Thanks very much for your insight. I saw that article and found it incredibly interesting. There is so much in there however perhaps it is best summed up by saying that Google is continually trying to find ways of pushing people toward paid search from organic SEO solutions. The internet is founded on the concept of sharing information in the form of content and all the social media integration or real time search will not change this. Quality content will still be the deciding factor in gaining search engine rankings. Where this is true, there is content and coding to present in the most compatible manner possible and companies need consultation on this. You need only look at Twitter Search to see the chaotic nature of realtime results which are effectively unfiltered; relevancy can only be assessed by indexing. Optimisation is not about manipulating search results but formatting a site in the most compliant manner possible to acheive organic rankings. As long as this is true, SEO will remain an essential part of any search engine marketing campaign.

This is a great article by Aaron Wall on the future of SEO… where it’s been and where it’s headed.

http://www.seobook.com/seo-where-it-going