Rand Fishkin provides his take on how Facebook's Open Graph will impact Web marketing, as well as all the ways it won't. Fishkin says Facebook's "like" buttons don't affect search marketers today, but that hasn't stopped many from becoming nervous about how it could influence their future. Fishkin tries to answer questions around link signals by answering questions on how the change could influence SEO on the Web. He starts by explaining the difference between link graphs and social graphs.

Kevin Lee tells us why Google's new initiative based on working with agencies and AdWords accounts is great not only for agencies, but for their clients, too. He points to problems in the paid search industry, and how improved certification measures, enhanced training resources, preferred API pricing, and Google's partner directory will solve them.

David Harry provides us with guidelines on understanding Web spam and how to avoid tactics that might put your clients' Web sites at risk. The tips cover a variety of subjects from cloaking to query spam, with detailed advice on how to avoid getting penalized and filtered by search engines.

Verify tracking, submit a test lead, and review negative keywords when trying to find reasons why your paid search campaign isn't performing as it should. Maybe traffic dropped suddenly or conversions are down. Samyukta walks through solutions.

It's not uncommon for marketers to ask themselves why they should bid on their company's branded terms. So Jason Tabeling gives us three reasons why. For starters, many studies have demonstrated an increase in brand awareness when both paid and organic search listings appear together in top spots. Tabeling explains why.

It took him about five months to finish the list, but Rand Fishkin finally did it, adding 16 more SEO problems and tools to fix them to the 30-point list he began last year. Some of them are obvious and well known, while others are more obscure. Fishkin covers everything from generating XML sitemap files to comparing relative traffic levels of multiple sites.

Although not a big fan of the methods Google uses to collect data, Stoney deGeyter points to Google Webmaster Tools as being helpful to fix any Web site problem. So DeGeyter put together a series of articles that explains how to use Google's tools, beginning with setting up a Web site. In this post he covers verifying Web site ownership and how to use the dashboard.

Search queries rose sequentially during the past six quarters for Ask.com, and in the latest quarter search advertising revenue rose 20% compared with the year-ago quarter. Paul Thomasch cites IAC execs as admitting the 20% revenue gains are "not the new normal" and would not be repeated in the second quarter.

TED 2010 posted a presentation Tuesday from Stephen Wolfram, co-founder of the WolframAlpha computation engine, that took place in February during the conference in Long Beach, Calif. Wolfram talks about having to create a "new" type of science. He outlined the potential of the WolframAlpha engine and talked about using computing to understand physics and model the universe. The engine doesn't search for what others have written, but rather computes fresh answers based on facts.

In an interview with Frederick Vallaeys, a Google AdWords product evangelist, Eric Enge digs into a variety of topics, from new ad formats to products like Content Network, Conversion Optimizer and search-based keyword tools. Vallaeys offers detailed tips and tricks on using the tools.