Determining Spam, WordPress Templates and Idomatic Design Patterns – Monday December 14th Roundup

Google launched real-time search this week, Chrome released the extensions marketplace (which rocks), but hey everyone is talking about that, right? Let’s look at something else.

This week we have Huo Mah ranting on SEO’s knowledge of Search Engines, BP Wrap on how email is determined to be spam, WordPress template development hints, and IBM on how to harvest idiomatic patterns in design.

• We’ll start the week with a wonderfully angry rant from Huo Mah on why you need to school yourself in search engine technology.
• Next up BPWrap hits a topic close to my heart: STOP SENDING JUNK MAIL! Specifically This post looks at some of the key indicators that a message is spam, and how ISP’s determine that.
• Last but certainly not least, GoodROI on how Google allows Target.com to spam results. Well that may be a little harsh, but it does explain how huge multi-department stores with massive link power can cause problems both for users and for businesses when it comes to finding stuff on google.

• We’ve had a few questions about WordPress in our comments lately, so I figure I’m going to start posting more WordPress tips. This week advanced power-tips for WordPress template developers and part II.
• From web designer depot: 5 solutions to common AJAX problems.

• Web analytics for social media is tough. Webanalyticsdemystified explains three classification genres for measuring twitter.
• Google Analytics got a bunch of updates last Monday, including annotations, MCV’s, Updates, and more…

• Ok, so its not really UX, but it ain’t quite tech. But if you want some dense reading, this is the post for you. Last week IBM Developer Works released revolutionary architecture and emergent design: Harvesting idiomatic patterns. I am not even going to try to summarize this…

• It looks like few Google users are opting out of behavioral targeting. A mind share victory for Google? More likely just an effect of the opt-out process, with people not caring enough to go through the process of opting-out.
• Neilsen reports that six million more seniors using the web than five years ago.