Here’s a round-up of topics we’ve been following, and Tweeting about, over the past month (or so).

• We like Anil Dash’s ’roundup posts’ highlighting conversations of note taking place. Ideas, social networks, etc.
• Search Engine Land: ‘At Google, we’re constantly experimenting…to improve the user experience and usefulness of our ads.’
• Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital tips: Choose a “healthy” backpack for your child.
• For Kansas City/Midwest: Buy a Blizzard at area Dairy Queens on Thurs (8/13) to help benefit Children’s Mercy Hospital.
• For Milwaukee/Wisconsin region: Support Children’s Miracle Network and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. TODAY (8/13) with Dairy Queen Miaracle Treat Day.
• For Memphis/Mid-South: Dairy Queen Miracle Treat Day – buy a Blizzard and $1 goes to Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center!
• No event at the ‘Plex this year for SES, so we’ll have to see if ‘Caffeine‘ makes the serps dance like updates used to.
• Guest posts from Children’s Mercy Hospital as a parent live-Tweets while her child undergoes surgery for Crohn’s disease. Thanks for sharing!
• Calling it ‘next-generation infrastructure,’ here’s Google’s official blog post on the Caffeine update.
• Matt Cutts has been discussing his need for ‘caffeine’ a lot lately. Now we know why: The Google Caffeine update.
• All Things Digital: Marc Cuban to Rupert Murdoch: Yes you can sell content online. Happens ‘every second of every day.’
• Local NPR affiliate reports that “rubber-tired trolleys” will be running by our KC River Market offices by spring.
• Yahoo never was a search engine? Danny Sullivan vehemently disagrees with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz.
• Mashable: Tr.im shutters. What happens to links, can you monetize shorteners, are they good for the Web anyway?
• We love the Verizon commercial. Kid: “Dad, cool it with the Twitter updates!” while Dad Tweets on his enV: “am..sitting..on…the..patio.” But we can’t find the Verizon ads anywhere … not YouTube, not the Verizon Wireless website. Did we miss the ads, or is VZW missing a great viral op here?
• CNET: Thursday’s Twitter, Facebook, etc. DDOS attack likely targeted one user in the Georgia-Russia conflict.
• Our B2B ePR has been ‘traditional.’ Will move to Social Media Visibility. Interesting debate here.
• IDC: Online ad spending down 5% vs. Q2 2008, with classifieds off 17%. Monster hit hardest, Google has slight gain.
• Who uses Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc? About 60% more people in Q2 2009 than in Q2 2008, says eMarketer.
• Saying ‘high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform,’ Google acquires On2 Tech.
• Yahoo enhances Delicious with new search tools, fresh bookmarks, plus email and Tweet bookmarks.
• Reuters: ‘Yahoo … Sees Real-Time Search Opportunity.’ Could ‘mine’ Tweets and ‘assemble’ them into SERPS.
• StatCounter: Bing combines with Yahoo for 20.36% of US search market in July vs. 77.54% for Google.
• ‘It makes sense for me to step down now’ from the Apple board, says Google CEO Schmidt in All Things Digital.