Interviewed, and Some Other Random Musings

Aaron Pratt, of SEO Buzz Box asked me recently if I would answer some questions for him in an interview. He asked me some easy questions, like if I do live near the sea, and some tougher questions, such as how Google might be able to tell if a link is natural or unnatural. It was an enjoyable experience, and I would like to thank Aaron for giving me the chance to share some answers to questions on his site.

Aaron Wall of SEO Book has an excellent new article on Search Relevancy Algorithms: Google vs Yahoo! vs MSN, in which he takes a closer look at the business models and search algorithms of Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. As a stand-alone article it’s very good. It might be the excellent start of a book on search, if Aaron would consider expanding it.

Jaron Lanier, over at Edge, wrote an essay published at the end of May on some of the problems with the Wisdom of Crowds and the harnessing of collective intelligence, titled DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism. Interesting comparison of some of the similarities and differences between the Wikipedia, My Space, and Google, and how those sources rely upon the interactions of massive amounts of people.

Todd Malicoat came out with fine article on duplicate content a couple of days ago that I highly recommend – How to Remedy Duplicate Content and Magical % Thinking