A recent blog by Tom Foremski on technology site ZDnet has caused a stir within the PR industry. Foremski put forward the bold claim that the search engine, ‘Google’ is killing PR agencies. This statement has forced a number of bloggers to hit back with their differing opinions. Tom claims that Google wants high quality signals that have been made through the natural viral habits of the internet, and the practice of stuffing your press releases with key words will muddy this natural process. So, with Google recently updating it's engine to stop overly optimised anchor text, Foremski believes this will not end well for PR agencies and states, ‘If you try to buy links, etc., sooner or later Google will see that and those practices will come back to bite you’. The claim has caused a lot of reactions coming from other bloggers, one even calling it ‘hysterical’. Hotwire's Joshua Lachkovic began his argument pointing out Foremski’s lack of analysis in his blog. Joshua also makes the important point that posting press releases is not actually against the rules. Although Lachkovic does agree that the process of packing your press release with a number of key words will raise alarms for Google, but adds that this isn't anything new. ‘Google didn't just kill PR agencies, all it did was kill spam – and it’s been doing that for years’.