In addition to today’s Internet Marketing Monitor coverage, we felt these stories were worth pulling out of the multitude of news items for May 3, 2007:

Yahoo! Messenger, hold the download [Yodel Anecdotal]

Yahoo has released a new, web-based version of Yahoo! Messenger. Now some are saying that this is yet another case of Yahoo playing catch up to Google. But it’s not. Yahoo! has had a web-based version of Messenger for years. Granted… it was ugly and written in Java (so it was slow). But Messenger has been web-enabled for longer than Google Talk has even existed. That being said, this new version looks nice (I haven’t had a chance to play yet). I love the webification of all of these apps that were traditionally stand-alone. I don’t use Yahoo! Messenger (or any IM) that much anymore. But it’s nice to see an update to the online version that I can use from anywhere.

Introduction and Yahoo! Pipes [Official Google Maps API Blog]

This post is interesting for a couple of reasons. First of all, it talks about some cool ways to use Yahoo! Pipe’s KML output to do some nifty things with Google Maps. For the second interesting aspect of this post, re-read that last sentence. Yeah… Google is touting a Yahoo! service and showing how you can use it with Google Maps. Isn’t that nice of them? But I guess when you claim 60%+ of the search engine market you can afford to the throw the competition a bone every now and then. But seriously… this is an awesome example of using information from Pipes with Google Maps. If you’re a Google Mapper and/or Masher-Upper, this post is for you!

There are people who don’t use feed readers? [Official Google Reader Blog]

First of all, that’s a really good question. I sometimes forget that feed readers aren’t standard fare just yet. But Google has added a really nice feature to Reader that makes sharing feed items with people much easier - regardless of whether or not they have a feed reader. The “Email” link at the bottom of each feed item now sends an email directly from within Reader that can be read by just about any email client. The email is formatted exactly like the the story appears in Reader, too. Of course… there’s a link to getting started with Google Reader at the bottom of each email that Google sends out. But what the hey… I’d do the same thing if I was Google.

Free Web Design Tools From The Big Three: SEO Friendly or Not? [Search Engine Land]

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all offer free tools to help people build their own websites. But how do they perform… ya know… from an SEO perspective? I won’t tell you here because you really need to read the entire article. But all in all I’d say all three tools did better than I would have guessed. Despite their decent performance in the SEO tests they were subjected to, none of these tools can take the place of good ol’ fashioned hand-tweaked SEO. At least they’re a good place to start.

Don’t run the risk of a click and miss [Inside AdSense]

This is just a friendly reminder from the Google AdSense team about the placement of ads on your website. Per AdSense policy, ads cannot be placed anywhere that might make them confusable with other elements for your site. The examples given by Google include ads close to Flash games, under pop-ups or download prompts, and near site navigation links. If, says Google, they detect a large amount of false clicks on ads that run in these areas, they may disable your account. And no one wants a disabled AdSense account… do they?

Don’t miss our guide on turning Firefox into a website owner / SEO’s best friend -or- our continuing series on the Google algorithm. Better yet, drop this link into that feed reader that I know you’re using and subscribe to our feed - that way you’ll never miss a thing! Until tomorrow (which is Friday!!)… good night.