pmkpmk - 6:24 am on Aug 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

Brett_Tabke:

Webmasters watched it, bloggers watched it, and even the general press watched it. The dance was a monthly intense focus on Google that other companies could only dream about in their wildest fantasies.

I can only tell for myself, but my impression is that you overrate it. I'm "on the net" since '88, working in webdesign since '96, taking an loose interest in SEO since about 2 years (my site got good rankings WITHOUT any optimization). I only heard about the dance some 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Germany - where I live - is not really a backwater, but I NEVER saw any press coverage on the dance, I NEVER came across a discussion forum or specialty webmaster website which covered it, not even SEO specialized sites. I only learned about it HERE and my impression was that it was a mere inconvenience to webmasters and that the new system looks to me much better.