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

The links are a bit scant this week due to being super busy and Rand being out of town. Special thanks to David Lindop for providing me with some nice roundup link suggestions. Thanks, David!

Three star links:

• Hmm, this is no good. Apparently 6 U.S. cities have been caught tampering with traffic lights in order to catch more drivers running red lights so that they can generate more revenue from tickets.
  
• While U.S. visits to YouTube increased 32% from last year, apparently they're only shelling out an average of $1 CPM for producer partners. This guy says that YouTube is a turd, and I'm inclined to agree with him (based on the atrocious comments alone).
  
• Apparently the next Page Rank will cure cancer--or so the folks at AppliedSEO cheekily say.
  
• Cheapflights.co.uk is running an interesting viral promotion. If you're bored, try going all the way with one of the flight attendants. ;)
• For all you geeks out there, check out the Tron lightcycle scene reenacted in cardboard. 
• Here's some ICQ toothpaste for all your chatting needs!

Four star links:

• WebUpon brings us 13 email addresses that can be useful. The list runs through various email addresses and how you can use them to your benefit.

Five star links:

• Rand forwarded this site to us a while back and Lindop recently sent it to me as well, so it's time to share with all of you! Ever ask yourself, "Is the site down for everyone, or is it just me?" Well, now you can check for yourself with this invaluable tool. I've used it to check on a bunch of sites. It's simple, effective, and will cure your crazies. :)
  

YOUmoz entries:

• SEO-Friendly FLEX Websites. Valentin Vieriu provides some tips on how to make a Flex (Flash) application a little more SEO-friendly.
• The TLD Debate Revisited. Petrosianii ran a little experiment where he registered domains under various TLDs and tested to see which one would perform the best. It's an interesting case study, so check it out if you haven't already.
• Analytics with an SEO Timeline. Stephen T shares his wish list for analytics program features. He'd like to be able to add events to his analytics program whenever he makes changes to his site.
  
• Yahoo is Making Things Interesting. Jamersan opines that Yahoo could be a major contender against Google, and asks if we'd rather see multiple search engines split the market share or have one engine dominate so that it's easier for us to optimize for that one.
  
• Persistence, Patience, and Testing: Tips on How Your Website Can Succeed. 1lear gives us some tips on how to work on a website and garner success. He suggests that patience, perseverance, and testing are key.
• Proof That Google Lacks Quality SERPs. ShadowShield complains that a new, overhauled site will still rank for its old, (now) unrelated keywords, and that because Google doesn't shift its rankings to account for the changed site, it's not a quality search engine.
• Why JustSayHi Should Not Change Their Domain Name. Rajat Garg voices his opinion on Matt's widget debacle and provides some suggestions on how Matt can keep the existing dating site and regain its rankings.

Best of YOUmoz:

• InflateMouse's "What Bookworm Needs To Do - Landing Page Redesign" gives some practical tips for paid search landing pages and uses Bookworm SEO's landing page for SEOmoz as a nice case study.

New events added to the Events Calendar:

• SMX Social Media April 22-23 in Long Beach, California. Rand and Jane will both be speaking.
• 2008 Spring eCommerce Summit April 22-24 in New Orleans, Louisiana. I will be speaking, eating jambalaya, and attending the Jazz Festival. :)
• Page Zero Marketing Seminar May 15 at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto, ON. I may try to attend this since it's put on by Andrew Goodman and Mona Elesseily, two experts on PPC, and I need some more PPC training.

New additions to the SEOmoz Marketplace:

Featured job postings:

• Contracted SEO strategist/consultant in Portland, ME
• Senior SEM manager for Stroll in Philadelphia, PA
• PPC and SEO manager for EducationDynamics in Hoboken, NJ; Seattle, WA; and Chester, PA

Featured companies:

United States/North America:

• AffiliateBin in Arizona
• Key Net Names in Portland, ME
• Noodlehead Studios in Atlanta, GA
• Computer Solutions 911, Inc. in Atlanta, GA
• One Day, One Job in Fairfield, CT
• ICYGEN in the US, Belgium, Bulgaria, and France

UK/Europe:

• Swan Web Solutions in Edinburgh, UK
  

Featured resumes:

• Dean Barron is a happily employed chap who's done consulting and SEO work for a variety of companies.
• Cara Ferguson is an experienced SEM with 3 years of experience in SEO, PPC, and SMM. She is currently looking for employment in and around Austin, Texas.
• Rajkumar Yadav is an SEO also looking for employment. He has experience with SEO, SEM, PPC, and SMO.
• Jaspreet Singh is an SEO currently looking for employment. He is proficient in onsite optimization and a variety of other tasks.