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"Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today (and yesterday), through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.Search Engine Roundtable Stories:\n\n\t\tWeekly Search Buzz Roundup - February 1, 2008: Microsoft Bids on Yahoo, Google Reverses Position 6 Penalty &amp; SphinnCon Israel\n\t\tSo Barry is in Israel, leaving me in charge. YES! Thankfully, there will be no video this week. ;) I hate video. Now that I'm in charge, what has happened this week? Well, some say it was a slow news week, but today has brought a surprise to us: Microsoft to Buy Yahoo? Yahoo's stock was going down yesterday, but not today! Microsoft had bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo in a move that is seemingly\n\t\tYouTube Partner Program Opens to the UK\n\t\tWe reported on the YouTube partner program in the US in October. Now the program has extended to UK users. UK users can access the Partner Programme page to sign up. How does it work? The difference with this and the type of programs you mentioned is you are paid ad revenue share for video content you produce, as opposed to showign videos on your site and receiveign payment for ad clicks. If you're looking\n\t\tGoogle's Q4 Earnings Do Not Meet Expectations\n\n\t\tIt seems that recession is finally here. A report that Google's earnings did not meet analysts' expectations has surfaced. The good news: Google earned $1.21 billion, or $3.79 per share, during the final three months of 2007. That's up 17 percent from net income of $1.03 billion, or $3.29 per share, in the same period a year earlier. The bad news: It's the first time Google's quarterly profit has climbed by less than 25 percent\n\t\tMicrosoft to Buy Yahoo for $44.6 Billion\n\t\tIn an unexpected move this morning, Microsoft has made a $44.6 billion move to acquire Yahoo. Needless to say, it has come as a shock to everyone. What's in store? We're not sure, but we hope it's good. I thought this was coming... especially after Bill Gates kind of hinted for something big to happen on CNBC the other day. I just hope they keep Yahoo's properties under the Yahoo name but put in Live\n\t\tSearch Marketing Survey Offered by SEOmoz\n\t\tSEOmoz is holding a search marketer's survey to get information about you. The winner can get an iPhone (or $400 to be spent at Amazon.com). I just took the survey and the questions are quite interesting. A sampling of questions: 1. How many jobs have you held in the last 5 years? 2. What is your current position? 3. How many emails do you receive for work-related tasks in a given day? 4. How many\n\t\tIs SEO Possible Without Inbound Links?\n\n\t\tA HighRankings Forum member wants to know if it's possible to rank well for competitive keywords without having inbound links. The answer is no. As Randy points out: Without any links at all pointing towards your site not only will it not rank very well, but it won't even stay in the index. Tis the way of the web. The search engines expect people to link to things those people find to be of value.\n\t\tLearning More About Mobile Search\n\t\tBryson Meunier posted a characteristics of the top 100 mobile search queries at AT&amp;T. The top five keywords, in order, are \"google,\" \"yahoo,\" \"sports,\" \"facebook,\" and \"myspace.\" Further, Bryson says that mobile users are looking for navigational options as opposed to the traditional sit-at-your-computer search where you may not know what you're looking for. According to the classification, the mobile queries were overwhelmingly navigational in nature, with almost three quarters of the queries coming from\n\t\tYahoo Begins Supporting OpenID\n\t\tYesterday, CNet introduced that Yahoo is going to be supporting the OpenID standard for a \"universal Internet log-in.\" The article claims that the biggest victor is not Yahoo but OpenID. However, on WebmasterWorld, the concept of OpenID is irksome to many. Oh, I can see it now, people don't use hard passwords...then the hackers can get it ALL in one fell swoop. That could be a disaster for many. Not all feel this way, though.\n\n\t\tGoogle Groups Spammed, Spammer Accounts Disabled\n\t\tOur beloved Google Groups was hit with some forum spam the other day. A Google Groups thread in the Webmaster Help section reported it back on January 30th. Duncan at TechCrunch reported it a day earlier with his Go To Google Groups. Get Tricked Into Downloading Malware. Do Not Pass Go. You can still see some of the spam posts indexed in Google, with a search on site:vivalb55.googlegroups.com. Here is a screen shot, because Google\n\t\tGoogle AdSense Earnings Way Down in January 2008?\n\t\tIt is hard for me to link to just one thread with discussion on how it appears Google is paying less and less this month to their AdSense publishers. But there is one huge WebmasterWorld thread with pages and pages of posts, starting in the middle of this month and still containing a lot of steam with upset publishers. Overall, many publishers have noticed a drop in earnings reported throughout the month by Google AdSense.\n\t\tAre SEO's Worth $350 Per Hour?\n\t\tA Sphinn thread has discussion on if an SEO is worth $350 per hour. The Sphinn thread is an off branch of a blog post that portrays an SEO who seems to not be such a great SEO but is yet able to charge $350 per hour for a minimum of 2000 hours per year. Yes, that turns out to be $700,000 per year, before taxes. In this case, it appears that the SEO consultant\n\n\t\tGoogle.com's Country Specific Weights Getting Stronger?\n\t\tA WebmasterWorld has several reports from non-US based site owners saying their rankings in the main USA based Google.com has dropped from the first page to page five or beyond. This is not just one report from people complaining, there are even those with US based sites who are delighted about the apparent change in how Google handles non-US based sites (i.e. not hosted in the US or containing a foreign TLD). Here are some\n\t\t\nOther Great Search Forum Threads:\n\n\tICANN Moves To Stop Domain Tasting, WebmasterWorld\n\tInterview With The Editor of Sphinn - Rob Kerry (EvilGreenMonkey), Sphinn\n\tAdWords: How to write a really bad Ad, fast - Search Engine Watch Forums, Search Engine Watch Forums\n\tReorder your MyMaps items!, Google Groups\n\tWarning: Do Not Hire Sam's Club for Search Marketing, Sphinn\n\tSphinn - Ian (g1smd) First to Break 1000  Sphinn Comments!, Sphinn\n\tAnyone going to SearchMarketingExpo (&amp;quot;SMX&amp;quot;) West in February?, Google Groups\n\tGoogle adopts universal search in South Korea, WebmasterWorld\n\tGmail Has a Daily Limit on Sending Email, DigitalPoint Forums\n\tSphinn - Is Sphinn Bad For The Industry?, Sphinn\n\tSphinn - Top 10 search engine optimization techniques, Sphinn\n\tOptimizing Flash In 2008 - Cre8asite Forums, Cre8asite Forums\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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