Only the good die young
I’ve just seen over at A4U that Keith Budden’s lymphoma has returned. Whilst he is a fair way from expiring yet, having beaten the condition once before, it’s sparked memories of the recent passing of Dave Bellis, aka DaveAtIFG. Last year saw the demise of Cory Rudl, a pioneer of internet marketing.
I don’t wish to get too morbid here, but everyone dies sooner or later. Internet marketing is such a new industry that we haven’t had many major figures, or major figures of an earlier era die. If the GoogleJet crashed tomorrow, with Larry and Sergey on board, imagine the shattering effect it would have on the industry. Imagine the effect it would have all over the internet. Imagine what it would do to Googles stock price. Such an event could, conceivably, produce a noticeable effect on the US and / or world economy.
I’m sure Google would recover, they have plenty of talent over there. Similarly, what if Bill Gates had a heart attack in his sleep tonight? I know there’s an uncharitable section of the PC using world that wishes that regularly before they sleep every night (and I’ve been among ‘em on occasion), but seriously, to many people, in and out of the computing industry Bill = MS. There are a handful of “computing” superstars who more or less define how we think about arguably the most important aspects of our computing lives.
From a strictly academic point of view, it will be fascinating to see how personalities such as Billy G, Steve Jobs, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are remembered, if at all. In the SEO industry, we are a small, generally tight-knit community, and although we don’t (yet) have the same public recognition as some of those already mentioned, there is a small list of top practitioners who deal with Big Business, and who wield influence far beyond their numbers.
It would be simple to construct a hypothetical scenario where a sizeable fraction of the world’s SEO talent got wiped out overnight (a nasty limo crash, or a bad keg of beer at a hotel bar somewhere are top options), and you’d see corporate sites across the world come crashing back through the rankings within months as their SEO crutch was knocked away.
I don’t think this post comes to any particular conclusion, but I’ve found it at least mildly thought provoking writing it. The future is going to be a wierd place, but I’m going to find it wierder when some of the people who have ALWAYS been there to me, suddenly aren’t.