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Robert Scoble, the popular blogger and internet social personality, has made a public apology to the SEO and internet marketing community.

Scoble has apologized for bashing the world of internet marketing, claiming that the SEO industry manipulates Google. In addition, he also called out Google for being a manipulator as well.

The apology is for statements Scoble made back in 2007. Better late than never.

“I showed an example where SEO techniques had put stuff into Google searches that just wasn’t very good and compared that to where Mahalo had done a better job,” admitted Scoble. “Anyway, it’s 2011 now and it’s clear that the Google way of doing things is still better for most people. It’s instructive to go back and see where I went wrong.”

Scoble had belittled the SEO industry because of “link baiting.”

“I went for cheap SEO tricks. Truth is, if you bash the SEO world they will all link to you, argue with you, etc. (Bloggers even have a name for this: “link bait”).”

However, some people are calling his bluff, saying that Scoble is only trying to get his own links out of the public apology. Ironically, doing a little dabbling in internet marketing himself.

Scoble is best known for his blog, “Scobleizer,” which rose to fame during his time as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. He currently works for Rackspace and the Rackspace sponsored community site, “Building 43.”

In the past, Scoble has worked at Fast Company as a video blogger. In addition, he co-wrote the book “Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers” with Shel Israel.

His career with Microsoft began in May 2003. Scobel was part of a video team in which he produced videos that showcased company employees and products. Although he promoted Microsoft products, Scobel often criticized the company, praising competitors like Apple and Google.

Scobel likes to make himself easily accessible to fans and posts his cell phone number on his blog, encouraging people to call him.

In 2005, The Economist published a piece on the blogger, saying “He has become a minor celebrity among geeks worldwide, who read his blog religiously. Impressively, he has also succeeded where small armies of more conventional public-relations types have been failing abjectly for years: he has made Microsoft, with its history of monopolistic bullying, appear marginally but noticeably less evil to the outside world, and especially to the independent software developers that are his core audience.”