Well, that’s all great and good, but it seems kind of wishy washy to me.  For instance, I’ve never been a big fan the way Google counts links.  To me it’s always seemed like an easy way to determine how good a website is.  Sure, computers are still not smart enough yet to read a web page and know if it’s as good as Shakespeare, or as drivel as Bill Shatner.  And, it’s going to be a few years before that does happen.  But, the good news is they do seem to be getting better at it.  That’s great news for all of us on the web.  Content providers, and content consumers alike.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and Googles latest Buzz, are truly closing the gap between and machine.  Or at least, closing the gap between people.  It’s allowing us to interact in a way and on a scale that was never before imaginable.  People have a strong desire for social interaction and contact with other people.  The internet is know allowing us to do that with hundreds of friends, family and colleagues if not in a physical face to face way, but a digital way.  I have to wonder though, how much of this we as people can handle.  I mean, do I really need to have fifty friends tweet and facebook-status me every day?  Do I really want to know what that many people are doing every day?  Heck, some days I’m not even sure if I know what I’m doing.

I do think that, while were getting close to overloading ourselves with so much digital-friend contact the next generations will be built to address these shortcomings.  They’ll become more intelligent when it comes to determining who are real friends are, and who are those that only exist in cyberspace.  Which is of course a step in the right direction.  Because, in spite of the short comings of the current social media craze, there’s no doubt in this writers mind, that it’s here to stay.  And I believe that’s only for the better.   For the most part, social media brings us closer together, and allows us to interact in a way we couldn’t do before.  Sure that changes the nature of our relationships, but at it’s core, it’s still driven by the same thing.  People.  And that in a word, is what makes social media marketing so powerful.  It’s ultimately about reaching people.