Like Lisa's little recaps in the SEO blog world, Tamar will be covering the forums world. (Will we ever become BFF again, Lisa?)
This week was my first week blogging for Search Engine Roundtable. As part of that, I immersed myself in forums and more in Search Engine Roundtable than ever before. Have I done a good job? You be the judge.
Search Engines Celebrate
Over the weekend, a good chunk of the world had a St. Patty's Day celebration. The Big Four celebrated, and we at Search Engine Roundtable also joined in on the fun. Speaking of pretty, Google didn't want the festivities to end just there and later introduced new colors and themes into their personalized pages.
Business As Usual
Last week, it was Viacom vs. YouTube. This week, someone working for Google sued Viacom over the Viacom's decision to remove their parody video from YouTube. Also, this week in lawsuits, the Humor University is suing Google. According to the suit, Google owes the company for three moths of online ads. Do you find that funny?
If you do, keep laughing. On Tuesday, a judge threw out the KinderStart case against Google, a suit that was preposterous from the very start. Nobody should be suing Google for getting lower ranks.
In wackier news, reputation has been brought to a whole new level. A WebmasterWorld member has announced that he will only consider applying to schools that have a high PageRank. His criteria? PR9 and up. Having gone to a PR9 school myself, I would put a lot more emphasis on the quality of education, not the brand name. Sadly, this guy must think people will care once he graduates.
Big Breaks
Outsite the courtroom, YouTube will also have big things to worry about. News Corp. and NBC will be releasing a YouTube competitor this summer. This should be interesting as it plays out. Will all traditional media outlets begin embracing the modern technology that only YouTube used to offer? I'd keep an eye out.
This week, Microsoft formed a partnership with Lenovo to bundle a Live.com friendly Internet Explorer into all Lenovo desktops and notebooks. Given these compatibility considerations, we can't help but wonder: when is Microsoft going to add sitemaps support?
First, there was PPC. Well, there still is PPC, but now there's also PPA. Google released a new system this week called Pay Per Action where advertisers will only pay Google when their ads convert. Since I'm a big fan of Chris Sherman speeches where he discusses the importance of goals and conversions, I think this is a great thing for advertisers. The first screen shots of Google Pay Per Action have already been sighted.
On the same note, Google appears to be testing AdWords optimization tips, which is different from earlier reported sightings of Personalized AdSense Optimization Tips. This looks hopeful for advertisers as it continues to be rolled out to other accounts. Google, bring it on!
Yahoo's Reggie Davis has been promoted to "click fraud czar" to address any concerns regarding invalid and fraudulent clicks. According to Yahoo, twelve to fifteen percent of search ad clicks are discounted.
Oops...
A lot of people got excited a little too early in response to the announcement that Google's Webmaster Central started showing backlink anchor text. Unfortunately, not everyone saw the anchor text. Vanessa Fox confirms that some sites are still being updated with the new data and that Webmaster Central will be updated with this new information every month.
Webmasters should also be cognizant of their rankings at all times. Otherwise, you may get delisted and find a huge surprise when investigating how it all happened: spammy subdomains. Make sure your hosts are secure!
Speaking of spam, Google's Blogspot service is a primary culprit, with 3 of 4 blogs exactly for that purpose! Why? It's free! Want to be associated with more spam? Get an .info domain! "Informational," maybe. Spammier, more so.
Money, money, money
Want one dollar? Google is offering incentives, in the form of $1 to Adsense accounts of anyone who refers new users to Google Checkout. Some conditions apply.
TGIF!
It's been an interesting week. Blogging for Search Engine Roundtable wasn't too bad, all things considered. Barry says that I'm proving to be a pretty good sidekick. (Take that, Lisa!) I scored a nice little link from Andy and got Dugg. I could have scored two Diggs in a row, but some anonymous coward ripped off my article and that article instead hit the main page of Digg. For the record, this is the article that should have been Dugg.
What will next week bring? Plenty more surprises, I'm sure. Stay tuned.
