For long has the SEO(Search Engine Optimization) industry with their black hat and then borderline techniques held the mindshare of webmasters and PHBs. A client recently asked me what it would it cost him to get to the top of search results, I told him not to bother about SEO get the SEM working for him instead. Well for a large price SEO experts still claim to subvert the Big G's algorithms( without bothering the explicit guidelines laid by Big G) for a while but not for long. I believe the continuous cost of subverting search results versus buying sponsored results to acquire traffic are now evenly matched.
The tipping point where SEO's well deserved death is upon us, with some help from searchwiki.

Perhaps the black hat techniques have now moved to another domain of social media marketing and they are being celebrated. How evil is it to make an un-suspecting youngster to part with his orkut/e-mail password and spam all his friends with a so-called 'viral video'.