Aloha Garrett French, Welcome to Search Engine Journal
I’d like to extend a warm welcome to the latest contributing columnist to Search Engine Journal, Garrett French. Garrett is the Marketing and Communications Manager for MarketSmart Interactive and the Managing Editor of Search Engine Lowdown. Garrett will be contributing original news and opinion on social search and Web 2.0; which changes definition by the day but could be considered anything cool and new using one or all of the following criteria; sharing, tagging, APIs, or ratings.
I’ve been reading Garrett’s stuff for the past 3 or 4 years ever since his days as the WebProNews search engine correspondent and have always enjoyed his perspective of the search scene and witty sense of humor (and yes, I still miss the other half of the Ol’ Kentucky Dynamic Duo; Brittney, who also brought an organic enthusiasm to her coverage).
Expect Garrett to lend some of that upbeat prose to Search Engine Journal about once or twice a week, as he’s busy up to his ears with the ongoing evolution of MarketSmart Interactive, his MarketerToday blog, and Search Engine Lowdown. Garrett begins his journey at Search Engine Journal with Yahoo’s Meedio Purchase & Yahoo! Broadcast Scenario.
In some ways seeing Garrett contributing to SEJ may seem a bit odd, perhaps like having Nigel Tufnel pairing up with Robert Plant for the next Zepplin album, or Andy Rooney replacing Lewis Black on the Daily Show; since Search Engine Lowdown and Search Engine Journal may been seen as some as being (gasp!) competitors.
And that is exactly what I love about the search engine industry – the passion and selflessness of professionals like Garrett, Andy Beal, Rand Fishkin, Barry Schwartz, Bill Slawski, Patrick Gavin, John Scott, Greg Boser, Andy Hagans, Greg Sterling, Matt Cutts, Jeremy Zawodny, Nick Wilson and of course Aaron Wall & the Godfather of Soul Danny Sullivan.
I really do not know of any other industry that sets competition aside (let’s forget about the little rants here and there & search marketing association problems) and is built upon friendship and the sharing of ideas, which in turn; builds the entire industry as a whole.
So, to sum things up, let’s give it up for Garrett French, who we’re all expecting great things from here and at his other projects – and will also fit in nicely with our other contributors including Wendy Boswell, Michael Nguyen, Greg Sterling, Sushubh Mittal and the occassional columns by Aaron Wall, Duncan Riley & Barry Schwartz.
