As previously discussed, Google launched an algorithm update a few days ago (in addition to the latest Penguin launch) aimed at dealing with shady mugshot sites. The New York Times put out a big article about sites that collect mugshots …

ith the new feature, you can supposedly compare unique visitor estimates over time for various sites, making Google trends compete with Quantcast and Compete. Despite various screenshots posted, I can’t see the unique traffic numbers for any site I try.

A bigger surprise is that you can’t see any traffic estimates – even estimates! – for Google.com.

Click the image to enlarge further.

It has been an interesting week for blogger faux pas. Search Engine Land found itself taking flak for it’s sensational post about obtaining links from Wired’s wiki.

Danny Sullivan (a.k.a. The Godfather to those of us in the SEO realm) messed up, kind of.

In a post he OK’s for the Search Engine Land a couple days ago titled, "Get A Free Link From Wired" they basically outline how to get yourself a free link on the wired.com site. I especially love the "don’t be too evil" note which implies that some amount of evil is OK.

Ross Mayfield took umbrage to Barry Schwartz creating a page on Wired’s How To Wiki and pointing the page to Search Engine Land.

Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Land will debut a half-day conference format, SphinnCon, in Jerusalem, Israel on February 5th.

The ball dropped for the 100th time in Times Square, so I suppose that makes it official.  It’s a new year, 2008 to be exact.  So what does this mean for the search engines? Simple, change the way it used to work, right?

I know you’ve missed it, so here it is—Linky! Goodness! Linky! Goodness!

The search maven has launched a social community site with a Digg-ish feel and a search engine focus.

Danny Sullivan has posted a nice goodbye message over at Search Engine Watch. All of the contributors will be going with Danny and Elisabeth Osmeloski will continue as Managing Editor.

We all knew it. Danny could not have sat back for too long.

Danny did a great job keynoting yesterday’s PubCon, and at the end, he announced where his new hope will be going forward.