SEO Forum News Archives

We have Google's Blog Search and Technorati for blog search, but has anyone found a reputable forum search engine? Enter Twing.

Twing allows you to search and discover forum discussion. We do that here but this is something different. Find content from long ago and use the tag cloud to get additional inspiration.

Here's a screenshot of the system in action.

Sort you results by relevance and date and then even search forums with the associated keywords.

Looks pretty cool. If you're a forum junkie, this search engine looks very cool.

Yesterday I reported that AdSenseAdvisor seemed to have gone MIA (missing in action) since mid-January of this year. Later that day, a new AdSenseAdvisor introduced them-self at WebmasterWorld.

The re-introduction thread at WebmasterWorld reads:

Our old ASA has taken on new responsibilities, and I'm delighted to announce that I will be your new ASA.

Going forward, you can expect greater involvement from our side, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on AdSense, and representing you here at Google.

I look forward to working with you all.

That is great news. The old ASA is moving up? The new ASA promises "greater involvement!"

Like I have told past search engines representatives, welcome and we will be watching you like a hawk. ;-)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I Am Not a Doctor blogged about his new license plates. Yea, he got plates that read <H1>SEO<H1>, talk about loving SEO. Here is a picture:

The Sphinn comments rock:

Was 'SEONERD' Taken already? ;)

So, I thought I was a Geek! Well, our good buddy "imnotadoctor" just went to complete "SuperNerd" status with his new license plates. Share your thoughts....can he be saved??

That is the sweetest plate I have seen in a while!

I am impressed, very impressed.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

If you haven't visited Sphinn, the new "Digg" for Internet Marketers, it's about time that you go. It's a bustling community of users who share informative stories about anything related to search, PPC, blogging, social media, and more.

And yesterday, one of the most controversial features has been launched. As editor Rob Kerry puts it, the Desphinn button is live. This is equivalent to "bury" (like Digg), "sink" (like shoutwire), "downvote" (like Reddit). The catch: if you Desphinn something, you actually have to provide feedback (in 50-250 characters) about why you didn't like the story. Your "desphinn" reason is then available for all to see. It's not anonymous. This prevents abuse of the system to Desphinn just everything.

As an added "bonus," if you will, the button doesn't appear for brand new users. You need to be a member on Sphinn for at least 7 days before you can see it.

What do you think about the Desphinn button? Will it hurt or help the community only promote the good stuff to the front page? Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

WebmasterWorld founder, Brett Tabke announced a major software update at WebmasterWorld this week. The most noticeable change to me is the "Quick Reply" feature that many other forums already have.

You should be able to see the Quick Reply box at the bottom of all open threads when you are logged into your WebmasterWorld account. The box looks like this:

Also, a major change is the ability to manage the skin of WebmasterWorld. The current available options include:

• WebmasterWorld Default
• Tundra Spring Time (pastel green)
• Cherry Rose
• WebmasterWorld Classic
• WebmasterWorld Classic Large Fonts
• WebmasterWorld Classic Thin
• Cool Breeze

Plus you should be able to make your own personal skin at this section if you so desire. Just keep in mind, it may be "reset in about a week to the default WebmasterWorld template" for now.

Other changes include:

• RSS Feeds for each forum
• StickyMail changes where older than 6 month messages will be discarded
• Revalidation of WebmasterWorld accounts

For more details and discussion join the WebmasterWorld thread.

Update: More changes are to come and the links above may not work after these updates. Keep watching the WebmasterWorld thread for more updates.

SEOmoz is holding a search marketer's survey to get information about you. The winner can get an iPhone (or $400 to be spent at Amazon.com).

I just took the survey and the questions are quite interesting. A sampling of questions:

1. How many jobs have you held in the last 5 years?
2. What is your current position?
3. How many emails do you receive for work-related tasks in a given day?
4. How many feeds do you read?

and more.

It will be interesting to see what SEOmoz learns from the data!

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

As you may know, the highly popular Sphinn Internet Marketing Forum is looking for ways to get better. So they're proposing a Desphinn button which will work much like a "Bury" button that you see on other social networks. If you think a post doesn't deserve to be frontpaged, you can downvote it using Desphinn, or so that's the goal.

But is it worth it? The current proposal suggests that when you downvote something, you need to give your reasons why -- and the information will be public. I have to agree that this is a good way of using it, but t here are other forum members who find that this can polarize the community and cause animosity. Honestly, though, if your reasons are compelling enough, you can agree to disagree -- or so we'd hope that the community would be open to criticisms from their peers.

I think it's going to be a wait-and-see type deal. As Maki says:

I'm looking forward to the depshinn button. I understand the reservations of others, but its good to just launch it, monitor how the community uses it and then make the necessary adjustments from the feedback or actions.

On that note, there is also a "Report as Spam" button on Sphinn. This is for blatant spam, not for posts you disagree with.

Finally, Search Engine Watch Forums has come out with a Social Media category. If you're in love with social media like me, this is where you should be posting.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn, Sphinn, and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Yesterday, I received a private message from a DigitalPoint Forums member that was asking for help. The member said he is from Egypt and has a PayPal account used for online transactions. He said his PayPal account "got limited" and the only way for him to withdraw funds from his account is to mail the check to a US address.

He said that when I get the check, I can then send him the money via e-gold, moneybookers, or western union.

He then ends:

Please be sure of that, the account is %100 legal, and I am not a scammer.

Typically, when someone needs to explain that they are a 100% legal and not a scammer, you need to be worried about something.

But after doing some research, it appears that this person may just need some help. He started a DigitalPoint Forums thread asking for help and as you can see, he has over 200 posts at DigitalPoint Fourms, clearly some history there.

Will I help? No way. It still seems to fishy for me. Typically, in the Nigeria scams, they send you money, it initially clears with your bank and then 2 weeks later you learn that it bounced. By then it is too late and you sent them real money. This is called advance fee fraud.

I still think this guy may be legit, but I won't be risking it. Beware of such possible scams in SEO/SEM forums.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums

Jordan Kasteler has written a very nice post to acknowledge three individuals over at Sphinn that are the unsung heroes. In his post, he recognizes Sebastian X, Bill Slawski, and Marios Alexandrou.

Why?

Bill Slawski "has an uncanny ability of decrypting insanely ambiguous search engine related patents and translating them into plain English in terms the average person can comprehend."

Sebastian "has carved quite a niche for himself being the ultimate guru in the programming spectrum of SEO. He has a wide array of experience with Apache, PHP, MySQL which he utilizes to always think outside the box with."

Marios has an SEO experiments category in his blog where he reports his findings in a straightforward fashion.

Congratulations to the three of you; the acknowledgment is well-deserved.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

One day, Matt McGee decided to take a deep look at Sphinn (as a moderator) and acknowledged 7 recurring mistakes that continually happen on the booming social news network. He listed them out and encouraged users to be distinct, different, and unique. Here's what you should avoid when pitching to a site like Sphinn or another type of social news website:

1. Avoid sales pitches disguised as "good content."
2. Don't submit your entire website. Social news sites don't need your "about" pages. They aren't directories.
3. Have a good headline. Seriously.
4. Make your description interesting. Don't you want people to vote on your article?
5. Give yourself a noticeable avatar. Stop blending in with the crowd.
6. Create a unique username.
7. Stay on topic and contribute articles that are pertinent to the categories you've submitted to.

(I feel like I've said much of this before and it still works quite well for other social networks. Thanks Matt!)

But what else would drive someone bonkers? Well, for a smallish site like Sphinn, you shouldn't submit more than 2 stories in a row (it's in the guidelines, people). That one frustrates a lot of people.

What would drive you crazy on a social network? Forum discussion continues on Sphinn.

Ammon Johns (Cre8asite Profile) has announced he is stepping down as an administrator at Cre8asite Forums.

His nick on the forums is Black_Knight and he has been well known for his posts through the SEO community at all the major forums, but especially Cre8asite Forums. He first started contributing under Black_Knight in 1998. His Cre8asite profile was created pretty much the same day the forums went live. He has been with Cre8asite since before its inception. Ammon has posted almost 10,000 times, averaging almost 5 posts per day and making up almost 4% of all the posts in the forum, to-date.

I personally have covered many of his posts here.

The Cre8ative Flow blog has a bit more information.

Ammon's farewell post:

Being an Administrator of this community has been a wonderful experience over the years. I've (virtually) met so many interesting people. I've been able to be a part of something truly immense and spectacular. I've been able to be a small part in many people's lives here. I don't regret a second of it.

However, I do feel a need to take an indefinite break.

It is not an easy thing to walk away from such a great team. But it is not my way to allow the team to carry me either. So I am stepping down as an Admin rather than take this break leaving the team and community hanging.

I want to take this opportunity to say a big "thank you" to all the folks who make this community. To all those over the years who have been a part of this amazing place and its creative energy. It has been an amazing journey.

We will miss you dearly Ammon! Best of luck with your future endeavors!

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Rob Kerry, aka evilgreenmonkey has announced he will be leaving Search Engine Watch Forums, as their forums editor, for Sphinn.

Rob will be the Sphinn editor. As Danny explains:

Rob’s role will be to work with all the Sphinn moderators, provide a steady hand on a day-to-day basis to watch over the site and oversee the further development of the site.

Rob took over the Search Engine Watch Forums Editor position when Elisabeth Osmeloski left on May 25th. Frank Watson (AussieWebmaster) will be taking over his role as Forums Editor at Search Engine Watch Forums from next week. He has been a moderator here since 2004 and also writes for the SEW Blog. Rob will continue to moderate at Search Engine Watch Forums, but not play an active role in SEW's future growth.

You can wish Rob good luck in his new position as Sphinn Editor at either Search Engine Watch Forums or at Sphinn.

Justin Goldberg, a Search Engine Watch regular, has announced on the Search Engine Watch Forums that he has created a feed that combines four Search Engine Watch forums feeds. Using Yahoo! Pipes, he has created a single feed that integrates the Search Engine Watch homepage feed, the blog feed, the forums feed, and the experts feed.

If you're interested in subscribing to that for more forum goodness, you can do so by clicking here.

If you'd like to preview the data, you can do so here.

That's pretty cool stuff.

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Yesterday I reported that it has been One Year Since GoogleGuy Has Posted in WebmasterWorld. I also pleaded with GoogleGuy to make a post and just say hello. He has done so.

GoogleGuy has posted in a WebmasterWorld thread in the Foo forum on a malware topic. The thread was totally not on a Google topic, but it is nice to see that GoogleGuy is still alive. ;-)

GoogleGuy wrote:

Seems like a lot of people end up spending visits home and holidays cleaning off malware from relatives' computers. I have heard of people buying new computers though.

True, true, true!

Thanks GoogleGuy!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Susan Moskwa of the Google Webmaster Central team posts on Google Groups asking group participants what they usually do to monitor posts.

There's a lot of interesting feedback, but ironically, some people actually say that the Google Groups search "sucks." Ah well, at least the search engine is running smoothly!

Some tips on how to check the Google Groups came from a variety of members:

In terms of what to read - I check for post count and sometimes the starring to decide whether to read particular threads. Also look at the last poster - some folk are very worthy of a read.

This sounds like typical Digg behavior:

As for determining factors about what I read, post title & snippet [Good point there about trying to correlate title with response numbers], reply count, starring and the thread-starter & last-poster all play a role.

And others check to give attention to the threads that have less love within:

First and foremost I scan down the page for items without a response - there is usually a reason - either the question is one we don't have a standard answer for (I like them) or more likely, the person hasn't put the question in a way that is clear - so I'll often prompt them a bit and try and get the ball rolling.

What are your tips on browsing the forums? Join in the discussion at Google Groups.

Today is the one year mark since the last time GoogleGuy has made a post at WebmasterWorld forums.

GoogleGuy was the first Google search representative at WebmasterWorld to have such a huge impact on webmaster communication between Google and SEOs/Webmasters.

GoogleGuy's last post was on August 30, 2006 at 1:46pm (EST). GoogleGuy joined WebmasterWorld back on October 7, 2001 and racked up a whopping 2,879 posts. GoogleGuy's last post was in the Danny Sullivan Announces He is Resigning From Searchenginewatch thread, which makes you wonder.

In any event, there has been plenty of Google communication in WebmasterWorld and other forums since GoogleGuy's departure. But, there will always be a special place in the hearts of SEOs and Webmasters for GoogleGuy.

Wouldn't it be great to see a "Hi, I am still around" post from sir GoogleGuy?

Cre8asite Forums, a forum we have been covering forever here, has turned five years old today.

I was chatting with Cre8asite's founder, Kim Krause Berg, last night, when she mentioned it.

Cre8asite is truly a wonderful place to learn tips about SEO and site development. It is friendly, educational and patient.

We have covered most of Cre8asite's birthdays including their fourth, third and second birthday.

You can wish Cre8asite a happy birthday at Cre8asite Forums.

The other day I reported on several SEO glossaries at Search Engine Land.

Over the weekend, a new WebmasterWorld thread began a group effort at building out a new SEO dictionary. The list is pretty impressive and is expected to keep growing.

It would be nice if the moderators cleaned it up after the postings settled down a bit and made it a sticky thread.

The dictionary goes from well-known people at Google, to the definition of an authority site, to canonical issues.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Yesterday, Search Engine Watch and the blog and forums, underwent a redesign and had features added. There is a Search Engine Watch Forums thread now discussing the changes. I thought I do a before and after comparison.

The Home Page
Before:

After:

A Search Day Article
Before:

After:

The Blog
Before:

After:

The Forum Home
Before:

After:

Forum Post View
Before:

After:

Those are the side by side comparisons.

Personally, the new look is a lot more "airy" due to the white new look. The homepage has this new AJAX tabbed approach to see content from SearchDay, Forums or the blog. The forum upgrade added the latest VBulletin features, which is nice - especially the quick reply. My only issue is the smaller fonts used throughout the site, and even more so on the forum thread titles within the thread views of the forum.

One other thing is that this new design reminds me a little of SEO Chat:

Overall, the feedback in the forum on the new design is positive. It will take a bit getting used to, but that will happen over time.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Rob Kerry (evilgreenmonkey), the new Search Engine Watch Forums editor, has posted a thread at Search Engine Watch Forums announcing that a new design and feature upgrade is coming to the property.

He explained he visited the Incisive headquarters yesterday and received a preview of the new design. Rob said, "Well, the SEW guys will kill me for announcing this first - but we're about to receive a facelift." The new design is reportedly going to address "usability issues and cluttered pages," he added.

The Search Engine Watch Forums will be undergoing a complete redesign as well, with added features. "An exciting new array of features on the forums, including status rankings for long-serving members and some awesome prizes to the most helpful and sociable members," said Robert Kerry.

When can we see these changes? Rob said, "new look going live as soon as next Monday."

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

I was browsing WebmasterWorld this morning and noticed these little video icons on the home page. They look like the image at the top right of this page.

If you click on the page, such as this example, you see this video format.

The videos seem to come from YouTube and be embedded within WebmasterWorld.

Is this a form of featured content or a new form of advertisements?

WebmasterWorld has also added new paid discussion forums including; "The Wall" and "Review My Site." "The Wall" is a forum to chat about pretty much anything.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

The SEO community is suffering a big loss. Aaron Wall has announced on Threadwatch that he is closing down the site on Friday for a number of reasons: bad publicity, edgy news, gossip, decentralization, spam, and having other priorities in life.

Aaron is happily in a relationship now, so I really cannot blame him. However, the news has come as a shock to the Threadwatch community, many of whom are asking Aaron to change his mind.

Threadwatch was nearly three years old, having been founded on October 5, 2004 by Nick Wilson who then sold it to Aaron Wall in November of 2005. Over the course of time, Threadwatch has been a centralized part of many SEOs/SEMs to find the latest news and discuss some of the more controversial topics of the industry. It was a hub with some very good information, and I personally am sad to see it go.

I wish Aaron and the other Threadwatch moderators the best.

Threadwatch forum discussion continues at Threadwatch -- until Friday, I suppose.

If SES and SMX have not been enough for you, or you haven't been able to attend any conferences in the past few months, we're happy to inform you that Jill Whalen, administrator of the High Rankings website and regular conference speaker, is holding a High Rankings Seminar to be held on June 28 and 29 in Denver, Colorado. The seminar has a great lineup of speakers, including Christine Churchill and Jennifer Laycock. The seminar will cover topics in keyword research, social media, Pay Per Click, and copywriting, in addition to many other SEO issues.

We're happy to inform you that if you register for the High Rankings Seminar through this website using the coupon code RUSTY, you will be entitled to a 25% discount. Also, non-profit organizations can enter to win one of two free seats if you submit your information by June 15. If you are a non-profit organization looking to learn some great SEO tips from industry experts, you are encouraged to apply.

By the way, I know I mentioned it yesterday, but we don't have coverage of SES Toronto after all. Both Carolyn Shelby, our conference reporter, and WebProNews did not make it to Toronto.

Forum discussion continues at the High Rankings Forum.

As many of you know, Kim Krause Berg, one of our contributing authors, has partnered with Matt Bailey and SiteLogic for usability and performance testing consultation. Kim has also confirmed this on her blog as well, and there is a Cre8asite Forums post that is dedicated to honoring Kim's achievement.

Kim, on behalf of everyone here at Search Engine Roundtable, congratulations. :)

There will be no changes to the Cre8asite Forums as a result of the partnership, so we'll continue to report stories from there as we always do.

Again, congratulations, Kim! We're so happy for you!

Discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.

Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land site has been caught hiding text and performing "poor man cloaking" techniques. A WebProWorld thread called attention to the fact that Search Engine Land was hiding text in a CSS file:

text-indent: -9000px;

But Danny Sullivan didn't know about it. In fact, someone had to call this thread to his attention, and then he wrote in.

Still scratching my head, I then wondered, "Wait a minute. Is this about my site?" Surely not. But yep, there in our style sheet was the damning code. It's true. We were totally hiding text and technically might be considered spamming the search engines. Curses -- just when I hoped not to be counted among those other search spammers like Google and Yahoo that have been outed for using hidden text.

So what happened? Apparently, there was an H1 tag that was visible only to users who have images and stylesheets disabled. That's why regular users typically don't see it. Danny continues by saying that he doesn't approve of this technique and will fix it after SMX next week.

We'll look at a way to make the logo be a hyperlink that doesn't involve using a hidden style, though our permanent solution might have to wait until next week as we're sort of busy with the upcoming conference we have this week.

Sorry for anyone that somehow thought we were endorsing some spamming technique. We're not, of course.

Yeah right.

Image of Danny Sullivan (on left with beer in hand) endorsing Mr. Spam man

Forum discussion continues at WebProWorld.

Elisabeth Osmeloski, the Search Engine Watch Forums editor, has decided it was time for a change. She has announced she will be leaving Search Engine Watch, as the forums editor, and joining Zonder.com, a vacation rentals company.

At Zonder, Elisabeth will be the director of online media for the vertical niche site. I hope we all get discounts on sweet vacation spots!

Elisabeth was integral in creating the Search Engine Watch Forums when it launched in June 2004. The forums have undergone many many changes since then, but it is time for Elisabeth to hand over the administrator keys.

I believe Elisabeth will continue to be a part of Search Engine Watch Forums, but she just won't have the time to be an administrator. So it is good to see that we won't lose her as part of the community, she has helped build.

Robert Kerry (EvilGreenMonkey), a guest author here, will be taking over Elisabeth's role. He has been with Search Engine Watch Forums for a while. His professionalism and sense of humor are a good fit to running a forum. Rob, we know you will do a great job running the forums.

Some more history:
- Danny Sullivan Says Goodbye To Search Engine Watch
- Reaction from the Search Community on Danny Sullivan's Departure
- Apax Buys Incisive Media Owner of Search Engine Strategies & Search Engine Watch
- Search Engine Watch Forums Broke 3,000 Members
- Search Engine Watch Forum Reorganization
- Search Engine Watch Launches SEW Forum

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

What do you do if a forum moderator becomes hurtful to your forums rather than helpful? A WebmasterWorld thread asks this question based on negative actions performed by a moderator of his forum that resulted in loss of membership. Consequently, he also demoted the moderator.

What I’ve learned from this experience:

1)Never reward a member with a moderation spot just because they have been an active/long time poster. Find other ways to reward good members.

2)Look for warning signs that they might not be a good moderator. Do they get snippy or argue with other members? Are they very opinionated? Do they have an even temper? Have they been ‘know it all’ posters?

3)Avoid mixing moderators and friendship. When things go bad it’s hard to separate the two.

4)Make sure you have written rules on what the moderator job is and how they are expected to act and make sure the see them BEFORE you make them a moderator.

5)Chose a moderator as if you were hiring an employee. Will they represent you well both on and off the forums.

6)Remove moderators quickly if they are losing a forum.

Some people just take the power trip for personal gain. This quote by another member is so true for this instance:

" Power corrupts...

and absolute power, corrupts absolutely"

Appointing moderators can be a pretty sticky situation if they are biased in such a way that it is destructive rather than helpful.

Moderators who are immoderate and partial are very destructive, damaging users' trust.

You can lose a lot of core/good members when even one mod gets rude/patronising/personal or is clearly editing in a partial or biased way!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Yesterday, Search Engine Watch Forums has changed the placement of the ads displayed on the site and forums. The ads used to be primarily on the left hand bar, in a box on the right side and a thin line at the top. I believe the forums pretty much had ads only on the left hand side, if any. That has changed, Search Engine Watch Forums has added ads.

Here is Search Engine Watch Forums before the ads:

It takes about 400 pixels from top to bottom to get to content within a specific forum thread.

The new Search Engine Watch Forums with ads:

Here it takes about 650 pixels from top to bottom to get to the content within a specific forum thread.

Some folks don't mind the ads, saying; "I have a degree in ignoring most things, including the ads so I dont mind."

Others like Marcia, an Search Engine Watch Forums moderator dislikes them, saying; "very intrusive."

I dislike them as well, and I would pay to not see them. I am not sure if that is an option, but hopefully it will be an option.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

WebmasterWorld administrator engine introduced a new moderator to the Google News forum at WebmasterWorld. The new moderator is a long time WebmasterWorld member and very involved in many of the SEM forums. He is Robert Charlton and he is a kind and respected member of the community.

As many of you know, WebmasterWorld's Google News forum is pre-moderated. That means all threads added have to be preapproved by a moderator before they are posted in the forum. It is a huge task, mostly handled by Tedster these days, and now he has some help.

Nice addition by WebmasterWorld and good luck Robert!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Cre8asite Forums launched a new forum last night named Social Media And Tagging. Kim Krause-Berg, founder of Cre8asite Forums, explains the new forum:

In light of the addition of social media and tagging as tools and methodology for SEO/M practiices, we have added a new forum on the topic of social media.

We're in the process of putting together a team of people to moderate it and provide answers to your questions, as well as educate the community on all aspects of this exploding area of the Internet.

Our first confirmed new Moderator is Liana Evans, (aka Storyspinner), who many of you know.

We look forward to some lively discussions and learning from those who are passionate about social media

Li Evans, aka storyspinner, will be the new moderator for this forum. Liana Evans runs Search Marketing Gurus and has been known to pull off some nice social media tactics in the past. Li's welcome thread is over here.

In other SEO forum news, last week, WebmasterWorld Launches SMO Forum Named Social Media Tagging & Bookmarking Optimization.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Yahoo! has added a dedicated representative in the search forums to respond to Yahoo! Search Marketing questions. The new representative was introduced by YahooSarah in both DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

YahooSarah, who has been managing both Yahoo! Search Marketing threads and Yahoo! Publisher Network threads has enlisted YahooPete to focus pretty much on the Yahoo! Search Marketing side of things. Now, YahooSarah will be able to focus most of her efforts to the Yahoo! Publisher Network side of things.

YahooSarah said:

All, I’ve got some good news to share and wanted to start a thread here. Since we’ve rolled out our new advertising system, my goal was to be even more engaged in message board discussions to help you with questions or concerns. I think this community embraced that goal, because I’ve been pretty busy keeping up with posts and private emails- thanks ;-)

To help grow our involvement on the boards even more, I’ve recruited a colleague of mine to serve as a new rep for the boards, YahooPete. He will have more time to dedicate to issues specifically about Yahoo! Search Marketing, while I start to focus more on threads about the Yahoo! Publisher Network (doing both took quite a bit of time, and this is only a part of what I do for Yahoo!). I’m still around though, so you may see me chime in from time to time.

We really do appreciate all the feedback you have given us over the past few months and we look forward to continuing the dialogue. Welcome YahooPete- good luck!

YahooSarah

YahooPete said his introductory hello; saying,

Thanks so much for the kindness. I am looking forward to partcipating in the discussion threads. All my best, YahooPete

Welcome YahooPete, oh and trust me, I will be watching you very closely.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums.

WebmasterWorld has launched a new forum named Social Media Tagging and Bookmarking Optimization. The new forum comes to life with the recent buzz on SMO - Social Media Optimization.

What is SMO?

• Tagging
• Web based bookmarking
• Digg.com
• StumbleUpon
• del.icio.us
• Link bait content
• and so on

It is being used all over, you see we have our SMO buttons in the footer of each post.

WebmasterWorld administrator, engine, said in the WebmasterWorld thread:

With social media now paying a huge role in modern Internet life, we decided to create this forum to explore the opportunities and developments.

I am excited to watch this forum for some juicy topics.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

The SEO community has been seeding promotions for the My Super Proposal campaign, where a mystery guy wanted to air a commercial proposing to his girlfriend. Rand Fishkin (randfish) proposes to his girlfriend, Geraldine last night. The idea didn't work exactly as planned, but did air on his girlfriend's favorite show, Veronica Mars. Here is the commercial:

Joe Morin (his blog) is very active in the SEO community, he can be thanked big time for helping orchestrating the event. He got the press involved, he got bloggers involved and so on. But that should come to no surprise. The SEO community is very tight, they help out each other when the need arises. It is a very giving industry and I am proud to be part of it.

You have to check out her reaction, here it is:

I appreciate Rand noting that he got the inspiration from my search engine proposal. But he took it one step forward and actually video taped her response. I actually planned on doing that, but I am glad I did not - but that response is priceless. Thanks so much for sharing Rand.

The SEO community wishes you and your Geraldine all the best. We look forward to your future and you having a wonderful and beautiful marriage.

Drop Rand a wedding note at SEOmoz.org.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums & WebmasterWorld.