Mark Traphagen

"Great balanced post Eli. Your bump was even bigger than mine1 I went from an average of 70-90 new per day to leveling off at about 300 per day the last couple of days." - Mark Traphagen

"We need to be clear here: Dustin did NOT "lose Authorship." It's just that the Structured Data Testing Tool was updated a month or so ago and the new version doesn't recognize vanity URLs for showing verification. But I have a vanity URL and I was still getting the author snippet for sites where I used it and those sites continued to show in my Author Stats at Google Webmaster Tools. So a vanity URL does NOT "break" authorship, it just doesn't work in the verificaiton tool." - Mark Traphagen

"Thanks for this Jeff! Fascinating stuff to be sure. I've seen enough from anecdotal experience as an active content creator on many sites who has been active on Google+ since its third day to already be convinced that there can be a profound SEO effect via Google+. But I do have some questions and observations about your study: 1) While I would love to believe that topical relevance plays a part, I'm not sure there is enough here to prove that it exists or is significant. Since each of the sites was about a different topic, relative competitiveness of the KW you were tracking will be at play here as well. So comparing how each ranked after one day may not be conclusive that topical relevance was the "winning" factor. 2) I'm also not convinced that you proved a limit to the number of links that can be in Contributor To. Display of the Authorship rich snippet is algorithmically controlled and never guaranteed for any particular query at any given time. Seeing it one day and not the next..." - Mark Traphagen

"Yes, Google Authorship is based on Google knowing you're identity via a Google+ profile. To date they have established no other means by which you can verify Authorship for Google SERPS. As for remaining "relevant," who can say? Google is still very far away from being able to implement anything like an "author rank," so as far as a direct ranking signal, no. But you will miss out on whatever benefits having your photo in SERPs might bring." - Mark Traphagen

"Bob, what do you mean by that? Can you expand?" - Mark Traphagen

"Thanks Vondell!" - Mark Traphagen

"Excellent, clear-headed article, Danny, on this much-hyped and much misunderstood topic. I had the same take on Schmidt's quote when it first surfaced (see http://www.virante.org/blog/20..., but your longer excerpt only confirms what I suspected at the time. We might also add that Schmidt's book is his speculations about the future, So that makes it even less worthwhile as "proof" that Google is doing Author Rank today." - Mark Traphagen

"Two things: with Search Plus Your World Google has had personalized search results affected by social contacts for over a year. Second, how does Graph Search duplicate Google's "reach" when it is limited to your friends (or in some cases, friends of friends)?" - Mark Traphagen

"Rand, even though Jesse is on this list, I'm still honored to be here (I kid!....about Jesse, not the honor). Right back atcha, you've become one of my most valued follows on G+ as well." - Mark Traphagen

"Barry, this guy only covers his tracks when he gets caught. And then it's always "oh I forgot" or "it was a mistake." No need to thank him. He's a low life scraper who gives SEO a bad name." - Mark Traphagen

"And then reposting them on your own site with a few minor changes to make them look like your own, eh Greg? Yesterday me, the day before that Rand Fishkin, now Barry. Not too surprised between yesterday and today you stopped taking comments on your "posts."" - Mark Traphagen

"Carol, Greg's a stand up guy. Shortly after I posted my comment he started posting publicly on Google+ and thanked those of us who had challenged him to do so. I think he's already getting a hint at the kind of awesome engagement you can get there that we already know so well." - Mark Traphagen