Ok, I guess my going along with the prank and entertaining the notion that the situation was serious could be construed as idiotic. I'm a goober. I fell for it, ah ha ha ha ha!!!

But now I'm pretty sure that I know the truth.

The site had looked like this.

But it turns out the owner has made it a tradition of pranking users every April 1st. In 2006, he made the site look like Google had bought it and merged it with Blogger, creating a new blogging platform called "yspace." In 2005, he pretended YTMND's main rival site, ebaumsworld.com, had bought YTMND and taken over, creating YTMNDworld.

So even after yearly pranks and fooling all his regulars, he still fooled at least one new person in 2008. Me!

It seems that some sites have already noticed shifting PageRank values, as early as January 10th.

The last update happened in late October of last year. So maybe we'll be seeing updates continue until the end of the month.

With the changes put into effect to account for paid links, I don't think the update will hold entirely to historical trends. Paid links seem to be pretty widespread, and if every page with at least 1 paid link goes from PR whatever to PR 0, the collective PR of the entire net is likely to be affected.

Of course, going from a PR 0 to a PR 5 is like creating something from nothing. They say the more pages of content your site has, the more PR you've got. So as more pages are added to the net, the net's total PR will increase. But when Google arbitrarily changes the PR prerequisites (no paid links), it's bound to have an effect.

I see two possible outcomes. As some would say, "Paid links are here to stay," and so Google will eventually allow PR on paid link pages. On the other hand, Google is king, so perhaps the paid link, paid post, paid whatever industry will sink its claws into the ground and slowly get dragged toward an inevitable death that few want to believe is already underway.

Welcome 2008! I wonder what the year holds in store?

We all have a great opportunity to look at where we are and where we'd like to be. What are you doing right now? What responsibilities do you currently have? What would you rather be doing?

What will it take for you to be able to do it?

It's an excellent time to create new goals and new priorities. The possibilities are endless. We don't need to buy new exercise machines! We just need to get ourselves resolved to make a change, and to (finally) make use of what we've already got! That same idea can be applied to all areas, including making money online.

So what is it you should have done? Now all you've got to do is will yourself to take action.

Saw this on Yahoo:

I see smiling people on top (Democrats), and non-smiling people beneath (Republicans). Sure, Obama isn't fully smiling, but he still looks happier than Giuliani, Thompson, and Romney.

I think Yahoo wants us to think more favorably of Democratic candidates than Republicans.

Today is Thursday, October the Eleventh, in the year of our Lord, two thousand and seven. And tomorrow's Friday the 12th.

Ooh! So close. A Friday the 13th in October is perfect! Just like Monday, February 13th is perfect for Garfield. The next Friday the 13th in October comes in 2017. That's pretty far off. Why not worry about simpler dates? Like the next Friday the 13th, of any month? When's that going to happen again…?

That would be June 13, 2008. That's the earliest Friday the 13th of any month, from this day forward. I wonder what it will be like? Probably boring. Unless you're graduating around that time. For all you really hardcore Fri-13ers out there, maybe you'll plan some "Halloween In June" extravaganza to close out another school year with all your friends. A Halloween party in June — sounds like fun! Just make sure to wear light, breathable costumes in the summer heat…