Is it just me or did Mike really try to lead Matt during the seo clip? He kept trying to hammer home his point about "old school" SEO not being necessary but that isn't really what Matt would respond with. Matt's answer seemed to consistently say that it is part of it, but Mike didnt want to hear that, since it doesnt fit his current theories.

I think you're right on Dave. That's exactly the impression I got. I mean c'mon... Mike pretty much pre-answered the question about meta-description tags being worthless... only to have Matt say its a great thing to have for the snippets. And to be nice... Matt had to at least reconcile with Mike's views by saying, "But I do recommend a top-down approach for SEO".

Would be interested in hearing your take Mr. Wall.

I think most interviews and / or posts and / or articles are intentionally leading. That does not necessarily make them bad or not useful though.

I am working with a rather large website (in excess of 150 million pages) and am recommending custom meta description tags that include offers in them.

It is not hard to write formulas for different sections of the site to ensure the meta description typically has a call to action of some sort and descriptive page specific content in it.

That is a wonderful idea for meta description tags Aaron. It could work for all kinds of sites - not in a spammy way but in a useful way.