Is Effective SEO Always Good SEO?  (Search Engine Guide)

This is one of the best posts on SEO I've read in a long time.  And I couldn't agree more with what Jennifer Laycock says in the article.  The effort spent on scamming and sneaking links to and traffic toward websites would be much better spent actually adding content.  Sure… a front page Digg might be nice.  But we all know what kind of traffic Digg sends.  It doesn't last.

  Yahoo to Redirect More Search Query Types to Site Explorer  (Search Engine Land)

This probably isn't a bad idea for Yahoo.  The types of people that are going to be performing "domain:" and "hostname:" searches are likely already familiar with Site Explorer anyway.  And since the point of Site Explorer is to… well… explore sites… it only makes sense to me.

  Reboot my blog please  (Performancing)

The folks over at Performancing are apparently a little on the bored side.  So they've decided to spend some time looking a blogs that haven't quite performed up to expectations and offer some free advice and makeover tips (for the site… not as in an actual makeup makeover).  If you want your blog to be considered for inclusion, stop by and leave your URL in the comments. 

  YouTube Visits Up 14% Since Viacom Takedown Order; Surpasses Television Network Sites (Hitwise)

As usual, LeeAnn Prescott has some great numbers to share from Hitwise.  But I think the missed point behind these stats is that Viacom wasn't the sole driving factor to YouTube.  And when YouTube's content filter kicks in, and thousands of previously available videos suddenly disappear, their traffic will almost have to take a hit.  Maybe not today.  Maybe not next month.  But over time, people will migrate to where the videos are.

 Lights, Camera, Action (Yahoo! Search blog)

Yahoo has been making some nice additions to its SERPs lately.  I think these new movie search results are just awesome.  Google's first result for most movies is just a link to the IMDb.  These are much better.  Yahoo's new look includes trailers, movie posters, reviews and ratings, and local movie show times.  I love it!