For our first roundup of the new year, I've decided to change the format a bit and present the links first. I've also included notable YOUmoz entries from the last week, so hopefully you folks will enjoy the weekly YOUmoz roundup in addition to the other stuff.

Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week:

Three star links:

  • The Computer Services Sales Tax recently passed in Maryland but may get repealed. It's a 6% sales tax on "computer services," which sounds so nice and vague. Jon Payne, the guy who brought this to my attention, said that "It will ultimately hurt small businesses b/c they are the ones who outsource and thus will pay the tax... large corporations do their design, programming, etc. in house and thus no tax on it." If you live in Maryland and are concerned about this tax, visit votervoice.net for information on how to repeal the Computer Services Sales Tax. 
  • NetworkWorld brings us an interesting article called "Is Gaming Google a Gateway to Crime?" It poses the question of whether business that are likely to hire black hats are also more likely to engage in "outright criminal activity" than companies who employ white hat methods. The article cites an example Matt Cutts gave about a company that got busted for using black hat tactics to manipulate their rankings, and later on the same company had several employees convicted for inflating revenue. It's a bit presumptuous to assume that black hat hirers are crooks and cheats through and through, though the article is an interesting read.
  • SEMpdx has announced Searchfest 2008, to be held March 10th in Portland, Oregon. Last year's Searchfest is where I presented for the first time, so I'm looking forward to going back to my first "gig" and reprising my speaking spot (this time I'll be discussing link bait strategies). Plus, Rand is giving the keynote. Try to make it out to Searchfest if you can--it'll be even bigger and better than last year, and we're looking forward to meeting new folks.
  • The NY Times has a checklist of traits both good and bad bosses possess. Good bosses inspire confidence and are humble, while bad bosses don't smile much and talk about themselves a lot. You can even take an exaggerated quiz to see how much of a jerkwad your boss is (the little boss graphic is very amusing)--I'll take this in a little bit after Rand leaves... ;)
  • Tropical SEO brings us a nice little Festivus gift: 9 new niche social media sites. The sites range from sports, design, webdev, shopping, and more, so if you have any clients in those industries or operate in one yourself, give the appropriate site a whirl and see what you think.
  • Muhammad Saleem introduces us to the "el farol" problem in social news. He says, "...if everyone submits at the same time and a large volume, some people are always happy and some people are always unsatisfied. however, if everyone submits in turns and in moderation, everyone gets a chance to have their content promoted and everyone is happy at least some of the time." He then compares the ideal scenario (everyone gets a fixed number of submissions) vs. what actually happens (users don't coordinate their submissions, votes are split, the same stories oversaturate the site, etc).
Four star links:
  • Ask Kalena presents this week's dumbass: Gene Marks. The man writes a column for Business Week on MSNBC, but he has such horrible advice and seems so grossly misinformed about various subjects (including, yes, SEO) that it's frustrating to think that people actually believe what he says to be actual, useful suggestions and tips.
  • Pew Internet reports an increased use in video sharing sites, and over at Search Engine Land Greg Sterling mentions the U.S. television writers' strike as having "a negative effect on TV viewing" and has "sent many people to the internet for video instead."
  • MindValleyLabs brings us a tip on how to increase your conversions: use capitalization more astutely. They ran the same ad, one with strategic capitalization and one without, and the capitalized ad had a whopping almost 200% increase in conversions.
  • Greg Linden foresees a 2008 dot com crash that will be deeper and more prolonged than the one in 2000. It's a little doomsday sounding, but still something to think about...
Five star links:
  • Seth Godin is a damn good speaker. Here he talks about sliced bread and how it's the ideas that spread that will win. Good stuff, and very interesting.
  • JUST ADDED: I would be remiss not to include Matt McGee's SEO Success Pyramid. This is a fantastic visual aide that tells you, in order of importance, the absolute SEO essentials for your website. If you haven't seen this already, check it out--very impressive. Sorry I missed this, Matt!  
Interesting YOUmoz entries:
 Best of YOUmoz:
New events added to the Events Calendar:
 New additions to the SEOmoz Marketplace:

Featured job postings:
Featured companies:
Featured resumes:
As always, feedback on our modified Thursday Roundup post is encouraged (except from you, Pat).