Microsoft has just released an update to their Webmaster Tools. It's a significant update, with lots of new functionality in it. My guess is that a large number of SEOs will adopt this new tool as a part of their tool set. Let's take a look at the opening screen: As you can see, you start with a nice clean look. Note that this is a screen shot for Microsoft.com. Not every site has 186 million pages indexed ... One of the new features is the "Crawl Issues" report.

Last March Google acquired DoubleClick and it's affiliate and search marketing arm Performics. That sent some chills up the spine of a lot of companies who saw it as a conflict of interest. Today it was announced that Google is selling a part of Performics, to Publicis Groupe , one of the top four global advertising companies. Just this June Google rebranded Performics to the "Google Affiliate Network" but seemed to have done little else with the division.

A grim chapter in Rwanda's history has just been re-opened, and it ain't pretty. Searches for Rwanda (+191%) and genocide (+44%) surged on news that the country issued a damming report implicating the French government in arming and training militias responsible for the 1994 mass killings. The report names names, accusing former French President Fran?ois Mitterrand and former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin .

Content marketing and copywriting is all about crafty persuasion, right? We're changing people's minds so they see things our way and buy our stuff. Not really. Changing people's minds can be extremely difficult. And when core beliefs and values are involved, it's downright impossible. Let's face it' it can be tough enough to persuade people to act when they already agree with you. Why make things tougher than they already are?

Hey everyone - We've just launched our first Firefox 3 extension and wanted to provide a quick video showing how it works. Some highlights include: - Notifications: No matter where you are on the web, you can discover popular Digg stories and stay up to date on what your friends are Digging, submitting and commenting. These notifications are fully customizable. Within your preferences you can track different categories and media types, and turn notifications on or off.

Google has sold its Performics search marketing business to the Publicis Groupe. Chicago-based Performics has about 200 employees in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, Hamburg, Sydney, Singapore and Beijing. The business will report into Curt Hecht, president of Paris-based Publicis' VivaKi Nerve Center. Hecht is the former EVP Chief Digital Officer, GM Planworks,

Google has sold its DoubleClick Performics unit, the albatross that many said would sink Google's credibility for owning a search marketing business that tries to influence search engine results. Publicis Groupe will buy the Performics search marketing business for an undisclosed sum by the close of the third quarter this year. Performics is one of the top search marketing services providers,

Google once told the world their "ads are created and managed under the exact same guidelines, principles, practices and algorithms as the ads of any other advertiser"; likewise, Google added, they "use the very same tools and account interface." They proved themselves false before . And now, Google UK in an ad for the query secured loans uses a very special dropdown box to promote their Merchant Search , as David Mytton sent in. Additionally,

When marketing web sites on the internet 10 years ago, people "surfed" the web, clicking on links between sites they already knew about, links from directories and review sites. Search engines like AltaVista, Lycos, Hotbot, Excite, etc were around as well. Remember those? People like Eric Ward pioneerd the practice of promoting web sites editorially resulting in links from these sorts of resources.

Here are a couple more videos of my presentation from OMS . I went a little out of order on these because of a couple reasons. I omitted the Flash video because it is now outdated based on recent developments. However, all I really did is reference Benj's excellent post about SEO for Flash . He should be updating it soon based on the new Abode announcement (*hint hint Benj!). The other video I omitted is about Page Titles. As many people know,