Time to wham bam you all with a little roundup post of odds, ends, and miscellaneous news.

First off, Jane and I are guest blogging next Wednesday (5/9/07) on Sugarrae's blog while she's getting drunk and lifting up men's kilts in Scotland. At this point, I don't think either one of us knows exactly what we'll blog about, but we both emphatically agree that we do not want Rae to gouge our eyes out with a spoon, so we better write something good.

Speaking of guest bloggers, Lisa Barone, who will be blogging for Rae on Monday, wanted me to point out that the Bruce Clay folk are getting into heaven before everyone else with the announcement of their "Help out a non-profit and you'll get free SEO training and a pass to SMX" contest. Whatever, Lisa. You think you're better than the Moz Squad? Well, you're not, because SEOmoz is charitable, too! Just yesterday we let a starving student clean our office's windows. Okay, the starving student was actually Rand's brother, and we didn't "let" him so much as "force" him, and he got paid in Mentos, not dollars (thanks Joe!), but still, that totally counts as charity.

Anyway, the SEO industry is getting into a tizzy over reports that Microsoft is negotiating with Yahoo! to possibly merge/buy/make a search advertising deal/make out/whatever. Please. This "will they or won't they?" gossip is becoming as contrived as Kate and Jack's tired love quadrangle on Lost. (A note to the writers of Lost, who I'm sure read our blog: please kill Kate. She's a moron. Thank you.)

Harry Maugans pointed out Cingular's service agreement to me and Rand. The interesting part is their section regarding linking:

Links to the Sites. You are granted a limited, nonexclusive right to create a hypertext link to the homepage of the Sites, provided such link does not portray Cingular Wireless or any of its products and services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise defamatory manner. You may not use a Cingular or Cingular Wireless logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark of Cingular or Cingular Wireless to link to the Sites without the express written permission of Cingular Wireless. This limited right may be revoked at any time.

Oh Cingular, you so stoopid! (By the way, I should mention that once you sign up for an SEOmoz membership, you thereby grant all ownership of your firstborn child to SEOmoz LLC so that we can groom a formidable and imposing Super Linkbait Team).

That's about it from me. Have a great weekend! Matt and I are running the Vancouver Marathon on Sunday because we're stupid, so here's hoping we don't collapse and die during the race.