Lycos and Ask.com have offered paid SEO services. If there ever was a clear conflict of interest in the search engine industry, it is this. Imagine Google saying it would auction off ranking to the highest bidders. Though search engine optimization would become scientific (more money = better rank), it would mark the end of the search industry. Naturally google would not do that. Nor has Lycos or Ask. But, I think that it is the closest brush so far. Let us hope for the best, but I think that this seeks of optimistic desperation. Optimistic because Lycos / Ask must clearly have convinced themselves that they will prevent a conflict of interest. Desperation because a search engine offering search engine optimization services just has to be desperate.