Google celebrates many holidays with pizazz by presenting a themed logo. On Memorial Day Google has not opted to provide a themed logo as long as I can remember, yet as Search Engine Journal depicted today many of the other search engines do a decent job of theming their logos. So what is it with Google? Obviously no one in their right mind would have any problem with honoring active members, veterans and resting military personnel.

Avid users of Google Earth will now find a new layer added to the unique mapping system. Google News has recently been incorporated allowing users to see regional news related to the specific areas they are viewing. For some time now the ability to find geo-tagged photos within Google Earth has been available, and it only makes sense that geographic news stories would also be made integrated into the service.

Last night I uploaded a new article to Search Engine Guide on 4Q which is an excellent free survey tool you can easily add to your website in order to improve the website and your marketing intelligence. The scivy on 4Q can be found in my exclusive Search Engine Guide article: Free Survey Tool Fuels Marketing Insight . by Ross Dunn, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Microsoft offered a sneak peak back in February, and as of Tuesday the public beta of WorldWide Telescope has been made available, according to a Press Release issued by Microsoft. The online virtual telescope has been created in response to Google's launch of Google Sky a few years ago, and takes things to the next level with a huge database of high resolution images from various stars, galaxies, and other non-earthly entities.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of How to Optimize for Google I discussed general website optimization, links, and Google webmaster tools. In Part 3 we will look at a number of other considerations which play a role in successful rankings in Google, and also touch on some tactics which are best avoided. Completing Optimization: Other Considerations Redirects If you need to use redirects on your site it is very important to use the correct one. If a page is moving to a new location,

In the past I have written articles about the growing importance of creating a mobile website . I am currently in the process of creating yet another article with an update on the basic methods of creating a mobile website based on StepForth's own work so that hopefully more people will take the time to do so. During my writing I came up with some burning questions: Once I have a website how do I ensure mobile users find it?

Have you ever wondered exactly when and where viewers watch your YouTube videos? YouTube Insight, a new tool has been created by Google's engineering team in Zurich, to allow users to dive deeper into the statistics behind their posted videos. Guardian.co.uk reported on the new addition Thursday morning. "We know a lot of data about video consumption and we want to give some of that back," Jacobi said. "A lot of bands use the site,

Optimizing for top Google rankings includes a number of factors. In Part 1 of 3 we discussed onsite optimization. In Part 2 we will touch on incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools. LINKS Links are very important in today's Google rankings, but just how many links you need will depend on both the competitiveness of your target phrases, and the quality of the incoming links themselves. Essentially the number one rule of links is to keep it relevant!

I am in disbelief. Less than 40 minutes ago the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that Google can now fill out web forms and spider the resulting content. Previously this was not only not done by search engines but it was well known that such content would be useless since it wouldn't 'necessarily' be formatted for the eyes of searchers. Apparently Google is now throwing this concept to the wind.

The evolution of the internet is anything but dull. It is a precarious world that is subject to the influence of both devious and altruistic actions. Just like any human society, there is chaos and there is order. Yet, what makes the cyberworld so unique is the opportunity for people to come together that may never have done so by traditional networks. Through communication on different websites and blogs,

AOL Time Warner had acquired Bebo , one of the largest social networks outside of North America. Bebo is huge in both the U.K. and New Zealand. It's the third biggest social network in the U.S. after Myspace and Facebook and for AOL it " positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers ." With 4.

In order to help curb the possibility of rioting, the Chinese government has blocked all access to both YouTube and Google News to prevent the viewing of news reports and video footage documenting riots and protests in Tibet . Other web properties blocked include giants Yahoo, CNN, and the BBC. Cnet reported on the blockage over the weekend and many others such as the New York Times have also picked up the story. Google has before been blocked by the Chinese government.

PPC )Pay-per-click advertising( has been around for a while now and many site owners have either experimented with, or have at least heard of the marketing platform but surprisingly, there are still a large number of potential advertisers who have had no exposure to the world of PPC. After fielding questions from new clients as well as our newest sales representative, I have decided to write an article to explain a few of the basics of what PPC is,

Over the past couple years it has been impossible to avoid the buzz about images and their increasing role in search; such as universal search which is becoming commonplace among the major search engines. But universal search is only the most prevalent news and only the baby-steps of a new format of search that is about to take over the Internet. Do I have your interest piqued?

With great joy the staff at StepForth want to welcome into this world Emma Marnie Van Achte, the newborn daughter of Scott Van Achte; our Senior SEO at StepForth and friend. Emma was born March 03, 2008, 5:54pm, at 7lbs, 8oz Congratulations Scott and Lyndsay! You have an absolutely gorgeous baby girl and we can't wait to meet her and spoil her silly :-( Here are more pictures of Scott and Lyndsay's long awaited day. Lots of love from your StepForth family.

1-800-GOOG-411 is now available in Canada! First, I must admit, this may very well have happened a while ago but if it did I must have missed the news; thanks to Garret Rogers at ZDNet for the heads up. Either way, it is cool and I haven't heard of anyone in my circle of friends that uses it yet but they really should. Here is an illustration on how Google's free entirely voice-activated 411 service works: Looks simple right?

Yesterday the Official Google Blog rather quietly announced the availability of Google Calendar Sync; a program for synchronizing Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Now this is something that many of us have been eagerly waiting a long time for so I have to say the rather itty-bitty post is a bit uncharacteristic... perhaps I missed the first unveiling or something? Anyway,

According to an interview Search Engine Watch's Kevin Newcomb had with Ask spokesperson Nicholas Graham, the search engine is still committed to search and denies allegations that Ask is "dead". In fact, apparently the search community overreacted. Kevin has more of the interview feedback in his article but these quotes sum up Ask's position nicely: "The idea that we're going to become a women's site is just plain wrong.

On Feb 28th at SMX West I was fortunate to spend some time with Jeremiah Andrick , Program Manager of Live Search Webmaster Center . To start I let Jeremiah give an introduction to Live Webmaster Tools and soon after we began discussing some of the latest additions to the tools and he gave an inkling that some major stuff is coming down the line. I hope you enjoy the interview because I had a lot of fun doing it.

Today the Wall Street Journal broke incredibly sad news ... indeed I think it is one of the saddest moments in my SEO career. Ask.com is letting go of 40 employees and conceptually restructuring itself by moving away from mainstream search and focusing on question-related searches for their supposed primary audience "middle-American, predominantly female consumers.