For Rand Fishkin trying to clear up a few misconceptions about how to use canonical URL tags must seem like a scene out of the movie Groundhog Day, the 1993 movie where a weatherman finds himself living the same day repeatedly. And although he has provided advice on the subject in the past, the confusion seems to continue. He writes that some SEO experts think only duplicates should use the rel="canonical" specification and the original must remain rel="canonical"-free, which isn't true. He provides diagrams and instructions, and goes into detail that Google doesn't even provide to help provide additional insights …

John Dvorak thinks search engine optimization, "the marketing tool advertising and marketing industries call SEO," is "killing the Internet." He gripes about not being able to find product reviews and facts when searching online for information. He searches for facts, but gets advertisements instead. Maybe he just doesn't know how to conduct searches online. During his gripe session, Dvorak calls SEO an "epidemic in Silicon Valley," and believes that search engines on average do a bad job at countering SEO efforts of companies just trying to advertise their wares. He says it's working so well that brands …

Bill Slawski tells us how a Google application could allow consumers to shop by taking a picture of an item with a camera phone. A patent recently filed by the Mountain View, Calif., search company describes a way to use a mobile phone for visual search by taking pictures of items, and sending them to the search engine to have it search through Google Product Search as well as other Web sites, to find prices, reviews and other information about the items. It also describes how to make a purchase from that information from the phone. The patent …

Marty Weintraub has posted a list of more than 1,500 search industry articles, ideas, tweets, tool reviews, notes and snippets. It is aimClear's 2009 internal agency-training library of content known as the "Daily Training List." This list of links to content could come in handy for those searching for answers. The list provides insight into just about anything that happened in search during 2009.

Julie Batten details nine tools that SEO experts should have in their link-building toolkit. She explains the kit consists of contact lists, worksheets, and templates. Think of it as a "consolidated repository" or "file of relevant references or documents" in your link-building program. Among the tools she explains in her list are targeted keywords, potential link partners, target directories, relevant blogs and forums, and tracking worksheets. Batten suggests laying out the tools and the resources in one quick-reference guide doesn't guarantee success, but helps to organize projects and procedures.