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Avatar Went Hot: October 10, 2007 - 9:43 pm
Posted By: sniehaus 267 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.closed-loop-marketing.com)
Category: Google SEO
Google Internet Evangelist Vinton Cerf (also known as one of the fathers of the Internet) spoke at WebbyConnect last week, and is on record as saying "Search Engine Optimization does not work." I cornered him in the hallway afterwards so he could clarify what he meant...
17 Comments     

Comments

from AmyGreer 267 days ago #
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Spicy lead-in Sandra - and a great follow-up with a substantive post. Congrats on meeting Vinton, too!

from thejenn 267 days ago #
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Geeze...glad to see Vinton understands what SEO actually IS.

/sarcasm

from MiriamEllis 267 days ago #
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It's unforunate that this fellow doesn't seem to know the difference between SEO and spam. Interesting  article, however.

 

from MiriamEllis 267 days ago #
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Jennifer - you and I posted that simultaneously. haha.
Miriam

from fantomaster 267 days ago #
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Good article but this Vinton Cerf dude on SEO is simply pathetic. A starry-eyed propellerhead, ok, no contention with that breed, but there's something to be said about "not telling an honest working man his trade" - else, the techno's naivite transmutes into sheer ignorant arrogance.


So SEO doesn't work, eh? Sigh. And neither does link spam? Yawn.


Yet another inane "death of SEO" snake oil peddler? Really would have expected more from him what with his reputation and his historic merits. But this? Sad, nothing more.

from graywolf 267 days ago #
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ya know ... but then again ... how could ... oh forget it, never mind ...

from SEMSpot 267 days ago #
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Maybe someone should buy this guy a clue?

from sniehaus 267 days ago #
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My impression was he has complete faith in the ability of Google's algorithms to identify and root out all manipulative SEO attempts. If not today, then soon. And, that SEO efforts are like annoying flies in a laboratory - distracting serious folks from serious work.

from MattMcGee 267 days ago #
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Seems to me someone at Google needs to really start explaining SEO to the in-house crowd. Shame.....

from demib 267 days ago #
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True SEO dosn't work. Noone should waste money on it (and hey, if you listen to me, my work will be some much easier) :)

from TheRealTerry 267 days ago #
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Very insightful into how different Yahoo and Google approach SEO. In this case it appears Yahoo "gets it", Google, at least Cerf, does not. Yahoo has in house people who specialize in ensuring the engineers understand SEO efforts and how to better work with SEO's to meet everyone's objectives (marrying target audiences with the content/product/services they seek.) Google thinks they are flies to be swatted as they work towards completing their "perfect" algo.

Hmmm, maybe Graywolf was on to something with how Google is the next recording industry. They thought (still think) their DRM efforts would eventually stop the global community of people working to crack it, but in reality the DRM fixes only come quicker and quicker. Not to equate SEO with music piracy, or breaking DRM with piracy for that matter (some people just want to actually own what they paid for.)

from mpilatow 267 days ago #
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Wow, I would expect a person of his magnitude to understand the difference between SEO and Spam but apparently that is too much to ask. Funny thing is that there are plenty of spammers who are very successful at doing exactly what he says does not work. So he is wrong on 2 counts SEO does work and so does spam.

from demib 267 days ago #
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If spam did not work noone would even talk about it :)

from fctoma 267 days ago #
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let them say what they feel necessary, more clients for all of us who have been very happy with the way SEO has pushed our sites to the number one pos!

Do you really care what this guy says?

Didn't think so.

from toprank 267 days ago #
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"Search Engine Optimization does not work! All those people trying to optimize their content are interfering with our efforts to deliver relevant results."

Even with the clarification, it's obviously a blanket statement that throws the baby out with the bathwater and not worth any merit.

from iBrian 266 days ago #
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I think most people arguing pro-SEO are missing the point - Vint regards SEO as unfair manipulation of the web. As an internet founder and Google employee, I'd take that perception in that context.

Actually, the coverage is pretty excellent - those internet penetration stats are beautiful and have already blogged about them on Platinax. :)

from sniehaus 266 days ago #
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I'm right with you, Brian.


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