Matt Cutts get's celebrity status on Chicago Tribune

...wanting to wipe that brown stuff off of their noses.

SB

...because of this bit here:

(my bold)

totally agree with Jill.

hey Matt, maybe you could enlighten everyone why spam reporting simply does not work?

Hmm I wonder if they come in white and black hat varieties like spammers. White hat sells crappy products but in a good way. Or maybe someone dabbles here or there with crappy products in a bad way and considers themselves grey.

Hmmm To start, I am not primarily a SEO guy, more rooted in the business development world and traditional marketing. The SEO industry itself creates this world of 'heroes' and 'idols' that is very strange if not unsettling to me.

It does help denote a certain 'youthfulness' of the industry. While there are mentors, forefathers and trail blazers in other disciplines, it is not at this ‘rock star’ level of mentality. I can’t tell if SES is a serious get together or just a mutated Video Game convention (a-la E3) that changed it’s name.

Look at the title of this post it further perpetuates it with words like ‘celebrity status’. I start to feel like I am working in the entertainment or sports field. I am glad to say Matt, Aaron, Jill, Danny or any of you fine folks could drop by for some ‘Whine’ and cheese little to none of my business associates nor friends would have a clue whom you are EVEN after you explained it. It would garner little more than a ‘Ho-hum’.

It is interesting to me that Matt likes to talk about conversions a lot, because I couldn’t agree more. The process of SEO and SEM merely brings the customer to the door. Our analytics, sales and conversion department is far more important to us and our clients then the mere SEO. All the traffic in the world is useless if it doesn’t convert at a rate that produces some form of ROI.

All of this ‘celebrity’ just smack of something to me…. I can’t put my finger in it..er…on it.. so I vote with SB

he he….

>>"The SEO industry itself creates this world of 'heroes' and 'idols' that is very strange if not unsettling to me."

Yup to outsiders SEO must look strange sometimes.

SEO seems to me to be almost, but not quite, as strange as the world of traditional marketing.

READ

Gypsy, I sure hope that you would tell all of them how important we are *before* we show up, right? I mean, isn;t that what blogs are for?? ;-)

I think Valleywag said it best: "Matt Cutts is a Google celebrity. In the lame way that Walt Mossberg is a celebrity." :)
http://www.valleywag.com/tech/remainders/remainders-to-the-crunchcave-173967.php

I think every community has people that are well-known in that community, even if that community is the Flair Bartenders' Association: http://www.barflair.org/news.cfm
Anyone catch the Food Network throwdown of Bobby Flay against a flair bartender?

Arin, we do look at spam reports to try to find ways to increase quality. My advice would be
1) do spam reports through the sitemaps console instead of the general web form
2) make the spam report easy to understand and keep it short if you can

BTW, Arin--do you have friends named Ripe and Apnic? :)

>>?“Our analytics, sales and conversion department is far more important to us and our clients then the mere SEO.”

Hmmm.... so I guess when no one shows up in the first place (because no one can find you on the web) your conversion dept comes in real handy...

Matt - You have some thick skin dude, if I was compaired to a loser like that writer for the WSJ, I'd be coming unglued. ;)

I like to think I have thick skin, lots0. Every 6 months or so I say something sarcastic and then everyone goes "Was that really Matt? I don't think Matt would say that. That doesn't sound like Matt. Did someone hack his account?" ;)

Just to make you feel more like the rest of us, the next time I see you, I'll give you a big ol' slap on the ass.

Would that make you feel better?

1) do spam reports through the sitemaps console instead of the general web form
2) make the spam report easy to understand and keep it short if you can

you have the query, two URLs, and max 8 reasons based on the list with checkboxes. what is hard here to understand? page gets like 4 times longer without CSS (hidden text, yes), site has two domains (both can be seen as a result for single query), nevertheless you are "trying to find ways" since almost 2 months.

BTW, Arin--do you have friends named Ripe and Apnic? :)

nope, but I have a girlfriend named like soviet multiple rocket launcher.

"Arin" is a diminutive from an ancient Elven name. Elves were here much earlier. but don't worry, sometimes it happens that you misfire instead of being sarcastic :).

MC's blog may well show a picture of him threatening to push "the red button"...

... but I doubt it is solely up to him to press it - or to decide not to.

Arin, has no one made RIPE/APNIC/ARIN jokes to you before? Anyway, if someone does the spam report via the webmaster console, then they've logged in and we can give the feedback more weight.

grnidone, let's just declare a no ass slapping zone. :)

Might be worth biting the bullet and getting one of those webmaster consoles if it will get the egregious spam I noticed ages ago and reported, to be removed finally.

(And no, for the rest of you at TW, I don't generally go around reporting spam, this is just blantantly bad, imo.)

Arin, has no one made RIPE/APNIC/ARIN jokes to you before?

actually you are the first one I think. there is such organization - American Registry for Internet Numbers, they registered a domain with my name as a joke, but since it's not funny it doesn't count.

Anyway, if someone does the spam report via the webmaster console, then they've logged in and we can give the feedback more weight.

yup, I know that, I've found it on your blog long time ago ;).

I think Arin is a cool name. Much cooler than Aaron or Erin. Sorry Aaron.

Matt,

Please know that I wouldn't slap you on the ass unless you were wearing a suit. Then, you'd need it.