SearchCap: DMOZ officially closes, Google dilutes Exact Match in AdWords & more

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

From Search Engine Land:

Your playbook for click-to-call paid search is here
Mar 20, 2017 by Digital Marketing Depot
Consumers now click on “Call” buttons from search ads and landing pages by the billions. To stay competitive, marketers must change their desktop-centric thinking and adopt new mobile-first ad, bidding, and attribution strategies for call conversions.
Twiggle offers plug-and-play semantic search to online retailers
Mar 20, 2017 by Greg Sterling
Company says its sophisticated search can be implemented without replacement of existing enterprise search.
Google thaws (a little) on defamation cases
Mar 20, 2017 by Chris Silver Smith
Would-be-legal remedies for online reputation issues are still up in the air, explains contributor Chris Silver Smith, arguing that it may be time to amend the applicable legislation.
SEM account management: How to improve account performance
Mar 20, 2017 by Ted Ives
In part two of his three-part series on SEM account management, contributor Ted Ives discusses how to keep your PPC campaigns running smoothly and performing well.
Google: Hacked sites increased 32% in 2016
Mar 20, 2017 by Barry Schwartz
Google is encouraging webmasters and site owners to verify their sites in Google Search Console to help both prevent and fix website hacks.
Spring equinox 2017 Google doodle marks 1st day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere
Mar 20, 2017 by Amy Gesenhues
Today’s animated doodle ushering in spring shows a mouse at work, completing its spring cleaning rituals.
What happens when Google pushes into branding and messaging?
Mar 20, 2017 by Pauline Jakober
As Google elbows its way further into PPC branding, columnist Pauline Jakober discusses the drawbacks of automating tasks that impact messaging and branding.
Use Artificial Intelligence to bridge the gap between data and personalization
Mar 17, 2017 by Digital Marketing Depot
Marketers today have access to exceptional amounts of data. While “big data” was once a luxury only available to the largest enterprises, it is now available to even the smallest organizations. But the actual management, organization and analysis of the resulting volume of data quickly becomes an insurmountable task.
DMOZ has officially closed after nearly 19 years of humans trying to organize the web
Mar 17, 2017 by Danny Sullivan
The closure marks the final end of a chapter of humans trying to organize the web.
Google to further dilute exact match in AdWords; will ignore word order & function words
Mar 17, 2017 by Ginny Marvin
Not just for plurals anymore, close variants will extend to include word ordering and function words in inexact match keywords.