To the delight of many search marketers, Google finally launched the much anticipated Google+ Profiles for businesses yesterday. And while the Google+ Pages don't have all of the functionality yet of Facebook Pages, you should still consider creating one now.

My friend Mikey and I were recently driving through our hometown, past a long row of new big-box retail locations that have recently sprung up. I, somewhat exasperatedly, said, "Who the hell is going to buy all this stuff?" Our town's population is only 120,000 but we seem to have a huge overcapacity of retail space, with more going up all the time, . Mikey replied, "Well, the town isn't getting any smaller and people need to shop somewhere." That, and a recent article by MediaPost reporter Laurie Sullivan, got me thinking. Do we? I mean, do we need to …

Well it's November, and you know what that means... next month is the Search Insider Summit! Oh, yeah, and there are a few holidays, too. The time to prepare is now. For SIS, that means getting your liver acclimated for the high altitudes. For the holidays, that means getting the right people and tools in place to maximize SEM performance. Today, I'll share some holiday season best practices. But, first, some lessons from the 2010 holidays. As for lessons from the last SIS, let's just say I won't be rapping this time around... unless MC Hammer accepts my challenge!

Two weeks ago, Google began blocking referrers from organic search under the auspices of protecting users and their personal information. Regardless of Google's intent, the change poses some significant challenges for SEOs.

I'm on a Hammer roll. Last week I wrote about the new search engine promoted by MC Hammer at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Believe it or not, there's more Hammer news, and it includes search and social royalty.

Last week wasn't Google's finest hour -- at least not in the eyes of the SEO community. It was then that Google announced it was "making search more secure" by encrypting searches that originate from users who are logged in to Google Accounts. In practical terms, this means that Google will no longer pass organic search keyword query details on to website analytics tools when users are still logged in to Gmail, Google Docs, Google+, or any other Google service. For SEOs, it means we're now flying blind for a portion of our search-referred traffic.

Last week, I shared portions of Steve Yegge's post (from inside Google) about how Google doesn't "get" platforms. But why, you may ask, does Google have to get better at platforms? Certainly, open platforms open greater levels of innovation, one reason why Facebook gained the critical mass needed to dominate social networking. That is certainly applicable given Google's forays into the social space. But there's another reason, one very germane to Google's core business. Becoming a platform provider is likely the only way Google can compete in a new search ecosystem.

Here we are about a month out from the winter Search Insider Summit, and I find myself thinking about what we will discuss at the event. If you have not been to an SIS event, I highly encourage you to attend. It's an intimate group that gets together twice a year with a mix of about 50/50 between regulars and newcomers that lends a fun tone to the presentations and conversations. As I think about the topics that will get covered, I'm reminded of the big changes and trends in the space that keep us up at night and also …

Last week was the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, and MediaPost had the best headline to come out of the event's coverage: "MC Hammer Launches Search Engine."

Ironically, the hottest thing on Google+is a rant from a Google Insider about how Google+ is hopelessly limited because Google doesn't get the importance of platforms. Steve Yegge goes on at some length (over 4,000 words) contrasting his first six years at Amazon and his last six years at Google.