SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 21, 2007

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

From Search Engine Land:

• 
  Flight Tracking, Airport Conditions, Real-Time Traffic & Other Thanksgiving Search Tips
  With the US about to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, how are the major search engines gearing up to support an onslaught of Thanksgiving queries? Let’s take a look at how you can use them, ranging from flight tracking tools to special "shortcut" or "smart answer" boxes leading to…
• 
  The Politics & Policy Of The Google-DoubleClick Acquisition
  Yesterday, Danny wrote a lengthy piece dispelling some of the myths and misinformation surrounding the pending Google acquisition of DoubleClick. Today CNET has two articles, one on the EU decision to apply more scrutiny to the proposed deal, as we expected, and another on privacy advocates’ concerns about the acquisition…
• 
  US Candidates Hit Digg, Fail To “Get” The Social News Site
  Digg The Candidates is a new area on Digg that allows you to see what US presidential candidates are digging and doing on Digg. That’s right, you can check out what Barack Obama (with about 3,200 Digg friends) and Ron Paul (with about 6,000 friends) are up to. But…
• 
  The Big Search Faceoff: Corporate vs Franchise
  This summer the National Hockey League took a cheap shot. No, they didn’t redesign the league’s uniforms, or put a team back in Winnipeg. Rather, they took control of overseeing the league’s websites. Since the domains had previously been run by each franchise, naturally the move has some team…
• 
  New Clean Look For The Google Base Bulk Upload Dashboard
  The Google Base Blog has announced that they have cleaned up and streamlined the Google Base Bulk Upload Dashboard. Google said the new dashboard provides “a better overview of the status of your bulk uploads and your items.”…
• 
  What If Google Had Released Its Own Kindle?
  With all the talk of Amazon’s new $399 ebook reader (and blog, newspaper, magazine) Kindle, it made me think: What if Google had developed this or a similar device (the Gindle? Goodle?) instead of putting out Android? Of course there’s nothing that precludes Google from doing such a thing in…
• 
  Privacy Group To Attack Facebook’s Beacon Ads
  Facebook’s Tracking of User Activity Riles Privacy Advocates, Members from the Wall Street Journal reports privacy group MoveOn.org is attacking Facebook over their Beacon Ads product. MoveOn.org has an online petition that asks:…
• 
  Inside Information: Interviews With In-House Search Marketers
  In-house search marketers face many unique challenges, ranging from running huge or dispersed sites to finessing internal politics and corporate egos. I thought it would be interesting to get the inside scoop from five in-house search marketers that are both successful at their jobs and who command the respect…
• 
  Google On Everyone’s Lips: A Trademark Nightmare?
  So, I got this Google-branded lip balm from the Google Store. I couldn’t resist it—it just seemed like such a kooky thing for them to brand. After getting it, I feel like Google might be approaching some sort of critical mass, and that they could be in danger of losing…
• 
  Communication Breakdown: 5 Avoidable Failures That Derail Search Marketing Campaigns
  Last week I had occasion to visit with a B2B prospect. Halfway through our meeting they voiced concern about their ability to uphold their end of the SEO partnership. Naturally, soon thereafter we were engaged in a spirited discussion on the main reasons B2B campaigns fail. As it turns…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Yahoo teaches consumers about CertifiedEmail on update spam site, DM News

Business Issues

• Icio.de Gets Cease And Desist From Yahoo, blognation Germany

Conferences

• Jane’s Presentation from SMX London, SEOmoz
• Pubcon Discount Extended for SEMpdx Members, SEMpdx Blog
• Competitive Paid Search Tactics | SMX London 2007, Site Visibility
• SMX London Day 2 — Diagnosing Search Problems, BruceClay.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Oodles of Classified Ads, Oodle 2.0 Released, ResourceShelf
• The Google Set-Top Box (Think Android For TV), TechCrunch
• Earth at Night from Rosetta, Google Earth Blog
• Oodle Upgrades Search Features, Search Engine Watch
• Trulia Adds Foreclosure Listings to Create Comprehensive Real Estate Search Experience – Press Release, Company Press Release

Link Building

• Whiteboard Friday – Controlling the Flow of PageRank , SEOmoz

Paid Search & Contextual

• Starting from Scratch: A Paid Search Primer, Rimm Kaufman
• 8 Great Paid Search Engines Beyond Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and MSN, Search Engine Journal
• Google AdWords Forcing Users into Content Network? , SEMpdx Blog
• Google AdSense Clickable Area Change ‘Not So Bad’, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Integrate PPC and Display Advertising, Search Engine Watch
• Lyris Intros BidHero Campaign Management Tool, Search Engine Watch
• The Striking Similarities of Paid Search & Fantasy Football, SEM Geek

Searching

• Are you feeling lucky? Google is, Marketplace
• Google serves up surprise password cracking function, The Register

SEM Industry

• Never a dull moment, Official Google Blog
• A Day In The Life Of An Independent SEO Consultant, SEOdisco
• Stop In-House SEO Disasters Now!, Search Engine Watch

SEO & SEM

• Validate your robots.txt – Googlebot becomes smarter, sebastians-pamphlets.com
• PageRank Goes Down but Google Rankings Aren’t Affected, Search Engine Roundtable
• Real Estate SEO is a Joke, Small Business SEM

Social Media

• Embargo Breakers: Google who? LinkedIn to launch own developer program, Valleywag
• Deconstructing the Business Social Network, Read/Write Web
• Don’t let mirror-spammers hijack your traffic, Muhammad Saleem
• Google Did Less Than Required to Protect Her Rights, Blogspot Blogger Says, Google Blogoscoped
• Improved Content Fetching for OpenSocial, OpenSocial API Blog
• More orkut trends, Orkut Blog
• What Facebook Learned from Search, MediaPost

Other Items

• Google University, Googlified
• New Report: Trends in Real Estate Advertising (Executive Summary), ResourceShelf
• Gift Giving That Really Helps, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Podcast: Senators, Get A Clue About GoogleClick; Twittering Tools; Mahaloha? , Daily SearchCast
• The Thanksgivings of a Search Marketer (2007 Version), SearchRank Blog
• Tips from a Digital Mom – Getting ‘cultural’ with the family during the holidays, Official Gmail Blog

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

• How to Get Wet with Social Media Marketing
• Do small firms really need a website?
• TopRank Poll: What Social Media Marketing Analytics Tools Do You Use?
• Be nice to the little guys – It works
• 8 (Easy to Explain) COMPLETLY Unforgivable Google Adwords Mistakes
• When Will Wikipedia Rank for Everything?
• Reddit Tips from the Top Dog on Reddit
• The Key To Getting The Fees You Deserve
• 9 Ideas for Blog Posts When You Are Stuck
• Don’t Let Mirror-Spammers Hijack Your Traffic
• Rhea Gets Married!!!
• The Century of the Self (Influencing Minds in a Consumer Society)
• 404 Pages – Funny, Geeky, Disturbing
• The Flagship Blog Project: Creating Multiple Blogs for Profit in 30 Day Cycles
• 10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Sucks…
• Future of Blogging
• Validate your robots.txt – Googlebot becomes smarter
• Spam Jail, Desphinns & Other Coming Features
• The Lasting Digg Effect
• Is Google The New Terrorist?
• Facebook Analytics … Goes Where Google Analytics Cannot
• Social Media: It’s No Longer Every Man for Himself
• The Social Media Manual: Read Before You Play
• The Dark Side of Wikipedia

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.