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Journalist here. Danny Sullivan works for Google, but spent nearly 20 years working outside of Google as a fellow journalist in the SEO space before he was hired by the company.

He was the guy who replaced Matt Cutts.

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1st paragraph is correct , 2nd not quite - Matt Cutts was a distinguished engineer (looking after web spam at Google) who took on the role of the search spokesperson - it’s that role Danny took over as “search liaison”

No. But it's also complicated, as Matt did thinks beyond web spam. Matt worked within the search quality team, and he communicated a lot from search quality to the outside world about how Search works. After Matt left, someone else took over web spam. Meanwhile, I'd retired from journalism writing about search. Google approached me about starting what became a new role of "public liaison of search," which I've done for about six years now. I work within the search quality team, just as Matt did, and that type of two-way communication role he had, I do. In addition, we have an amazing Search Relations team that also works within search quality, and they focus specifically on providing guidance to site owners and creators (my remit is a bit broader than that, so I deal with more than just creator issues).

thanks, Ernie!

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