Don't include direct links to images. If you have links to pages that contain images, that's fine.

From Google Webmaster Help: "Do not include direct image URLs in Sitemaps. Google does not index the image directly; instead, we index the page on which the image appears. Direct image URLs included in Sitemaps won't be indexed."

Should I include links to my images (in addition to pages) in my Google sitemap.xml? It seems to make sense to me, since you can get significant traffic from Google Images (images.google.com).

Of course, I thought it best to check with the Gurus on this one first <img src="http://forum.guruofsearch.com/my-plugins/bb-smilies/default/icon_wink.gif" title=";)" class="bb_smilies" />

I setup a 301 redirect a couple weeks ago, from a specific page on one site to another site. I basically thought the page was more suited for one of my other websites, so I moved it.

I've seen some strange patterns, meanwhile, in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). I saw the page resolve at one point, but now the URL is back to the original. The redirect is working, and traffic is showing up at the new site. It just seems to be taking forever for Google to recognize the 301 and re-index the page.

How long does this process normally take?

I just got an email from Google Places, and instead of saying "Hello Sarah," like it normally does - I'm getting "Hello [my account password]". I've heard of Google privacy and security issues, but this takes the cake! My account password for one of my main gmail addresses sent out in my Google Places email!! Anyone else seeing this?