In addition to today’s Internet Marketing Monitor coverage, we felt these stories were worth pulling out of the multitude of news items for August 13, 2007:

Link Building’s Cult of Reciprocity [Search Engine Land]

Eric Ward, master link builder, chimes in again with some thoughts on the never-ending debate about reciprocal linking. He uses a great example to illustrate that what one would expect to see in regard to reciprocal linking in one niche subject might be a red flag in another. Give his article a read. My advice? Do what works well for your visitors. Link to good, relevant content and stop sweating the rest. No, really!

Microsoft Completes Acquisition of aQuantive, Creates Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group [Microsoft PressPass]

While Google continues to deal with an FCC investigation into its proposed purchase of DoubleClick, Microsoft is completing its own advertising company acquisition. In addition to closing the deal on aQuantive, Redmond has created a new internal division for all of it’s advertising properties to live in (Atlas, DRIVEpm, MSNDR, AdCenter, emerging media types,the agency arm Avenue A | Razorfish).

Who Does Blended Search Better? [Bruce Clay]

Blended search? What’s that? Oh… you mean “universal search”? Yeah… everyone seems to refer to this trend in search results by the name Google coined. And folks tend to focus on Google’s efforts to pull search results from different verticals together. But is Google doing the best job at blending search results? Lisa Barone says no. And I agree. I think both Ask.com and Yahoo! do a better job (in presentation if nothing else). I spent most of the morning picking Yahoo!’s new embedded hotel Shortcuts apart and think the direction they’re going with their SERPs is great! Ask.com takes the cake, though. Now if only their index wasn’t so limited… I’d be sold!

Ask.com Goes Weird & Creepy With New UK Commercials [Search Engine Land]

I like that the insinuation here is that Ask’s US commercials were not, in fact, weird or creepy. Chicks with swords? Kato Kaelin (and dozens of people wearing Kato masks)? Naaaa… you’re right… that’s not weird or creepy at all! I think what SEL should have called this piece was “Ask.com Continues Weird & Creepy Vibe With New UK Commercials”. At this point I give up hoping that Ask.com will turn this all around and bring the talking monkey in pants back. That guy wasn’t weird. Maybe a tiny bit creepy. But really he was more cute than anything else. SEL has four of the new UK commercials embedded for your viewing pleasure.

Wanna know what else is creepy? It’s Monday… and I didn’t even realize it until just now. Weird, huh? See you tomorrow!