Link-Fest for Monday July 28th 2008

Howdy sportsfans, hope you’re all having a great Monday.  Don’t know about where you are, but it’s a crazy hot July day here in the UK.  We had a brief thunderstorm earlier as well, so it’s really humid here tonight, which is why I’m sitting out on my balcony enjoying what little breeze there is as I try to get this latest Link-Fest finished up.

There’s been some really good stuff and some really bad stuff out there in the SEO blogosphere this week, but I’m not in the mood to dwell on the bad stuff (if you’re into SEO enough to be reading me, then chances are you’ve seen it all already and I don’t feel much like adding to the negativity).  Let’s just get stuck into some of the good stuff that came out over the last week.

There’s a Cuil New Kid on the Search Engine Block

A new search engine made by a few people who used to work for Google went live today.  It’s called Cuil (pronounce “Cool” apparently - although I’ve also read suggestions that it’s Gaelic for “knowledge”).  I can’t say I’ve had a lot of time to put it through its paces, but a cursory inspection and a few quick vanity searches was enough to make it clear that although they’ve found plenty of places that mention SEOpsCentre this site itself is not yet included within the squillions of webpages they claim to have in their index.
Fine.  Be that way.  See if I care.

Who?  Ma?

Dave Harry was the subject of today’s interview on Garrett Pierson’s Your SEO Mentor and the guys chatted about a few of Dave’s favourite things aboot Search Engine Optimization, eh (coz Dave’s Canadian, eh?).  Dave also clarified the pronunciation of his blog’s name and gave shout-outs to some of his favourite SEO bloggers, including squeezing in a mention for James Duthie and the World Tour.  But not me.
Fine.  Be that way.  See if I care.

Video Interviews with Matt “One-Pink-Shirt” Cutts

The Big G’s Spam-whacker posted a couple of videos on his blog this week.  One is from his Q&A session with Danny Sullivan at SMX Advanced, the other one is an interview he did for Google’s German Webmaster Central Blog.  Matt even makes a note to self in his post about making sure he doesn’t wear that shirt when there’s cameras around anymore.

The Positive Side to All That Negativity

I’m still not going to get into all the nastiness and name-calling that went around last week, but I am going to highlight a post that Rand Fishkin put out, on the YOUmoz section of the SEOmoz site, with his thoughts on one of the bigger controversies to flare up recently and his team’s place within it.  Whatever finger pointing may have gone on, Rand deserves a lot of respect for standing up and admitting that, when it comes to content published on SEOmoz, the buck stops with him.

It was also nice to see this post from Michael Martinez a few days ago, which clarified why he no longer blogs on SEOmoz and, hopefully, dispels some of the rumours about a rift between him and Rand.
See, SEO’s can be nice to each other, even if they don’t always see eye to eye.

Farewell Fake Steve.  Hello Real Dan

Fake Steve Jobs is no more.  After a curtailed hiatus and a series of less than well recieved guest bloggers, Dan Lyons has hung up the Fake Steve Jobs blog and started afresh under his real name.  He’s already hit the ground running as his phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from prominent Silicon Valley CEO’s all taking a leaf out of the Real Steve Jobs’ book and desperate to give him the “off-the-record” scoop on the latest non-events with their companies.  And if you want a laugh, check out this Steve Jobs Opening Line Generator so that you too can start making off-the-record calls to journalists.

The Motivational Monday Bit

John Hewitt runs a great blog full of advice for writers at all levels and in addition to recently finishing up a series of posts about careers in technical writing he’s just started a new run, giving lots of really useful tips for writers who need help dealing with negative self-talk.  Great help if you’re the kind of writer who tends to be your own worst critic (aren’t we all?)

So, there we go folks.

Enjoy your week and I’ll see you in the SERPs.