Ann Smarty provides tips on choosing a reliable and SEO-friendly Web hosting service, one of the very first and most important steps in the Web site development and marketing process. She tells us that no matter how cliched it sounds, Web site hosting is the foundation for success.

Andy Beard explains in a tongue-and-cheek analogy something he calls Pseudo Site Search, a site search for mortals who haven't fully mastered Google query syntax, but shows intent to retrieve information from a specific resource. It turns out a Google spokesperson confirmed that the search results discussed in Beard's post are part of a ranking/user interface change related to domain-based intent. Beard provides several examples and explains how it influences searches.

Well-established engineers at Google and Microsoft might want to give up and comers like Foursquare a lesson in privacy controls. A Foursquare privacy glitch sends the account username and password in plain text over HTTP, without any encryption, every time the app gets opened. Those will access to routers between the person opening the app and foursquare, or ... "you're screwed," writes Kou Man Tong.

Microsoft adCenter has now made it possible to add thousands of negative keywords at the campaign and ad group level. Tina Kelleher explains, however, advertisers should delete negative keywords at the keyword level because the list limit has not been expanded yet. Doing this will keep keyword-level negatives from overriding newly expanded lists. Kelleher tells us on how to get started.

Mike Baker sat down with Dax Hamman, VP of display media at iCrossing, a Hearst-owned global digital marketing agency, to discuss whether marketers have begun to see a convergence of search engine marketing and exchange-traded display advertising. The two discuss what it takes to bridge search and display advertising, what search advertisers can learn from display, and more.

Quality link building can help generate a positive online reputation, but bad link building can do the opposite. Kristi Hines provides three ways link building campaigns could affect you or your clients.

Those who still own one of the long-lost Compaq portables (like me) might appreciate Jack Aaronson's analogy of change. As the online advertising industry matures and technology becomes more sophisticated, he spends less time on laptops and desktops -- except for writing long reports or proposals -- and more time on mobile devices that devices allow him to quickly look up something or check email. What's the point? Marketers also need to follow change and adapt. Rather than fear change, Aaronson reminds us to embrace it, and provides insight into how to reach consumers as they switch, too.

Terry Van Horne suggests Facebook tried to steal Google's thunder this week when it launched Places as a location-based check-in service. Aside from Gowalla and Foursquare offering similar services, Van Horne explains why Google's Buzz, which allows Gmail users to identify locations and provide information to friends, might not have received the same attention.

Groundswell Productions and producer John Morris have acquired the rights to make a movie from journalist Ken Auletta's book "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It," published last fall by Penguin, according to Mike Flemming. He tells us who brokered the deal and what it all means.

Business processes have become an important issue in search engine optimization and paid search campaigns now that professionals have several years experience behind them and can share best practices. Miles Johnson tells how Google AdWords can help people share and learn from each other. Those interested can find it in a new category in the AdWords Help Forum: the Small Business Corner.