO Meetup Part II – Friday Feb. 29th, Stuntdubl
• Search Engine Marketing Job Boards, danperry.com

SEO & SEM

• 7 Ways to Use Keyword Analytics to Your Advantage, SEO.com
• Trick Google into Placing Video Icon Image Near Your Search Listings?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Define: Search Engine Optimization Services, SquareOak
• How to game Google Trends, BlogStorm
• Introducing Search Vendor Updates, Searchviews
• MS Live Still Referral Spamming, eKstreme.com
• The issues facing big brand SEO, E-Consultancy
• Whiteboard Friday – Creating Great Online Content, SEOmoz
• Average CPC – Search vs. Content, Efficient Frontier Insights

Social Media

• Is Social Media the Final Frontier of Marketing?, Techipedia

Other Items

• Google News 2.0 – Leveling The Field For New Media "Orphans"?, Deep Jive Interests
• Happy Men’s Day from Quintura!, Quintura blog

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

• Google University Bulgaria turns into a PR disaster
• Interview With Top Digger-Mr Babyman!
• What You Don’t Publish, Defines Your Site
• Why SEO is Like Fashion
• Link Building with Aged TrustRank Sites
• I Don’t Want To Be Your Friend
• SEO software you should start using today to make your life easier!

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.