Wow, now this is some outside-the-box gameplay design! I’m not going to comment but instead will just link to this gameplay video of Endochrome, an apparent upcoming game title.
This reminds me of Half-Life 2 Portal.
Andy Beal takes issue with an article that puts SEO in a not-so-positive light. I’m neutral on the first part of the article, but the business owner interviewed goes on to say
…business owners need to be aware of what their internet staff are doing, because programmers are constantly learning new methods, new techniques and tips from each other and from the web. “They would not give a second thought to using this new but perhaps untested and dubious technique on your live website just to hone freshly acquired skills or to appear to be a bit more professional in their own minds.”
That’s an important point and I agree in spirit. I don’t agree that everyone is adding features and the latest tricks just as a resume-building activity, but I have heard in person, from feedback to Google, and in forums that site owners have employed someone who has taken unnecessary risks with their sites, only to find out after a removal from search engine results.
Overall, I think that the number of people working on websites who are willing to make risky changes is a small fraction. And, at the end of the day, one has to put a large amount of trust in those working for him or her. However, business owners can consider a few things with respect to their website to mitigate these risks.
Knowing the spirit of the quality guidelines of search engines, learning what techniques they frown upon, doing a thing or two to keep tabs on their site, and knowing where to get help, are all potentially worthwhile. It then becomes straightforward to touch base with staff on changes, or bring that knowledge to new proposals, to ask how well the work meshes with search engine guidelines. If the web designers, programmers, or SEOs they work with know that the site owner has a basic savviness, those doing the work might be less likely to employ risky techniques on a whim.
World of Warcraft players were recently treated to a show: Not only did they get a Fourth of July fireworks display, but also a hailstorm of gnomes. Those in control of the gnome(s) were using an exploit to teleport themselves into a position so that the accumulated deaths spelled out the name of a third-party gold broker website.
No word on whether or not the corpses had loot in the form of cookies attributed to an affiliate 
(via waxy.org links)
Adam and a host of other good folks have added some FAQs to our Google Webmaster Help Group.
These include a charter and tips on posting, as well as answers to common questions for Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking, and using Webmaster Tools. These FAQs cover a lot of topics that are brought up in postings on a repeat basis, so they’ll sure to be well referenced.
I have it on good authority that these FAQs are being translated for our different language versions of Google Webmaster Help.
Kudos all around to the team and to the active group participants who lend their experience and skill in helping others.
