Local Search

Last week, Microsoft Live Search expanded the description that appears below Wikipedia results and added navigational links to major headings within the Wikipedia article. Google has long been gently mocked by the search marketing community for ranking Wikipedia results highly for a large percentage of queries, but the general searching population tends to find these results useful. Microsoft must have found that their searchers find Wikipedia results particularly valuable for their queries to have implemented special treatment for them.

Below is the Wikipedia result for the query breakfast at tiffany's on Live Search. The description that appears below the title is twice as long as standard descriptions and links to sections within the Wikipedia article are listed horizontally below the text.

Below more details about the expanded Wikipedia listing, as well as on the overall trend of all the major search engines showing increased details on the results pages and what that might mean for site owners who are worried about lowered click-through rates.

Click to continue reading...

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Twelve Simple Ways To Write Search-Friendly HTML Code
  This morning I was handing off a project to a developer and found myself ranting about the common mistakes developers make when coding HTML. These boneheaded mistakes can cause search engines to choke when it comes to indexing your websites. And its easy to avoid making these mistakes. Here's how:...
• Search in Pictures: Condoleezza Rice, Google I/O & Big Purple Buttons
  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....
• Outing Google Merchant Search
  A reader sent us an example of the new Google Merchant Search live and in the wild. What's Google Merchant Search? After a little poking around, it appears to be a new but unannounced program in beta where people can comparison shop services like loans. Here are the Google Merchant...
• For Obama The Online Marketer It's All About Google
  Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama's online organizing and fundraising successes are perhaps unprecedented. He's also the query volume king, among the candidates. But how does he do as an online marketer? We might not know his CTRs or how his campaigns "convert" but now we know where he spent his...
• Google Updates Browser Favorite Icon
  I reported that Google has updated their favorite icon on Google.com, from the old multi-colored boxed in "G," to a single blue lowercase g. New Favorite Icon: Old Favorite Icon:...
• How Google Tests & Tests Search Interfaces
  We're all guinea pigs in Google's search experiment from News.com covers Google's Marissa Mayer presentation at the Google I/O conference. In her speech, she discusses the various tests they perform to increase searcher activity and responsiveness. Here is a bullet list of what I found to be the most interesting...
• Human Hardware: The Subconscious Side of Search
  In the last column, we explored some studies that indicate that conscious will might not be the cause of our actions, but instead might be just one of the effects of a motivator still undefined. Conscious will could simply be a feedback mechanism that helps us keep track of...

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Gmail Labs?, Google Operating System
• Google gives it all away, BBC
• Pop quiz, Official Google Docs Blog

Business Issues

• GooTube - Forbes.com, Forbes
• Oops! Google Outed in Objection to eBay Oz Policy, AuctionBytes
• Google spotlights data-center inner workings , News.com
• Icahn gets antitrust go-ahead for Yahoo stock buy| Deals| Reuters, Reuters
• The Fight for Relevance : Search Engines Must Leverage US Innovations to Gain European Market Share, JupiterResearch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Welcome to the Weekend Web, BusinessWeek
• Glimpses of a Google Maps Redesign, Google Blogoscoped
• Winning the Local Search Battle, Search Engine Watch

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

• PPC competition launched to test your copywriting skills, BlogStorm
• Is Contextual Advertising In Your SEM Strategy?, Search Engine Journal
• AdSense for feeds, FeedBurner Blog
• Google AdSense Ads Disappearing, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Google Still Gung-ho on Book Search, eWeek
• About QnA points..., Live QnA
• Is Google Violating a California Privacy Law? , New York Times

SEM Industry

• Lyndon Antcliff (Cornwallseo) Joins SEOClass Scotland, Jim Boykin
• Search Engine Land reaches 2000 Facebook Members , Dixon Jones

SEO & SEM

• Be Part of the Search Engine Optimization Process, BruceClay.com
• What Are the Important Indicators to Watch Early On?, Bob Massa
• Blended Search : How B2B Companies Can Benefit, Search Engine Journal
• Google Webmaster Tools Won't Allow You To Delete Sitemaps, Search Engine Roundtable
• Need Sitelinks? Show Google Your Site Is Useful, Search Engine Watch

Social Media

• Getting Value From Social Media Links, SEOmoz
• Take What Google Freely Gives: SEO Using Social Media Profiles » aimClear Search Marketing Blog, AIM Clear Blog

Web Analytics

• Did Alexa Die and No One Notice?, Inquisitr

Other Items

• Birthday Wishes: Happy birthday, Marissa Mayer!, Valleywag

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

• Google's New Fav Icon
• Will Google Save Twitter?
• Persuasive User Experience Design Has a Long Way to Go
• No, Unfortunately Digg Doesn't Know Who You Are
• Social Media and the Relationships you Encounter
• Twitter Beats Second Brain For Brainstorming
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media (but were afraid to ask)
• Distilled's Big PPC Competition: Use Your Ad Powers For Good!
• Deep Links: Web Users Want What They Want and They Want it Now!
• The Ontology of Social Media
• NonProfits Can Benefit from Social Media, Just Ask Mara Triangle
• Small Business Marketing Unleashed Part Deux: Fall in Columbus
• Mythbusting: Ideas Do Not Spread Because they are Good
• Do you have blog insurance?
• The Future of SEO and Google: How Will We Exist 5 Years from Now?
• Big List of Green Web Hosts
• 8 Stupid Things Webmasters Do To Mess Up Their Analytics
• The Importance of Pay Per Click Account Structure
• I rate the Google Search Query report a solid #/10
• Succesful Viral Marketing Case Study: Weezer Gets it Right
• 7 Signs of SEO Scams
• 11 Evil Bloggers Who Rock
• The Top 30 Cities to Earn a Big SEO Salary
• Gambert Sock Puppet Busted

This morning I was handing off a project to a developer and found myself ranting about the common mistakes developers make when coding HTML. These boneheaded mistakes can cause search engines to choke when it comes to indexing your websites. And its easy to avoid making these mistakes. Here's how:

Click to continue reading...

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...

A reader sent us an example of the new Google Merchant Search live and in the wild. What's Google Merchant Search? After a little poking around, it appears to be a new but unannounced program in beta where people can comparison shop services like loans.

Here are the Google Merchant Search FAQs, and here is a demo page. From the looks of it, you can compare loan providers, you can pick a vendor and then speak with a lender - all through this system.

Click to continue reading...

Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama's online organizing and fundraising successes are perhaps unprecedented. He's also the query volume king, among the candidates. But how does he do as an online marketer? We might not know his CTRs or how his campaigns "convert" but now we know where he spent his money. According to US Federal Election Commission records, examined and parsed by ClickZ and further explored by PaidContent, Google has won the lion's share of the candidate's online spending.

Click to continue reading...

I reported that Google has updated their favorite icon on Google.com, from the old multi-colored boxed in "G," to a single blue lowercase g.

New Favorite Icon:

Old Favorite Icon:

Click to continue reading...

We're all guinea pigs in Google's search experiment from News.com covers Google's Marissa Mayer presentation at the Google I/O conference. In her speech, she discusses the various tests they perform to increase searcher activity and responsiveness.

Here is a bullet list of what I found to be the most interesting insights from that presentation:

Click to continue reading...

In the last column, we explored some studies that indicate that conscious will might not be the cause of our actions, but instead might be just one of the effects of a motivator still undefined. Conscious will could simply be a feedback mechanism that helps us keep track of our actions and hides the degree of unconscious activity involved in our day to day activities. Conscious will allows us to keep thinking we’re rational, logical beings.

Click to continue reading...