I have been reading a few posts on various blogs about the “usefullness” of SEO. There have always been different camps and opinions on things like White Hat / Black Hat SEO practices as well as Paid vs. Organic search marketing. I am sure that the Social Media group will also put in their two cents into this debate as well. It makes for some interesting reading, but what REALLY interests me is that when people get fired up about thier opinion and feel the need to defend their position, they certainly link a TON to other blogs / sites. Debates are great “link bait”. You can catch a good summary of the debate (and the history of it) here. (I had to link somewhere)

My Opinion?? Learn as much as you can…constantly expirement with every aspect of search so that you know what works and what doesn’t. If you want to try concepts that are “out on the edge” of SEO, do it on sites that you are willing to lose.