Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

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

From Search Engine Land:

• 
  Search Biz: Probing Wikipedia’s Finances, Facebook Toast? & Google Denies Evading Chinese Taxes
  It’s well known that Wikipedia is maintained by a legion of volunteers throughout the world. Structured as a non-profit, the site features no advertising, despite being the #7 most visited destination on the web, and a property that most advertisers would kill to get exposure on. Which begs the…
• 
  Search In Pictures: Snoop Dogg, St. Patrick’s Day & Danny Exposed
  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….
• 
  LinkedIn Adds New Company Directory
  LinkedIn, with help from BusinessWeek’s CapitalIQ, has added a company directory and related factual information to its business network. It’s not easy to get to the company directory, which is only accessible to LinkedIn users at the moment. One can’t simply go to the LinkedIn search box and type a…
• 
  Google Suggest Becoming A Default Feature?
  I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable spotting a WebmasterWorld thread that has three members noticing Google Suggest like features on Google.com. Basically, when these users go to Google.com and begin typing in a query, Google begins to offer search suggestions. Google has implemented this feature as a default on…
• 
  Google Analytics Benchmarking Data Now Live
  The Google Analytics Benchmarking feature is now live for those users who have chosen to opt in to the program. You can access the data by visiting a site profile and clicking on “Visitors” and then on “Benchmarking (Beta).” Google said that the current list of “verticals and the quality…
• 
  Google Gets What It Wanted From 700MHz Auction
  The US 700MHz auction is now over; the winners were announced yesterday. The spectrum is becoming available as television broadcasters make the mandated switch to digital signals in early 2009. The big winners (no surprises here) were US carriers Verizon and AT&T. Verizon bid more than $9 billion and won…
• 
  Human Hardware: Men and Women
  In this week’s column on Human Hardware, we look at the differences between the two basic models of humans: men and women. As a species, the vast majority of our history has been spent not really thinking about the differences between men and women. The distinctions seemed obvious, and…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google’s Broken Bookmarking Systems, Google Operating System
• Introducing the AJAX Language API - Tools for Translation and Language Detection, Google AJAX Search API Blog
• Trackur’s Online Reputation Monitoring Now Just $18, Marketing Pilgrim

Business Issues

• When Google Speaks, InformationWeek
• YouTube Founder Launches VC Fund, Private Equity HUB
• China’s Baidu appoints Jennifer Li as CFO, Reuters
• New York Bill Could Cripple Google et al’s Personal Data Collection, Marketing Pilgrim
• Search Engine Retrevo Closes $8M Financing!, altsearchengines.com
• Yahoo Newspapers Join quadrantONE, Screenwerk

Local, Maps & Mobile

• International radar updates in Google Earth, Google LatLong
• Satellites: Google Takes Initiative to Find Extraterrestrials by 2012, io9.com

Link Building

• Why Does Google Hate Link Manipulation?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Wordpress 2.3.3 Hidden Links Injection Exploit and How To Not Let It Happen To You, ShoeMoney

Paid Search & Contextual

• Your adCenter Questions Answered: Part I - Negative Keywords, Excel Bulk Uploads and Editing - adCenter Advertiser, adcentercommunity.com
• An Update on Yahoo Search Marketing, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Shuts Down Support For AdWords API Version 10, Search Engine Roundtable
• Hey Google? Open Your Eyes And Let Political Campaigns Open Their Wallets, SEM Geek

Searching

• Get Into The SearchMe Private Beta Right Now, TechCrunch
• Search SEO Forums and More with Twing, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Search Engine for Twitter - Tweet Scan, altsearchengines.com
• The Wall Street Journal’s Web site is already (secretly) free, Salon.com

SEO & SEM

• Good housekeeping, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Semantify - Automate Your Semantic Web SEO in Five Minutes, Read/Write Web
• WSJ: Paid Content Painful in Google’s World, InternetNews
• 11 Ways to Recognize a Bad SEO Firm, Stone Temple
• Learning SEO: Search engine optimisation from a beginner’s perspective, Performancing.com
• Presenting Search Marketing Results for Large Clients, Search Engine Guide
• Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 2, Search Engine Watch

Social Media

• Facebook Toast? Hot Today, Dead Tomorrow–Like AOL?, Silicon Alley Insider

Video, Music & Image Search

• Jewish group seeks to purge YouTube of anti-Semitic videos, Haaretz

Other Items

• Internet Statistics Israel February 2008, Ophir Cohen

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

• Video Interview With Todd Malicoat & Brent Csutoras @ SES New York 2008
• SEMpdx Searchfest 08 Speaker Reflections
• Disguising Text Links: Passing Manual Reviews the Grayhat Way
• 6 Psychological Changes of the Webmaster
• WHAT is Social Media Marketing Good For Anyway?
• SES New York 2008: Video Interview With Greg Boser by WebProNews
• Life, Death, and Links
• The Triangle Strategy: How To Market Your Blog Efficiently
• Tips for Overcoming Client-Created Roadblocks
• Is It Time to Expand Your B2B Internet Marketing Strategy?
• Keyword and Competitive Research Done Right - RankSense

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

From Search Engine Land:

• 
  Search Biz: Probing Wikipedia’s Finances, Facebook Toast? & Google Denies Evading Chinese Taxes
  It’s well known that Wikipedia is maintained by a legion of volunteers throughout the world. Structured as a non-profit, the site features no advertising, despite being the #7 most visited destination on the web, and a property that most advertisers would kill to get exposure on. Which begs the…
• 
  Search In Pictures: Snoop Dogg, St. Patrick’s Day & Danny Exposed
  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….
• 
  LinkedIn Adds New Company Directory
  LinkedIn, with help from BusinessWeek’s CapitalIQ, has added a company directory and related factual information to its business network. It’s not easy to get to the company directory, which is only accessible to LinkedIn users at the moment. One can’t simply go to the LinkedIn search box and type a…
• 
  Google Suggest Becoming A Default Feature?
  I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable spotting a WebmasterWorld thread that has three members noticing Google Suggest like features on Google.com. Basically, when these users go to Google.com and begin typing in a query, Google begins to offer search suggestions. Google has implemented this feature as a default on…
• 
  Google Analytics Benchmarking Data Now Live
  The Google Analytics Benchmarking feature is now live for those users who have chosen to opt in to the program. You can access the data by visiting a site profile and clicking on “Visitors” and then on “Benchmarking (Beta).” Google said that the current list of “verticals and the quality…
• 
  Google Gets What It Wanted From 700MHz Auction
  The US 700MHz auction is now over; the winners were announced yesterday. The spectrum is becoming available as television broadcasters make the mandated switch to digital signals in early 2009. The big winners (no surprises here) were US carriers Verizon and AT&T. Verizon bid more than $9 billion and won…
• 
  Human Hardware: Men and Women
  In this week’s column on Human Hardware, we look at the differences between the two basic models of humans: men and women. As a species, the vast majority of our history has been spent not really thinking about the differences between men and women. The distinctions seemed obvious, and…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google’s Broken Bookmarking Systems, Google Operating System
• Introducing the AJAX Language API - Tools for Translation and Language Detection, Google AJAX Search API Blog
• Trackur’s Online Reputation Monitoring Now Just $18, Marketing Pilgrim

Business Issues

• When Google Speaks, InformationWeek
• YouTube Founder Launches VC Fund, Private Equity HUB
• China’s Baidu appoints Jennifer Li as CFO, Reuters
• New York Bill Could Cripple Google et al’s Personal Data Collection, Marketing Pilgrim
• Search Engine Retrevo Closes $8M Financing!, altsearchengines.com
• Yahoo Newspapers Join quadrantONE, Screenwerk

Local, Maps & Mobile

• International radar updates in Google Earth, Google LatLong
• Satellites: Google Takes Initiative to Find Extraterrestrials by 2012, io9.com

Link Building

• Why Does Google Hate Link Manipulation?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Wordpress 2.3.3 Hidden Links Injection Exploit and How To Not Let It Happen To You, ShoeMoney

Paid Search & Contextual

• Your adCenter Questions Answered: Part I - Negative Keywords, Excel Bulk Uploads and Editing - adCenter Advertiser, adcentercommunity.com
• An Update on Yahoo Search Marketing, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Shuts Down Support For AdWords API Version 10, Search Engine Roundtable
• Hey Google? Open Your Eyes And Let Political Campaigns Open Their Wallets, SEM Geek

Searching

• Get Into The SearchMe Private Beta Right Now, TechCrunch
• Search SEO Forums and More with Twing, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Search Engine for Twitter - Tweet Scan, altsearchengines.com
• The Wall Street Journal’s Web site is already (secretly) free, Salon.com

SEO & SEM

• Good housekeeping, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Semantify - Automate Your Semantic Web SEO in Five Minutes, Read/Write Web
• WSJ: Paid Content Painful in Google’s World, InternetNews
• 11 Ways to Recognize a Bad SEO Firm, Stone Temple
• Learning SEO: Search engine optimisation from a beginner’s perspective, Performancing.com
• Presenting Search Marketing Results for Large Clients, Search Engine Guide
• Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 2, Search Engine Watch

Social Media

• Facebook Toast? Hot Today, Dead Tomorrow–Like AOL?, Silicon Alley Insider

Video, Music & Image Search

• Jewish group seeks to purge YouTube of anti-Semitic videos, Haaretz

Other Items

• Internet Statistics Israel February 2008, Ophir Cohen

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

• Video Interview With Todd Malicoat & Brent Csutoras @ SES New York 2008
• SEMpdx Searchfest 08 Speaker Reflections
• Disguising Text Links: Passing Manual Reviews the Grayhat Way
• 6 Psychological Changes of the Webmaster
• WHAT is Social Media Marketing Good For Anyway?
• SES New York 2008: Video Interview With Greg Boser by WebProNews
• Life, Death, and Links
• The Triangle Strategy: How To Market Your Blog Efficiently
• Tips for Overcoming Client-Created Roadblocks
• Is It Time to Expand Your B2B Internet Marketing Strategy?
• Keyword and Competitive Research Done Right - RankSense

It’s well known that Wikipedia is maintained by a legion of volunteers throughout the world. Structured as a non-profit, the site features no advertising, despite being the #7 most visited destination on the web, and a property that most advertisers would kill to get exposure on. Which begs the question: how does a non-profit with that much traffic get the funding to pay for servers, bandwidth and all of the other expenses associated with running a world-class web site?

Click to continue reading…

Finally, some closure to a really long three weeks. I can finally relax (though the work doesn’t stop). SES NY wrapped up yesterday and we’re ready to get back to some normalcy around here. With that said, what happened this week?

Today is Purim

Before we get into search events, Happy Purim to everyone! We have a nice theme on Search Engine Roundtable today.

Earlier this week was St. Patty’s Day

Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day everyone. The search industry celebrated St. Patty’s Day with you. What did you do?

Google Doesn’t Allow Malicious Websites

Trying to be naughty? Don’t even think about getting indexed on Google with phishing sites or other malicious websites. Google has updated the guidelines to connote that it will not tolerate this kind of content, and that’s great. Who needs that crap on the Internet anyway?

Two New Google AdWordsPro Guides!

Welcome aboard, Google AdWordsPro guides! It looks like the work there is getting busy, so more and more Googlers are staffing up to tackle forum discussion. I think it’s great community engagement.

Yahoo Microformats Make it Easier for Scrapers?

Last week, Yahoo announced microformat support for open search. This week, webmasters have expressed concern because microformats will make it easier for scraperrs to steal content. I understand that this is a needed direction, but the spam and content theft issues will need to be addressed too.

Consider Your Linking Strategies: Order is Important

…or so some say. Rand Fishkin performed a study that showed that the first anchor text is more important than subsequent anchor texts. It’s possible, and it’s still a debated topic, but the findings are interesting. Go test it and see for yourself.

Microsoft adCenter’s 0.0% Conversion Rate

It appears that Microsoft adCenter’s conversion traffic is worsening. From a recent campaign, a forum member notices that Microsoft had no conversions from 200 clicks. Is anyone else able to reproduce this issue? I

Google Beacon Coming Soon

Don’t be surprised when you see Google Beacon in the near future, which will be especially useful for Google AdSense and monetization. It’s a promising metric for some, but privacy pundits may disagree. Either way, as the web grows more social, this is a likely direction that Google shall take.

Google Universal Search: Filter Out the Porn, Please!

I hope parents are watching what their kids are searching for because some very pornographic images are making their way into the universal search results. I feel sad for Barry that he had to saw it. My boss is so pure. Not anymore, I guess.

Yahoo Site Explorer Links Decrease… and Fixed

In case you were wondering, the Yahoo Site Explorer links dropped off earlier this week, but one of our commenters report that it’s been fixed. Thanks for the blog discussion, Rebecca.

Google Suggest?

Have you seen the new Google Suggest feature? This is Google’s attempt — or so people suppose — to propagate the drop down from search results. What do you think? I like.

Check out Google Analytics Benchmarking

Earlier this week, Avinash Kaushik suggested that Google Analytics Benchmarking was going to go live. Well, say hello to Google Analytics Benchmarking. Barry explains how it works and shows some statistics. Cool stuff.

Google vs. Yahoo Radio

Since radio is relatively new (and not embraced by the masses–yet), one wonders if Yahoo Radio can give a the company a competitive edge over Google. What say you?

Google AdWords Site Exclusion up to 5,000 Sites!

This should be pretty useful for Google AdWords advertisers: Google AdWords has now put its site exclusion to 5,000, giving you more control over your campaigns and preventing low quality traffic. Will it need to be unlimited in the future? Maybe, but this is a good extension for now!

A Lot of You Want to Work at Google

66% of you would like to work at Google, according to a poll we did earlier this week. Why? I guess the free car washes, laundry, and day care is attractive. Pool tables, foosball, and free food aren’t bad perks either.

Don’t you think that’s cool?

SES NY 2008: It’s Over. Now Read Our Coverage

We covered 34 sessions at SES NY 2008. Thanks to all of our helpers: Avi and Sheara Wilensky, Jeff Quipp, Chris Boggs, Bill Hartzer, Debra Mastaler, and Marshall Sponder.

Finally, some closure to a really long three weeks. I can finally relax (though the work doesn’t stop). SES NY wrapped up yesterday and we’re ready to get back to some normalcy around here. With that said, what happened this week?

Today is Purim

Before we get into search events, Happy Purim to everyone! We have a nice theme on Search Engine Roundtable today.

Earlier this week was St. Patty’s Day

Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day everyone. The search industry celebrated St. Patty’s Day with you. What did you do?

Google Doesn’t Allow Malicious Websites

Trying to be naughty? Don’t even think about getting indexed on Google with phishing sites or other malicious websites. Google has updated the guidelines to connote that it will not tolerate this kind of content, and that’s great. Who needs that crap on the Internet anyway?

Two New Google AdWordsPro Guides!

Welcome aboard, Google AdWordsPro guides! It looks like the work there is getting busy, so more and more Googlers are staffing up to tackle forum discussion. I think it’s great community engagement.

Yahoo Microformats Make it Easier for Scrapers?

Last week, Yahoo announced microformat support for open search. This week, webmasters have expressed concern because microformats will make it easier for scraperrs to steal content. I understand that this is a needed direction, but the spam and content theft issues will need to be addressed too.

Consider Your Linking Strategies: Order is Important

…or so some say. Rand Fishkin performed a study that showed that the first anchor text is more important than subsequent anchor texts. It’s possible, and it’s still a debated topic, but the findings are interesting. Go test it and see for yourself.

Microsoft adCenter’s 0.0% Conversion Rate

It appears that Microsoft adCenter’s conversion traffic is worsening. From a recent campaign, a forum member notices that Microsoft had no conversions from 200 clicks. Is anyone else able to reproduce this issue? I

Google Beacon Coming Soon

Don’t be surprised when you see Google Beacon in the near future, which will be especially useful for Google AdSense and monetization. It’s a promising metric for some, but privacy pundits may disagree. Either way, as the web grows more social, this is a likely direction that Google shall take.

Google Universal Search: Filter Out the Porn, Please!

I hope parents are watching what their kids are searching for because some very pornographic images are making their way into the universal search results. I feel sad for Barry that he had to saw it. My boss is so pure. Not anymore, I guess.

Yahoo Site Explorer Links Decrease… and Fixed

In case you were wondering, the Yahoo Site Explorer links dropped off earlier this week, but one of our commenters report that it’s been fixed. Thanks for the blog discussion, Rebecca.

Google Suggest?

Have you seen the new Google Suggest feature? This is Google’s attempt — or so people suppose — to propagate the drop down from search results. What do you think? I like.

Check out Google Analytics Benchmarking

Earlier this week, Avinash Kaushik suggested that Google Analytics Benchmarking was going to go live. Well, say hello to Google Analytics Benchmarking. Barry explains how it works and shows some statistics. Cool stuff.

Google vs. Yahoo Radio

Since radio is relatively new (and not embraced by the masses–yet), one wonders if Yahoo Radio can give a the company a competitive edge over Google. What say you?

Google AdWords Site Exclusion up to 5,000 Sites!

This should be pretty useful for Google AdWords advertisers: Google AdWords has now put its site exclusion to 5,000, giving you more control over your campaigns and preventing low quality traffic. Will it need to be unlimited in the future? Maybe, but this is a good extension for now!

A Lot of You Want to Work at Google

66% of you would like to work at Google, according to a poll we did earlier this week. Why? I guess the free car washes, laundry, and day care is attractive. Pool tables, foosball, and free food aren’t bad perks either.

Don’t you think that’s cool?

SES NY 2008: It’s Over. Now Read Our Coverage

We covered 34 sessions at SES NY 2008. Thanks to all of our helpers: Avi and Sheara Wilensky, Jeff Quipp, Chris Boggs, Bill Hartzer, Debra Mastaler, and Marshall Sponder.

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.

Click to continue reading…

We have Google’s Blog Search and Technorati for blog search, but has anyone found a reputable forum search engine? Enter Twing.

Twing allows you to search and discover forum discussion. We do that here but this is something different. Find content from long ago and use the tag cloud to get additional inspiration.

Here’s a screenshot of the system in action.

Sort you results by relevance and date and then even search forums with the associated keywords.

Looks pretty cool. If you’re a forum junkie, this search engine looks very cool.

LinkedIn, with help from BusinessWeek’s CapitalIQ, has added a company directory and related factual information to its business network. It’s not easy to get to the company directory, which is only accessible to LinkedIn users at the moment. One can’t simply go to the LinkedIn search box and type a company name.

Click to continue reading…

I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable spotting a WebmasterWorld thread that has three members noticing Google Suggest like features on Google.com.

Basically, when these users go to Google.com and begin typing in a query, Google begins to offer search suggestions. Google has implemented this feature as a default on other non-U.S. based search engine home pages but never as the default at Google.com. Both Yahoo and Ask.com offer search suggestions as you type, Yahoo’s feature is known as Search Assist.

Click to continue reading…

The Google Analytics Benchmarking feature is now live for those users who have chosen to opt in to the program. You can access the data by visiting a site profile and clicking on “Visitors” and then on “Benchmarking (Beta).” Google said that the current list of “verticals and the quality of the data will likely grow as more and more customers enable this feature.”

The reports available within the benchmarking feature includes visits, pageviews, pages/visits, bounce rates, average time on site and new visits. Here are some screen captures of benchmarking data from my personal blog:

Click to continue reading…

The Google Analytics Benchmarking feature is now live for those users who have chosen to opt in to the program. You can access the data by visiting a site profile and clicking on “Visitors” and then on “Benchmarking (Beta).” Google said that the current list of “verticals and the quality of the data will likely grow as more and more customers enable this feature.”

The reports available within the benchmarking feature includes visits, pageviews, pages/visits, bounce rates, average time on site and new visits. Here are some screen captures of benchmarking data from my personal blog:

Click to continue reading…

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen blogged about how difficult it is to perform a Google search:

If you thought it’s easy to get to Google, think again. In our current round of usability research, only 76% of users who expressed a desire to run a Google search were successful. In other words, 1/4 of users who wanted to use Google couldn’t do so. (Instead, they either completely failed to get to any search engine or ended up running their query on a different search engine — usually whatever type-in field happened to be at hand.)

He concludes:

I doubt that any Web designer would be incapable of running a Google search. So, the fact that 1/4 of users can’t do it is a striking demonstration that you can’t rely on your own experience if you want to reach a broader audience.

Surprised? Not so much. How many people grew up around computers? Most of us did not. You’re still dealing with people who are adding “www” to their email address and are discovering that pages actually can scroll.

But not everyone prefers Google:

What shocked me last week at a barbershop is absolutely nobody there considered Google a good search engine. They all considered Yahoo and MSN the better search engines. There were about 15 people ranging in age from 25-75. People were vocal about Google. They were upset at seeing a lot of pages on Google where the keyword was only mentioned once on the web site. As I listened further these people were savvier than I thought. Many seemed to show a shift to other search engines based upon the roll-out of Universal Search. Most also seemed to like SEO. They felt even if the web site overused the keywords it was more prone to be about the subject. Also it seemed to be about branding and the fact that Bill Gates at least tried to help his fellow man.

Interesting. Do you think the findings are farfetched? Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread has two members reporting seeing Google Suggest like suggestions as the default feature of the main Google.com search page.

Typically, if you go to Google.com, you can type in a query and press search. But these users are seeing an auto-complete feature that you would typically only see on Google Suggest. Here is a screen capture of how it may look:

Can this be coming to the main Google.com search results? Possibly. Yahoo does it by default with search assist and they love it. Ask.com does it also. So if it works, why not port it over the the mainstream?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread has two members reporting seeing Google Suggest like suggestions as the default feature of the main Google.com search page.

Typically, if you go to Google.com, you can type in a query and press search. But these users are seeing an auto-complete feature that you would typically only see on Google Suggest. Here is a screen capture of how it may look:

Can this be coming to the main Google.com search results? Possibly. Yahoo does it by default with search assist and they love it. Ask.com does it also. So if it works, why not port it over the the mainstream?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Last week, I received a preview of some of the radio commercials Yahoo just started running. The commercials are aimed at trying to build more awareness of Yahoo Search. Some of the commercials target Google