Well, it's kinda weird, but I should not be too surprised, Jason Calacanis attacked Seth Godin on Squidoo. According to Jason Calacanis:
"..A blogger asks why Seth isn't talking about Squidoo's massive SEO and porn problems. They also speculate that I might be attacking Squidoo because they are competition for Mahalo."
"…Frankly, I think Seth has fallen to the dark side and has become a Sith Lord of SEO, deceptive affiliate links, and page view gaming. I've known Seth for over 10 years and I respect some of the stuff he's done, but frankly Squidoo is so horrible it makes me wonder. Also, the fact that he won't address the problems is just, well, sad. Does he not care or does he not want to stop the SEO/affiliate gravy train? "
My feeling - I have "kinda" moved away from SEO (but still provide that service for my clients - while pushing them more in the direction of Web Analytics, Social Networks, Branding and Improving their sites over SEO); never did much of anything with Squidoo but play with it for a half hour or so - I don't do affiliate links and page view gaming - or anything.
I have no real position on any of this.
As far as Search and SEO goes, I think "keyword search" was interesting and relevant 5 or 10 years ago; but today, I find people to be much more sophisticated in how they search and find things - and the SEO model is way too "simplistic" for me. But a lot of people still buy into it - and if that's what they want to do - they don't need to be attacked for it.
By attacking Seth Godin, Jason Calacanis may be signaling that Internet Marketing has moved into a different stage. I remember reading stories about the French Revolution (The Revolution, like Saturn, is devouring its own children).
"..Such was the end of Girondism. They arose to regenerate France, these men; and have accomplished this. Alas, whatever quarrel we had with them, has not their cruel fate abolished it? Pity only survives. So many excellent souls of heroes sent down to Hades; they themselves given as a prey of dogs and all manner of birds! But, here too, the will of the Supreme Power was accomplished. As Vergniaud said: 'The Revolution, like Saturn, is devouring its own children."
Maybe I'm reading too much into this - but just imagine if well known people in Search Marketing or Web Analytics, many whom I know, some personally, started attacking each other on some point or another just because they disagreed.
Up till now, most of the people I'm talking about, those I see and meet at Search and Web Analytics conferences - don't attack each other (even if they disagree - and I'm sure there are lots of disagreements).
Seth hasn't responded, which I'm told, is the smart thing to do; I guess, if Calacanis keeps it up Seth Godin will have to respond.
As far as the Squidoo Spam Problem - there's so much spam being created, all over the place - but it does not start or end with Squidoo - and if they don't do it at Squidoo, they'll probably find somewhere else, or some way else to do it.
