This week’s cartoon is not at all a dig at Neil, but more a sign of respect. Neil is a well respected individual in our industry, who is a permanent fixture on all panels at related conferences discussing social media. He’s also cofounder of ACS SEO. What’s truly really impressive though, is that Neil is only 22, and is known as one of the definitive gurus in the space.

My good friend Ross Dunn of StepForth recalls years ago when Neil was just 15, and would call Ross and Jim Hedger to prod them for industry information when he was just getting started. Well, I’d say it panned out well for Neil, and he’s now a leader in our space.

In what may well be a sign of things to come, it appears Google has removed 30% of organic listings on local market searches in some markets.

Note that in the above images, local maps appear, however, where there was once 10 organic listings there are now 7.

Do maps qualify as organic results?

Could Google increase the page to put the 10 listings back? That would mean they have to reassess the paid landscape on the side and that’s unlikely.

These results are not typical of Google.com, but are pervasive in alternate Googles.

For a long, long time, I’ve maintained that the Internet is about habituation.

In much the same way your paper comes came to the doorstep every day with the headline, a sports section, classifieds, local news, entertainment, etc., in it’s very predictable manner, people should little variation in how they use the Internet in their every day. There may be the occasional departure from protocol, in much the same way you may spend more time with the classifieds when you have to find a new apartment or a used car but for the most part, tis the same old, same old.