Search marketers have a good bit of reading to do today. Personally, my list of top articles to read around the changes (and directional focii) Google brought up yesterday is:

1. Vanessa Fox's coverage of Google's Support for Microformats and Rich Snippets in Search Results
2. Matt Cutts on Search Options & Google Squared
3. Both SELand's Live Blogging of Searchology and VentureBeat's Blow by Blow of Searchology are worthwhile for those seeking to parse exact meanings
4. The Google Webmaster Central Blog's coverage their Design Refresh of Webmaster Tools

Basically, if you've been reading news about search & technology for the past 6 months, you know that the web world and some of the mainstream press has made stories out of threats Google faces from:

• Structured data engines like Wolfram Alpha
• Real-time search like Twitter
• Social search & the social graph from a variety of sources (Facebook is usually the one mentioned)

With the updates announced today, Google's showing how it's fighting back against these potential/perceived competitors.

My question, though, is how does this change SEO? I go back to my post from last November - Oh My God! Search is Changing Forever! SEO is Doomed! Run for the Hills! Do the changes announced yesterday fundamentally change SEO? Are the new options around structured data worth investing in right away? Are richer SERPs, public comments on results and Google Squared going to make a big difference?

Let's discuss in the comments, as I think your opinions will be more valuable than mine. As always, please reward intelligent and valuable discussion with thumbs.