The forums and the blogosphere are all aflutter over the announcement that Danny Sullivan is leaving Search Engine Watch and the SES conferences. If Google is smart, they’ll pick him up.
Good luck, Danny! If you need a reference, let me know!

The Tech Beat:
It appears that the preliminaries may be over, with Google now going after the application space.
This is certainly going after Microsoft in it’s strongest area, but given the thrashing that Google has given them in search, it’s anybody’s ballgame!

GoogleBlog:
Google promises better communication with those that create and manage websites with the launch of Google Webmaster Central. This follows in the footsteps of Google Sitemaps, and perhaps shows Google taking a less antagonistic stance with webmasters.

All the talk in the forums about Google Bowling has people worried about their site receiving a negative link profile. While I think much of this concern is overblown, it certainly is possible to build too many of the wrong type of link too quickly.
Building up link juice takes a long time. Replacing your current [...]

Digital Micro-Markets:
Donna Bogatin writes a scathing editorial on Google CheckOut. I’ve not personally used CheckOut myself, so I can’t speak to many of the issues that she raises, but the situation certainly needs to be watched.

John Battelle’s Searchblog:
Google execs have sold 7.4 billion dollars worth of Google stock. I can certainly understand that, and there’s nothing inherantly wrong with it. They’ve earned it. However, it’s notable that no exec has bought stock since it went public.
And, more interestingly, who the heck is buying Google stock at the current pricing?!?

SEOmoz Blog:
In the most scathing review I’ve seen of Google Analytics yet, SEOmoz’s Michael Martinez blasts Google Analytics for inaccurate data.

GoogleBlog:
Free for those in Mountain View, California, at least.
While this is certainly a magnaminous gesture from Google, let’s not ignore the fact that’s it’s also a way for Google to test an expansion of it’s geographically focused advertising. By using Google’s wireless network, they will know within a very short radius where you are located. [...]

Brietbart:
Google and News Corp. announced yesterday that Google will be the exclusive search provider for MySpace, in a deal expected to be worth at least $900MM in shared revenue.

John Battelle’s Searchblog:
Google, Yahoo, and MSN have announced plans to work together to combat click fraud. Certainly this is a laudable move, but can these fierce competitors work together sufficiently to achieve anything?
And, of course, they each still have a financial incentive to keeping click fraud around.