"Dear Bing Ads," Eric Couch writes in a letter to Bing ads. In it he asks for a little simplicity and many more nuance features. If he had been sending a wish list to Santa Claus for Christmas it would look something like this: on the first day of Christmas I would like my paid-search ad platform to bring me one higher keyword limit feature, two triggers to detect duplicate keyword content, several improvements in match-type statistics reporting segmentation, and the option to sort by destination URL.

Rand Fishkin said SEOmoz bought GetListed to support small businesses. The GetListed.org site and product functions will remain free for at least the next four to six months. Fishkin said that in Q2 2013, the company hopes to release a new version of the product focused on helping local, small business owners to optimize their online presence on major search engines and local portals. The companies will work toward providing Web software -- and maybe mobile apps -- to help companies get a simple, but detailed overview of how they are performing in local search.

Closing all the overly abused avenues of search engine optimization doesn't mean Google is making search optimization more difficult for marketers, according to Doc Sheldon. He explains why in a "rant" that reminds marketers of important facts and fiction. He takes us through site maps, social media, penalties and more in hopes of providing some encouragement and clarity to many issues that he finds are disrupting search engine marketing.

Microsoft engineers and marketing teams are showing a sense of humor. The group built a landing page titled "The Browser You Loved To Hate," complete with tweet and like buttons. A video on the site shows a guy adding negative comments. For every negative comment posted online, Microsoft IE automatically generates and posts a positive one in return. It turns out that automation is a wonderful thing.

Some 92% of tablet users research product reviews on their device, while another 72% use their smartphone for the same activity, according to IDG Research. The study outlined by ClickZ points to one of the best customer service support activities as answering a consumer's question on Facebook. It also suggests that 95% of consumers use at least one form of social media.

A grant from DARPA allowed Neil Gershenfeld, head of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, along with students, to flip the idea that powers Google's predictive search on its head -- allowing researchers to turn binary code into physical objects. A little geeky, but stick with Mark Wilson as he explains how MIT researchers developed a robotic manifestation of raw digital data called the Milli-Motein through some of the same ideas that make up Google search in order to create an object where the material "itself can change shape."

Through Google's Global Impact Awards launched Tuesday, the company granted seven non-profit organizations a total of $23 million to support their ideas for using technology and innovative approaches to overcome some of the most difficult human challenges. The companies tackle everything from real-time sensors that monitor clean water to DNA barcodes that stop wildlife trafficking. Overall, Google granted more than $100 million, $1 billion in technology and 50,000 hours of Google volunteers.

Search engine marketers can fail or succeed based on descriptive terms. Andrew Edwards explains the importance of keeping up with changes in meaning and inference. He provides three suggestions for terms in need of new definitions, along with why these words should be redefined. 

Purna Virji has a five-step plan to improve profits on paid-search campaigns. It all comes down to prioritizing steps and having the ability to identify tactical opportunities. She serves up tips on how to choose the strategies that focus on continuous improvements, as well as helping to eliminate tactics that could work well in theory, but might amount to only small gains despite large investments.

Vint Cerf, credited for being one of the fathers of the Internet, points to a petition to stop the regulation of the Internet. It's one of many topics taking place at the International Telecommunications Union conference this week and part of next. The group aims to revise a "decades-old treaty where only governments have a vote. In a post he tells us "some proposals could allow governments to justify the censorship of legitimate speech, or even cut off Internet access in their countries."