(Warning: There’s absolutely zero useful advice for small businesses in this post. Indulge me.)

USA Today does a story on Danny Sullivan, who deserves the attention (and a lot more) and yet doesn’t let it get to his head. It’s no exaggeration to say that there are thousands of people who do what I do that would be doing something else right now if not for Danny starting Search Engine Watch all those years ago.

I suspect a lot of us have a Danny Sullivan story. Here’s mine: I went to the SEW Live in Seattle event back in May, my first time ever attending any SEW event. At the end of the day, I spotted Danny in the hotel lobby. And I decided to step out of character and approach him to say “thanks” for bringing an event to my neck of the woods. We ended up talking 1-on-1 for a good 10 minutes. This would be like Bono spending 10 minutes talking about songwriting with some guy from the local bar band. And yet Danny gave me the same attention I suspect he would give Larry Page or Sergey Brin. Now here I am about to attend my first SES show, and I’m speaking, too. All because Danny spent some time with me talking shop.

I’ve been impressed by Danny’s search accomplishments for a long time, and now I’m just impressed by him as a person. Not that he’ll ever read this, but … thanks Danny.

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OH! Wait - right under Danny’s picture on that USA Today link, help for small businesses. Look for the “WAYS TO ATTRACT ATTENTION” box. Score one for Rand (another nice guy).