links for 2008-02-14

"Adding hard-to-see tags to viral widgets worked well for one developer, but how ethical are his methods?". One of the better mainstream media primers I've seen on the murky world of link trading and embedding links into widgets.

"Since Facebook opened up to third-party applications in May 2007, nearly 15,000 applications have been developed. Overall, some 100,000 developers are working on widgets and applications worldwide".

"The Web Widgets and Applications report tracks the trends that are driving this unique and intriguing, but not yet lucrative, area of Internet development". It can be *quite* lucrative if you are charging $695 for your report on widgets ;-)

Coming up after the break, survey shows kids less likely to chew gum after seeing "Don't chew gum or the puppy gets it!" posters...

Andy conducts a useful test on result freshness, and explains what the primary ranking factors seem to be.

Very comprehensive check-list of things to put on your 404 page in order to help lost users, and stop Google hijacking it with their toolbar.