Research using paid social ad creation tools like FB Ads will become more important to organic social optimization, similar to the AdWords keyword research tool for organic search engine optimization. Marty Weintraub explains how to target via psychographics in Facebook, defining the concept as "a means of identifying users by interests, occupations, roles in life, predilections, and other personal characteristics." He tells us how to use the information in Facebook profiles to target ads. For example, Marty tells us that he is a great target for Chanukah candles in November, because he loves the old City of Jerusalem, and tells us about it …

In the fourth consecutive year for online shopping growth, U.S. retail ecommerce holiday sales, excluding travel, should reach $54.5 billion in 2012 -- up 16.8% over last year, according to eMarketer estimates. The research firm projects that searching for gifts and buying online for holiday gifts will account for 24.3% of the $224.2 billion in U.S. retail ecommerce sales forecast for all of 2012. But according to ShopperTrak, more consumers will reach for clothing rather than electronics.

Facebook said Thursday that its Facebook Exchange -- a technology that enables advertisers to track visitors on sites outside of Facebook back to the social network, and present advertising to them there based on interests expressed online -- has moved out of preliminary testing. The exchange has been working with AdRoll, AppNexus, Brandscreen, Criteo, DataXu, MediaMath, Nanigans, Kenshoo, Optimal, RocketFuel, Tellapart, TheTradeDesk, Triggit, Turn, Xaxis, and X+1 to test the platform. 

What better way to market your product than to give each employee one, allow them to play with it and tweet their thoughts on Twitter or post recommendations on Facebook or Google+, and show their friends and family? Google typically hands out new gadgets to employees. Now Microsoft's Steve Ballmer feels a little generous. All 90,000 employees will receive a Surface, complete with Windows 8, to use at work and home.

Google has created an infographic based on data from Maps that points to popular destination searches. Many were located outdoors. National parks and the Hawaiian islands were the most popular U.S. searches, while local parks, zoos, gardens and playgrounds topped Canada’s and Europe’s list. To create the infographic, Google reviewed search activity in several countries between the end of May and the beginning of September. The top-rising searches and the often-searched landmarks provide insight into how people spent their summers.

Acer readied the launch of its CloudMobile smartphone to the Chinese market, but when journalists showed up for the press event, a spokesperson said the launch had been cancelled, according to Reuters. A unit of Alibaba, which took part in the project, released a statement explaining that Acer had faced pressure from Google and pulled the plug.

Calling it a "mysterious algorithm," Amanda WestBook delves into the one about how higher click-through rates solely contribute to better quality scores, which isn't true. She explains the way tightly themed groups of keywords work, what "crappy quality score keywords" can do to a Web site, and how the landing page relies on the site's load time. That in turn leads to a better score, among other things. A related post details how higher positions in the search engine ranking influence quality scores, what happens when ads or keywords are paused, and why quality scores matter. 

Kevin Graves gives us several reasons why the HTTP header link has not had a ton of traction in the SEO industry, before explaining how to advance them. Google announced support for rel=canonical last year, which can help to minimize potential duplicate content issues. Graves believes not enough marketers took advantage of the hint. He believes that now more than ever, SEO experts should begin implementing this method for non-text/html content-types. Although a little geeky, he explains how HTTP headers using PHP, .htaccess, and advanced dynamic implementations work.

TechCrunch reports that earlier on Wednesday Apple's search engine leaked information about the release of the next iPhone, numbered 5. The leak appeared as links or placeholders on the Web for press releases and other details the company will announce later today.

Eric Ward believes trusted links don't exist, but they can gain worthiness by people, which in turn looks more favorable to Google's bots. He reminds us that "worthiness" remains dependent on what people search for and whether they find it helpful. Ward tell us "this means if you sell the best steaks on the planet it won't help your rankings to have 150 links from vegetarian Web sites."