How To Actually Be A Good Search Engine Optimizer

Short but sweet. I stumbled over this at one of the SEO forums.

How To Actually Be A Good Seo/sem -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "Some tools you need in your pocket to be decent at SEO:

-Basic concepts of web design and a relationship with a good designer
-Foundation of simple HTML knowledge
-Familiarity with usability concepts
-General idea of how sites are ranked
-Recognition of dynamic issues and a relationship with a good programmer.
-Strong web research skills
-Good writing skills or a relationship with a good copywriter
-Creativity and common sense"

A Widget or Two for Yahoo

I'm a little bit baffled by this one, but it seems sufficiently important that I am going to start this note here and track the development of Yahoo!'s "Widgets".
A Widget or Two for Yahoo: "'Widgets are basically whatever you want them to be,' said Pixoria founder Arlo Rose. Widgets are constructed via XML and can take advantage of user data, such as photos, Web content or system information. For example, the Seattle Traffic Cams Widget, built by Anthony Kirby, pulls images from the Washington state DOT Web site for the Puget Sound area. The eBay Feedback Watcher, created by William Warby, displays positive, negative and overall eBay (Quote, Chart) feedback ratings; when a new piece of feedback is posted, it displays the new feedback with a clickable link to the eBay item."

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Inboxer Rebellion (Penny Brown)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Inboxer Rebellion (Penny Brown): "Penny Brown, the little girl who is evidently nothing more than the product of some prankster's imagination, is the longest-lived 'missing child' hoax we have chronicled on this site. In all the time since the above-quoted plea to aid in the hunt for her began circulating on the Internet in mid-September 2001 Penny Brown rarely has the term 'Penny Brown' dropped off our site's list of top searches even though there was never reason to place any reliance upon the message."

Still More Cool Firefox Tools

Still More Cool Firefox Tools: "Note: When you download extensions, you'll often see a warning that an extension is unsigned, and that malicious software can damage your computer or violate your privacy. I have yet to experience problems from any unsigned extensions I've installed—and the Mozilla organization has a staff of volunteers that review everything posted to the site.

That said, you should be cautious about what you try. You can get a good indication that an extension is safe by looking at its rating (one to five stars), user comments and the number of times the extension has been downloaded. Most developers also link to their own home page, so you can investigate them in more depth, if you're really concerned.

CustomizeGoogle

CustomizeGoogle enhances Google search results by adding extra information, such as links to re-run your search on Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN and other engines. You can add links to similar alternate search resources on News, Images and other specialized Google search result pages.

CustomizeGoogle also can be configured to remove ads and anonymize the Google cookie (though be careful with this—anonymizing the cookie may make some services unstable). A particularly useful feature allows you to add filters to search results, blocking specific web pages or entire sites from appearing in search results. You can import lists of sites as filters from other sources, as well.

Resize Search Box

Although I love Firefox's built-in search box, I find it irritating that it's so small, and worse, not resizable. This simple little extension changes that, allowing you to drag the edge of the search box with your mouse to make it any width you desire.

View Cookies

These days, almost all web sites set cookies, or tracking codes, on your computer. The View Cookies extension lets you see exactly what cookies a particular site has set when you view it, including the contents, expiration date and other information. The extension "