SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 8, 2009

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 StreetView, GPS Save Kidnapped Girl
  According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette Google StreetView was used by police to help locate a child in Virginia who was allegedly kidnapped by her grandmother. The police tracked the girl’s cell phone with GPS and then confirmed her whereabouts at a Budget Inn on a rural highway in Natural Bridge Virginia using StreetView: According to the newspaper account: Police Chief Timothy C. Anderson said the child and grandmother had been missing since Saturday, when Ms. Maltais [the grandmother] …
• Google SMS Search Is Down … For The Count?
  Search Engine Roundtable reports today that Google’s SMS Search service isn’t working: When you send a search term to 466453, Google quickly replies that your query “did not return any results.” Barry Schwartz used “Lakers” and “RustyBrick” as examples to show what’s happening: The SER report says Google is looking into the problem, but the situation begs a bigger question: With so many users now switching to smartphones with more realistic browser experiences, how many people are still using SMS …
• Google Testing New AdWords Budgeting Option: Timeframe
  I reported this morning that we have confirmed reports from Google at WebmasterWorld that Google is testing a new AdWords budgeting option named Timeframe. As far as I understand it, timeframe gives advertisers a new budgeting method that automatically adjusts the daily budget based on your traffic to reach a set dollar budget as per the calendar month. For example, with daily budget, you might not use up the whole day’s budget and what is not used, is never used. But with the monthly budget, Google would automatically adjust your daily budget based on the unused monthly …
• Are PPC Budgets Increasing Or Decreasing In These Recessionary Times?
  I have been hearing from many people in the search industry that the recession won’t impact the search space as much as the rest of the industries in the economy. In fact, many people feel that search will grow, while we see other industries take huge double-digit declines. I am skeptical about the search industry not taking a hit, in fact a major hit. So when I see search companies release data, I take interest.
• Submit Your Google Spam Suggestions For 2009
  Matt Cutts of Google’s Search Quality team is asking for feedback on what you want Google to work on in relation to search spam in 2009. Matt does this annually, so if you have any suggestions, head over to Matt’s blog and join the already 90 comments by adding your two cents.
• SMX West Rates Increase Friday @ Midnight – Register Now!
  The Early Bird rate for our Search Marketing Expo – SMX West conference expires (ceases to exist) at midnight tomorrow – Friday, January 9. Join the editors of Search Engine Land for three days of outstanding content, keynotes including Google’s Vint Cert, and community networking. Register before the deadline and you save $200 on an All Access ticket. Check out these links for the details:…
• SEO Trends From 2008 & A Look Into 2009
  In January of 2008, I issued my predictions for the upcoming year in the SEO industry. Now that it’s a year later, let’s look back and see how I did. My first prediction was: SEO Becomes a Top-Of-Mind Priority in Larger Companies I predicted that more large companies and big brands would realize the value of baking SEO into their website redesigns, rather than first redesigning and then trying to “wedge” SEO into their new site. I also felt that more of these companies would hire SEO consultants to work with their online marketing managers to help with this task and make …
• Deal Puts Microsoft Live Search On Dell Computers, Verizon Phones — Will It Help?
  Tonight at CES Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made several announcements during his keynote address. In addition to a preview of the Windows 7 OS, Ballmer announced high-profile distribution deals for Live Search. We were unable to write about the deals earlier today due to an embargo. However, we covered a Reuters report that was issued on one of the deals: a five-year search and advertising partnership with Verizon Wirelesss. The other search distribution agreement is a global “default search” deal with Dell. Microsoft has an official blog post here on the news. Danny earlier put together the following discussion …
• Google Confirms Layoffs Of Contract Employees
  The Associated Press reports that Google has released “a substantial number” of its contract and temporary employees, but the exact number isn’t known. The news isn’t a surprise; in October, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told the San Jose Mercury News that the company would reduce some of the 10,000 contractors on its payroll as a cost-cutting move. Additional reports followed in November here on Search Engine Land and CNET. News of the layoffs comes in an SEC filing that Google cleverly submitted on paper last month, thus keeping the document out of the SEC’s online database and …

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Gmail Mobile Bug Allowing Security Breaches Of Other Google Email Users?, Search Engine Roundtable

Business Issues

• Eric Schmidt wishes Google could save newspapers, CNN Money
• Microsoft CEO: Yahoo Deal Is "A Thing Of The Past", CNN Money
• Microsoft hires head of Yahoo Korea to run local operations, Network World
• AOL Reorganizes Products Division Following Executive Departure, paidContent.org
• China adds Microsoft’s MSN to list of Internet portals providing lewd, Xinhuanet.com
• New Prospect for Yahoo CEO: Carol Bartz, AllThingsD
• Sources: Yahoo’s Decker a strong contender for CEO, News.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Auto-Upgrade of Virtual Earth 6.1 to 6.2, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• How To Get a Locations Longitude/Latitude Using Google Maps on iPhone, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yelp Lands in London, Screenwerk
• Live Search Mobile update for Windows Mobile, Live Search

Link Building

• Online Marketing Tips Video: Link Building Strategies, Search Marketing Gurus
• Are paid links dead as an SEO strategy?, econsultancy.com
• Don’t Overlook These Link Building Opportunities, Search Engine Watch
• Is Dell Buying Text Links?, Google Blogoscoped
• Building Links on Your Offline Time, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• AdWords system maintenance on January 10th, Inside AdWords
• Tip: Calculating the Average Frequency for Your TV Campaign, Google Traditional Media Blog

Searching

• Googlepedia for Firefox brings Wikipedia to you, News.com
• Semantic Search Technology Advances from Ask.com, Ask.com Blog

SEM Industry

• SEM Synergy Extras, BruceClay.com

SEO & SEM

• Are Two Queries Better Than One in Targeting Search Advertisements (or Search Results)?, SEO By The Sea
• Detecting Splogs with Self-Similarity Analysis, All Things SEM
• Testing the Value of Anchor Text Optimized Internal Links, SEOmoz
• The Redesign SEO "Honeymoon Period", Search Engine Roundtable
• Is SEO no longer important?, Search Engine Guide
• SEO & the Value of User-Generated Dictionaries, Search Engine Journal
• Towards Page Segmentation SEO – Ignore at Your Own Peril, Fantomaster
• Your Site is Keyword Optimized, But is it Search Engine Friendly? You Might Be Suprised!, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• Interview of Muhammad Saleem, Social Media Expert, SEO Book
• Degrees of Separation, FaceBook, Twitter & Social Distribution Networks, AIM Clear Blog
• Is There Really Such a Thing as a Social Media Expert, Michael Gray
• Burger King: Delete 10 Facebook friends, get a free Whopper, News.com
• Unconditional Marketing and The Social Media Experiment, Cre8PC

Video, Music & Image Search

• Joost Has A Heartbeat, TechCrunch

Web Analytics

• Ultimate Google Analytics Filters Guide, Web Analytics World Blog

Other Items

• Got questions? Got answers? Check out our new Help Forum., Google News Blog

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

• SEO implications of Page Segmentation concepts
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• Twitter Optimization: The 10 Most Common Reasons I Have to Un-Follow You
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• Do Sitemaps Affect Crawlers?

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.