PC Mag writer John Dvorak has written another bit of anti-SEO linkbait in which he claims that SEO "is killing the Internet if it hasn't already".

If you are a search geek like me and some of my other counterparts at The Search Agency, you are awaiting the arrival of the first significant Google Algorithm update since 2006 with great anticipation.

I asked a few of The Search Agents to try predicting the biggest opportunities, newest developments and craziest ideas that would impact online marketing in 2010. Here are their thoughts:

AOL will reduce its international footprint this year to cut costs and support product development goals.

AOL is attempting to innovate potential ad placements on its AIM application, according to an e-mail a sales rep sent this week to a major ad agency.

Real Time search has been a major focus of many startups and search giants such as Bing and Google. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Podcasts, YouTube Videos, and Flickr all have taken the user generated content to a whole new level. This has put a lot of pressure on the search engine giants to efficiently track/index content for their users. But, the rate of content generation is so overwhelming that real-time social search engines make more sense than the traditional methods of searching for information.

Yes, you really can learn SEO from your spouse. If you're married, you know something about SEO that you might not be putting to use. Think about how you landed your mate. When you do, you'll be learning something about how to do search marketing the right way.

1. Pay extra for premium domains (if you develop them) If you can’t find and buy a good aftermarket domain and get creative - you need some marketing classes

Market Motive faculty Bryan Eisenberg has a great list of 69 really killer tools for making your website better. Since I’m a big tool fan myself, we’re planning a future Market Motive panel to discuss our favorite tools for website. It should be truly awesome - if for some reason you don’t know Bryan - you’ve been living under a rock, and are missing out on one of the true top level experts on conversion optimization. This guy literally wrote the book on the subject (in fact, several of them). Check out Bryan’s awesome list of tools to make your website better, and keep an eye out for our upcoming webcast on MM on all our favorite tools in the web marketing arsenal.

I’ve spent the last week at my parents house in a little town in Los Angeles called LaCrescenta. It’s been the first time I haven’t been in an office for over 1 week in 10 years (side note: this is the first time I’ve been at my parents for this long for almost 5 years). It has been good to take some time and reflect on things and do a little bit of looking at things from that 10 thousand foot view. Which has led me to thinking about why it is ever so important to take time, take a step back, and think more strategically.