My apologies for the missing roundup last week--I got a lot of panicked emails from folks who were afraid that Thursday Roundups were killed off along with our old site design. Not the case--blame the missing roundup on our last-minute scramble to get Linkscape all shiny and purdy for our launch. Never fear, however: this week the roundup is back in action (also, expect my triumphant return to non-roundup blogging very soon--it's been a while, I know, but I've got some posts a-cookin').

Stories, news, and other notable items from the past 2 weeks:

  • You think you're tough, but are you "save your dog from being attacked by a shark" tough? This dude punched a FREAKIN' shark. If you punch a shark and fend off its attacks, you deserve a medal. And probably some beer.
  • Clearly this dude Netflix'd The Thomas Crown Affair, because he hired a bunch of guys off Craigslist to dress in construction worker clothing and unwittingly hang out near a bank while he maced and robbed an armored car driver who was dropping off some deposits. Then he made his successful escape by running through the confused crowd and wearing the same clothing as them and floating down the river in an inner tube. No, I am not making this up.
  • BrandVerity breaks down the major search engines' PPC trademark policies in a handy chart for your reading pleasure. Our legal eagle Sarah Bird approves!
  • Are you planning a frickin' sweet Halloween costume this year? If so, maybe you should enter the SEO Halloween costume contest! Submit a picture of you in costume to the site. If your costume wins you'll receive a $200 gift certificate to the Apple store! Huzzah!
  • PPC Discussions examines the rarely discussed but definitely prevalent "black hat" side to SEO: tarnishing a competitor's brand with paid search.
  • Speaking of paid search, SEMvironment came out with two helpful PPC posts. The first is a PPC Management for Firefox toolbar. This add-on lets you quickly see your key performance stats whenever you double click on it. The second post is an article titled "PPC Management: Keyword List Expansion + Negative Keywords. It's a thorough guide on how to maintain a competitive edge in PPC using keyword management.
  • A recent study found that occasional memory loss is linked to lower brain volume. I had a pretty sweet joke to follow up with, but I got distracted watching my boyfriend play Mega Man 9 and now I can't for the life of me remember what I was going to say...man, I feel lightheaded...hey, Mega Man just beat Galaxy Man! Sweet.
  • Scientists recently discovered some fish in the act of evolution in Lake Victoria, Africa. That's gotta be embarrassing for the fish. Mid-evolution must be the equivalent of puberty for these guys. Can you imagine being a 12 year old dude having your parents walk in on you while you're clad in your tighty whities and proudly inspecting the three chest hairs you just sprouted? "Scientists, get OUT of here! I'm trying to EVOLVE!"
  • The Gaping Void interviews Seth Godin, our favorite bald meatball sundae eater and purple milk drinker.
  • You and I already knew about this little tactic, so we can point and laugh at the noobs who are just now catching on: TechCrunch reports that some big mainstream media sites and blogs are starting to use Google Trends to monitor hot topics and write about "what the cool kids are into."
  • Rand sent this link to me but for some reason I'm getting a 403 Forbidden error, so I can only assume that Matt Cutts has blocked me. What a turd. Nonetheless, I'll attempt to summarize the content based on the link (see, this is why it's important to optimize your URLs!): YouTube adds a "read comment aloud" feature originally joked about in this fantastically amusing XKCD comic.
  • Search Engine Roundtable highlights an amusing WebmasterWorld thread written by someone who's angry that his competitor is outranking him by getting tons of complaints (and, consequently, links) from customers. I think this dude is missing the point...

  • This week's award for "Title Says It All" goes to ReadWriteWeb and their article titled "I Like Ask.com - But Somebody Needs to Put a Fork in It." Quite amusingly written, the article tells it like it is and begs Ask to stop trying to sit at the cool kids' table and just silently eat their lunch in the bathroom already.
  • Dan Zarrella highlights 9 well-publicized viral marketing failures, including the Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare and Wal-Mart's fake blogs. You could argue that since we're still talking about these marketing attempts they can be considered "successes" rather than failures, but it really depends on what sort of press and attention these companies initially wanted to attract from their campaigns.
  • Have fun watching this video of every Google home page from 1998 to 2007. It reminds me of Michael Jackson's "Black and White" video, only less creepy.
  • Ann Smarty tells us how to search images online using various advanced methods. Now you can search through your LOLcats pictures like a real pro!
  • IndexTools, which was recently bought by Yahoo!, has been re-branded and is now "Yahoo! Web Analytics." Meanwhile, Ask.com is still fervently working on debuting their new analytics tool tentatively titled "The Ask.com Abacus (beta)."

  • Chris Brogan identifies 25 ways social media can prepare you for the downturn, such as updating your LinkedIn profile, getting your blog ready for business, doing some reputation management, and networking like a fiend. His tips are great not just during an economic recession, so take a peek and see if he's recommended something you haven't thought to do (but maybe should).
  • Is PageRank the ultimate measure of online influence? Hell no! Vanessa Fox talks at length about what PageRank is and why she doesn't think it matters.

YOUmoz entries:

Best of YOUmoz:

  • The Power of Accidental SEO: A Case Study. Lorisa shares a story about a friend of hers who, despite not knowing anything about SEO, created a blog and provided her audience with great content and products. The site earned thousands of links and even got some sitelinks. Next, Lorisa highlighted some friends who created a site with very little unique content and didn't know how to build a community of engaged users. The point of Lorisa's post, in her own words, is "you can't just do nothing. Small businesses can be successful online, but not without a huge investment of time and effort." Great examples, Lorisa!
  • Guaranteed Rankings: Methodology of a Shady Business Tactic. MikeTek gets major thumbs up for his "it's funny AND terrible!" approach on how to rip off your clients if you're willing to be a shady-ass SEO.
  • Small Business SEO: It's All About Education and Empowerment. Rishil talks about how to educate your clients and empower them with knowledge and confidence in order to forge a positive working relationship.

New events added to the Events Calendar:

Unfortunately, due to low interest in and adoption of the Events Calendar, we have decided to remove the calendar from our site. Send gripes and eulogies to [email protected]; maybe the devs will consider resurrecting the calendar, Frankenstein-style, if enough people clamor for its return and provide feedback on how to improve it.

In the meantime, I do have an upcoming event: WebmasterWorld's PubCon conference November 11-14 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Event organizers were kind enough to give us a 20% off code to share with all of you, so if you're planning on attending PubCon next month but haven't registered yet, use code ke-22720 when you register to receive a nice discount off your registration fee. Rand, Jane and I are all speaking at PubCon this year, so hopefully we'll get a chance to meet and chat with you.

Also, the organizers of Search Conference Barcelona 2009 are offering SEOmoz members a 50 Euro discount on their upcoming conference being held in Barcelona, Spain, January 28-30th 2009. The discount is good towards standard tickets, gold and VIP packs, and all workshops.

New additions to the SEOmoz Marketplace:

Featured job postings:

Featured companies:

United States/North America:

South America:

UK / Europe:

Asia:

Featured resumes:

Currently looking:

  • David Saunders, currently living in Huntersville, North Carolina, is looking for SEO work in the UK or the US. He has experience with organic SEO, PPC management, online PR, blogging, analytics, and local SEO.  
  • Pramod Kharat from Pune, India, is looking for a position as a senior web analyst/SEO expert. He has held a junior SEO position and can do information architecture design, strategy reports, keyword research, link building, site reviews, social media marketing, and more.

Happily Employed:

  • Rafael Cedano is an SEO with over 6 years of experience. He has an extensive knowledge of advanced SEO and has worked in extremely competitive industries (e.g., loans, finance, travel).
  • Pawel Szulencki is an SEO/SEM specialist with extensive skills in organic SEO, link building, keyword research, and site audits.