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

Two star links:

• Regarding TechCrunch's "Is Keyword Search About to Hit its Breaking Point?" article, well, I'll quote what Rand said: "[S]uch a load of crap. Users have to change, not engines."
  

Three star links:

• Here's an interesting concept: the Publicity Wheel is a site specifically aimed towards website promotion. From their site: "Each spin of the wheel, a featured website is collaboratively promoted via banners by the Publicity Wheel community. You will earn *publicity points*each time somebody clicks on a banner on your site. At the next spin, a new website is selected based on publicity points and promoted once again." I wonder how much traffic it'll send...
• This blog discusses various Microhoo scenarios, including a hostile takeover, a higher offer, a walk away, Yahoo caving, and a white knight rescuing Yahoo.
  
• The Soapboxxer is a new social networking site that allows users to post opinions on various topics and generate a discussion within the community. Since they're new, they're looking for some feedback on their website, so if you feel like hopping up onto a soapbox, this is a good venue to try out.
• Wired Journal talks about the irrationality of free. It's amazing what lengths people will go to in order to score free crap (coughTamarcough). I personally hate most conference schwag, with the only exception being Google thermoses (because my boyfriend loves them) and t-shirts that will actually fit me (size small, in case you're taking notes).
• Academic search engines bitch slap the commercial ones by saying that commercial search engines aren't discriminating like they are, so they provide higher quality academic results.
  
• Apparently status is more important than cash. That must be why Rand pays me in "Rebecca's Awesome" coupons instead of actual dollars.
  
• Keystone Business Solutions has a good offline marketing campaign. Too bad I don't play golf--hey Keystone, any chance you could brand a basketball?
• Despite the recent Page Rank update, Performancing is still being penalized by Google. Internet.com and SE Roundtable both appear to still be penalized, too.

Four star links:

• Nick Bostrom from the Technology Review posits why he hopes we never find extraterrestrial life. It's an interesting read and provides an interesting theoretical explanation of "why are we alone."
• Google freakin' owns the UK. Their sites drive 1/3 of overall Internet traffic in the UK. I guess Bob's no longer your uncle, Google is!
• This dude waxes poetic about the joys of collecting unemployment checks.
• Seed Keywords Engine is an interesting new keyword research tool. You create a scenario for a search query and "watch your seed keyword list grow." Give it a try and provide your feedback and thoughts in the comments!

Five star links:

• Radar Magazine publishes a bunch of letters this guy sent to various people, including convicted serial killers, celebrities, and politicians. The author had posed as a young boy in his letters; hence the coining of "The Billy Letters." The response from Charles Manson is predictably batshit crazy.

YOUmoz entries:

• Sitemaps: The Ultimate Online Smoke Signal. Kate Morris gives a great overview of white an XML sitemap is, how you get one, what its benefits are, and what to do with it once you have one.
• SEO - A Nice Break from Rocket Science. Richardbaxterseo shares one of his friend's site optimizing history and asked for the community's thoughts on the list of tasks his friend performed for the site.
  
• What to Look For in SEO Training and How to Learn it For Free. Samirb provides a great list of SEO posts and articles he's compiled from across the web, on topics such as HTML, keyword research, link building, general SEO tips, and more.
• 8 Ways to Make Sure I Do NOT Follow You on Twitter. Wrttnwrd gives us some helpful tips on how to be a spammy asshole on Twitter.
• The .com Search Result Phenomenon. Jamersan shares Google's top 30 results for a search for the term ".com" and feels that they are a bit odd.
• VisualRank - Analyzing Visual Link Structures. Carfeu provides a rundown of Google's VisualRank and discusses how it works and what this means to SEO.

Best of YOUmoz:

• Wrttnwrd's 5 Great (Painful) Quotes This Month got a great response from the community. Hmm, I guess Ian's not the only one who's worked with frustrating clients who say stupid things. Who knew?
  

New events added to the Events Calendar:

• Infopresse Day on SEM/SEO May 13 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Pay Per Click Summit May 19-20 in San Francisco, CA. SEOmoz members get 10% off the registration price--just follow the instructions on the event's page.
• International Search Summit May 22nd in London, UK
• Widget Web Expo June 16-17 in Brooklyn, NY. Our beloved Patrick Sexton will be speaking about SEO and widgets, so be sure to attend and support feedthebot!
• Social Networking Conference 2008 July 10-11 in San Francisco, CA.
  

Upcoming events:

• Infopresse Day on SEM/SEO May 13 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Page Zero Marketing Seminar May 15 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• PPC Summit May 19-20 in San Francisco, CA
• International Search Summit May 22 in London, UK
• SEO Training Class May 23 online at highrankings.com/seo-classes

New additions to the SEOmoz Marketplace:

Featured job postings:

• Senior SEM manager for a digital music, online gaming, and streaming company in Seattle, WA
• Senior SEM manager for an online media company in Seattle, WA
• Search marketing specialist in Los Angeles, CA
• Online account manager for an interactive marketing agency in Chicago, IL
• Search engine marketing specialist for Spur Digital in Houston, TX

Featured companies:

United States/North America:

• Propel Media in the US
• Sozo Firm, Inc. in Pennsylvania
• Position Strategy in Jacksonville, FL
• eCommerce Optimization in Washington
• eBrandz, Inc. in New York
• ClickAgent Marketing in Vancouver, BC

UK/Europe

• Equi Media in Swindon, UK
• Zebcon in Valletta, Malta
• SEO Services Spain in Spain

Asia:

• Squangcao.com in Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam

Featured resumes:

Happily employed:

• A. Ledbe is a happily employed webmaster and writer who is also proficient on Wordpress and Drupal platforms and can program in HTML.

Looking for employment:

• John Peterson is a marketing ops director at a Silicon Valley software company, but is currently looking for employment.