YouTube is rolling out a beta version of a personalized home page . I think this is great and could have implications for SEO. I think this is a sign that Google sees its personalization efforts as successful. I assume I don't need to remind you that Google now owns YouTube, which means the move is a Google executive decision. So the SEO implications are even more far reaching than one I'm about to tell you. In terms of SEO,

Most people aren't aware that search engines already perform some limited semantic language analysis. Of course, there is a long way to go, but you can get ranked for your important key terms with semantic language techniques on your web pages. That doesn't mean you can abandon your keywords. To make the best use out of semantic language search, you should still use keywords on your website content, but you don't have to stuff your content with keywords. Instead,

Domain name registrar Network Solutions and ICANN are named as defendants in a lawsuit alleging the former is guilty of domain frontrunning, a practice that relies on monitoring what domain names have been searched for and registering those domain names only to raise the price and resell them for a profit. The practice is frowned upon by ICANN, but the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Chris McElroy, says that ICANN has done nothing to stop the practice. Attorneys for McElroy,

According to Matt Cutts , Google is considering others ways of handling the NoIndex meta tag, as it relates to Search Engine Optimization. Of course, if he had his way he'd make sure none of the search engines indexed a page with the NoIndex meta tag . Currently, all the search engines have their own policies regarding NoIndex.

Wow! Andy Beal whipped out the Bible on Steve Rubel. Of course, it was warranted. Rubel is all over Search Engine Optimization experts about using social media. What I don't get is what Uncle Sam and the Good Book have to do with Search Engine Optimization or social media marketing. OK, I do understand Beal's scripture banging a bit. But what is the deal with Uncle Sam at the top of Rubel's blog post?

The European Union is going to make all search engines - Google, Yahoo!, and MSN comply with strict privacy rules. EU rules that someone must consent to their data being collected and give individuals the right to object or verify their information apply to search engines, the regulators' group said in a short statement as they prepare a full report due by April. This could potentially open up a whole new level of discussions regarding privacy.

This is an interesting read about newspapers . It seems that maybe newspapers have figured out the game. That leaves open the question of the future: What will it become? I think online news is a great new marketing channel for a lot of businesses and it puts newspapers into a whole new category unto themselves. They aren't directories because they provide a service. The service is delivery of news.

This is interesting. Companies are now advertising for specialists to help them get listed in local search listings. You know that means? Local is here to stay. What I like about this, and what I think anyone should like about it, is that you can run a free Craigslist listing in any nation in this country and get a job. Bar none. Internet marketing is here. Local search marketing is here. And don't listen to anyone who tells you it isn't.

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz responded to an Search Engine Optimization manifesto of a former contributor. The disagreements between the two on critical Search Engine Optimization topics is quite enlightening, especially given how sharp and distinctive they are. I have to say that I agree almost entirely with Rand's take on things and feel the same way that it doesn't necessarily mean we're right and his antagonist is wrong. Basically,

Photo sharing site Flickr has recently started using nofollow tags in its individual photo descriptions, reports CNET and WebProNews . Should we care? There are two ways to look at this. The first way is that nofollow links in the descriptions of individual photos might discourage certain SEOs or webmasters from posting photos to Flickr. That may not be bad as those most discouraged are probably spammers and webmasters looking for cheap link juice. On the other hand,

Marketing Pilgrim is bragging about Ask.com again. Don't get me wrong, I like Ask, but 20% of 3.something isn't much. I remember when it was a big deal that Ask jumped from fifth place to fourth in search volume )last year(. Apparently, they're back in fifth and have been for some time. Even AOL, which is an aggregator, not a search engine, is ahead of them. That's not to say that Ask won't ever move beyond the 4% of the market range.

)Source( Last month, NetSol came under fire for automatically registering domains that customers had searched for on their site and then jacking up the price of the domains for a four-day period. NetSol defended the practice as protection against frontrunning, which is the practice of registering a domain someone is searching for and then jacking up the price. Whenever someone says they are doing something for your own good, look out!

Darren Rowse at Problogger wrote about an offer he received from someone wanting to buy text links on his website. The conversation is very interesting. Even after being told "No" umpteen gazillion times, the link buyer was persistent and kept upping his offer, going from an initial offer of $150 to $400 per paragraph . Keep in mind that this offer was for a permanent placement, not a monthly recurring fee, and that each paragraph would consist of 4 or 5 text links.

WebProNews thinks Yahoo is doing a fine take on Google turf. Well, except for where pirates are concerned. Actually, Yahoo! Assist is pretty useful. You have to turn it on manually but it's easy enough to do and when you type in a search query the tool will bring up automatic suggestions to help you out.

I like Kalena Jordan. I like Jill Whalen. But a recent article in SiteProNews written by the former about the latter has me a little confused. You have to read carefully what people say in these articles. Jordan is explaining some advice that Whalen gave in a conference tutorial and starts off with some common "Search Engine Optimization Myths." To be sure, most of them are myths.

It's official! It is our one year anniversary! Here at Search Engine Optimization Journal, we pride ourselves on delivering the best search engine optimization information, tips and news to our readers on a daily basis. Since our inception, we have witnessed many changes within the industry and have been impressed at the wide varieties of topics and news we have been able to cover. Throughout our year here, we have seen the major search engines morph,

I've got to hand it to Andy Beard . Here's a creative way of getting around Google's paid link policy. The search engine has effectively told webmasters that they will be penalized for selling links. Many webmasters have gone to instituting nofollow attributes on their paid links so that they aren't penalized. That penalizes the webmasters buying the links as they don't get any PR transference from those nofollow links. So will Beard's Robots.

Tracking conversions is one of the most important aspects of running a business online. If you don't know how your sales pages are operating and how successful or unsuccessful they are then you have no idea on how to improve them. That's why tracking conversions is so important. It's really simple to track your conversions. The difficult part is analyzing your results.

Want to get an edge over your competition? Everyone knows about SEO - search this, search that, search yackit-yak-yak. It's all been said and done before. Or has it? Well, there is one technique that you can use in your search campaign that you competition likely is not using. And if you are a local business marketing yourself to your local neighbors then you can gain an even bigger edge that will catapult you way over the head of your competition.

Look at the latest stats and Google owns more than 60% of the search market - almost 70%, in fact. Yahoo! has a whopping 20-something percent on any given day. The top three - Google, Yahoo!,and MSN Live - together get 95% of the search business. But Google is so far ahead of the other two that it seems they will never catch up. Why? A little history says it all.