The blogosphere has been singing both positive and negative tunes about Microsoft’s latest offering in its long line of operating systems. Vista has been the talk of the town as of late, but there are still some of us who envision a world where more than one platform can thrive in the OS marketplace.

Calling 90 percent of the SEO industry “snake oil salesmen” riled up one famed search professional; Danny Sullivan has hit back hard at Jason Calacanis for his continued attacks on SEO.

Because I’ve been away on secret missions (not really, but it sounds good), there are a few stories that slipped through the net – like the Jennifer Laycock/National Pork Board hubbub that made the rounds recently. In case you briefly …

Though the number of people turning to the Web for political news more than doubled since the 2002 midterm elections, newspapers and TV still rule as the preferred source.

Consumers are constantly flooded with content from all different sorts of channels. Rather than picking and choosing particular methods of consumption, however, many choose to multitask between outlets, which can ultimately decrease the effectiveness of each one.

Estimates suggest that 25%-30% of total media time is spent multitasking content. While media multitasking is seemingly a common sense concept, it actually can have a significant impact on the ability to absorb and remember content, including marketing messages.

Half of all online retailers Web sites are vulnerable to database attacks according to The Ecommerce Application Security Trends report from ScanAlert. The report examined 27,000 online merchants of all sizes.

Forty five percent of sites had serious database vulnerability such as SQL Injection and fifty percent had Cross Site Scripting vulnerabilities. SQL Injection is a type of software vulnerability that allows hackers to penetrate databases to steal private information used for fraud and identity theft.

Exactly how much money it took to make YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen giddy as the schoolboys they are in this Google acquisition announcement video? Google’s latest SEC filing shows it’s roughly equivalent to the gross domestic product of Djibouti.

Only hours after launching its new feeds meets mashup service, Yahoo Pipes has become clogged and is no longer online.

We’re waiting to hear back from Yahoo about the Pipes service vanishing from the Internet.

(UPDATE!: 5:40 pm ET – We just heard back from Yahoo, and this is their statement on the state of Yahoo Pipes:

The SEO industry walks the proverbial tight rope every day, offering legitimate services to clients that can help them interact better with search engines, while at the same time dodging the stigma that SEO is merely spam tactics cleverly disguised using smoke and mirrors.

The reason that search engine optimization is garnering a negative reputation, however, may actually have more to do with shady social media optimization practices than anything else.

Over half of communications industry executives believe that Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) will generate revenue within the first three years of service, according to a new survey from Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The survey included around 350 communications executives in firms located in North and South America, Europe and Asia. While 60 percent believe that IPTV will generate strong revenue in the next three years the number falls to 52 percent over the next 12 months.

The American Civil Liberties Union has made a name for itself by lobbying for the rights of women, minorities, and other civil groups that have been unfairly or illegally targeted by discriminatory or oppressive actions.

It looks like the ACLU is branching out into new territory. The organization is broadening its horizons from the political arena, stepping into the digital realm with its latest commentary on the citywide Wi-Fi network in the words for San Francisco.

People using Yahoo Pipes will be able to mix and mashup data sources from all kinds of places on the Internet into combined feeds they can share with others.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, home of Oscar and the Academy Awards, has been cracking hard on blogs using the Oscar name; until this year, they had left Sasha Stone of Oscarwatch.com alone.

That changed on January 22nd. Sasha provided WebProNews with a copy of the letter she received from the Academy, accusing her of infringement on the Oscar mark. The legalese is as accusatory as one might suspect:

Vincent Dureau was something of a hit when he attended the Cable Europe Congress. Dureau, you see, is Google

GoDaddy.com saw its market share increase 75 percent on February 5, the day after the Super Bowl according to Hitwise. Their commercial was rated as one of the

The good news: Google has finally launched an Australia-specific version of Google Maps. The bad news: the service gives terrible directions. Also, Google kind of forgot to mention the release to Australia.

Vodafone and MySpace announced a deal today to provide social networking services to European customers for the first time. This move is representative of a continued push into the mobile marketplace by social networking services, along with their advertising partners.

Watching video online continues to be a popular form of entertainment. A new survey from Advertising.com found that nearly 66 percent of respondents view streaming video content at least once a week. Forty-four percent of video viewers are between the ages of 18 and 34, while 56 percent are age 35 and older.

In the latest of its efforts in social branding, Yahoo has announced a partnership agreement with Pontiac to develop an online hub geared specifically to the community of enthusiasts supporting the automobile manufacturer

If you are building a Yahoo Search for your blog, and found their Search Builder created ones that were just a little too wide for your liking at 300 pixels, you’ll like their latest update.

A super narrow format for search boxes created with Yahoo Search Builder became available today. At 192 pixels in width, it should be narrow enough to satisfy most blog templates and designs in existence.

The way people behave when looking for information doesn’t differ much from the time when going out for dinner meant toting a big club and hoping you could get the drop on something with sharp teeth.

That forager comparison comes from someone who knows search pretty well. Mike Moran co-authored the book Search Engine Marketing, Inc. with Bill Hunt, and has considerable knowledge of the topic of search.

Listrak, an email-marketing firm has added a feature that enables users to insert RSS feeds containing links to social bookmarking sites to their email marketing campaigns. The feature combines RSS and social bookmarking with email marketing software.

“Social bookmarking is quickly becoming a viable alternative to standard search engines,” says Ross Kramer, CEO of Listrak. “People are sharing information like never before, and the new social bookmarking feature allows our clients to seamlessly integrate this new technology.”

I’m a huge fan of the Opie & Anthony radio program on XM Satellite Radio, have been for years, and over the last week, I’ve heard show host Anthony talking about his experiences with Windows Vista.

Anthony’s had a lot of trouble, running into unsigned drivers, video card drivers that have worse performance in Vista than in XP, and a constant Blue Screen of Death before every install.