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

From Search Engine Land:

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  Yahoo Displaying Geo Criteria Of Search Ads
  The BrandVerity Blog noticed that Yahoo started displaying the business's location under the search ads. For example, a search on lawyers in Yahoo returns several ads that display New York under them. Why New York? Because I am based in New York. If you are located in California, you might...


• 
  
  Twitter Beats (Wow, By 3 Minutes) The USGS With China Earthquake News
  Hey, I like Twitter, but this entire thing Robert Scoble started about how Twitter had news of the Chinese earthquake before the US Geological Survey seemed absurd. Did it really? As it turns out, probably so -- by about three minutes. Reading some of the accounts, you'd get the impression...


• 
  
  Small, Local Businesses Taking Economic Downturn in Stride
  The economic downturn is a reality, but the specific ways that it affects businesses run the gamut based on the size and type of business. During these times, small, local businesses often feel the pinch more quickly and sharply, causing some to take evasive maneuvers to keep afloat. Based on...


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  Google Introduces "FriendConnect" Social Widgets For Site Owners
  Contrary to some earlier reports, Google's new FriendConnect, launching today, is not focused on data portability or a direct answer to MySpace "Data Availability" or the new Facebook Connect. While there's a data portability dimension, it's focused on the flip side of the equation: site owners who want to make...


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  Yahoo Search Ambassador Program Closing
  The Search Engine Roundtable reports that it seems to be no longer possible to sign up for the Ambassador Program. Although there is no specific confirmation from Yahoo on that on the Ambassador program page, when one tries to sign up via an affiliate site, we get a notice that...


• 
  
  Cast Your Vote For Doodle 4 Google Contestants
  You can now cast your vote for the Doodle 4 Google competition at google.com/doodle4google/vote.html. Again, the winning doodle will be showcased on the Google home page on May 22, 2008 and the winner also gets a $10,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his/her school. To vote, go...


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  Yahoo Labels Google As Malware? No, Yahoo URL Mix Up
  Google Is A Malware Site (Says Yahoo) from TechCrunch reports a funny bug at Yahoo, that accidently made it look like Google's home page had Malware on it, based on the Yahoo SearchScan feature that was recently launched. A search for Astalavista at Yahoo returned, what appeared to be a...


• 
  
  Powerset Launches "Understanding Engine" For Wikipedia Content
  After nearly two years in the making -- and plenty of hype -- Powerset has finally rolled out a "natural language" search engine. It's not a Google killer. It's barely a business model right now. But at least it's something the world can finally play with, and under the hood,...


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  SnapStream Brings The "Power Of Search" To Television Programming
  Imagine TiVo on steroids combined with a search engine like Google. It exists today but for the enterprise market. That product is called SnapStream TV and it allows thousands of hours of programming to be recorded – up to 10 shows simultaneously – and then, using closed caption transcripts, brings...

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Reorder iGoogle Tabs, Google Operating System


• Security flaw turns Gmail into open-relay server, Ars Technica


• Tips for Linking to Google Presentations, Google Operating System


• Functions, Formulas and how you can relieve the Frustration, Official Google Docs Blog


• URL Blocking: Problem now fixed, Inside Windows Live Messenger

Business Issues

• Facebook Raises Another $100 Million, TechCrunch


• Yahoo comes up short against Google with a group that matters, LA Times


• Scoop: Scandal-ridden Brit Rachel Whetstone to run Google PR, Valleywag


• Yandex Tops Yahoo! and Microsoft in Europe, Quintura blog


• Facebook's CTO D'Angelo to Leave, AllThingsD


• Google's workplace of the future - on a cubicle budget, globeandmail.com


• Is Google trying solid-state disks?, News.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google LatLong: AC Transit schedules now available in Google Maps, Google LatLong


• Master collection of Cyclone Nargis layers, Google LatLong


• Sprint, Google's other deal revs phone speed, Chicago Tribune


• Romans Spotted Fleeing Google Street View Cars, Google Blogoscoped


• New Rumsey Historical Maps and new ways to view them, Google LatLong

Link Building

• Black Hat SEO Lessons: Indirect Promotion, Search Engine Journal


• Creating a Link Building Machine, BlogStorm

Paid Search & Contextual

• Prizes for PDF Publishing, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog


• AOL eyes local online ad portal, The Australian


• Almost Three Years Later, Yahoo Publisher Network Still Failing To Compete Globally, Search Engine Roundtable


• Google AdSense No-Nos, Search Engine Roundtable


• Putting More Ads On Your Page: Tactics to Increase Your AdSense Earnings Overnight, Problogger


• Google AdWords Editor a Great Tool for Content -- and for Yahoo/Microsoft!, Search Engine Watch


• UK Users Report Google AdSense Phone Verification Not Working, Search Engine Roundtable


• Video advertising & monetization: A discussion at Ad:Tech San Francisco, Inside AdSense

Searching

• Viewzi Takes Visual Search To Another Level, Read/Write Web


• Yahoo Search's Differential Features, Google Operating System


• Does "Query Deserves Diversity" Algorithm Exist at Google?, SEOmoz


• HS Parameter in Google Search Results When Using Firefox, Search Engine Roundtable

SEM Industry

• Need to Hire SEM Help? Where to Find Industry Thought Leaders, AIM Clear Blog


• Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest Entries, Marketing Pilgrim


• The Next Frontier for Search Marketing Standards, Search Engine Journal

SEO & SEM

• Design patterns for accessible, crawlable and indexable content, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog


• Google Base account now international, Google Base Blog


• The difference between being on top of and ahead of your (SEO) game, Joost de Valk


• What Google Knows About Spam, Matt Cutts


• Gala Bingo just 302 to a top 10 Google Ranking, David Naylor


• How Many Keywords Should Your SEO Be Targetting?, Bob Massa


• Rank Checking Lives On, All Things SEM


• The Key Ingredient for SEO and Web Design is True Passion, Cre8PC


• Tips on SEO, Increased Sales and PPC., seoaware.com


• What Does a Title Tag, Title Tag and Title Tag Have In Common?, Search Engine Guide


• When Fiction and Parody Hits Your Reputation , Serengeti Communications

Social Media

• Facebook To Lift 5,000 Friends Limit, TechCrunch


• Digg Has Shout-Blocked Me, SEOmoz


• Digging Deeper On The Top Tech Blogs And Bloggers, TechCrunch


• Has Sphinn Traffic Increased?, SEO Co


• Friendfeed's Business Model Will Look Like Google's, Micro Persuasion


• The All Time Techmeme Leaderboard, The Statbot


• Why Filtering is the Next Step for Social Media, Read/Write Web


• What is Online Reputation Management?, ViperChill


• What is the Twitterverse feeling right now?, Mathew Ingram

Video, Music & Image Search

• New Visual Search Engine Picitup Needs to Pick Up Its Game., TechCrunch

Other Items

• Growing our connection to food, Official Google Blog


• Using Google's N-Gram Corpus, Google Operating System


• 63 signs you're addicted to Google and the Church of Search, Google Tutor


• Bringing Google into the kitchen, News.com


• Mother's Day '08 from Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, Ask.com , Search Engine Roundtable


• Noam Chomsky at Google (Video), Google Blogoscoped


• Google at Serious Play Conference in Pasadena, BusinessWeek


• Google's first chef to open restaurant in Palo Alto, Mercury News

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

• The Next Frontier for Search Marketing Standards


• What Google Knows About Spam


• Sphinn is a Dysfunctional Social Network Because Internet Marketers Don't Understand Social Networking


• Tips For Dealing With Information Overload


• The 2,000th SEO Scoop Post


• Top 10 Reasons Why Great Content Fails on Social Media


• Content as Marketing for Link Building (and the Win)


• SEO Guide for Designers


• SEO Bloggers Parade Their Best


• Top 10 Reasons for Monitoring Brands in Social Media


• Landing Page Load Time Coming To AdWord Quality Score in June


• 7 Habits of Effective SEM


• The Big List Of Major B2B Search Engines


• See a webpage like a SEO


• Beyond Keyword Research: Utilizing Analytics


• The Indirect Value of Social Media Marketing


• "About Us" Page, Meet the Social Media Newsroom