Search Trends - Search Engine Marketing

I think the whole blackhat/whitehat SEO discussion is getting a little old, but I like Tim Converse's breakdown of the SEO color wheel. He breaks it out into several different shades of gray, rather than just the typical black or white that people usually try to categorize SEOs. He makes some good point and even though it's just his opinion, he does work for Yahoo, so that's got to give his opinion some kind of clout.

Does it really matter what shade of white or gray you fall into? I guess the darker your shade, the riskier your position, but the truth is, marketers are finding success in all the various levels of gray, black, and white. In my opinion, the whiter you are with your SEO efforts, the longer lasting the effects will be. Sooner or later the search engines will catch on to your tricks if you're using tricky fads to fool them, but if you've got a legit site with real, relevant content, it's going to have staying power in the long run.