SEO Daily links: Google Places changes, negative ranking factors, Bing ads in search

Fun widget of the day: Google+ Feed Widget, used to showing off the Google + public stream on a blog or website. See it on the side of my blog too.
Sad non-sign-up of the page: I have iTunes on my computer at work. I tried to get the artwork for the CDs I have been importing into it. To access that feature I was required to sign up for an iTunes Store account. The process however required giving them my credit card information. Considering that I don’t plan to purchase anything and that it is a machine at work (that might be used by other people too) I didn’t finish the sign-up procedure. Hence I cannot see the cover art. At least I can listen to my music though.
And now onto today’s SEO links with my comments in italics:

• Mike Blumenthals usually posts 3-5 entries a week. Today he did five, because his area: “Google Maps & Local Search” has seen a serious update. Instead of linking to all of those, why don’t I just point out the two most important ones: his collection of articles from around the web and analysis of “What Does it Mean for the SMB?” (Search Engine Land covered the topic as well of course: Google Overhauls Place Pages, Emphasizes Reviews & Kills Citations)
  This is a big change the business the company I work for is in. There was a lot of excitement and some concern at the office today. Overall feeling is positive, we’ve been expecting something like this.
  
• Cyrus Shepard explained a few negative ranking factors in his (transcribed) video.
  Having a long domain and slow response time is a no brainer, But having AdSense ads on your site and higher percentage of followed as opposed to “nofollow” links pointing to your site was a bit of surprise for me.
  
• Barry Schwartz had some questions about Bing mixing ads with organic search results.
  The areas that ethics need to cover nowadays amazes me. Just because search engine companies were committed to “clean” SERPs and we the users got used to them doesn’t mean that the companies can change their policies and design. We might just have to relearn what Howard Rheingold calls crap detection.