Leave it to Esquire to bring the Library analogy to explain search and SEO to the masses. In the November ’08 issue, an endorsement of The Public Library from Esquire’s Meryl Rothstein reads,
…a librarian is like a Google that actually finds what you’re looking for and never clutters your screen with porn.
That’s sort of what I’ve been trying to say.
Though I have no validation what-so-ever that the comment and my simplification of SEO are in any way correlated. I like to think we’re in the same neighborhood and that my idea has caught some mainstream attention; after all, she writes about things like Electronic Skin (ok… so yeah, she also wrote What It Feels Like…to Pose for Your First Nude Photo.
Paul, good analogy, but here’s another.
The Google index is like a bookstore, and while having your “book” in the bookstore is all fine & dandy (hey-you got published, right!)SEO is like getting your book a front window display so people can actually find it & buy it (its not buried on the bottom of a shelf in the back corner next to the restrooms).
Love the blog, sorry I coldnt make SMX East this year.