Marshall Simmonds is the Director of Search for About, Inc., a division of parent company PRIMEDIA Inc. Marshall is also an integral part of PRIMEDIA's new Internet Resources and Technology Group, where he directs, coordinates and supports search initiatives throughout Primedia and About.

Marshall is responsible for maximizing search engine exposure for About's 700 topic sites which cover 1,000,000 articles. He also oversees search engine strategies for Primedia's online properties, such as Americanbaby.com and Seventeen.com.

In addition, Marshall is the liaison between About and the engines and speaks on the topic of search engines/directories and optimization technology at numerous conferences around the world. He also trains the 700 About Guides, works on site redesign and develops/implements strategic optimization techniques network wide.

Simmonds also created and moderated the I-Search Digest - a twice-weekly e-mail discussion list where members and industry leaders cover search engines, optimization techniques and strategies, and the net. Prior to joining About he grew the subscriber-base from 200 to over 7,000 members within one year.

Prior to joining About, Simmonds was the senior search engine strategist for Multimedia Marketing Group, where he created and managed the search engine optimization department. As a specialist in SEO for over three years and personally trained by Danny Sullivan, he worked with over 150 clients including Intel, Lexis Nexis, Merrill Lynch Online, Hughes Network Systems, Wired, Lawyers.com.