Being that I just do PPC now, I have to give the biggest props to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool...though it's certainly extremely valuable for SEO's as well.

Can I see Google+ in my Twitter client?  No?  Hmmm....

Google has done plenty of things I haven't agreed with but at least I understood their reasoning for doing so.  This one makes no sense whatsoever.

Being expected to perform work that justfies my cost without actionable metrics to shoot for.(http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/metricless-ppc-management.html)

Sure...back in the day...but not now.

Yelp & others have plenty of opportunity to develop their business model.  They don't need Google's natural SERPS to be successful...there are plenty of other ways to grab mindshare and marketshare that don't involve Google.  Anything they get from Google's natural SERPS is just gravy for them.

I have a hard time arguing against the phrase "It's their search engine and they can do what they want with it".  If people feel Google isn't giving them the best results, they'll go elsewhere. For point of reference, IE used to have 90%+ marketshare and now they're half that.  Google share of the marketplace isn't nearly as dominant as IE used to be.

That they're not a bot :.)

I pretty much auto-follow anyone and remove the obvious spammers / bad apples.

I've pretty much quit SEO in favor of PPC.  I enjoy paid search more and I feel I'm much better at it.  Plus, both disciplines are complex enough that the time where one can master both has long since past.

But, I'm never going to quit Search Marketing :.)

I'm not sure that there is an ideal breakdown.  So long as you are working all the channels in an optimum fashion, the breakdown shouldn't matter.

Not to overmonetize with ads if you wish to keep your organic rankings.

80-90%.  I don't know how Microhoo can claim 30% share...I've never seen evidence of this in any context.

Links are as important as ever.  However, the contextual and social factors involved in weighing link value is evolving and will continue to evolve.

Personalized / localized search has made ranking reports irrelevant (though they were most irrelevant even before personalized / localized search).

Traffic / conversions is all that really matters.

Kids are 11 and 5.  Right now, it's a struggle to get my daughter to remember how to connect the computer to the Wifi without asisstance.  The SEO / Social Media stuff is gonna wait a while...

What Hugo said. I can't say it any better.

I would actually focus on getting to see the best speakers (proving the content is somewhat relevant to you).   Exceptional speakers like Rand Fishkin and Marty Weintraub transcend the topics they are talking about and since you can always read liveblogging and tweets of the sessions you miss, I would urge you to see the most memorable presentations.

Also, wear good walking shoes :.)

Like others have said...we don't really know the impact of social signals.  But I'm somone who believes that results are way better than they used to be and social is certainly part of that (as is local...as is personalized...)

I think Klout is about the best metric I've seen for measuring influence, but as Matt says, it goes much deeper than somebody's Klout score.  How do people use the influence they have is much more important than the number of followers.  Plus, how accessible is the person to your contact?  I'm sure Robert Scoble has more social media influence than Matt McGee...however, Matt is much more likely to respond to me :.)

Of course...it just won't be as valuable as it used to be :.)

Harvard students should know that Insurance / Medical pays out much better than porn :.)

I've always fallen back on "Public Instant Messaging"...if they've never used it, getting too deep into the social media theory will cause their eyes to gloss over.

Something along the lines of "online marketing" or "make money online" depending on who I'm talking to.

Frequently, I ask people if they ever landed on a site that has a ton of ads, no real content, and no seeming purpose for existence?  When they say that they have, I tell them that they just might have landed on one of my sites (and then I ask if they clicked on one of my ads) ... :.)

I think all businesses should have a website.  However, many businesses could get by with accurate Google / Bing places pages so long as they are up to date and fleshed out with the sorts of information that a prospective customer would want to know.  However, businesses without websites are definitely at a competitive disadvantage and it's better to have an unoptimized website instead of no website at all.

No, I think our service offering is intangible enough that any standardization process would be meaningless for both the consumer and the practicioner.  A "certified" practictioner wouldn't necessarily mean the person is either good or ethical, and a "non-certified" one might be non-certified because he/she doesn't give a rip about wasting the time and effort to be certified.