Rants SEMMYs

Let’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2008 SEMMY Award in the Rants category is … drum-roll, please …

Web 2.0 & SEO: Must We Piss In Every Public Fountain?
Dan Thies, SEO Fast Start | 9/8/07

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

Imagine that you live in a village. The villagers need water. It’s a long walk to the river. So some of the village leaders get together and decide to dig a well. They create a public fountain, and everyone can get water from it. It’s a wonderful thing, until the village drunk starts pissing in the fountain.

Now replace the fountain with Wikipedia, and the village drunk with SEOs… and you have a perfect picture of why Wikipedia had to nofollow outbound links.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

1. Why The SEO Folks Were Mad At You, Jason
   Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land | 2/8/07
2. SEOS: The Card Counters of the Internet
   John Andrews | 9/9/07

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

The judges have made their choices, and the finalists in the Rants category for the 2008 SEMMY Awards are:

The Finalists

• Google’s Policy on No follow and Reviews is Hypocritical and Wrong
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 1/25/07
• Why The SEO Folks Were Mad At You, Jason
  Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land | 2/8/07
• Google Adds Paid Links Reporting
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 6/13/07
• Things That Bug Me Regarding Those Who Sell Links
  David Wallace, SearchRank | 8/14/07
• Web 2.0 & SEO: Must We Piss In Every Public Fountain?
  Dan Thies, SEO Fast Start | 9/8/07
• SEOS: The Card Counters of the Internet
  John Andrews | 9/9/07

Congratulations to each finalist! Please grab a finalist badge and let your readers know that public voting on the finalists has begun.

Here’s How to Vote

Now it’s your turn to choose a winner! Please read each article above and decide which one you feel is the best. When you click below, you’ll be able to vote in this category only. To vote in other categories, please visit the pages listing those finalists. Voting is open now, and will close at end-of-day on January 30, 2008.

VOTE NOW IN THIS CATEGORY (link will open in a new window)

The following are the nominees in the Rants category for the 2008 SEMMY Awards. Our judge(s) will narrow this group down to 5-6 finalists. Congratulations to all nominees! Please grab a nominee badge and let your readers know that public voting on the finalists is just around the corner.

• Shoemoney, A Fish Bowl, and Bullshit
  Todd Friesen, Oilman | 1/10/07
• Black Hat vs. White Hat vs. Grey Hat SEO: The Definitive Guide
  John Andrews | 1/12/07
• Good SEO Humor
  Lee Odden, Online Marketing Blog | 1/23/07
• Google’s Policy on No follow and Reviews is Hypocritical and Wrong
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 1/25/07
• Cnet Bastards
  Greg Boser | 2/2/07
• On Alexa, Compete.com, Quantcast, et al
  Andrew Goodman, Traffick | 2/6/07
• Why The SEO Folks Were Mad At You, Jason
  Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land | 2/8/07
• The Lisa’s Problem With Wikipedia Explained
  Lisa Barone, Bruce Clay Blog | 2/19/07
• Calling It Linkbait Doesn’t Make You Less of a Jerk
  Lisa Barone, Bruce Clay Blog | 3/14/07
• How to be an Idiot Blogger that No One Likes
  Todd Malicoat, Stuntdubl | 3/21/07
• Merchant Circle Can Kiss My Consumer Ass
  Sugarrae | 3/25/07
• Words and Phrases You Should Avoid
  Dean Bloomfield, Speaking Freely | 4/3/07
• Mahalo: That’s Hawaiian for 8 Visitors A Month
  Brian Provost, Scoreboard Media | 5/30/07
• Hey Jason, Search Results are Never “Done”
  Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide | 5/31/07
• How Sequoia Venture Capital Will Pop the Bubble of Web 2.0 - Mahalo or MFAhollow?
  Todd Malicoat, Stuntdubl | 5/31/07
• Google’s Ideal Webmaster: Snitch, Rake It In And Don’t Deliver
  Ralph Tegtmeier, Fantomaster | 6/5/07
• Google Adds Paid Links Reporting
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 6/13/07
• Five Things I Hate About Linking
  Eric Ward, Search Engine Land | 7/2/07
• 2007 Tour de France Winner - Wikipedia
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 7/6/07
• Of Course Branded Keywords Convert Better!
  Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide | 7/24/07
• Newsflash: You’re Damn Right It’s a Popularity Contest
  Sugarrae | 7/25/07
• New Google Adwords Formula = Just Pay Us More
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 8/10/07
• FUD & Relevancy: Inside the Mind of a Google Search Engineer
  Aaron Wall, SEO Book | 8/13/07
• Things That Bug Me Regarding Those Who Sell Links
  David Wallace, SearchRank | 8/14/07
• How Google AdSense Cannibalizes Content Based Business Models
  Aaron Wall, SEO Book | 8/18/07
• Web 2.0 & SEO: Must We Piss In Every Public Fountain?
  Dan Thies, SEO Fast Start | 9/8/07
• 7 Useful Webmaster Tools Google Stole From You
  Aaron Wall, SEO Book | 9/8/07
• SEOS: The Card Counters of the Internet
  John Andrews | 9/9/07
• Why the SEOmoz SEO Quiz Is Completely Wrong
  Vanessa Fox | 9/11/07
• More SEO Noise
  John Andrews | 9/19/07
• Getting Bitch Slapped by The Guru – OUCH! That’s Gotta Hurt
  Bob Massa, Ask the SEO Guru | 9/24/07
• Google vs. Innovation
  John Andrews | 11/16/07
• Stop Complaining, Start Educating!
  Amber Benedict, PPC Hero | 11/20/07
• Are You a Social Media Idiot?
  Lisa Barone, Bruce Clay Blog | 11/28/07
• Christina Warren of Download Squad is a Clueless Idiot
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 11/30/07
• Hey Blog Scrapers! Take This Post Too
  Kim Krause-Berg, Cre8pc | 12/14/07
• What Google Knols Can Teach You About Google’s Philosophy
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 12/18/07
• Matt Cutts Says Financial Arrangements Should Affect All Links Within a Post
  Michael Gray, Graywolf | 12/30/07