Roundup Thursday for the Week of 10/19/08

Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week:

• Dwight Silverman criticizes Valleywag writer Paul Boutin, who said that blogs are becoming obsolete and that nowadays all blogs are a "tsunami of paid bilge." Never mind the fact that Paul works fulltime at the SiliValley gossip blog. What a butthole.
• Scary SEO is taking place today and tomorrow in Boca Raton, Florida. The two-day event focuses on SEO education and lots of good ol' fashioned networking. SEOmoz is helping to sponsor the event. While it's no werewolf bar mitzvah, the event should still be pretty fun. :)
• Google Analytics has rolled out some upgrades, including AdSense integration, an API, custom reports, and more.
  
• Speaking of Google, here's a look at their newest data center. Wow, it's a warehouse! I bet SEOs take their kids there on family trips. "Hey, this isn't Disneyland..."
• Looking for a search engine that finds music online? Well, here are 16. The list left off the all-Phil Collins music search engine, YourFillofPhil.com. You can listen to Sussudio 24/7!
• The Gmail Blog has announced their new "Canned Responses" feature. From the post: "If you're sick of typing out the same reply every time someone emails you with a common question, now you can compose your reply once and save the message text with the 'Canned responses' button." I didn't think there was a way to de-personalize email more than it already is, but way to go, Gmail! You win!
• Guy Kawasaki was recently interviewed about entrepreneurship, business ideas, and his newest book. Check it out if you're krazy about Kawasaki.
• Seth Godin says that if you act small and think big, you're too small to fail. This is precisely why Gargamel could never best those damn Smurfs.
  
• Jon Mendez says that behavioral targeting sucks. It's an amusing post that provides some other behavioral targeting resources.
• Time asks if your favorite company is about to go bust. Soon we'll all be living in Thunderdome bartering for beef jerky and lamenting the demise of Eddie Bauer and their sensible flannel merchandise.
  
• Some psychologist blames Facebook for "friendship addiction" and says that the social networking site is fueling insecurity in users, particularly in women. Hey, I approve friends out of laziness, not insecurity. This article is lame...I'm so lonely. Sniffle.
• American Airlines is suing Yahoo! for trademark infringement, saying that "when users enter American's trademark terms such as AAdvantage, the name of its frequent-flier program, in a search they can be directed to competitors who pay Yahoo for the traffic." I wonder how this one will play out...maybe Sarah can weigh in with her handy legal knowhow?
  
• Actually, I'd rather have Sarah weigh in on this little legal gem: an eBay buyer is being sued by the seller for leaving negative feedback on a product he purchased. I'm guessing the case will be laughed out of court, but still, this should be a good one. :D
  
• Dr. Pepper is making good on their Chinese Democracy promise. They said that if Guns 'n Roses actually released their 15-years-in-the-making album Chinese Democracy before the end of the year, the cola company would give each American a Dr. Pepper. Thanks for the free pop, Axl!
  
• Mark Sullivan from PC World lists the Internet's 10 most worthless sites. Making the list is Digg, which I griped about yesterday despite my affinity for the site.
  
• Speaking of Digg, Computer World has an interesting article that criticizes the social news site for going overly aggro and banning users left and right for violating the site's ToS. Seems like Digg has gotten a lot of less-than-spiffy attention lately...
• ...and even the diggers themselves have gotten some attention. Think Basis compiled a list of things diggers hate that always get dugg. It's actually a useful list if you're unfamiliar with Digg but want to learn more about the community. Think of yourself as Jane Goodall studying gorillas. :)

• CNN talks about why talent is overrated. I want to send this article to every parent out there who gushes about how their kid is sooooo talented. He's not. He's a booger eater.
  
• Ann Smarty hits another home run with her myths and truths about the Google gray bar PR. Okay, her talent isn't overrated. And she's probably not a booger eater. ;)
• According to Pew Internet, the traditional nuclear family has the highest rate of technology usage and ownership. It's a pretty interesting study, but it doesn't explain why my aunt forwards me animated gifs and chain letters from 1998. 
  
• For no other reason than to get you to giggle at the article's headline, I'm linking to this study that found the stink in farts controls blood pressure. Now go home, load up on some Mexican food, and lower your BP. :)

• Conversion Rate Experts provides us with 14 free tools that reveal why people abandon your site. It's a great list of resources that explains each tool's features and recommends when and how to use it.
  
• SEO Book has a useful checklist that will help beginner marketers get a visitor to take a desired action. This is a handy resource for when you're crafting landing pages and doing a site audit of your conversion process and checkout.

YOUmoz entries:

• How to Harness the Power of YouTube to Get More Traffic to Your Site. NBridges Media discusses how to use YouTube as a promotional medium and traffic generator.
• Nofollow Put My Kids Through College! John McElborough thinks that the search engines did Internet marketers a favor when they introduced nofollow because the decision added an extra level of complexity and intrigue to the SEO process, which is good for professional SEOs.
• Elements of a Great Website. L2PLLC gives some tips on how to create a great website. He includes suggestions like being mindful of the domain and logo you choose, using breadcrumbs, and more.
  
• Rock Climbing and SEO. G-Force compares his favorite sport, rock climbing, to SEO, and he's able to draw a few similarities.
  
• YOUmoz NBA TweekK9 Fantasy League. Shor invites the SEOmoz community to join his Yahoo! NBA fantasy basketball league.
• SEO: A Process of Episodic or Continuous Change? Thetjo discusses the difference between episodic and continuous change and analyzes the SEO implications of each.
  
• A Challenge to Grow SEOmoz. Sly-grrr encourages SEOmoz to become "the clearing house for reputable SEO," and his suggestion sparks up a great discussion in the comments.

• Un-Raveled: How Ravelry Successfully Created a Dedicated Community. Yoshimi introduces us to Ravelry, an online knitting community that has done a great job building members and created dedicated and engaged users.

Best of YOUmoz:

• PissedConsumer.com: Link Farm Dominating Google SERPs. Chris1 noticed that PissedCustomer.com was ranking 3rd for his company's brand name in Google, despite the site only having a couple of low-level complaints against his company. He discovered that the reason Pissed Consumer is ranking so well is that the site is involved in a link farm with a ring of other complaint sites, and he urges Google to take action.
  

• Contracted RSS feed designer in Los Angeles, CA
• Web application engineer for WordStream in Needham, MA
• Contracted Google PR expert in Las Vegas, NV
• SEO specialist for EClickPerformance in Chicago, IL
• Digital marketing expert for the Green Mountain Energy Company in Austin, TX

Featured companies:

United States/North America:

• SEO Packages in Boerne, TX
• Search-Werks in Glendale, AZ
• Keyword Artists in Chicago, IL, and Miami, FL
• Overture Interactive in Philadelphia, PA
• Olympic Internet in Philadelphia, PA
• Empowered SEO in New York, NY
• Paulson Management Group in Boulder, CO
• Demand Results in CA
• Gofinfin in Ontario, Canada
• Rethink SEO in Toronto, ON, Canada

UK / Europe:

• All Things Web in the UK
• Michael J. Byers in the UK
• IIH Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark
• Eureka Diseno in Cadiz, Spain
  

Asia:

• Zyrist in New Delhi, India
• AtoZDesignWork in Bangalore, India
• Chemist2dio in Makati, Philippines

• The Lost Agency in Australia

Featured resumes:

Currently looking:

• Sooraj Naik in Karnataka, India, is familiar with and accomplished in a variety of departments, including organic search engine optimization, internet marketing and business strategy.
  
• Peter Quinlan in Lake Tapps, WA, has over ten  years of experience in design, development, implementation and support of various computing environments, as well as extensive experience optimizing websites for greater visibility within search engines.
• Steve Eichen in Sunny Isles Beach, FL, is experienced in website development, SEO, PPC management, e-commerce development, affiliate marketing, conversion tracking, content development, copywriting, graphic design, blog development, press releases, conversion tracking, contextual advertising, social media optimization and usability analysis.
• Chris Bergeron in Burlington, VT, is a multimedia and graphic design major working as an SEO analyst. He is seeking a position which will utilize both analytical and creative ways of thinking.
• Amish Keshwani from India is an SEO/Internet marketing professional & DataShaping Certified Professional (web analytics) with 3+ years of experience in the field.
• Ross Peters currently works as a creative consultant for Onteractive and is currently preparing for the launch of his new company, uOpen.com, is a revolutionary, self-policing, self-pricing, B2B marketplace.
• Vishal Shastri is looking for a .NET & PHP developer position with an ambitious company on the leading edge of distributed computing, e-commerce, internet software development, and/or other applications of .NET Technology. He can also perform efficient SEO-related operations.
• Wilson Yu in Monterey Park, CA, is looking for an SEO position that combines management and hands-on activities. He has spent the last several years combining his technical and people management skills with the field of SEO.

Happily Employed:

• Bob Bentz in Pennsylvania does Internet marketing and SEO and works with local small and medium-sized businesses in the Philadelphia area.
  
• Altaf Gilani in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, is an SEO architect for ZealousWeb Technologies. He has a deep interest in the Internet, web marketing, and learning latest web applications & blogging.
• Mary Bettinson is an SEO analyst for the Designory, Inc. in Long Beach, CA. She has worked on developing both natural and paid search strategies and has more than ten years' experience.