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I can’t believe it’s taken me over a week to get back to my RSS reader and go over the latest headlines and bylines.

2009 Reports and Summaries

It’s December, the end of 2009 and some interesting end of year reports have been published.

Facebook published its list of trending topics this year. Rather than just showing trending keywords, they actually grouped some keywords together to reflect a trending topic. So, for example, “celebrity deaths” at number four reflects Michael Jackson, Patrick Swayze and Billy Mays.

Another interesting, and if I may say so, rather upsetting list, was published by Norton. It’s their list of the top 100 searches made by kids, based on data collected by their software across millions of homes. I can only hope people simply don’t know how to use their software properly, so that the data also includes searches made by adults. Otherwise, the results scare me, with porn being at #4 for kids aged 7 and under!

To end the lists with something nicer, if you’re a Mom Blogger, you should check Mashable’s latest feature: The Top 2009 Social Media Trends for Moms.

SEO Highlights

As always, lots of SEO related news on the web. I found these to be particularly interesting:

Randfish from SEOMoz reviews how personalized search results could effect your site’s traffic in his How Personalized Search Changes SEO (and Doesn’t). He predicts that big brands are going to get an even bigger slice of the pie and competition for those long-end phrases will become harder.

Bill Slawski discusses the use of synonyms in Google’s algorithm. Basing his post on quotes from the actual algorithm patent, he analyzes some examples to show you Google may or may not be implementing this in the SERP’s.  How Google May Expand Searches Using Synonyms for Words in Queries – well worth a read.

On a more practical note, I found this piece by Julie Joyce useful: 8 Steps To Avoid Link Analysis Paralysis.

And Some More

Jason Kincaid from Tech Crunch discusses a feature of Chrome which I really like: Google Browser Size Helps Keep Your Content Above The Fold. It’s so true. When I first tried Chrome, my initial reaction was, “There’s so much space on my screen now!” For marketers, this is a relevant issue and Jason provides a very neat link there, to Google Labs Browser Size Page.

Speaking of Google, this one piece here on Mashable discusses Google Wave’s Massive Potential for Business Users. Given Wave has been given a lot of bad rap lately, it provides a refreshing look at what’s supposed to be the ultimate social application of the future.

Last, (and maybe least), is this piece in Mashable again: HOW TO: Outsmart Phishers. The writers have disclaimers all over the place about this being a humorous article, yet  it is exactly what they do at 419 Eater. I’d never do it myself, but it sure is funny.

I try to make this part of my daily routine (not always successfully): going over the latest headlines for webmasters. To do that, I subscribe to feeds I like and those I think are important (such as Tech Crunch and Mashable). Going over them today, I figured I’d share some of the gems here. May or may not become a regular feature – let me know if you like the concept.

Some thoughts on SEO – blogger Chris Dixon shares some thoughts about SEO. An interesting debate follows in the comment section about content vs. promotion with some good SEO tips thrown around for good measure.

A million stamps licked … and counting – Google Wave’s official blog reports the one million invites landmark. My biggest problem with Wave when I signed up was having no one to wave with. Things have changed and it’s quite noticeable when I log into wave. Still need a Google Wave invite by the way? I have a bunch of them available here.

Some more Google News – Matt Cutts provides a quick overview of some of Google’s latest updates including Google Goggles and the new real-time search feature.

Report: Bing Searchers Still More Click-Happy Than Google Searchers When It Comes To Ads – Tech Crunch reminds us that when it comes to Internet marketing traffic from Bing, Yahoo and AOL can be much more valuable than tech-savvy Google traffic.

Google Now Personalizes Everyone’s Search Results – Danny Sullivan covers the new personalized search results in Google in great detail, including screenshots. You should also take a look at what the webmasters community is saying about it in the SEORoundTable’s summary of forum responses.

Mashable’s Social Media Guide for Small Businesses – this welcome summary is an awesome link to have. Know someone who needs a hand with Social Media marketing? Just send them this link.

This is it for now. Hope you enjoy the links – leave me a note with your thoughts.