SMX Social: Just What Did Calacanis Say About SEO & More Recaps

Apr 25, 2008 at 8:06pm ET by Danny Sullivan

At our SMX Social Media Marketing conference this week, we had a great panel on the future of human powered search. Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, Jimmy Wales of Wikia Search, and Steven Marder of Eurekster all took part. Jason had some remarks on SEO that set off the usual wave of upset. But as I commented to those who weren’t at the panel, by the end of Q&A, Jason – along with Jimmy Wales and Seven Marder — were agreeing about the usefulness of SEO. It’s all down to the definitions.

Below you can hear Jason’s presentation yourself, then you can hear the Q&A portion that covered search marketing and human powered search. Note that the video production could be better. Hey, I just got a Macbook — it’s my first time playing with what it can supposedly do. Do don’t hassle me over the titles that could be better. Also, I will get the entire session up with the presentations from Jimmy and Steven, along with the further Q&A. But first, Jason:

The Q&A:

And here’s some of the reaction to initial reports of his comments, before anyone not at the show could hear what he said in full:

My Plea to SE Conferences: Turn Calacanis Away, Eric Lander
My Plea to SE Conferences: Turn Calacanis Away, Sphinn discussion on post above
Why Calacanis Should Not Be Allowed to Speak at Conferences, Slightly Shady SEO
Why Calacanis Should Not Be Allowed to Speak at Conferences, Sphinn discussion on post above
Jason Calacanis has pissed off SEO’s… again. Seriously., Sphinn
Srsly are SEOs Really That Easy To Manipulate?, ShoeMoney

And here’s further coverage of the show (for initial coverage from the first day, see SMX Social: Mahalo To Do Microformats, Search Wikia Adds Alpha 0.2 Features & More):

20 Take-Aways from SMX Social Media – Scott Clark, Scott Clark
Evangelist – The Marketer’s Role in SMM, BruceClay.com
Micro Communities, BruceClay.com
Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers & Answer Sharing, BruceClay.com
Social Media Expo (SMX) Report from Long Beach, California, Wpromoter
SMX Social Media Conference in Long Beach, MindCradle
Rand Fishkin | Jason Calacanis | SMX Social, Gary Pool
SMX Social Media Coverage Round Up, BruceClay.com
SMX Social Media Pics, Scott Clark @ Flickr

Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series, maintains a personal blog called Daggle and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan.

See more articles by Danny Sullivan >

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