Firefox can easily be called one of the most versatile, most powerful browsers: tens, nay hundreds of extensions enable it to do just about anything from predicting the weather to playing music.

And thus we do; enable hundreds of extensions, that is. Which turns starting Firefox into a second-boot experience, its startup time equaled only by the actual boot-up of a complete operating system as you switch on your computer in the morning…

Falcon Heene, whom Wolf Blitzer in a most annoying unhip fashion referred to at times as "The Falcon" (#notcool), is going to need reputation management big time.

It's hard to get a picture of just how small a result set his name used to bring up; right now filtering out the words balloon and boy there are only 91 thousand results (and even in that set some are about The Balloon Incident of 2009)…

Michael Gray and I don't really talk. We're moving around in different online circles. He's like the softer, sane, balanced version of Rae Hoffman (interview).

He's also one of those people I like because as you follow him around the web, you'll notice that he (cozy word alert) "gives back" to the community. Scanning a couple of his statements around the web will give you more immediate money ideas than submerging yourself in your SEO feeds…

Today is Blog Action Day; a day when thousands of bloggers post on a specific social change topic in order to raise awareness of that topic and, eventually and maybe, cause a dent in the issue.

It's a day that sets me – and most likely you — apart from the rest of "them" as I see the concept pass by on Twitter (that's how I became aware of it) and read the stats on the Blog Action Day home page: 9,081 blogs registered…

Matt's one of those smart people you just want to follow on Twitter. Genuine stream, real conversation. Funny dude at times; smart. You know, the real deal.

Over a year ago I said, on Twitter, that to me The Joshua Tree is one of those classic albums. Matt couldn't agree more, said so… and we sort of stuck around.

He's one of those folks I really, really, wanted to talk with (interview)…

Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu taught public relations at the University of Dayton, was a Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research, an Assistant Professor teaching public relations in the Department of Communication Studies at Clemson University and now is Assistant Professor technology at at Purdue University where earlier she achieved her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

With everything I read from her hand online and a thesis titled "Building and Maintaining Relationships Online: A Framework for Analyzing the Public Relations Website Experience" I couldn't help but wish for an interview — a wish she gracefully, and I like to think joyfully, granted…

Count the facts, keep score and rate yourself.

If you know…

0: "Google, you say?"
1-5: you've heard about Google
5-10: you're informed
10-15: you're a practicing SEO by day, running a money-making web empire by night
15-19: you can, and do, say "Googledance" with a straight face
20: … get a life …

The Facts

1. Adwords accounts for 99% Google's annual revenue…

As is the case with more and more people these days, I know Hugo through Twitter. It's a testimony to the service and says something about the core of its community, I think.

Over time Hugo repeatedly jumped out of the stream into my mind's spotlight with links, statements or commentary that just … well, tickles me. Intrigues me. "Here's someone who knows a lot more about this 'stuff'", I thought…

Tamar Weinberg is a phenomenon.

Anyone in SEO has heard about her, at the very least. Often sideways as she's not directly involved with SEO.

Tamar's forte is social media, the genuine participation in which she takes to the next level: one hour after giving birth to her son David she was on Twitter to tell us about it:

Her knowledge of what was then hip to call "Web 2…

Brian Carter is one of those people who grows on you until one evening you sit typing the intro to an interview and you realize you can't even pinpoint the moment you got to know him; he's just always been there.

Brian's sense of humor is quirky, funny. If you pick the wrong set of tweets by one of his many @ handles you'd be excused walking away from them with a dismissive shrug of the shoulder and a heartfelt "weirdo!"

In fact, Brian's been the only contributor to the Search Engine People blog who tried to negotiate — and reason! — posting light hearted, "silly" blog posts…

This week's Ruud Questions is a little bit different due to our SEP Experts Week on Blogging.

I'm talking with Paul Wylie to get another angle on business-driven blogging.

Initially blogging was very personal. Now blogging can also take the form of reporting. For a business, for a company, which considers blogging, what angle should they pursue?

Business blogging is a slippery slope each company must fully understand the complexities involved before decided if their company wants to commit to blogging…

In Doing Things The Right Way — or The Google Way (was: How To Lose Trust) I wrote how aside whatever technical workings of the rel=nofollow attribute there is a lack of common courtesy politeness in the way Google has (not) communicated this change as clearly to the webmaster community as they should have.

@steveplunkett contacted me on Twitter to explain just how he disagreed with me [yes, see, you should be on Twitter too and follow @ruudhein as well -- you not only get to be hip & happening but also get to join the conversation and tell me just how wrong I am]…

A lot, an awful lot, has been said about The No Follow Issue but one thing I miss so far is Trust.

With what feels like sleight of hand, Google has done away with a huge chunk of Trust in the relation it is trying to build between itself and webmasters.

The relation that they are trying to build is one where they are perceived as at least meaning no harm. How they go out of their way to give regular folks, webmasters, small business owners, yes everybody, the information and tools and knowledge to achieve their very best in Google without crossing The Line…

The way I got to know Cindy Krum is different from most of my other interview targets. That is, I didn't really know about her before I did my interview with her.

No, the way we "met" is that I privately asked some people who would make a great interview target regarding mobile SEO. One name came back several times and that name was, unsurprising to you reading this interview now, Cindy Krum…

Jeff Quipp at SES Toronto

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Jeff Quipp: the past, present and future of SEO

…

I think I met MCJ via Fantomaster online. Or maybe I saw her involved in a discussion with Dave theGypsy — I'm not sure anymore. Either way, quickly after becoming aware of her I started to follow her because what she has to share with us is of a different quality than the usual SEO c…. stuff we hear. Started to read her blog posts (tremendously informative).

She's smart…

The Man in Black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed

When thinking how to introduce Fantomaster, those words came to mind. His is a nickname that evokes the legendary imagery of Clint Eastwood, of one who took the red pill.

I was pleasantly surprised to come across him on Twitter; more so when I realized how smart he is (he even retweets me on occasion, so like, there!)…

Content consumption moves away from the original point of publication.

Many people rely on aggregators and filters to leisure in the information streams.

As up and coming as blogging was "back then", Twitter and others are now.

Ruud Hein asks: are you there? If not, does anyone care?

I’ve always read a lot of news [by the way, do you notice how we start stories, posts and articles with I these days and remember how that annoyed the hell out of our teachers back then?]

When I was 16 or so, the thing to read if you were sort of socio-aware, "smarter than thou art"-style, was De Volkskrant and De Waarheid…

Bryan Eisenberg is what I consider a very smart marketer.

I "know" him best from his intriguing 2006 "Waiting For Your Cat to Bark", written with Jeffrey Eisenberg and Lisa Davis, which, to me, is the "Don't Make Me Think" of marketing. The only other consumer book aimed at thinking how people buy and how to get them to buy that I've found this good over the years was Paco Underhill's "Why We Buy"…

Many conferences (think the upcoming SES Toronto, for example) and news events are Twittered live by participants and visitors alike.

To help group such tweets together, to show that a tweet is about or from this event, people use hashtags. They're written like #tag

Their value? Tweets are soundbites; only the most valuable, most important, most poignant items are tweeted…

To people in the search industry, Mike Grehan needs no introduction. To those outside of it: Mike Grehan consistently comes up with ideas about search which, in hindsight, often proof to be right. He's able to articulate those ideas in a simple way and either causes people to smack their forehead as they wonder why they didn't see this — or infuriate them as we love to disagree with what some perceive as linkbait…

For the last two years, the only way to become a guest poster or contributor at Search Engine People was by invitation. Knowing the secret handshake helped, owning the decoder ring essential. But in the end, you needed an invitation.

Today we're changing the game; we invite you to write a guest post or article. And everyone stands a chance to get published.

Appearing on Search Engine People gets you in front of…

• several large in-house SEO teams
• executive decision makers
• folks who want to learn
• your industry peers (be it SEO or one of the marketing branches)
• potential clients

You're surrounded by ever improving content, written by some of the best out there…

When you enter the realm of legends, Tolkien is a given. A name anyone just knows.

Likewise, when I entered the world of SEO sideways, names of legend existed. It's there that we find Debra Mastaler listed. Start talking links and two names are dropped right away; Debra Mastaler, Eric Ward.

She works hard, is often busy, but in the end was able to take out some time for us.

There was this wonderful post What's the Biggest SEO Myth…

As someone born and raised in the Netherlands I of course know Joost de Valk; it's a small country and we're all on a first name basis … Kidding

No, I know Joost de Valk because he's one of those rare folks that does SEO, writes about WordPress *and* adds value. It's uncommon to see those 3 rolled up into one.

Joost is a smart but busy person yet after numerous threats he willingly made time for a short interview…

To those in the SEO/SEM industry, Rae Hoffman needs little or no introduction. She's an icon.

To those who've ever been even remotely serious about internet marketing or affiliate marketing, Rae's accomplishments are proof positive, her ideas and tips guidelines to live by.

Rae is to affiliate marketing what Matt Cutts is to Google. It's that simple.

You say that earning a full income from affiliate marketing is the exception…

When we wanted to check some usernames and navigated to the excellent CheckUserNames.com we found we were redirected to KnowEm.

Michael Streko quickly put us in the know.

SimonDoggett

What is KnowEm about?

We wanted to be able to create a site that would be an all in one sitefor checking where your username was registered.

The original site was called "CheckUsernames…

Angie is one of those people I “met” on Twitter — and something just clicked. Smart and geeky, copywriter and SEO-ish; perfect for our interview series where we learn more about making money online during the recession (and after).
Angie did a guest post here, The Big SEO Copywriting Secret: Quality Content That Converts, and has recently become a contributing writer at SEO Scoop…

Garrett Pierson falls, for me, in the same category as Shana Alberts or Ann Smarty: people extremely good at branding and promotion.

Like Shana and Ann, Garrett appeared out of nowhere (at least to me). One of the brands he appears under is, very smart, Your SEO Mentor.

Active on various social sites you can’t have missed Garrett and certainly shouldn’t have missed his guest post here, Optimization Checklist and Checking It Twice!

“Social media” and “marketing consultant”: can you market via social media or is social media a priori for branding?

Of course you can market via social media and it is in my mind the best way to market if you do it correctly…

The only way you haven’t heard of Kim yet is if you just started out.

Kim is the mama of search, the mommy of a whole generation of site builders, SEO experts and nowadays even usability folks.

With great care but ever greater determination she helps lead the forum she started: Cr8asite Forums. It’s one of the oldest forums and best respected site building and optimization forums out there, one with an A-Z approach rather than focusing on one aspect…

Marty Weintraub isn’t easily placed all the time. He falls in the same class as Rae Hoffmann or Dave Harry in that regard.

One moment he’s the most well spoken gentleman you ever encountered, the next he’s rolling the verbal punches with the best of them.

Quite consistently however he puts out some seriously interesting posts, proofing he’s thinking about all this “stuff” and giving it serious consideration…