SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 15, 2008

My Top 3

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Carl Icahn Makes His Move To Oust Yahoo Board, Which Has “Completely Botched” Microsoft Merger Talks
  As Danny reported earlier, Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is making a proxy move to oust the Yahoo board in an effort to reignite takeover talks with Microsoft. Just a few minutes ago a press release was issued by Icahn explaining his intentions and rationale….
• Yahoo! SearchMonkey Now Open For Everyone
  Today, Yahoo! is making its SearchMonkey developer platform publicly available and is kicking things off with a launch party and a developer challenge. As we noted a few weeks ago when SearchMonkey launched in private beta, Yahoo! is ecouraging the use of microformats and semantic web standards by providing an…
• How Search Engine Redirect Users To Country-Specific Sites
  Yahoo just started redirecting people in the UK who are trying to reach Yahoo.com instead to its Yahoo UK web site, something that Google has done for a long time. With the change, this seemed a good time to revisit how all the major search engines may intercept people trying…
• Google Maps Adds “More” Button For Displaying Videos, Pictures, Wikipedia & More Content
  Google’s LatLong Blog announced new ways of finding more content on Google Maps, including geo-tagged YouTube videos, pictures from Panoramio and localized Wikipedia content. We already covered the Google Maps Explore feature, but let me take you through similar content by way of the new “More” button. Lets travel to…
• Supercharge Your URLs For Maximum SEO Impact
  When optimizing URLs for high rankings, little attention is given to optimizing the URL for maximum clickthrough. Yet the URL undeniably affects searcher clickthrough rates in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), as demonstrated by MarketingSherpa in their eyetracking study published in the 2008 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide. />Ask.com Buying Lexico, Owner Of Dictionary.com
  In a move that is interesting and perhaps even surprising for several reasons, IAC/Ask is buying Lexico Publishing Group, which owns and operates “iconic” domains Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. These sites get most of their traffic through direct navigation and will increase Ask’s reach by 145 million unduplicated users (or…
• What Are Your Search Questions For Microsoft President Kevin Johnson?
  In about three weeks, I’ll be asking Microsoft president Kevin Johnson, who oversees the Windows and Online Services division, questions relating to search as part of his keynote at our SMX Advanced search marketing conference in Seattle, June 3-4. I want your help! What questions would you like to see…
• Icahn To Make Yahoo Move; Google Worries Yahoo Will Learn From Ad Deal
  More rumors about yesterday’s news that Carl Icahn may want to take control of Yahoo. He apparently plans to nominate 10 directors to replace Yahoo’s board later today, reports the Wall Street Journal, using an unnamed source. But Microsoft might no longer be interested in Yahoo. Plus, that Google-Yahoo ad…
• Eight Keyword Research Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
  One of the reasons search marketing is so effective is that it delivers information on products and services to people who are actively seeking them out. People enter search terms into a search engine and the engine provides sites and ads that are relevant to the terms. This arrangement…
• All New SMX Local & Mobile Agenda Now Up
  This year’s SMX Local & Mobile conference features two jam-packed days of cutting edge sessions, enlightening keynotes and stimulating networking opportunities. See the agenda here for this event, which will be held July 24-25 in San Francisco. SMX Local & Mobile is the only event 100% dedicated to getting internet…

Search News From Around The Web:

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