Searchtextual Ads:
AlmondNet launches an ad network based on search behavior, and apparently they have a patent for it too.

Future of writing:
Steven Berlin Johnson writes about how technology will forever change writing.

Branding:
Apple replaces Google as brand of the year.

ClickTracks Optimizer:
new mid level analytics software

Digital Identity:
MP3 streams from Future Salon on Digital Identity

Hyperlinkage:
new Bloglines competitor

VLIB Update:
A friend of mine is one of the maintainers of the VLIB. I just got off the phone with him and he stated that they are cleaning up the VLIB using technologies such as XML.

Survey Says:
take a Google Survey and read some survey results from another recent survey.

New Wiki Based Search Engine:
loots data from WhoIs database.

Iraq Election:
UN pays bloggers to shill

Merger:
SBC to buy AT&T.

Excrement:
Man peed way out of avalanche
2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure
hat tip to Frankie from TP on the excrement links.

I actually do not know tons about SEO automation stuff... have not really tried it. Here are some of the things I have read about

automated content generation:
ArticleBot
cloaking (such as the stuff from Fantomaster)
traffic equalizer
rss equalizer
mixes like affiliate merchant feed + rss content+ ppc backfeed

automated link generation:
guestbook bots
blog comment bots
wiki bots
distributed link networks (such as the coop ad network)
think there are lots of things you can do with rss

I am sure there will also be lots of automation talking at the ThreadWatch SEO meeting...

feel free to comment anonymously with a fake email or whatever, but what automated tools on the market do you use and find helpful?

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a new book by Malcolm Gladwell which discusses and breaks down the concept of rapid cognition and why it is often better than years of scientific data.
He also reviews when rapid cognition breaks down and how it can be refined. Excitement can cause a temporary state of autism. A lack of time and / or exepreience can also cause us to make quick, irrational, and / or biased decisions. The hardest thing to guage is the intent of another person.

Typically under normal circumstances when given enough time or experience (so as to manage our stress reaction) our immediate gut feelings are often correct.

How this book relates to SEO...

• Many SEOs analyze large sets of data and can quickly state what changes have occured and what they would expect next due to past experience.

• Many others are quick to say "prove it to me" and do no testing of their own.
• The web is a social network. You need to learn to judge the intent of others in your community (that includes the people running search engines for SEOs) - and often you do not get to see the telling signs of a face.
• Its important for your longterm success for you to learn who you can trust and build social relationships with.
• If you can afford them conferences are really worth going to. If you can not afford them sometimes you can get free passes from friends or by helping set them up (as a bag stuffer or chair setter or whatever).
• If you are uncertain who is worth trusting then testing and small steps would likely be useful. If you do not test or test poorly and consistantly state "prove it to me" you are likely to be found repulsive by the people who would have likely been willing to help you most.
• I think I am more interested in how minds work than how search algorithms work, though if you learn a bunch about one I am sure that can also help you relate better to the other.

Free book for you?
First person to

• reply to this post -and-

• send me an email with their address and Blink as the subject wins a free copy of Blink.

Please do not request the free copy of this book unless you are sure you will read it, especially if you live in a country where sending you this book would cost me $60 in postage.

This contest is void where prohibited :)

[update: NickW stated he does not want it...next person wins]

This is kinda like a rant article, but why not, right? ...

I got a call yesterday from a guy who was making good profit spending $10,000 per month on AdWords ads. In spite of seeing this value in search he could not fathom the concept of spending even a few thousand dollars on SEO.

Eventually he will probably buy some sleezy package deal that does nothing for him. Then he will complain about how all SEOs are scumbags because he did not get $100,000 worth of marketing for $200.

Many SEO customers have unreal expectations or try to rip off SEOs far more frequently than the other way around, and that is exactly Why Many People Buy Shitty SEO Services.

AdSense Premium Publishers:
can boost CTR by 500% when compared to regular AdSense publishers. Looks like I need to make about a million posts, get a few hundred thousand links, throw AdSense ads on my site, and then give it a try real quick...

Overture : Only for the Big Guys?
Not so. One of my friends told me that he was recently cold called by an Overture ad rep interested in placing ads on his somewhat new site.

Placing Porn in Your Own Comments:
Not that long ago I saw a blog rank for a rather gross porn related term (was trying to gross a friend out) and I got to thinking, now that there is the rel=nofollow you really could get away with just saying that you were too lazy to moderate your old comments and re engineer old pages to rank well for many many many many adult terms (I accidentally rank for some by accidentally using occasional foul language).

How could search engines know the difference between a blogger who is lazy with comment deletion and one who is intentionally marketing that way? When blogs naturally rank for random things it could be really easy to make good bank with a false blog set up cleanly using the NoFollow comment effect.

A Third of Shoppers:
often shop the web and buy at the store

Metcalfe’s Law:
eBay took a beating in the stock market recently due to slower growth. After a ton of brokerage firms downgraded eBay Legg Mason gave them an upgrade.

More Networking Questions:
FCC chairman Powell resigned...wonder who's next? and how that will effect the web? It is amazing how many people in the administration have resigned. Surely a sign that something isn't right.