Summary of the Invention

According to an embodiment of the invention, search results, including sponsored links and algorithmic search results, are generated in response to a query, and are ranked based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the member who submitted the query. The predetermined degree of separation is equal to one if the click activities of only the friends of the member who submitted the query are to be examined.

A search result may also be marked based on its click history. In one embodiment, a search result is marked with an image or a text string if there was a single click on the search result by a friend of the member who submitted the query. In other embodiments, the frequency of clicks by members of social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the member who submitted the query is examined. If such frequency exceeds a minimum value, the associated search result is marked with an image or a text string.

Although this patent was originally filed back in 2004, and may not have be all that important to Facebook’s current business objectives, it will be interesting to see if it has any impact on the future of social and search, especially with the competition between Facebook and Google continuing to heat up.

If nothing else, this patent has likely put up some major roadblocks in Google and Twitter’s social search experimentation and plans.

Read the full Key Social Search Patent Awarded to Facebook post on the SEO Blog.

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http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Washington/Localities/B/Bellevue/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/Residential/

But, after checking the page footer to see when the last time that category was updated I saw:

So I decided to see what Google’s cache displayed, and got snapshot of the page on Jul 3, 2010:

Hmmm… Now the web page is showing that it was last updated on October 13, 2007, but on July 3, 2010 is said the last edit was done on May 5, 2010. Obviously something strange going on here.

I also took a quick glance at the external links and it appears there were no changes, not that it matters.

Whatever, I guess. I would be doing my clients a disservice if I didn’t attempt to get their website listed there, regardless. I don’t expect it will be approved or even get looked at, though. Only about 1 in 10 websites I submit seem to. Regardless of how good and appropriate they are to the category or how well the guidelines are followed.

Anyone else seeing notice anything like this?

Read the full Is DMOZ Going Backwards? post on the SEO Blog.

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Summary of Market Samurai

Market Samurai is a niche keyword analysis and content promotion tool that can save you a ton of time researching and promoting your content or products through the search engines and pay-per-click advertising. It also opened my eyes to few new ways to get traffic, which is pretty good for someone who does this all day every day.

If you do any amount of work online and you’re not using software to save you time, then I definitely recommend you read my review and consider downloading a free trial. Considering there are several other Internet marketing tools available online, Market Samurai may not be the best tool for your needs, but it is a very fast and near complete software program that you should at least take a look at. And, it could absolutely be the best tool suited for you.

Getting the Best Deal

I’ve also added a page to track the latest Market Samurai promo codes, discounts, coupons and specials. So, if you decide to check it out in the future, be sure to check out that page to know you’re are getting latest Market Samurai deal.

Read the full For Anyone Interested in Market Samurai…. post on the SEO Blog.

Check out my in-depth Market Samurai Review or get the latest Market Samurai Promo Code!

Yahoo! Powered by Bing

According to comScore the Yahoo!-Bing merger should increase Bing’s search market share to just over 30% now.

Read the full Yahoo! Search is Now Officially Powered by Bing post on the SEO Blog.

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Facebook Profile Page

I’ve chosen to use a custom privacy setting by clicking on the “Custom” navigation link on the left. After that I clicked on the customize settings link as show circled in yellow.

Facebook Privacy Settings

On the customized settings page I chose to allow my website to be viewable by everyone.

Facebook Website Privacy Setting

There is no save button on this page, so you can just go back to your profile from here and your new setting should be saved. Last you need to have set a website address under your contact information as shown below.

Facebook Contact Information Settings

Now your first website address should show on your public Facebook profile – as a DoFollow link – like it does on mine.

Read the full How to Get a DoFollow Link from Facebook post on the SEO Blog.

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On 8-12-10 Google performed an experiment with the it’s SERP in certain areas that appeared to have removed the traditional organic search results altogether and replaced them with what appeared to be results primarily from the Google Maps page. Apparently they clarified it was map results mixed in with the Organic search results, but it still left me thinking: what if Google eliminates the traditional organic search results for local searches and completely replaces them with the polluted review-spam filled Google Maps listing currently available?

Would that be good or bad for businesses? What about search marketers? And most importantly, would it be good for the end user?

Please share your comments below because I would really love to hear your thoughts.

Read the full What if there were NO organic search results? post on the SEO Blog.

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For the longest time I wondered how a few of the most respected industry gurus were using their own domain names and still burning their RSS feed through Google FeedBurner. A few weeks ago I stopped admiring and decided to figure it out. Now I’m sharing it with you because I just think it’s the coolest thing ever!

Common ways to publish your RSS feed

You’ll commonly see feed URLs that look similar to http://www.seorankings.com/feed, http://feed.feedburner.com/seorankings, and a few others. With the former usually being left basic, and latter using the more sophisticated web feed management tool Google FeedBurner. If you don’t already know, Google FeedBurner allows you to track subscribers and subscribe via email, among various other important things. That’s why you’ll see most experienced bloggers using it. Which is great but, it can also look a little amateurish when you’re sending people to a third party website to subscribe to your RSS feed. So I’m going to show you how to take advantage of all the cool tools FeedBurner has to offer while keeping your brand at the forefront.

Instead of having a feed that looks like this:

feeds.feedburner.com/seorankings

You could be using a nice branded one with your own domain name similar to this:

feeds.seorankings.com/seorankings

While still taking advantage of all the same great features. Which one looks more established and professional to you?

How to Activate MyBrand

Obviously you’re going to need a FeedBurner account. Once you’ve burned your feed in your FeedBurner account you’re going to need to → login → click on the appropriate feed → then click on My Account in the top right corner → and last on MyBrand. Or you can just click on this link: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mybrand too. Now, this is where it can get a bit confusing if you don’t have a grasp on setting up DNS and redirects.

Google has already done a great job outlining the steps you need to take on that page, so I won’t go into detail here, but I will give you a summary and let you know of a few snags I had. Just be sure to read carefully, and follow the referenced links for help.

If you host your website with a third-party, then you’re probably not going to have enough privileges to create the required CNAME entry yourself, so be prepared to ask your hosting provider. Google offers this advice for creating a CNAME entry, with a step-by-step guide for some of the most popular web hosts. Of course none of mine were on their list.

Once you have your feed set up correctly you’ll need to change the active links on your website to point to the to point to the new URL and redirect to old URL to the new one so you can get an accurate count of the previous subscribers who still subscribe to the old URL. Just be sure to also read Google’s feed redirect advice to be sure you get everything working correctly.

Then, after you think everything is working properly, and your old posts are showing up at the new URL, be sure to test by creating a new blog post and making sure it shows up at the new feed URL too. My “new” posts weren’t getting published at the new URL because I didn’t have the redirects set up properly. However “old” posts (posts previous to this change) were showing up at the new URL, so it can be a bit deceiving.

My Offer to You

When I was looking to set this up for my sites I obviously hit a few snags. There were only a few sites offering advice on how to set this up, but none of them really did a good job explaining things. And Google doesn’t offer any support for this service either. So, if you dare, give it a try and feel free to leave me your comments or questions below, if you have any trouble. I’ll do my best to help you sort it out.

Good luck, and if you haven’t already, you should subscribe to our feed to get more great tips like this one!

Read the full The Smartest Way to Publish Your RSS Feed post on the SEO Blog.

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This amazing search engine history infographic is courtesy of PPCblog.com

Read the full Amazing Search History Infographic post on the SEO Blog.

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About Psychic Search

The Psychic Search plug-in is great because it quickly and easily allows me to see what people searched for when they found this website, what search engine they came from, and what they are searching for once they get here.

I know, you can already figure out that with Google Analytics or some other analytics software. However, this plug-in puts that information right into the admin area of your WordPress blog and formats it so it is so much quicker and easier to read.

Psychic Search is another great tool to add to your keyword research arsenal.

A Few Great Reasons to Use Psychic Search

• Discover which search terms are giving you the most traffic
• Know what search terms are coming from which search engines
• See what people are searching for when they get to your blog
• Give your readers what they want
• Come up with new blog post titles
• Figuring out what content to add to your website

I’ve only touched on a few possible reasons to use Psychic Search, but there are many.

Right now you can download the Psychic Search plugin for free. It takes less than a minute to install and set-up, literally. Yet another great plugin from MaxBlogPress.

Read the full Psychic Search: I Know What You’re Thinking…. post on the SEO Blog.

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Hey there, I just wanted to send a quick message to say I’m sorry to all of the subscribers here for the lack of updates to the blog lately. I moved recently, and just like last time, I’ve had nothing but trouble getting my internet working consistently. However, as soon as I get caught up on a few major client projects I plan on hitting it hard here again – even better than before.

Besides the Internet woes, I’ve really been enjoying the view from my new home office:

(Photo taken with my awesome Blackberry Curve 8900)

Thanks for your support, and if you can stick with me I’ll be adding a ton of great content here soon…

Read the full Loving the new office… post on the SEO Blog.

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