AOL Buys Social Network Bebo For $850 Million & Other Daily Finds for March 13, 2008

Here are some great and newsworthy posts I came across today including AOL buys social network Bebo for $850 million, Bill Slawski explores a recent patent filed by Yahoo that transforms the meaning of what a “navigation query” is and finally, a humorous look at what SEOs might be eating and drinking.

AOL Buys Social Network Bebo For $850 Million (Search Engine Land)
In an unexpected move, given the speculation surrounding AOL and its future, the company has acquired the number three social network Bebo who has a reported 40 million unique users on a global basis for $850 million in cash. AOL says in its press release, “Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network, the acquisition will give AOL a premier position in the fast growing world of social media with a network of approximately 80 million unique users.”

Redefining Navigational Queries to Find Perfect Sites (SEO By The Sea)
Navigational queries have been seen where someone searching intends to find a specific known site. Imagine instead considering a navigational query to be one where a perfect site exists that is ideal for a search engine to show to a searcher in response to that query, regardless of whether they knew about the site or not. Bill Slawski explores a recent patent filed by Yahoo that transforms the meaning of what a “navigation query” is, and finds a way to automate the process of determining whether a query is navigational, and whether a perfect page exists for that query.

What Food and Drink Do SEOs Love? (GSINC)
A humorous post that looks at what SEOs might be eating and drinking. Includes “Link Juice” Energy Drink, “Esseos” whole grain breakfast cereal, “Optimizer” Beer and others, Hat tip to Andy Beal for the find.