Google Censorship FAQ   (Google Blogoscoped)

Anything and everything you've  ever wanted to know about Google and censorship… all in one place.  Well, everything that it's possible to know about Google and censorship, that is.   I was glad to see this write-up compare Google's behavior to the other search engines.  Without that comparison it might seem as though Google was doing something that the other folks weren't.  Now whether or not you agree with censoring search results is another story all together.

  CNNMoney Scolds Media for Shunning YouTube  (Marketing Pilgrim)

Back and forth… back and forth.  One minute some big media company is taking jabs at YouTube.  The next minute, another media company is signing deals with them.  And now here's CNNMoney weighing in on the situation.  You know what?  Companies should experiment with a trial run on YouTube and see what, if any, benefit comes from it.  If they don't like it they can always change their minds.  Trial and error, folks.  Sometimes it just works best. 

  Is User-Generated Video Poised to Flame Out?  (ClickZ)

Dorian Sweet looks at the blurring of the lines between genuine user-generated video (UGV) and sneaky marketing tactics.  He thinks the days of YouTube-inspired mass video uploading is limited.  And he suggests limiting your marketing efforts in the realm of user-generated video.  Because it's going to "flame out".  What do you think?  Is UGV a fad… an evolutionary step toward something else… or here to stay?

  Wikipedia, Search, and School Homework  (Hitwise)

Hitwise data suggests that a good chunk of Wikipedia's traffic comes from school-aged children.  What are they doing?  Homework, probably.  Just great.  A generation of Wikipedia-educated students.  Haha.  There's also an interesting graph published that shows the correlation between Wikipedia's growth and the percentage of traffic coming from Google. 

  Your Plans for 2007  (Yahoo Publisher Network Blog)

Yahoo shares the results of a poll displayed to YPN members about their online goals for 2007.  Not surprisingly, increasing traffic was on the agenda for almost 60% of the respondents.  14.5% said they wanted to focus on content.  And the rest of the answers were spread thinly across 8 other options. 

  AdWords Testing Yellow Background [Edited Title]  (JenSense)

While doing some tests of her own, Jennifer Slegg was temporarily presented with a Google results page that used a yellow background (instead of blue) around the sponsored listings.  Her analysis sounds good me:  Google is testing a different color to counter the blind eye folks are used to turning to the "blue box" of ads.  It's different.  And I think it'll probably draw more attention.  What do you think?

  Using the site: command  (Official Google Webmaster Central Blog)

Confirming numerous reports that a bug exists in the site: command, Vanessa Fox says that Google is aware of and addressing the issue to allow webmasters to see a full list of indexed sites using the "site:" command.  It's not a high priority issue for Google, though.  So the fix will most likely show up in a couple of weeks.