Google Now 65% of U.S. Searches, Up 5% YOY

Google now accounts for 65.1 percent of all US searches, while Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com received 21.2 percent, 7.1 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, according to MarketingCharts, citing Hitwise.

The remaining 46 search engines it tracks accounted for less than 2.0 percent.

Google Fights Paid Links With Pagerank Penalty

In a long anticipated move, Google is now taking action to web sites who provide paid links. Google doesn’t penalize the relevancy of the site in search, but rather, hits the sites in their pocketbook by penalizing their page rank. If the site has low page rank, which is generally a requirement of paid link services like PayPerPost.com, then the site starts to lose out on advertising dollars.

Google Optimization As A Service

Startup software company Yield will soon release an SEO-as-a-service offering. Currently it is in early testing by a few
companies and will probably be generally available in early 2008. Yield’s service is really three services in one.

Preventing Keyword Cannibalization

Keywords and multiple optimized pages are great, but this can actually lead to “keyword cannibalization” which prevents Google from knowing which page is best to rank.

Timeline for 301 redirects in Google?

An article references a roundtable of SEO experts answering the “How long does it take to update site-wide 301 redirects in Google?” question.

Optimizing Pages with Keyword Search Phrases

In a great discussion about content relevance, this SEOMOZ article outlines what the author believes are the optimal placements of the primary keyword phrase.

Microsoft Launches New Live Search

A new Microsoft’s Live Search has just launched:
The latest iteration of Microsoft’s Live Search, which was first “leaked” last week, is now live and in the wild. According to the Live Search team, the improvements cover four major areas: an expanded index (reports say Live now searches 20 billion pages), faster load times, a new […]

Google, Transparent Links, and Hit Counter Spam

What a tangled web we weave when ones intent is to deceive. This was a great example of how ’spammy’ sites can game Google and rank well for a season. Historically, their ranking is short lived as Google will change their algorithm or ban the spammy site.
Read more at:
Google Loves Transparent Links & Hit Counter […]

SEOyak.com For SEO Social News

Ran across this site — SEOyak.com. It’s sort of a Digg for SEO topics.
Read more about SEOyak.com - Social SEO News

Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine

Google’s Algorithm now includes more than 200 components to its “secret sauce”:
Mr. Singhal has developed a far more elaborate system for ranking pages, which involves more than 200 types of information, or what Google calls “signals.” PageRank is but one signal. Some signals are on Web pages — like words, links, images and so on. […]