claaarky - 7:50 am on Aug 16, 2012 (gmt 0)

We can't hope to know more than the collective resources of google but we can hope to understand the way they think and the direction google is going in.

Everything I learned about SEO since 2002 has been turned on its head for me in the last couple of months. Things changed big time a few years ago but I didn't see it, and then google brought in Panda to magnify that change and now I see how different things really are.

I like scooterdudes Olympics analogy but I see Bolt as the website at the top rather than google. He's the big brand that made his name because he's unique in many ways. If I wanted to beat Bolt I'd study every minute thing he does and try to do it better. His fellow Jamaican runner Blake works very hard at that but lacks the uniqueness of Bolt so can only come second to him. That is SEO in 2012 but it's just the way life works, no big secret.