Those search positions are correlated with visits and conversions for each keyword in a campaign, the Analytics team noted on their blog.

Users can drill down on any keyword to see its position in the search displays. The blog listed more information about this:

Positions T1 through T3 indicate that your ad was promoted to the top of the search results page. Positions 1 through 8 indicate placement or location in the right-hand column of ads with 1 being the top position. 9 through 16 indicate the same on the second page of ads and so on.

Advertisers can tweak their bid amounts to gain the best placement for their ads with the help of the report:

This report can be used in conjunction with the Position Preference feature in AdWords to optimize around ad position in the following way: the AdWords Keyword Positions report in Google Analytics shows conversion rates and CTR for a keyword's results position -- and then, with Position Preference in AdWords, you can select that position as a target.

Google Analytics has also worked through its backlog of waiting list requests for accounts on Analytics. New requests for the program should receive an email invitation response within a few days now.

Calling the program "Unified Communications," the new offerings are designed to be built into the Microsoft Office system 2007 wave of products, including Microsoft Exchange Server, Outlook, and Microsoft Speech Server. The company has teamed up with HP, Motorola, and Siemens to deliver its new line of products.

Microsoft says HP will provide hardware devices and systems integration services based on the unified communications platform; Motorola has agreed to provide mobile device and network hardware based on Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator Mobile; Siemens is in charge of integrating telephony, audio-,video- and webconferencing, instant messaging and email into one platform.

"To achieve the productivity revolution we believe is possible with unified communications, we need to provide deeper integration of communications modes within the processes we use every day," Anoop Gupta, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Unified Communications Group said at the conferenc.

Athletic director Laing Kennedy's decision affects about 400 athletes at the school, who have until August 1st to remove their profiles or risk reprisals from the university. The reason for this? Protecting student identities and the university's image.

Kennedy said in the report that students who list phone numbers and addresses have been contacted inappropriately, either by strangers or sports agents. That led to this passage in the report:

"It would be irresponsible on our part if this led to something serious," he said.

The move to ban the site came from students and coaches expressing concern over safety and privacy issues. Kennedy said he hasn't seen the site.

Does this mean Kent State will delete student-athletes from campus phone directories, which have been the way strangers and sports agents have found contact information about them in the past?

Banning Facebook entries does little to protect student-athlete identities, since they are going to be published by local, regional, and even national media based on their athletic performance. Usually with photos, sometimes in full color.

Starting out with a few posts online, and a measured posting pace, managing comments and building those conversations can be rewarding. Done well, they greatly enhance a site's reputation.

As the number of posts increase, and visitorship rises, and conversations grow in number, a site publisher, especially a solo one, will feel the crunch. What happens then? End comments and eliminate the conversations like Yahoo's Russell Beattie did? Shut them off for a thread that could generate some hostile comments as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban did?

It takes a special kind of thinking to plan not just for one's ascendancy, but one's downfall. Before starting a number of conversations on one's site, it is best to plan for the time when those conversations may end. That may mean bringing on more writers, or ending conversations on certain topics after a period of time since publication.