In our continuing series of coverage, I'm pleased to present one of the most talked-about, anticipated and dramatic sessions of the SES San Jose conference so far (though I heard that the session on click fraud was also extremely contentious). For the past 2-3 years, Google (along with Yahoo! and MSN/Live) have hounded the micro-economy of paid link advertising and paid link networks at...
I'm taking a new approach with events and attempting to do more in-depth coverage of a couple of what I feel are the best, most interesting, most innovative or least discussed sessions at the conference. Since contextual advertising is an area where I have little to no experience, I found the panel fascinating - and certainly Microsoft's announcement of a contextual ad product on the Microsoft ...
To help keep the balance, I'll shine some light on some of my favorite things about search conferences: Presenting - It's exciting to be on stage, sharing ideas and being a thought leader. There's an undeniable allure to it, and while I take it as a serious responsibility, I admit that I have a real passion for it, too. Meeting New Peopl...
SES San Jose kicks off on Monday, and Rand, Gillian, Matt and I will be in attendance. Rand's speaking on the SEM Pricing Models panel on Wednesday from 3:15 to 4:30 and about Social Media Optimization on Thursday from 9:00 to 10:15, while I have inherited from him the Link Baiting & Viral Search Success speaking spot on Wednesday f...
Hotel and transportation info for SEO Training Seminar Oct. 1...
With the industry's largest annual event starting next Monday, I figured it's high time to give out some advice about networking in person at search conferences like SES San Jose. I've been trying to limit my list format posts, but there's really no better way to present the topics, so here goes: Dress Appropriately Make Eye Contact Employ Appropri...
I wasn't planning to do a recap this week, but there's too much good material and important stuff to let it slide. Apologies for the brief format: Mike Blumenthal has a fascinating, at times antagonistic and completely enthralling publication of an IM conversatio...
Cue suspenseful music... Her heart nearly jumped a beat as he leapt onto the stage, his eyes dancing across the room, crying out for silence and attention. As she watched, a small device moved from his right hand to his left and then, without warning, it began... With the deftness of an acrobat and the cadence of a poet, he swept her awa...
Last week I had the opportunity to speak on two panels at SES Travel, which was held in downtown Seattle. The conference was small (about 150-200 people) and focused entirely on SEO tips for working in the travel industry. There were representatives from Orbitz, Farecast, Kayak, FareCompare, Expedia, and lots of other travel-centric sites. The first session I spoke on was Travel Wri...
Warning - this post is somewhat personal with a little bit of search thrown in. If you're not into travelogues, my apologies. We'll return to our regularly scheduled business-of-search blogging tomorrow. On Sunday, July 22nd, Mystery Guest accompanied on me a 3-day, jam-packed trip to the Bay Area. The trip included visits wi...
...and John Cook from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tricia Duryee from the Seattle Times, Fred Vogelstein from Wired Magazine, and Becky Buckman from the Wall Street Journal. Quite the title and intro, huh? Let me...
And now, a little roundup of stories from the past few days that have either been brought to my attention or that I came across and thought were interesting: Agustín Vazquez-Levi (whose Canalytics team recently became the 12th company in North America [and the first company in Canada] to be accepted as one of Google's Goog...
There's lots to cover, and since Seattle's finally cooled down to a bareable 70 degrees (from the high of 93 today), I'm ready to jump in. I did a fun little podcast last week with the folks from the Beginning SEO Podcast. Towards the end is a list of some valuable advice for social media and viral marketers. I lov...
There's so much happening in the world of search, it's hard to stay abreast of even half of it. However, it's my responsibility to keep those of you who aren't taking the time to read SEL in the know. Threadwatc...