  We report neutron scattering measurements of single-crystalline YFe$_2$Ge$_2$
in the normal state, which has the same crystal structure to the 122 family of
iron pnictide superconductors. YFe$_2$Ge$_2$ does not exhibit long range
magnetic order, but exhibits strong spin fluctuations. Like the iron pnictides,
YFe$_2$Ge$_2$ displays anisotropic stripe-type antiferromagnetic spin
fluctuations at ($\pi$, $0$, $\pi$). More interesting, however, is the
observation of strong spin fluctuations at the in-plane ferromagnetic
wavevector ($0$, $0$, $\pi$). These ferromagnetic spin fluctuations are
isotropic in the ($H$, $K$) plane, whose intensity exceeds that of stripe spin
fluctuations. Both the ferromagnetic and stripe spin fluctuations remain
gapless down to the lowest measured energies. Our results naturally explain the
absence of magnetic order in YFe$_2$Ge$_2$ and also imply that the
ferromagnetic correlations may be a key ingredient for iron-based materials.
