search engine optimization

In its most simple interpretation, a "pain point" is exactly what it sounds like: something so unpleasant that one is likely to try hard to avoid it or fix it. But buzzwords sometimes shift meanings, and for some boardroom jargon-slingers, pain point now means something very different.

The trouble lies in the quality of information -- a thorny problem due to the subjectivity of "quality" in general. Google keeps tweaking its algorithms, but the junk content keeps rising to the top. In the arms race against spammers, the next few years are crucial.

After more than a decade you'd think the quality of health information on the Web would be getting better, but it's still abysmal. Or perhaps more accurately, quality content is becoming harder to find as search engines swell up with optimized sites -- the natural evolution of "link farms" -- that...

Look out, Demand Media: Here comes another cheap content-creation competitor. Meet BlueGlass, the newest entrant in the rapidly expanding field of producing low-cost text and video articles designed specifically to snag search traffic.

Arianna Huffington likes to blast "the media" for getting distracted by silliness like the Balloon Boy story. But no one's more distracted, or distracting, than her own Huffington Post.