Links have been used as a ranking metric since the dawn of the search engine, but are we in the middle of a period of transition? Users on SEO Chat think (or at least hope) so.

Users on WebmasterWorld are talking about predictions and emerging trends in SEO for 2016 - it's a great topic so far.

Mobile usability is Google's meat and potatoes project these days - by that I mean it's taking up a big section on their plate.

Yahoo has been determined to complete a tax-free spinoff of its stake in Alibaba, even after the IRS said it might not fly.

Although a Penguin update was supposed to be on its way this month, Google's now saying that it probably won't happen until early 2016.

How much of this is the result of an error overwring a disavow file, or as the result of other factors, is yet to be discovered, but either way, it's an interesting topic.

Although Google hasn't confirmed it, some Webmasters believe that a third Phantom Update occurred on November 19, 2015.

Only 66% of users on complex payment systems will complete a transaction - making cart abandonment a major issue for ecommerce sites.

Google wrote: "we recently completed a major revision of our rater guidelines to adapt to this mobile world, recognizing that people use search differently when they carry internet-connected device

Ryanair sent Google's Eric Schmidt its complaint, but it never got an answer, so it has decided to take Google to court over what it describes as misleading adverts.

John Mueller replied to a webmaster with an interesting issue recently. They kept a dev site as a subdomain of their main site.

Dealing with reputation issues, identity theft, negative reviews, and viral bad publicity are all issues businesses and SEOs face regularly.

Stories in Yoast SEO weekly recap: Google Rolls Out RankBrain; Wayback Machine Adding History Search; Another Penguin Coming

https://yoast.com/weekly-seo-recap-44/

Google appears to have given its competitors more ammunition in their fight over its "biased SERPs" when a "code push" appears to have demoted its competitors in mobile SERPs, and favouring its own

Affiliate traffic networks are apparently a big problem in the mobile world these days.

Google's recently released Search Quality Rater Guidelines emphasize user satisfaction and usability more than they have in the past, it seems.

It's a big ol' 160 page pdf but according to SEL it's a pretty good read. If

Poor Google Plus has been in a tailspin for so long, it's refreshing to see something new being done with it.