I was late to Seach Engine Optimization (SEO). It seemed to me like a parlor trick.

The idea of manipulating a search engine's algorithm so as to dictate the first results a user sees feels like...cheating.

But I know a lot of people who use it, honest people. I've seen the good work SEO voodoo can do. And I've learned that, when done in conjunction with a complete online marketing campaign, instead of just in isolation, SEO is an important tool in the online marketer's toolbook.

And so it is becoming. (I will explain that logo to the right if you just click below.)

All this is prelude to word that Mediasmith, one of the online media outfits that survived (some might say defied) the bust, has hired an SEO expert, Bob Heyman.

Bob's not just an SEO weenie, however. The press release announcing his hire reminded me of Alma Wuerfel's obituary, which Tom Lehrer turned into a song many years ago. This was the juiciest hiring announcement it has ever been my privilege to read. The least I could do was blog it.

For instance:

Heyman holds a Masters from Harvard and a law degree from the University of California. Golden Gate University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2000 when he was the school's Commencement Speaker. Also in 2000, SF Mayor Willie Brown declared October 19th to be "Bob Heyman Day".

In a prior life prior to the Internet, Heyman was an entertainment attorney, representing such stars as Maria Muldaur, Jefferson Starship and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. His rock opera "Rock Justice", co-written with Marty Balin of Jefferson Starship, is listed in the Book of Rock Lists.

How this guy became an SEO weenie is a mystery to me.

But it did remind me we're approaching the 10th anniversary of the launch of 7th Level's "Tuneland," a ground-breaking CD-ROM cartoon (voice by Howie Mandel) whose press conference brought me face-to-face (for the first and last time) with such entertainment notables as Quincy Jones, Linda Ronstadt, and Charles "Roger Rabbit" Fleischer, among others.

I remember that Fleischer was doing a PC column at the time, and some geek began fawning all over me about my work at Newsbytes, ignoring Charles even after I introduced him.

I hope that wasn't what ruined Bob.