When it comes to SEO, few things are more frustrating than getting outranked for your own content through syndication. Providing an example, David Harry tells us why using full-feed RSS tool might turn into a nightmare. He also serves up advice on how to fix the problem by using partial feeds, linking article titles, and not linking to RSS UTM.

As birds and other wildlife die in the Gulf of Mexico's oily sea, BP has begun to provide information through paid search ads to the millions of angry people worldwide who seek information about why the company didn't take the necessary precautions before drilling for oil miles below sea level -- and what it is doing to clean up the spill. Jacqueline Leo runs through some insights, including Scott Slatin's estimate that BP is spending at least $7,500 daily to own the top position on searches related to the oil spill on Google, and another $3,000 a day for both …

Nicholas Carr points to Lauren Rosenberg's experience of getting hit by a car while crossing a four-lane highway on foot as an example of our growing, possibly dangerous dependence on technology rather than innate navigational skills. Rosenberg used Google Maps to track her route, and she's now suing Google. "Blaming Google seems like a stretch," writes Carr -- but there is evidence "our growing reliance on automated GPS directions could end up altering the circuitry in our brains." Carr quotes a neuroscientist who speculates such technology could lead to the shrinking of the hippocampus, the part of the human …

Kate Kaye tells us what it means if Maryland rules require political campaigns to store all digital ads, Twitter and Facebook posts, and text messages. The proposed rules also call for a disclosure line on all digital campaign communications for statewide office, to ensure voters can tell the difference between an official campaign message and a phony one.

Douglas Quenqua tells us Google has invited a handful of advertisers to test a new display ad format that integrates Twitter feeds. Some tech companies have had the ability to insert twitter feeds into rich media ads for more than a year, which Quenqua acknowledges. He writes that Magne Uppman, founder and managing director of Qualite, which has been testing the Google ads, has only seen a modest boost in followers.

Site audits take lots of time and careful planning -- but it's also important to put aside several hours in the day for what Lindsay calls unstructured play and exploration, which often provides a deeper look into how a Web site works. She provides a list of action items, and suggests a slew of apps that can help support audits. Among them: GSiteCrawler, LinkScape/Open Site Explorer, and (to check out key phrase landscapes) Quintura and SEMrush.

An important part of optimizing retail Web sites is creating an HTML sitemap that points to Web pages with unique URLs for each store, according to Matt Cutts. He provides SEO advice to make Web pages easily found and indexed, using Pinkberry's Web site as an example. Cutts writes doing a full SEO site review on Pinkberry might reveal a slight duplicate content issue, because they have two different URLs for their San Jose location.

If you're wondering where Google Ventures puts its money, Jonathan Dingman offers up a nice list for you. There are 10 companies on the list. MediaPost has covered two: Pixazza and SCVNGR. He provides a brief description of each company, its technologies, and ways some of them might work together.

May stats related to the Stanley Cup should remind marketers to take advantage of surges in specific keyword searches. Jim Lecinski tells us that Insights for Search can provide information into trending topics. As the Cup finals approach, take a look at what people from Chicago, Philadelphia and other places around the world search for related to the Cup. Knowing the spikes in keyword search terms could help capture more attention from fans who come to Google to search for related content.

Jen tells us how downloading reports from the Yahoo interface and using a desktop tool can pull CPCs data into a report that shows key performance indicators. Doing this will help marketers adjust bids for keywords in campaigns. So, she steps through the formula of how to run the keyword report from the Yahoo interface and download keywords from the Yahoo desktop tool to shave time off bid adjustments.