Jeremy Kirk claims Google overcharge advertisers for "free clicks." The mishap is linked to a commercial arrangement covering sites with pop-up advertisements. Kirk cites research from Ben Edelman, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, who believes Google hasn't done enough to prevent fraud related to how its text ads are distributed by advertising networks. Edelman points to nsoftware program WhenU as the culprit.

Google has adapted its page-ranking technology and developed new algorithms to keep Twitter tweets indexing and serving up in real time. David Talbot tells us the technique relies on PageRank technology, which helps to index and find relevant Web pages with traditional Web search. Details in Technology Review, published by MIT, explain that relevance and authority play a key role. The more pages that link to a page--and the more pages linking to the linker--the more relevant the original pages rank. Talbot details the process.

Microsoft pushed a free SEO tool out of beta on Tuesday for Web sites. Called SEO Toolkit, it works with Web sites supported by Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) Web servers on machines running Windows. The toolkit provides site analysis and manages site maps files to help search engines find and index URLs. Kurt Mackie tells us how to install the toolkit and the operating systems it runs on.

Sebastien Provencher lays out his predictions for 2010. He forecasts shifts in venture capital funding, local search, disruptive technologies, social media and yes, of course, mobile. Provencher points to analysts at the Kelsey group who suggest recovery this year will give way to a major shift in digital technology. In this shift, businesses will need to find a way to adapt.

During the past several years there has been strong debate on whether search engines violate copyright laws by indexing content on publisher sites. A proposed amendment could give the search engines immunity from copyright claims in the U.K., according to Kim Hart. Hart writes that the broad Digital Economy Bill would rewrite U.K. copyright law. Publishers could be in violation if they block search engine crawlers from accessing their site.

Earlier this week Yahoo announced that it has partnered with online comparison shopping search engine Pricegrabber, and "will no longer provide the Shopping Web Services API, including Shopping Results (the 'Yahoo! Shopping Syndication Services')" as of March 11. Those who want to continue to display syndicated shopping results for products listed on Yahoo Shopping, must apply to PriceGrabber.

Sam Niccolls explains 11 conversion rate optimization lessons. The long list of detailed data points and graphs, from visits per month, to subscribers, provides tons of tips. Niccolls also offers up checklists that can help "plug" leaky holes to keep site visitors coming back.

Do you remember the group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army that hacked into Twitter, knocking the microblogging service offline? The same group that defaced Twitter hacked into Baidu, taking the search engine offline for four hours on Tuesday, according to Melanie Lee. She writes that the domain name registration in the United States was tampered with. The group that defaced Baidu claims to have ties to Middle Eastern countries.

James Gurd lays out four recommendations for effectively planning your Web analytics strategy. He explains it all starts with understanding what analytics can do for online optimization, from ecommerce, to SEO. Gurd's suggestions include the obvious, such as making sure you understand how Web analytics works. But others are a bit more technical, such as making sure you have a structured framework to help support daily use of the tools.

Kimberly Smith tells us a story about a Boston-based dentist who sought to become more recognized as an authority in general and cosmetic dentistry. The post steps through the SEO campaign strategy, results, and lessons learned. Smith explains the dentist published an ebook called "Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex," which makes a few correlations between oral hygiene and happy intimate relationships.