Posted by Matt Peters Intro from Rand – this post comes from Dr. Matt Peters , SEOmoz’s data scientist. He came on board in February of this year after stints at Harvard (working on climate science models), Washington Mutual, JP Morgan and Fannie Mae (analyzing mortgage securities) and more (including some research into Google Places rankings last November).

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

Google seemed to be mid geekgasm when they announced their Google Wallet program, a system by which users could make payments via smartphone. This wasn’t some payment routing utility, either. You could literally tap your phone to a special sensor and – voila! Payment sent

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

Everyone knows that Facebook is going public. When was the only question

Local marketing has adapted well to the digital era, learning how to optimize for search engines, social sites, and even mobile apps. But while we knew that the worlds of local and online were colliding, we didn’t have a clear sense of what online services were winning – until now. Social networks, and especially Facebook, are trumping Google when it comes to marketing local businesses on the web.

AdSense abuse is, like it or not, a part of the game.

Google today confirmed the acquisition of display ad management firm Admeld, which we and others reported last week. Though Google didn’t disclose how much it paid for the buy, various news outlets said the deal was worth $400 million.

With the fifth edition of SMX Advanced happening last week, discussion on our sister site Sphinn focused on how to optimize your search conference experience. Our “Discussion of the Week” asked people to share their Best Tips For Search Conference Attendees and whether you’re a…

With the fifth edition of SMX Advanced happening last week, discussion on our sister site Sphinn focused on how to optimize your search conference experience. Our “Discussion of the Week” asked people to share their Best Tips For Search Conference Attendees and whether you’re a..