OK, so this post is about 2 weeks late but I get this question enough to go ahead and post it now: Google has officially removed the line between "regular" results and the dreaded supplemental index. See this post on the Google Webmaster Blog where they say:

Google announced via it's blog that it was launching a new...service? website? blog?...well, let's just call it a knowledge aggregator for now. It's called Knol, which is short for "unit of knowledge". The idea is that anybody who knows something could write an article about it and submit it to knol. Then, other people who also know about that topic could edit that article and add their own knowledge.

Google's Matt Cutts announced at Pubcon this week that Google will soon be treating subdomains (www.sprydev.com vs podcast.sprydev.com) as being part of the same website for the search results. Previously, they treated subdomains just like separate websites. If there were 2 or 3 subdomains that showed up for a search results then they would all show up in the Google results. Not anymore! (well...soon)

On the Today Show this morning, Google announced the hottest (fastest growing) search terms of 2007.

1. iphone
2. webkinz
3. tmz
4. transformers
5. youtube
6. club penguin
7. myspace
8. heroes
9. facebook
10. anna nicole smith

Hmmm...I need to get busy posting a YouTube movie on FaceBook showing Anna Nicole Smith accessing the Heroes MySpace page on her iPhone...

I've said it for months: Buying links is a bad idea! Matt Cutts and many other industry experts have explained that link buying is not a good way to SEO your website. WE LISTENED and have never purchased links for any clients. I did a couple of years before I started SpryDev but that was before I knew any better.

Finally, Google has come out with a crystal clear statement about buying links. Last week they updated their Webmaster Guidelines on this topic. Here is their text in full (Emphasis mine.):

Recently Google Maps introduced the ability to perform searches by neighborhood. "It works like this: Say you want to find free wifi hotspots. Type in "free wifi" and the zip code, and the free hotspots appear at various locations on your map, with phone numbers for each location appearing on the left side of the page. Click on the link for a location and it gives you the name, address and phone number that goes with it, with links offering you directions to and from it." --Google Maps Tour

Now Local Search is even more local!