Jeremiah Owyang has posted some of his thoughts around search engine marketing following his research into some vendors in the community space which threw up a few interesting examples of how vendors are using sponsored links. Linking to an interview with Dell’s Bob Pearson, Owyang reiterates, a company’s corporate homepage is really Google.com:

“Although a common practice, it’s interesting to see which vendors buy sponsored links on the right hand column of the search screen. It’s not easy to tell if they’ve purchased these keywords directly to display if someone enters a vendors name, or if they bought greater search terms like “community software”, either way it’s an indicator of what Google, or the vendors think their most relevant competitors are. Search marketing is a pretty normal practice, but over the years I’ve seen and learned a few ethical, and not so ethical ways companies do battle for mindshare.”

Hit the comments for more thought-provoking discussion on what constitutes ethical activity in search marketing.

Elsewhere on the web:

Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land was first to pick up on Google closing down some high profile projects, at the same time as it lets go of about 100 HR staff. As John Battelle comments: “When Google catches a cold, it’s a sure bet a lot of other companies have pneumonia, or worse.” Meanwhile, Steve Rubel fears for the future of his beloved Google Reader.

If you’re thinking of using video to reach out to your community, take a moment to read and watch Nieman Journalism Labs’ interview with NBC’s Mara Schiavocampo discussing her digital workflow, with some guidelines for getting the shiz every time. Mashable tackles the issue from another angle, with their primer on how to get started with mobile video.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch thinks Facebook has mis-stepped in its heavy-handed response to a hugely successful Burger King viral campaign; commenters on the TechCrunch story and Inside Facebook coverage are in agreement – their response serves only to generate more publicity for BK.