SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 23, 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:

• 
  Anything Else? Vivisimo’s Remix Clustering Surfaces Subtler Results
  You know that aggravating feeling you get when you’ve done a search and your results are OK, but you’re sure there’s something better if only the “obvious” results weren’t totally dominant? Or if you could somehow come up with a cleverer way of expressing your query without wasting a bunch…
• 
  Search Stocks & The Stock Crash: GOOG, YHOO & MSFT
  Hitting John Battelle’s blog today, he noted what a plunge Google took on the stock market yesterday and in general through the current year. I thought it would be fun to look at Microsoft and Yahoo as well. The chart above covers the past month and shows Google (GOOG),…
• 
  Will The European Union Decide IP Addresses Are Personal?
  The head of an EU group looking into search privacy issues said yesterday that Internet Protocol addresses assigned to computers should be treated as personal information. Below, more about that plus a look at some comments about how the search engines have been reported to the European Parliament to be…
• 
  FTC Complaint Filed Over AskEraser: “Unfair & Deceptive”
  Photo adapted from one by Hans Engel Some felt Ask.com won the privacy oneupmanship that went on last year, when it rolled out Ask Eraser, a tool promising to stop recording any information about someone doing a search. But questions quickly came up, including whether the tool helped at…
• 
  Google Best Place To Work; Says Fortune Magazine
  Fortune Magazine rated Google the best place to work in 2008. Google secured the top spot for a second year in a row because, as Fortune explains, “Google continued to mint millionaires as the stock cracked $700. The company gives stock options to 99% of employees.” Microsoft made the list…
• 
  Google’s Mysterious Position Six Penalty
  One of the most recent Google theories floating through the forums is the “position six penalty.” The signs of being hit by a “position six penalty” is when you see your number one or two rankings shift downwards to position number six in Google. Many people first started noticing this…
• 
  Building A Career In Search Marketing
  So, you’ve decided that a career in search marketing IS for you. Sure, your friends, parents and significant other have no idea what you’re talking about when you describe the profession, but there’s money to be made, and you want your share! But, where to begin? Wanting the job…
• 
  Google Maps: From “OneBox” To Ten Local Links
  For ages — though OneBox results and its successor of Universal Search — Google Local results have sometimes shown on regular Google search pages, with three local listings and a prompt for more results. Except now that seems to be changing, with 10 results showing. Last week Paul Jahn at…
• 
  South Korea To Google: Return Our Cities From North Korea
  Google Under Fire for Flawed Korea Maps from the Digital Chosunilbo reports Google has labeled some of the regions in South Korea as being part of North Korea. Specifically, the city of Incheon, and some islands in Ongjin County such as Baegryeong-do, Daecheong-do, and Socheong-do are labeled to be in…
• 
  Baidu Relaunches In Japan
  Baidu aims to take on Google and Yahoo in Japan from Reuters reports Baidu has relaunched in Japan at http://www.baidu.jp/. The press release called the launch a “formal launch of its Japanese language search engine.” As part of this launch, Baidu revamped the Japanese home page and added blog search….
• 
  The Brutal Realities Of The B2B Lead Qualification Process
  So your pay-per-click campaign has generated 100 registrations for the download of a white paper. One hundred conversions may sound pretty good, but the real questions are: How many of these are valid, qualified prospects… what percentage will become sales leads… and ultimately, customers? Understanding the lead qualification process…
• 
  Building Smarter Landing Pages For Stronger Leads
  My December article, Think Beyond The Click: How To Build Landing Pages That Convert, received some great feedback, and raised some questions, so I’ve decided to address a few more important topics about landing pages. Readers commented that the success of a landing page depends on its audience and…
• 
  Publicis & Google In Technology, Media-Planning Partnership
  Paris-based Publicis Groupe is one of the four largest ad agencies in the world, with a portfolio of subsidiary brands that includes Leo Burnett Worldwide and Saatchi & Saatchi, among many others. In late 2006, the firm also bought online ad agency Digitas. Reuters is reporting that Publicis and Google…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Finance: I Want Embeddable Stock Charts, Barry Schwartz
• Writing a Book in Google Docs, Google Blogoscoped

Business Issues

• Google on hiring spree, The Sydney Morning Herald
• Intel and SAP Put $15 Million Into Enterprise-Search Company Endeca, TechCrunch
• Microsoft Joining DataPortability.org – ReadWriteWeb, Read/Write Web

Conferences

• SMX West 2008 – Search Marketing Expo Santa Clara CA, Online Marketing Blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Real-Estate Search Engine Roost Launches With Full MLS Listings, TechCrunch
• Another Real Estate Engine: Roost, Greg Sterling
• What’s in store for mobile advertising?, Going Cellular

Link Building

• Link Buying: Reviewed and not Guaranteed is the line in the sand, Jim Boykin

Paid Search & Contextual

• Your PPC Campaign Needs Creativit-TEA, www.sitevisibility.co.uk
• Explaining Search Volume Fluctuations, Marketing Pilgrim
• Google Says No to Floating AdSense Ads, Search Engine Roundtable
• Lessons in Paid Search, Marketing Pilgrim
• Microsoft adCenter Requiring Advertisers To Increase Bid Prices, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Yahoo’s Universal Search and Vertical Search Suggestions, SEO By The Sea
• Dividing Lines in Google’s Navigation Menu, Google Operating System
• Exclusive Interview: Craig Newmark on Online Real Estate, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Prevent Boss From Snooping On Your Google Search Queries, Digital Inspiration
• Google and eBay thwart phishing redirection ruse, The Register
• Sweden’s Twingly To Launch Europe-Focused Blog Search Engine, TechCrunch
• Yahoo! Search, Please Turn Down Site Authority in the Algorithm or Drop Tag Pages : SEO Book.com, SEO Book

SEM Industry

• A Gloomy Searchonomic Forecast , Search Engine Watch
• Danny Sullivan Stepping Up To Defend Expert SEOs, ShoeMoney
• Danny Sullivan VS Shoemoney, The Battle of the Pink Boxing Gloves, SEO Fights., www.fireflyseo.com

SEO & SEM

• Competitor Analysis for SEO – Ralph Wilson Interviews Ross Dunn, Stepforth
• Maintaining Your Rankings , Brisbane SEO Blog
• Democrat John Edwards: 2008 Presidential Candidates , Search Marketing Gurus
• Getting help in Google Webmaster Help Group, JLH Design Blog
• The SEO Guru Calls John Andrews Out For a Showdown! [Is it links or LSI?], Bob Massa
• There’s More to Keyword Strategy Than the Long Tail – Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Watch
• Duplicate Content – Thinking Inside the ‘Big Box’ Stores, SEO Speedwagon
• When is Usability More Important than SEO?, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• Reddit Beta Releases Custom Subreddits, Brent Csutoras
• What’s new on reddit: new features, Reddit
• WordPress/Automattic Takes New York Times Funding, Matt Mullenweb
• 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers, Problogger
• Going Local in StumbleUpon , 10e20 Blog
• New from Yahoo Next*: Register for Access to Bravonation Beta, ResourceShelf
• Search Results Improve With Social Media Eliminations, SEOmoz

Video, Music & Image Search

• Google launches YouTube in South Korea, AFP
• SeeqPod MP3 Search Engine Sued by Warner Music, Search Engine Journal

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics E-Commerce Tracking Pt. 2: Installation , Analytics Talk
• How to Use Analytics and Reports to Get to Know Your Customers Better, PPC Hero

Last 20 Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• 81 Useful Affiliate Marketing Resources
• Reddit Beta Releases Custom Subreddits
• The Economic State of the Search Marketing Industry: An Interview With An Economist
• A Golfer’s Guide to Social Media Marketing
• WordPress Plugin: Socialize Me!
• Blogging as a Social Media Method Drives Product Awareness
• Do You Reddit in 1337?
• How to Gain Instant Exposure With Search Advertising
• SEO 101: Valuing SEO-Conscious Web Design
• A Sample Social Media Toolkit
• How I Got My Google Ranking #6 Filter Removed
• 8 Tips for Blogging Inspiration
• Social Media – Are we all just a bunch of Sheep?
• Catchy Linkbait Is Worthless Without Really Good Content
• Blogging Questions? Be Sure To Ask At The Right Place.
• HTML Title Tag Defines Your SEO Strategy
• Trim the Fat! 200 Negative Keywords to Consider for Your PPC Campaigns
• Hitting the Front Page of Digg, Reddit, Propeller, and Mixx
• Who Wants to be an SEO Millionaire?
• Link Buying: Reviewed and not Guaranteed is the line in the sand.
• How to Select a Paid Search Management Application
• This Title Really Sucks
• The Three C’s of Strong Social News Profiles
• StumbleUpon Death Threats in eBay Social Network
• Domainer Type-In Traffic Under Attack By Google’s Toolbar 5

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.