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

From Search Engine Land:

• Using Competitive Intelligence To Protect Your Brand
  Protecting your brand online is an ongoing activity. It requires hard work and due diligence. One area of concern is when others bid on your brand, or use your brand name in their ads. My current understanding of Google's policy is that it's OK to bid on a competitive...
• Industrial Strength: New Column From Search Engine Land
  Our newest Search Engine Land column, Industrial Strength, launches today. Industrial Strength is written by search marketers responsible for managing SEO for huge websites and running massive search advertising campaigns. Topics range from handling technical challenges to working with multiple key stakeholders and getting everyone to play nice together....
• Google Testing Showing Blog Results Instead Of Sitelinks?
  Jesse from the Pink Cake Box sent me a screen shot of Google testing a different form of Google Sitelinks. Instead of showing Google Sitelinks under a search listing, Google was showing relevant blog posts from her blog. Here are pictures illustrating this:...

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Gmail leaves Google Apps admins nervous, InfoWorld
• BusinessWeek Launching Topic Pages; Rejoices, paidContent.org
• Read what they read, Official Google Reader Blog
• Tags are back!, Live QnA

Business Issues

• GraphOn Corporation v. Google Inc. - 2:2008cv00317, Justia Federal District Court Filings and Dockets
• Ex-Google, Microsoft Veterans Raise Money For Debut Fund, CNN Money
• Google Invested Once More In Open Source Lab, mashable.com
• Google Privacy Practices Worse Than ISP Snooping, AT&T, Wired
• GraphOn files patent suit against Google , News.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google's Android phone, the HTC Dream, is apparently approved by FCC - Nov. 10 is the latest release date, VentureBeat

Link Building

• 5 FireFox Extensions to Enhance Link Analysis in Yahoo, Search Engine Journal
• Google Mocks Link Exchange Offer, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• Managing the Minimum, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
• Google AdSense Forcing Publishers To Update Login Account Now, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Confirms New AdSense Font Tests, Again!, Search Engine Roundtable
• Tightly-Themed Ad Groups: The PPC Pro Advantage, Search Engine Watch

Searching

• Google Translate and User Feedback, SEO By The Sea
• Search is Happening in Israel - Part II, altsearchengines.com
• Creation and Ranking of Annotation Suggestions for Images and Other Media, SEO By The Sea

SEM Industry

• PPCBlogger: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop

SEO & SEM

• More on 404, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• What is Google Hiding? 403 Forbidden: "your query looks similar to automated requests", John Andrews
• How Do You Measure Your SEO Campaign Success?, Search Engine Journal

Social Media

• Twitter Implements Threaded Comments, Sort Of, louisgray.com
• Is Twitter Cloaking Their Site to Show Adsense Ads in Their Cache?, Sugarrae
• Some SMS Perspective, Twitter Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• This is a test -- ads on YouTube's mobile site, Official Google Mobile Blog

Web Analytics

• Google Poll: According to Scientists..., Google Blogoscoped

Other Items

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 17, 2008, Search Engine Roundtable
• Time to "Free the Airwaves", Official Google Blog

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

• Google Mocks Link Exchange Offer
• Link Building for Business-to-business companies
• Why No One Links to Your Best Posts (And What to Do About It)
• Increase ROI from Marketing Conference Tips!
• IM Charity Party & The Children’s Hospital
• Photo Editing Tools for Social Media & Ecommerce
• Propeller’s New Design. The Worst Ever? Yes.
• How to do a non-www 301 redirect with a Yahoo! Store
• Is Twitter Cloaking Their Site to Show Adsense Ads in Their Cache?
• When SEO & Usability Go Head To Head
• The Introverts Guide to Conference Networking
• 6 Common Website Mistakes That Are Costing You Money