Vertical search seems to have been put on the back burner for many search marketers. With new buzz words like "Social Media" and "Local/Mobile Targeting", who could blame them? But let's not be so quick to forget about tried and true relevancy for shinny new promises. While vertical search may not be for every brand or market, if it fits, it can be your very best friend. At the vertical search session here in San Jose,

One of the first panels here at SES San Jose is the Search Industry Update. This panel tends to dive into the over all health of the industry and specifically where the major search engines are today. Not one of the funnest sessions of the week as it tends to be a bit dry unless you are a real search engine statistics geek. This morning we had a number of presenters each with a different perspective on the big picture of the search industry.

For those of you who are buried under piles of work and don't spend as much time as you like reading about what is happening in the industry, Mashable.com is on tour this summer. I was lucky enough to have the time to attend the SummerSmash Miami event in South Beach over the weekend. I love the idea that behind the tour. Taking the community on the road and providing a venue for all those folks who interact online to meet IRL.

For my Blog-off post, I wanted to do a piece which somehow tied back into my first contest post . Out of the 14 items, the one about SEO Forums actually has some deeper meaning to me and I thought it would be a good topic to focus on. 6. Real SEOs ' Don't go to the forums Real SEOs used to go to forums all the time. As a matter of fact, I bet most Real SEOs learned the craft on those very forums. Now,

I have been thinking about this for a while. There are so many new SEOs getting into the game and unfortunately many of them are clueless wanna-be's. How are we to distinguish between these posers and the "Real" deal? I have been in this industry for over a decade and during that time I have uncovered some very specific traits of Real SEOs that might help you tell the difference. 1. Real SEOs ' Don't wear hats in public All Real SEOs own every color hat in the book.

If you are an SEO and your saying to yourself, he cant be talking about me. Think again, I probably am. Dont get me wrong, I have complete faith that you could learn how to do it, but its a completely different skill set from what you are used to doing. With this in mind, it is very interesting to note how many SEOs are jumping head first into Online Reputation Management )ORM( and treating it as another project or deliverable. ORM is not just another application of SEO.