Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web….

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

Google, which has gained more search market and paid search shares, and garnered some good publicity from its self-driving cars and wind farm investment , today will release its third quarter earnings after the market closes. Analysts are forecasting sharp gains for Google, despite concerns about growth in spending on acquisitions and hiring. Click to read the rest of this post…

Rumors abound that AOL and several other private equity firms are in talks to buy Yahoo. Though the details of the deal are complex and limited, it has been said that in order for it to happen there will, most likely, be a sale of Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba. Moreover, Yahoo has yet to be contacted about said deal and has a much larger market capitalization at $20.56 billion compared to AOL’s $2.86 billion

Facebook has partnered with PlaySpan’s Ultimate Pay platform to expand it’s Facebook Credits Developer program. Users can now buy premium items and virtual goods in within apps and games via Facebook credits paid for with prepaid store cards and gift cards

Google has updated the “Links to your site” section of Webmaster Tools. You can now see which sites link to yours most often, which pages on your site have received the most links, and samples of the anchor text (“how your data is linked”) external sites use when they link to your site

NBC has opted out of its multi-year advertising partnership with Google because the company found “little value” in having Google sell its ads, Adweek reports. Click to read the rest of this post..

So you’re sitting there thinking: how can I take my SEO chops to the next level? Well, I am sure hoping you are, or have at some time along the path.

Many advertisers use keyword level tracking in AdWords destination URLs. This allows your server to track the source of paid search traffic hitting the site.

Yesterday, comScore released its “ Search Share Report ” for September. The chart, which reflects last month’s scores in comparison to August’s, shows that there has been very little change across the board. Google is up 0.7%, while Yahoo is down that same number