Difficult economic times prompt change. That simple and obvious fact provides a dozen or more rays of hope on the horizon for those who want to see them. It also provides dozens of opportunities for those who wish to seize them. This post hopes to outline some of the positive changes in the digital marketing sector and hopefully expose a few of those opportunities.

1/ Much has been written about declining revenues in the traditional media. Newspapers, terrestrial radio and broadcast television are losing advertising monies to the digital media. As websites like Craigslist.org present inexpensive and further reaching avenues for advertisers, news gathering organizations such as the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times are literally going bankrupt. The building housing the New York Times in south Midtown Manhattan is worth more than the business of producing one of the world’s greatest newspapers is. That means there are less professional reporters bringing information to our society. In a democratic society, less news means we are less informed which is an extraordinarily bad thing.

Conversely, each reporter receiving a pink-slip is presented with a tremendous opportunity, one already enjoyed by legions of informal reporters known a bloggers. People will always want information. We are (regardless of our behaviours), an intelligent and expansive species. In order to know which direction to move in, people rely on the opinions and observations of others. In the soon-to-be old-order, there were several filters between writers and readers. Now there are far fewer. While that might lead to a degeneration of the quality of information, it also allows an expansion of the quantity of information. In other words, information is not going to stop flowing from fingertips to eyeballs but those eyeballs will need to learn to better disseminate the good info from the bad.

Opportunities abound in the new world of digital media. Expect to see former journalists start new professions ranging from helping people better understand the information they are receiving to grinding out that information as they did before except it will be published digitally instead of on paper. The point being, nature abhors a vacuum and all vacuums will be quickly filled.

2/ Recessions and depressions are much like tsunamic brooms. They sweep away all detritus and distraction. If a business is not stable or well maintained, it will not stand the storm. In a cold and Darwinist way this is a good thing.

A few years ago, the search marketing world began being plagued by under-trained web services companies calling themselves SEOs. These firms left a fly-by-night feeling around the entire industry in the eyes of mainsteam advertisers, partially preventing search marketing from achieving the measure of success it is starting to enjoy today. Eventually the forces of litigation, education, experience and advocacy moved ad-buyers away from bad companies towards more stable and truly talented firms but many smaller businesses still fall prey to predators posing as honest service providers. I suspect a recession will deny these foul firms the raw food they require to continue and the forces of attrition will weed them out.

This presents at least two positive outcomes. The first is companies like ours and other honest and talented firms will not be tarred by the brush used on scamsters. The second is that small businesses will be able to focus digital marketing monies on successful outcomes and thus make money from their marketing efforts. Together, these outcomes serve to propel the search marketing industry forward.

3/ I am absolutely positive that Yahoo! will be a very different operation by the end of 2009.

When thinking about Yahoo!, one must remember that they are far more than a search appliance. Yahoo! constitutes the world’s largest content network. It holds patents on extraordinary technologies and has the infrastructure to accomplish technological miracles. The Yahoo! Shopping Network is still the world’s largest shopping mall. Even if it only virtually exists, it has the potential to eclipse big-box concerns like WalMart efficiency for efficiency. Think about this for a second. The big-box stores make a million pennies a minute by maximizing on every efficiency they can exploit. Why couldn’t a similar set of systems be devised between Fed-Ex, Yahoo!, and the millions of small stores that make up their shopping network?

Clarity at Yahoo! would be so very nice. I can’t find enough ways to say how wonderful clarity at Yahoo! would be. Webmasters are always looking for good places to do business and now more than ever, stable systems are needed. Note to Yahoo!… wanna know why it’s so hard to do ginormous amounts of business with and around you? We know you have the eyeballs, even if your organic and PPC search numbers are seen to be lower than Google’s. The content network is golden. It’s really because none of us know where, what, or even IF you will be tomorrow, that’s why.

I think Yahoo! will be there tomorrow but it’s revenue model will undergo a radical make-over. The world is ready for many initiatives Yahoo! started but shelved in previous years such as an expansion of the Yahoo! Publisher Network and the delivery of professionally produced digital entertainment. For web marketers, advertisers, webmasters and small to large businesses, a remake of Yahoo! in 2009 will present a wider range of advertising opportunities. This, of course, pre-supposes Yahoo!’s management and board of directors can get it together, placate angry investors and re-engage with the general public.

There are an enormous number of other good things that could come from the topsy turvy environment we’re in but all will have the same elements in common. Transition is brutal but it makes opportunity for those who are brave, honest and the savvy. There is one other opportunity to make note of. Guidance….

The greatest opportunity available right now is that of guidance. There’s a lot of businesses out there that really, really want someone they can trust to tell them how to put their messaging in front of people who might be interested in their services or products. That’s the business Metamend is in. On a personal level, many of us are feeling the fear of economic turbulence. We see our families and friends affected and worry we might be next. Chances are those worries, while perfectly rational, are for naught. Companies like Metamend will be stronger moving forward because we are able to offer twelve years of experience in the guidance we offer our clients and the general public. No matter what the economic conditions are, if you have something people value very much, you will have customers.

So now we’re moving into 2009. The good news, nines are easier to write than eights are. We have that much going for us. Aside from that small blessing, 2009 is going to be anybody’s guess. I’ve never felt intimidated making a list of predictions in previous years. Sure I realized I would be wrong on many points but I always figured scoring above .500 was a fairly good batting average. In previous years, I’ve scored higher than 50% right but this year is different. This year, nobody knows what will happen past February when tens of millions of credit card statements come due.

So Comes the Depression?
The world is in economic chaos and is literally teetering on the edge of a full blown depression. That doesn’t mean we still can’t avoid a depression but we are closer now than we’ve been in generations. Anyone in a position of authority who says different is either an optimist, is seeking re-election, is incompetent, or is fully aware they are lying through their teeth. This economy is going to get a whole lot worse before anything gets better.

To avoid falling further, expect western governments to start handing out money for specifically targeted projects. North America’s municipal infrastructure is decaying and the Keynesian model suggests the smartest thing to do to stimulate economic growth is to spend tax monies improving and redeveloping it. Roads, bridges, water systems, sewers, and highways need upgrading however our governments have spent the past twenty years gutting the taxation system while following the Supply-Scale market economy model. American citizens in particular are likely in for a nasty surprise when their local, state, and federal governments suddenly raise taxes to fund these projects.

Assuming world governments wise up and apply the Keynesian model, there will be increased opportunities for search engine marketers. It all depends on what types of clients your SEO/SEM company serves. One of our clients, for instance, provides electrical and construction supplies in the Greater Toronto Area and southern Ontario. If the government floodgates open and money pours forth, our client will find themselves deluged with new business and we will find our task list as their search marketing firm of record growing.

The recession has taken a bite out of smaller shops with less diverse services. A few years ago it was easy enough to learn a bit about SEO, hang a shingle above your door and call yourself an optimization expert. Today, the field has segmented so thoroughly that SEO is only a fraction of the work a full scale digital marketing service offers. Being a full scale service provider is going to be a good thing in the coming year.

Think about this for a second. Search and digital marketing are mainstream. We are THE HOT marketing channels right now. Advertising firms from Madison Avenue to Mayfair Plaza are clamoring to jump on board with a good search and digital marketing agency. Two or three years of half-hearted in-house search marketing has taught them the lesson that outsourcing is faster, cheaper and more effective. Problem is, if the agencies available to accept outsourced work can’t do a complete job, it is easier for the ad-buyer to have a project approved in-house. 2009 is not going to be a good year for flakes, and flaky SEO firms will fall fast in the first few months of the year.

Mid-sized SEM shops like Metamend should do well in 2009. I know that thinking runs counter-intuitive to the present economic conditions however having worked for almost eighteen months preparing for what we knew was inevitable when the housing bubble started bursting in August 2007, we’re in a pretty good spot right now. Expect other SEO/SEM shops to follow Metamend’s lead and expand their skill sets and services to meet the needs of agencies instead of smaller clients.

That said, anyone who forgets how to serve smaller clients will feel an awful pinch in 2009. While the economy is killing small businesses across America, there are several niche focused small businesses that will thrive. For almost every SEO firm, small business is both bread and butter.

Some awfully large companies will also feel pinched in 2009. Expect to see major layoffs at Microsoft in the coming weeks. This actually isn’t as much a prediction as it is fact however where those layoffs come will speak volumes about where Microsoft sees itself going in the future. I expect to see a significant shift at Microsoft’s search engine Live, which is unfortunate given the passion of the extraordinary personalities there now. Microsoft’s problem isn’t in its search division, its in its overall outlook. Microsoft doesn’t know what it should be in a world where search and the Internet are displacing the desktop and operating system.

Speaking of companies who don’t really know what to do with themselves, Yahoo! might not exist at this time next year, at least not as we know it today. Desperately weakened by a year of high stakes business dealings, Yahoo! is an ancient boxer on the ropes, too punch-drunk to know which way to turn next. With Carl Ichan and his cronies sitting on the board, I expect Yahoo! will begin the painful process of selling parts of itself off to the highest bidders.

As for Google, 2009 will be a year of slowed but very real growth. The introduction of the Android mobile operating system gives Google a new platform to dominate and I fully expect them to spend much of 2009 trying to do just that. Mobile should take off this year with the advent of the iPhone and HTC Dreamphone.

On a hopefully positive note, I expect we will see the US government make moves towards strengthening or even codifying Net Neutrality provisions. Regardless of one’s political stripe, all have to agree that Obama is the first American President who truly understands the Internet. He has appointed several pro-Net Neutrality experts to review the FCC and is going to name a Chief Technical Officer as a cabinet position.

I generally write much longer prediction pieces but again, what happens after February is anybody’s guess. Optimists see the markets correcting themselves by the end of the second quarter though I question exactly what gives them that rosy impression. Before anything changes for the better, America has to get its financial house in order and Americans have to start buying homes and spending money with confidence. Even with an expanded bail-out package for the automakers and some debt relief for those living under the fear of foreclosure, I am not sure where that confidence will come from.

One prediction is know will come true is that 2009 will eventually morph into 2010. In the next twelve months, our society and our systems will be tested like they’ve never been tested before. President-elect Obama is going to have a trial by fire no President since Roosevelt has faced. It will be a difficult and frustrating year however the sun will rise again on the western economy. The thing to remember about recessions and depressions is that they do end eventually. This one will too though I am among the pessimists when predicting when. I expect we’ll see turn-about in the spring of 2010 when the American real estate debacle starts to work itself out.

Until then, have a happy and safe New Year. Though we might not be looking forward to the difficulties of 2009, we do look forward to helping our clients grow and sustain their businesses. It will be a weird year, likely weirder than 2008 but 2009 will set the stage for a new era of business practice and tradition. For many of us, that is worth looking forward too.

March 2008

GOOG

$457.02/share, Mar 3

$440/share, Mar 31

YHOO

$27.77/share, Mar 3

$28.93/share, Mar 31

MSFT

$26.99/share, Mar 3

$28.38/share, Mar 31

Mar 1
IAC: Ready To Bail On Ask?
More on the impending shakeup at IAC’s long-suffering Ask. An insider tells us that IAC is considering finally pulling the plug on Teoma, the engine that powers Ask’s search, and just using Google.

Whiteboard Friday: SMX West Interviews-Matt Cutts
… we have an interview with Google’s own Spaminator, Matt Cutts. Matt was kind enough to sit down with Rand and reveal a bit more about the man behind the madness that is the Google Spam Team.

Mar 3
comScore Paid Search Data & How The Sky Might Not Be Falling
Last week comScore came out with a report that showed a 7% sequential decline vs. December 2007 in paid search ad clicks.

Compete Sold For $75 Million To Taylor Nelson Sofres
TNS’s release reports that Compete.com’s 2007 revenue was “$14.9 million, over 50 per cent higher than in the previous year.” TNS will pay in deferred cash payments throughout now and 2010, up to a maximum of $75 million.

Ask.com Calls Dumping Teoma Search Technology Rumors False
Last week, IAC Ready To Drop Ask.com Search Technology & Partner With Google? covered rumors that Ask might be dumping its own “Teoma” search technology. Just an hour ago, I received an official statement from Ask.com saying the rumor is false.

Radiohead Revisited: Nine Inch Nails Selling Album Online
Nine Inch Nails is joining Radiohead in the downloadable album arena (though it should be noted that In Rainbows is now being sold “traditionally”). The latest NIN album, Ghosts I-IV was released last night and the site was quickly mobbed.

Future of Ask.com? Layoffs, but keeping Teoma
Last week it was rumored that there would soon be some big shake-ups over at IAC’s Ask.com, including layoffs and the possible abandonment of Teoma, the technology that powers Ask’s search engine.

How Important is the Site Relevancy for Backlinks?
A WebmasterWorld member is in a bit of trouble because he feels that there are no relevant sites for his ecommerce shop. Obviously, since search engines like relevant links, this is a bit of a challenge for those who can’t possibly have relevant sites.

Google Strongly Recommends 301 Redirect Over Meta Refresh Redirects
Moving document and file locations on the web is fairly common. So what do you do when you have to communicate the move to your users and the search engines? You set up a redirect.

Google Sitelinks FAQ : Everything You Want to Know About Sitelinks
Want to learn more about Google Sitelinks? I sure do after discovering some issues with the Sitelinks of my sites not updating in Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Print Ads Running in 750 Newspapers, Yahoo Partners with 634 Newspapers
Google Print Ads, the arm of Google AdWords which runs ads in remnant newspaper ad space, is now working with over 750 newspapers

Dedicated vs. Shared IP Addresses and SEO
Is having a dedicated IP address critical for achieving great Google rankings and if an IP address is shared among many sites, is the PageRank for each site diluted?

Mar 4
also known as “the day the music died”… On March 4, Ask.com abandoned innovative thinking on this day and stopped being the search engine of choice for search professionals.
Ask.com is Dead
The very best search engine on the Internet died today. Early this afternoon, Ask.com announced the layoff of 40-key employees and a radical shift in its focus and development. The property is still active but, if new CEO Jim Safka’s comments to the Wall St. Journal are any indication, the search engine itself is, as of today, lifeless.

Apparently ASK Doesn’t Always Have the Right Answer
Ask.com is letting go of 40 employees and conceptually restructuring itself by moving away from mainstream search and focusing on question-related searches for their supposed primary audience “middle-American, predominantly female consumers.”

IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine
IAC’s Ask.com to Cut Staff, Outlines New Search Strategy from the Wall Street Journal reports IAC has cut 8% of Ask.com’s workforce, by letting go 40 people.

Ask.com Cuts 40 Jobs, Gary Price Among Those Laid Off
8% of its employees, totaling 40 people, will be laid off. Gary Price, a strong ambassador for Ask.com, librarian research advocate and author of the Resource Shelf blog was among those let go.

Goodbye Ask.com: A Brand Evangelist Hangs It Up
… a few hours ago the story went live on Search Engine Land: IAC Cuts 8% of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine (via WSJ.). That bullet was followed with another: All Things Must Pass. Gary Price, a good friend and industry mentor, has left Ask.com.

All Things Must Pass; Moving On from Ask.com
Earlier this afternoon I learned that Ask.com is taking the company in a new and different direction and I will not be a part of it.

Lose Diller, Not The Ask.com Engine
The truth is the search industry needs a small, innovative engine like Ask. Ask is the kind of company that keeps everyone else on their toes. They give Google complete concepts to steal from and everyone else ideas to “borrow”. You know all those search refinement tools we’re seeing sprout up? Those were ideas first tested in the Ask engine.

Facebook Hires Sandberg to Make Microsoft’s $240 Million Investment Pay Off
A senior executive jilted Google for another search engine – and it’s not Yahoo or MSN Live. In the strange bedfellows game in tech, the Google exec will help Microsoft profit from the $15 billion Facebook valuation Microsoft’s $240 million investment created.

Link Building Secrets Revealed by Top Linking Experts
Patrick Altoft, Hamlet Batista, Jim Boykin, Rand Fishkin, Peter van der Graaf, Bob Gladstein, Michael Gray, Debra Mastaler, Maurizio Petrone, Peter da Vanzo, & Eric Ward

Load Time Impacts Google Quality Score
A member over at WebmasterWorld found that web page load time is now a factor in Google’s Qulaity Score for AdWords.

Quick Tip: When Google Tries to Correct Your Spelling
Turns out Google was politely correcting my spelling when I DIDN’T WANT IT TO BE CORRECTED and searching for scanner instead of scannar.

SMX West Round-up
The Santa Clara convention center is rather big. Its sprawling footprint crosses seven or eight zip codes, several counties and encompasses at least three unique ecosystems.

Gates Talks Smack – Google Talk Crack
This piece contains THE best play on a phrase of the year.
Gates at the Barbarians: “In terms of Google, not to overstate it, but they really don’t understand the special needs of business”…

Mar 5
Obit: A West Coast Digerati Deadpools Ask.com
Goodbye, Ask.com. You caught my eye back in 1997 as an unusual meta search engine that asked questions to get answers. By 1998, I counted you alongside Google and Direct Hit as shining examples of what to watch in search.

7 Reasons We Will Miss Ask.com
… most people in the search marketing community literally loved Ask.com/. We loved former CEO Jim Lanzone. We loved evangelist Gary Price. We loved hanging out with Patrick Crisp and the hilarious characters from the PR department.

SEO Site Audit: A Wise Investment For All Companies
More and more savvy companies are undertaking search engine optimization (SEO) site audits to assess the current search-effectiveness of a site, what needs to be done to improve it, and to track a site’s performance over time.

Yahoo Celebrates Its 13th Birthday; Will There Be A 14th?
As Yahoo celebrates its 13th birthday, the looming question is: will the company be able to find an alternative to the Microsoft offer, or will Steve Ballmer & Co. prevail?

Google Debuts “Search Within A Site” Search Box Feature
Yesterday Barry blogged about Google testing a search box for site search within general search results. Today the feature is being fully rolled out for selected queries.

The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?
The data doesn’t lie; unless you torture it and force a false confession. The latest barrage of “be afraid” and “see I told you” press surrounding Google and its less than satisfactory CTRs had me (like many in the search business) staring sideways at the data – and more importantly the conclusions drawn.

Yahoo Desperately Seeking Suitor: Time Warner
Yahooo’s desperately seeking a suitor. With a Microsoft proxy battle expected soon, Time Warner’s emerging as a white knight for the Sunnyvale search engine.

Yahoo Fires Back
Yahoo retaliated in the ongoing saga of Microsoft’s hostile takeover attempt today by extending the deadline for nominations of its board of directors to some future date 10 days after it announces the date of its annual meeting.

Ask.com to Become Women’s Site
This sounds like an April Fool’s joke, but the source is Associated Press, via San Francisco Chronicle

Mar 6
EU to say Yes to Google DoubleClick Deal
The CBC, Bloomberg and the New York Times are reporting that European regulators are expected to approve Google’s $3.1Billion acquisition of display ad network DoubleClick sometime next week.

AdWords Annouces, Explains Load Time Usage In Quality Score
The Adwords blog just announced the details of the inclusion of page load times in calculating Quality Score. This is an important announcement for all AdWords advertisers as it is a direct impact on your pricing.

Ziff-Davis Declares Bankruptcy
The Microsoft of high tech publishing has fallen as far as you can go down: into bankruptcy. In the 90’s, Ziff Davis was huge – 300 page issues of PC Magazine, dozens of titles, conferences — they had it all.

Microsoft Should Give Up On Yahoo
Some relationships (like Kid Rock and Pam Anderson, or any involving Britney Spears) just aren’t meant to be.

Getting into Twitter: My Take
It took me a while but I’m finally a Twitter fan.

Did Commission Junction Act Fairly, Break the Law, or Simply Overstep its Power Against Pepperjam?
… most networks have reached out to Pepperjam and want to work more closely and strategically with us, while others, such as Commission Junction, has decided to conclude that we are now competitors that pose serious potential harm to the Commission Junction business and decisive action must be taken against us.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta Is Out
You know you’re installing an important program when you need to reboot your computer to finish the setup. When you need to reboot twice, you know you’re installing something really important.

Has Yahoo Lost Its Yodel?
Is Jerry Yang ready to throw in the towel and partner with Microsoft? It seems like only yesterday that Yahoo was the darling of the Web.

March 2008 Google AdWords “Slap”: Minimum Bids Surge
There seems to be a ton of discussion going on at DigitalPoint Forums and some at WebmasterWorld about a recent Google AdWords Quality Score update where many AdWords advertisers saw their minimum bids spike up.

Conference Controversy: Paying Speakers & Sponsor Paid Sessions
Two threads erupted yesterday all on conference controversy in the search industry. We have a thread on the controversy of paying speakers at Cre8asite Forums and a thread on the controversy of sponsor paid and run sessions at Sphinn.

Mar 7
15 Ways to Be a SEO Conference Douchebag
I love SEO conferences and meetups. I’ve met most of my favorite people on the planet at them. There’s also lots of douchebags, who really don’t get what an incredible community of people it is most of the time.

Google Gives in to Pentagon Demands to Remove Images of Military Bases
After detailed, street-level photographs of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas appeared in Google’s controversial “Street View”, the Pentagon acted quickly to have the images removed, calling them a threat to national security.

Microsoft in Hot Pursuit of Google
Yesterday, Steve Ballmer told a room of 1,500 software developers that the software giant has its eyes set on catching Google.

Is Creating a Facebook Study Group Cheating?
An 18 year old freshman at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, could be expelled his first year of college because of a Facebook group he was the administrator of.

Best of the Web SES New York Charity Party
In what has become a yearly tradition, Best of the Web (BOTW.org) is hosting the Internet Marketers of NY Charity Party on Tuesday March 18th.

Google Analytics Why Do You Make Me Distrust You?
So I logged into Google Analytics this morning and I get the following message…

SEO Analytics: SEOmoz & Enquisite
The other day, SEOmoz released what they named SEO Analytics. The beauty about this package is that nothing needs to be installed on your site, all this does is watch the search space for signals on your domain.

You’d Be Wise To “NoFollow” This Dubious SEO Advice
For the past few months, I have been listening to some of my colleagues talk about the nofollow attribute and how to use it to sculpt a page’s PageRank

Save Money to Make Money : Paid Search Auditing & Quality Control
There’s an old adage in business that says, You have to spend money to make money. As anyone who has experienced the power of effective advertising will confirm, the adage rings true time and time again.

Mar 8
Jason Calacanis TechCrunched in Techmeme: Deathmatch at SES New York
Another Civil War in Silicon Valley? Well, it’s war anyway–even if not civil. Aussie Duncan Riley of TechCrunch fame bodyslammed Jason after his Calacanis.com post on how to run a startup. Duncan said “Calacanis Fires People Who Have A Life.” So far, 164 comments on TechCrunch about firing anyone who’s not a workaholic …

Mar 9
Trademark Law and Domain Names: ACPA or UDRP?
Fuel up on that caffeine because today I want to discuss how trademark law plays out in the course of a domain name dispute. We’re going to compare and contract the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act with I-CANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

Are Google Competitors Throwing in the Towel?
If you were to stop for a moment and take a look at the market, it could definitely seem that things stand this way. After all sorts of scenarios regarding possible mergers, after all of the controversy generated by the possibility of Google finally having a decent competitor, what do numbers tell us?

Mar 10
Best Web Site Traffic: PPC vs. SEO (Search Engine-Optimized) Sites
How does your PPC traffic compare to natural search traffic and direct navigation?

CAPTCHA Systems are Under Attack
For a long time we have come to rely on mechanisms such as CAPTCHA to hold spammers at bay.

Get Naked with Matt McGowan (Incisive Media, VP of Marketing)
If you’re interested in meeting Matt in person, come to SES NY…

The New Multitaskers: Kids Split Attention Between TV, Internet
A new study on social networking by Grunwald Associates reveals that kids are no longer glued to the television. Now, while the tube is on, many kids are also splitting their attention between the TV and the Internet.

Mar 11
Google Gets DoubleClick (EU Approves Acquisition)
The last official hurdle to Google’s acquisition of display marketing giant DoubleClick fell today as the European Union approved the $3.1 Billion sale early this morning.

PPC Summit Clicks to Vancouver BC – March 31 – April 1
Vancouver BC, Canada’s emerald jewel of a city will play host to one of the most rapidly emerging search marketing conferences, PPC Summit at the end of this month. (The conference was canceled a few weeks later)

We’ve officially acquired DoubleClick
(Posted by Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO) I’m pleased to share the news that we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick today.

Wal-Mart and Linux: No Surprise
I hope that nobody is surprised by Wal-Mart’s decision to stop selling Linux boxes (in the form of the gPC). Despite what some folks may think, Linux on the desktop is perpetually one year off.

Your Baby’s Ugly – Why You Need Landing Page Optimization Now
All new parents think their drooling, wailing, wrinkled little midget is beautiful – and that’s as it should be. The same seems to be true of landing pages.

When PR Means Public Relations and not Page Rank
Our session Beyond Linkbait at SES NYC has a very different approach to SEO and linkbait – how to use traditional public relations tactics to create authoritative links.

News Corp Won’t Battle Microsoft for Yahoo
In their efforts to avoid a takeover by Microsoft, Yahoo has been looking to the likes of AOL, News Corp. (MySpace), and Google to help fend off the Redmond giant. But now, it appears that at least one of them is dropping out of the game.

ISPs Won’t Win Neutrality Battle
The fight for “net neutrality” continues, with ISPs such as Comcast desiring to keep their practice of discriminating against peer to peer applications private.

Google AdWords Experiments With Automated Matching
Google is testing a system that automatically spends advertisers’ money by algorithmically extending AdWords campaigns…

Mar 12
Online Free Expression Day – March 12 – Reporters Without Borders
Today is a day of protest. It’s about truth, freedom and the right to publish without fear of state persecution. It’s an important stand to take, even for those of us who feel protected living in western democracies.

The Holy Grail of Long Tail Information Finally Trackable
This is a feature I’ve been asking for in analytics packages for the last 2 years:

SEO Advice: Getting Links (from Matt Cutts)
Okay, here are some ways to get high-quality links without emailing, paying, or even paying attention to search engines:

Alltop Launches, Do We Need Another News/RSS Aggregation Site?
Guy Kawasaki has launched his new news aggregation site, Alltop.

Kevin Ryan discusses SES London and SES New York 2008
Kevin talks about big-picture sessions versus tactical sessions, and how he structures SES conferences to address attendees’ needs in both areas.

Mar 13
Bebo acquisition could boost AOL
AOL will pay $850 million to acquire global social networking site Bebo.com in an all-cash deal announced Thursday.

Google Sky Site Launched
Google Sky was already a feature of desktop app Google Earth. Now it’s moved to the browser at sky.google.com.

12 Search Engines Which Can Replace Ask.com
Ask.com was/is one of the most resourceful and innovative search engines on the market and has claimed a relatively significant chunk of online search market.

The Link Building Rap : Hip Hop Meets SEO

You create a new site and its content heavy,
With the right amount of pictures you believe it’s ready,
So you launch it trying to put money in da bank,
But when you search and try to find yourself, you can’t,
So you thank until your mind goes blank,
Got titles and headers but no page rank…

Mar 14
Metamend on CBC
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is filming a short segment in the Metamend board room this afternoon.

A Search-Sized Bite Out of the Big Apple
Search Engine Strategies is in New York next week and Yahoo! will be there to discuss everything from viral campaigns, to searcher behavior research, to next generation search. With nine panels, one keynote and a booth, we’re ready to head to the Big Apple.

6 Questions With Analytics Guru Avinash Kaushik
… today’s interview features the always awesome, and always engaging, Avinash Kaushik.

Microsoft Meets With Yahoo To Make Its Case
The WSJ is reporting that execs from Microsoft met with Yahoo in an effort to convince the company to accept their unsolicited bid.

Mar 17
Live in New York – Search Engine Strategies 2008
I am sitting high above Times Square stealing a precious few minutes to get this post up. The largest and most influential search engine conference, Search Engine Strategies, is taking place a block and a half away at the Hilton Midtown.

Network Neutrality is for On-Line Marketers too!
If Internet access providers, such as telephone and cable companies, begin preferring certain web sites or content types over others, it will be harder for the marketing community to determine whether observed on-line behavior is due to customer choice or provider choice.

SEMPO: State of the Market in 2007
SEMPO, today released the results of its annual State of the Market Survey and the results indicate that the search marketing industry has exceeded the project spending allocations that were expected in 2007 and that the overall consensus from marketers it that the industry will continue to positive growth.

FTC Orders ValueClick to Pay 2.9 Million
The FTC announced today that Valueclick has agreed to pay 2.9 million dollars to settle the charges.

Mar 18
Using data to help prevent fraud – (by Shuman Ghosemajumder)
Protecting our advertisers against click fraud is a lot like solving a crime: the more clues we have, the better we can determine which clicks to mark as invalid, so advertisers are not charged for them.

Looking Back On The Future Of Mobile
Everyone’s had visions for the future of mobile, and now that the buzz on mobile marketing is back again, it’s a good time to do a spot check on my own prognosticating on mobile search.

Yahoo! & Click Forensics Team-up to Combat Fraudulent clicks
Yesterday at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in New York, Yahoo! has announced that it would be joining hands with click-fraud auditing firm Click Forensics.

Can Yahoo Deliver with its Detailed Financial Plan for 2008?
If there is one company that should be reading Yahoo’s 2008 financial plan, it’s got to be Microsoft.

Mar 19
You Say Big Brother, I Say Friendly Neighborhood Peeping Tom Bearing Gifts
Today Google proved to me they know who I am! Let me explain…

Very Explicit Porn Hits Google Universal Search
Warning, clicking on the following Google search result may return an image of extreme pornographic nature.

Election Will Be Won or Lost Online
Howard Dean may have started the Internet age of political fundraising and grass roots support, but this year, the web has taken over all aspects of campaign communications.

General Motors to Spend $1.5 Billion on Online Advertising
General Motors is leading the auto industry in shifting their traditional advertising campaigns to online marketing.

Mar 20
IMNY Charity Party a Huge Success
On March 18th the Internet Marketers of New York held our charity event and it was huge success. Thanks to BOTW and Search Engine Land for stepping up and covering the tab and donating door prizes. With their support we were able to raise over $16,000 which will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Mar 21
Google Loses Wireless Auction, But Wins Anyway
While it would have been interesting to see what Google would have done, if it had won some of the new wireless airwaves, the company’s satisfied with it’s role as disrupter.

Is Microsoft Offering a Rose to the Wrong Bachelorette?
While Yahoo plays games with Microsoft’s acquisition bid, some are beginning to ask, “Why isn’t Microsoft buying AOL?”

Mar 22
The Way That Yahoo Can Resist Microsoft
Yahoo has a lot of substance to it with all kinds of substantial products and services across the globe. Call it peanut butter or call it honey, but you have to admit, a lot of it is pretty sweet (or sticky, or both).

‘Jericho’ Canceled Again
It was the viral protest heard ’round the world. So much so that the CBS show Jericho being canceled, this time for good, was international news.

Mar 24
Yahoo Sees the Future in the Cloud
Yahoo appears to be looking to the cloud for its future. As covered by Search Engine Watch, editor Kevin Heisler today, Yahoo is using the 4th largest super-computer in the world, (owned by Mumbai based Computational Research Laboratories) to facilitate research in cloud computing.

SEO Industry Survey Results Released
We’ve been working pretty hard on pulling together the numbers from 3000+ responses to the SEO Industry Survey, graphing the results, and writing up some thoughts in an article on the SEO Industry Survey.

Jason Calacanis Is The Devil & SEOs are Children
A week or so before Jason Calacanis was due to give his keynote at Search Engine Strategies New York, search marketers decided to start a movement to “out” him as being misinformed about search engine optimization.

Google Wants to Offer National Wi-Fi for Free
Free, nationwide WiFi. Drooling yet, or do I need to say it again? Free, nationwide WiFi from Google. As we mentioned earlier, Google is lobbying the FCC for some of the wireless spectrum that will be freed next year when television will cease analog transmission. Google’s plan? “Wi-Fi on steroids.” (Without the ‘roid rage, I’m guessing.)

Microsoft & Yahoo Both Lose Ground to Google, Would Teaming Up Even Help?
Microsoft is still gunning for Yahoo in hopes that by acquiring the company they’d be able to take on and seriously compete with Google in the online realm.

Many SEOs Feel The Minus X Penalties Are Back Link Related
A month ago I wrote, Google’s Matt Cutts Replies to -60 Penalty Thread at Google where I summarize how Matt said some links are hurting a particular site.

Google Launches Demographics Targeting to All Advertisers
Google AdWords announced that demographics targeting is now available to all advertisers. Google has been testing this feature for over two years now and relaunched the test recently without comScore data, although you can still use demographic targeting with comScore data under placement targeted ads.

Mar 25
The Downturn that Isn’t – Google is doing just fine
Get ready to read some disturbing news in the next few weeks. Though not a fortune-teller or psychic, my gut-sense tells me that the search and mainstream media is going to get all apocalyptic over a perceived downturn in ad-spends in the major PPC networks. I am almost certain it is going to happen and just as certain the reports, though numerically correct, will be factually wrong.

PPC Summit in Vancouver Canceled
The emails went out last night stating that the PPC Summit scheduled for next week in Vancouver has been canceled due to lack of commitment from vendors. Having just returned from the highly successful Search Engine Strategies conference in New York, the cancellation of PPC Summit came as a shock and a disappointment.

Out of Print – The death and life of the American newspaper
The American newspaper has been around for approximately three hundred years.

Mar 26
Matt Cutts 1 – DaveN 0
Not that I would ever actually keep score..(and if I was Matt would still be winning). Yesterday I posted reinclusion request indigo clothing. Today I have to issues an apology to Google… SORRY !

Network Solutions Implements New “Front Running” Policy; Is it Any Better?
After getting into all kinds of deep-water with its front running (aka domain tasting) practices, Network Solutions announced it would make changes to its policy. Thanks to Keri Morgret those changes have been spotted in the wild.

Mar 27
SuperBowl Advertising Post Mortem: Tide Sticks it Out
While I am presently an offline/online media relations guy, my background spans a variety of media and tactics. As such, I have always been fascinated with the phenomena of SuperBowl advertisements. What other event allows you to generate buzz simply by making a media buy?

Conversion Rates & The Value Of Outsourcing SEM/SEO
I recently got my hands on Marketing Sherpa’s newly released Landing Page Handbook. This detailed guide is packed full of industry information and practical case studies.

We Don’t Need SEO Standards!
I’ve come to the conclusion that not only would it be impossible to come up with standards that most would be happy with, I strongly believe that we don’t need them at all.

Drilling Into Google’s Decline In Paid Clicks
More doom and gloom on the paid search side for Google. comScore is once again reporting a drop in sponsored clicks, something that also happened last month.

Google won’t search for Chuck Norris
It’s true, sort of. The cult of Chuck Norris has won top spot under the inadvisable keyword phrase, “find chuck norris”.

Mar 28
If you use TLA read this..
you know that Google is hunting and killing sites…

Newspapers Report Biggest Drop in Ad Revenue in 50 Years
This is a particularly disturbing headline, especially if you’re in the newspaper industry.

We Do Need SEO Standards
Over at Search Engine Land, Jill Whalen writes that we don’t need industry standards and just like that my inner pit bull wakes up and starts mouthing the gate. It’s like a tic.

Google Maps adds street view for 13 cities + 1 national park
Google Maps has a really cool feature if you don’t already know about it. It’s called Street View and puts you at eye level and lets you explore the streets of supported cities.

Google Brings Robot.txt generator to the Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools has a new tool that would certainly be useful to site owners in making their site Googlebot friendly – the Robots.txt generator.

The Video Search Revolution will be Contextualized
If you’ve been wondering how online video can be adequately searched or monetized, then video search company Digitalsmiths has some answers for you

Mar 29
EU Bans Fake Reviews
Is this cool or what? In Europe, fake reviews and websites purporting to be from customers will soon be banned.

Is Google’s Price Drop A Reflection Of Recent Media Coverage
The value of Google’s stock has taken a bit of a beating recently from their high of $747 last year to yesterday’s close at $438. After doing my weekly news review, I saw a lot of articles questioning many actions Google has been doing lately.

Mar 31
Public perception, don’t leave home without it
Search engine optimization is woefully misunderstood, even within parts of the greater online marketing community. As very good SEO firms rarely have to advertise, the general public often has no idea what it is SEOs do.

Even for Google, Conversions Matter More Than Clicks
Wall Street is acting with caution when it comes to Google based on months of reporting that the search engine giant’s paid search clicks are declining. But Google insists that the click reductions are due to improvement in the quality of the ads, not because Google is somehow losing its luster.

Google + DoubleClick = 69% of Online Advertising Market
When Google raised concerns over a possible Microsoft-Yahoo merger, it may have just been the pot calling the kettle black. According to new stats released by Attributor, Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick gives them a whopping 69% of the online advertising market share. This comes in the wake of news that Google saw 59.2 percent of all US searches in February.

Google’s Not Big Brother, But It Does Provide Spooks the Technology
This will give the conspiracy theorists something to sink their teeth into; Google is providing search technology to the nation’s intelligence agencies.

23andme : Social Networking Comes to Genomics
The social feature would let users compare their genome data with that of other users and present similarities.

Can Google Stop the Brain Drain?
It takes more than an army of trained chefs and free lunch to keep Googlers happy.

1/ As we are starting to realize about Global Warming, the pace of change is accelerating exponentially. In 2008 what we have known to be solid ground is going to get rather swampy, much like the permafrost around Hudson’s Bay.

This prediction was easy and correct. The search and digital marketing environment is feeling as solid as ice right now. Ice is extremely solid as long as conditions are right but rapidly melts when conditions change. Dozens of well known search marketers changed jobs or found their positions eliminated this year, mostly due to the economy. The state of conventions and conferences is in question as well as the economy takes its toll on extra expenses and travel budgets.

2/ Advertising is the last thing to be cut when hard times hit. That’s an important thing to keep in mind as we move into 2008. The online marketing world will actually benefit from the coming economic chaos though the longevity of that benefit and the breadth of it is subject for debate.

Again, I was correct but this was a rather easy prediction to make. 2008 saw a sharp increase in online ad-spend but 2009 will be a breakthrough year for digital advertising as cost conscious advertisers move even greater amounts away from print and television towards digital marketing channels.

3/ 2008 is an election year in the United States. Things always get strange in election years and this one promises to be extremely intense. America is sorting itself out in this election and the effects of their choices will cast a long shadow over the evolution of the Internet.

This one was correct though it won’t come true until after January 20th when the pro-net neutrality Obama administration takes control of the White House. The election of an Internet savvy president does not guarantee helpful Internet policies but it goes a long way in assuaging fears of poor Internet and Ecommerce policies.

4/ In the present Internet economy, everything evolves around the state of the States. Politically, economically and socially, America is working through some of its darkest and nastiest days in decades. Virtually bankrupting itself in an intractable conflict and massively in debt to China, America is teetering on the edge of an economic recession.

Correct though corrected… Economists now admit America has been in recession since December 2007 though the day most people will mark is September 15, 2008 when investment house Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail and filed for bankruptcy protection. Lehman’s failure promoted a cascade effect and will be remembered as the trigger event for the most spectacular financial crash since the Great Depression of 1929 – 1938.

5/ A large number of American citizens are on the verge of losing their homes in the sub-prime financing debacle, the fallout of which is being bourn by financial institutions around the world.

Correct. The fallout from the mortgage crisis continues though a holiday amnesty on foreclosures has been announced. Because of the sub-prime crisis, the banking and financial systems of several countries have been damaged and in some cases, destroyed.

6/ Retail sales are down as debt-ridden consumers find themselves with less disposable income from month to month due to rising refinancing rates.

Happily incorrect! Retail sales are actually up from last year though the rate of growth has declined for the first time in over a decade. Sales figures for Black Friday and CyberMonday show decelerated growth but growth nevertheless.

7/ Many of us who have not yet been affected by the economic volatility watch as our neighbors and friends find getting by more difficult and it worries us enough that we spend a little less money. These things have a way of gathering their own momentum.

Correct. Consumer confidence is the most important barometer of how the overall economy is doing and confidence is plummeting as the realities of a global recession takes hold in the US and Canada. Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to say the economy is safe from slipping into a depression. Things are gaining momentum and there are still two major milestones our economy has to pass (January auto-shutdown and Feb. credit card bills) before the worst of the “what we know’s” is over.

8/ The influence of Chinese government policy is going to be felt outside of China as that market expands and China assumes a role as a global leader. We already see this happening politically and economically. Digital marketers will soon see the clients we work with demand deference to the sensibilities of the Chinese government as their operations become further intertwined with the Chinese market.

Again, happily wrong. The Chinese became more insular in 2008 in part due to the government’s focus on producing a memorable Olympic games and in part due to the Chinese government’s new obsession in expanding domestic consumer markets to compensate for declining exports to the US and Canada. The weight and dominance of their economy is expected to exert heavy influence in 2009.

9/ 2008 looks like it could be a year in which the habits of Internet users shift on a number of fronts. As developers create a greater number of applications which make the Web more interesting for users that transcend the typical web-site, the Internet will be a remarkably different place to work and recreate in.

Totally correct. There has been tremendous energy put into making the Web a more interesting place. Social applications like Twitter spread the useful concept of micro-messaging throughout Web culture. Social networking applications like Facebook and Linked-In became more popular and more useful in 2008. Perhaps the greatest indicator of how important communication applications like Twitter and Facebook have become is the rapid rise of social media marketing services and techniques offered by search marketers and adopted by mainstream brand advertisers.

10/ Facebook is going to make at least one more attempt at introducing its own contextual advertising program, likely in concert with one of the major networks whose name does not begin with a G.

Half correct. Facebook did introduce a new contextual advertising program towards the end of 2008. Known by the simple yet memorable name Facebook Advertising, ads are delivered to consumers based on friends lists, individual user profiles and user interests. Facebook did not involve other search networks in the development of their new system however US based Facebook users are now invited to use Microsoft Live Search to perform web searches from their Facebook profiles.

11/ One thing that is a virtual certainty in the coming year is the rise of ubiquitous Internet access anywhere in North America for an increasing number of access devices. As users in Canada and the United States are presented with rational cell phone plans, the mobile web will become a well used noun and an adverb (no puns intended). This anytime/anywhere access will include those times we find ourselves at 35,000 feet above the ground.

Absolutely and totally correct. With the introduction of 3G system mobile devices, increased WiFi access points around our communities and airlines offering in-flight Internet services, one can reach the Web from virtually any place on the continent.

12/ Combining virtually unlimited storage space with powerful Web based applications, Cloud Computing (server-side software) will allow users to log-in to their storage and work-space accounts from any where in the world and work collaboratively with others in their task-groups.

Close but not quite correct. Cloud computing did not take off in 2008 BUT the introduction and adoption of 3G mobile devices makes it a likely candidate for hot trend item in 2009

12.5/ Expect to see numerous new advertising opportunities spring up around what are everyday office-work activities. (Cloud computing)

Not yet so not correct.

13/ Banner advertising is going to make an enormous comeback in 2008.

So very wrong. The display and banner market actually shrank in 2008.

14/ Lastly, everything that is sold in the new world of digital advertising must be measured with the most versatile yardsticks possible. Digital marketers will be deluged with various analytic programs, most of which give only a segment of the story. Look for a few of the established analytic firms such as Enquisite or Click Tracks to introduce new features and improved coverage in the coming year (note: both are extraordinary in their coverage right now).

Absolutely correct. 2008 was called the year of analytics by many observers watching the search marketing space. As personalization takes over what used to be general SERPs and PPC budgets continue to soak up transitional ad-spends from the traditional media, expect analytics to be even more important in 2009.

9 of 14.5 = 62% correct. Not bad, given the weirdness that was 2008. Next week I’ll dust off a crystal ball and try another round of speculation on the coming year.

February 2008

Goog

$515.90/share, Feb 1

$471.18/share, Feb 28

YHOO

$28.23/share, Feb 1 (was trading at $19.18 the day before Microsoft announced take-over bid)

$27.78/share, Feb 28

MSFT

$30.45/share, Feb 1

$27.20/share, Feb 28

Feb 1 – February 1, 2008 will be remembered as one of the most important days in search history. Fueled by caffeine and a very weak Yahoo! Q4-report, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer calls Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang with an offer Ballmer believed Yang could not refuse. The events that happened after this date are all somehow affected by that phone call.

Microsoft Makes $45 Billion Bid To Buy Yahoo
Microsoft is to bid $31 per share to Yahoo’s board of directors to purchase the company, a deal potentially worth $45 billion.

Live Blogging Microsoft’s Bid For Yahoo Call
The Microsoft conference call on the Yahoo bid is happening now. I’ll live blog rough notes. Greg Sterling will do a formal write-up later.

Microsoft Pounces on Yahoo’s Weak Q4, Makes $44.6B Offer
Well, maybe there’s some good news to come out of Yahoo’s recent poor financial performance after all–Microsoft wants to buy it for $44.6 billion.

Microsoft Proposes to Buy Yahoo for $44.6 Billion, Should Google Be Afraid?
So finally, the long standing rumor becomes a reality. And although this has been a long-awaited proposal, no one seemed to have predicted it to happen this soon.

Microsoft to Yahoo: Two Days to Respond or Else!
Sources at Yahoo tell me that Microsoft made its most recent overtures right after Yahoo announced its earnings Tuesday and then told Yahoo execs they had two days to respond or Microsoft would go public with the offer.

Steve Ballmer’s Internal Email Explains Yahoo Bid
It seems like only yesterday Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer was busy convincing the world that he was not interested in making a bid for Yahoo. Now TechCrunch has an internal company email that explains why Microsoft today made an unsolicited bid for the company.

The Other Side of the MS/Yahoo Deal
It’s pretty obvious that this is all about the ad dollars. But they only get those dollars because we all go online to find news and information.

Google’s Q4 Earnings Do Not Meet Expectations
It seems that recession is finally here. A report that Google’s earnings did not meet analysts’ expectations has surfaced.

Feb 2
News Corp. Said to Be Considering Yahoo Bid
According to a source at Techcrunch, News Corp. is trying to put together a syndicate to launch a bid for Yahoo.

Feb 3
Microsoft-Yahoo A-Bombed by Google
Google blasted the Microsoft bid for Yahoo on the official Google Blog this afternoon.

Microsoft Fires Back at Google: Who’s Playing Monopoly?
Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith fired back at Google in a published press release late today…

Feb 4
Yahoo! Addresses The Troops (And So Does Microsoft)
With all the furor about Microsoft’s potential acquisition of Yahoo!, how do the Yahoo! employees feel about the possibility?

Political Donations at Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft
I found this Google Maps mashup called Fundrace 2008 on Huffington Post that lets me spy on my neighbors and see what they’ve donated to political campaigns.

IAC Troubles, Ask.com, And Post-Yahoo Search Share
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal both report on the legal battle for control of IAC’s board and thus the company itself. It’s not pretty, and IAC claims that it’s impeding the company’s ability to effectively operate.

Google Yahoo Alliance May Thwart Microsoft Takeover Attempt
Over the weekend Google became more involved in undermining a hostile buyout of Yahoo, Google’s largest search competitor, by Microsoft, Google’s largest tech competitor, by responding to Microsoft’s $45 Billion offer to buy Yahoo.

Matt Cutts’ Advice On Content Syndication
… is there a need to worry about duplicate content issues when submitting articles? This is what Matt Cutts had to say:

Google Objects To Microsoft & Yahoo Wedding; Microsoft Responds — Irony All Around
Not surprisingly, Google’s not happy about Microsoft’s overture to buy Yahoo.

Feb 5
HooYa! A Devil’s Deal Sent from Heaven
In the autumn of 2005, Bill Gates was asked if Microsoft would do to Google what it did to Netscape. “No”, replied Gates, We’ll do something different.”

Super Tuesday, Internet Style: How We’re Using The Web In The 2008 Elections
Today is Super Tuesday, which means that voters in 24 states are carefully reviewing their candidate research and doing last minute thoughtful analysis in preparation for voting in the primaries.

Microsoft-Yahoo: No Mention of Publisher Deals
With all the news about Microhoo, no one’s mentioned how current content deals with publishers might change — for better or worse.

Security update: Upgrade your WordPress to 2.3.3
Unless you want registered users to be able to edit your blog posts, you should update your WordPress installation to version 2.3.3.

When Linking Experts Go Underground
At least three of the most dependable link building tactics started wobbling and in some cases failed completely in 2007:

Webmasters Report February 2008 SERP Changes
Following our January SERP changes report, we’re back with the WebmasterWorld account of the changes observed at the beginning of this month.

Google Files Known Highly-Ranked Queries Patent Application
An information retrieval system includes a query revision architecture providing one or more query revisers, each of which implements a query revision strategy.

$2000 a Share Seems a Long Way Off for Google
If you were banking on Henry Blodget’s prediction that Google would soon reach $2,000 per share, you might want to re-consider that early retirement after all.

Would A Treaty Between Yahoo! & Google Diffuse Microsoft’s Attempt?
Now reports are coming in that Yahoo! might consider to revisit talks it held with Google several months ago.

Feb 6
Layoffs coming at Yahoo
Lost in the din of the commotion about Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo was the announcement on Tuesday that Yahoo would be cutting 1,000 jobs, approximately 14% of its headcount.

Rating the Super Bowl Advertisers’ SEO Record
Football season is over, which is always a shame. For Giants fans, the season will linger and always trigger great memories. For the rest of us, there is always next year. For advertisers, fans are left with brief memories of ads humorous and perhaps intriguing. So what happens when fans take those memories to their favorite search engine?

The Latest From Jerry: Stay Focused, Yahoos!
Yet another employee letter to Yahoos from CEO Jerry Yang has now become public, thanks to Yahoo being required to file these things with the US Securities & Exchange Commission.

Yahoo Desperately Seeking Suitor
With limited options, Yahoo board members face increased pressure to accept Microsoft’s hostile bid.

Feb 7
Google PageRank: It Means Nothing!
I just don’t get PageRank Obsession. Unless you sell PageRank (in the form of text links), what your PR is simply doesn’t matter.

Feb 8
The Art of Competitor Analysis Discussed on WebmasterRadio.fm
Yesterday I had the good fortune to be invited to speak on the Webcology Webmasterradio.FM radio show with Jim Hedger and Dave Davies about my experience with competitor analysis.

Debunking a misconception, plus a reminder of how search engines work
One interesting thing about my job is that I get to see a lot of unusual claims. Recently I was on an email thread and the images team wanted to address a misconception.

Decision Time for Yahoo?
According to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, today’s the day Yahoo’s board will make a decision on how to proceed with Microsoft’s takeover bid:

Microhoo At One Week 1: Decision Nears? Yahoo Brand To Survive?
Has it only been a week since Microsoft thought it was a nice day for a Yahoo wedding? Indeed, so. And what’s happened since?

Feb 9
Rand Fishkin on Oprah Show Valentine’s Day
Well-known SEO, Rand Fishkin, of SEOMoz.org and his lovely Geraldine, fly out soon for a taping of the Oprah Winfrey show.

WSJ: Yahoo Plans To Reject Microsoft’s Offer
The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Yahoo plans to reject Microsoft’s offer as insufficient: Yahoo’s board determined that the $31 per share offer “massively undervalues” Yahoo, the person said.

Feb 10
Yahoo Board to Reject Microsoft Bid
The Wall St. Journal is reporting that Yahoo’s Board of Directors will issue a statement on Monday rejecting Microsoft’s $31/share offer. According to the Journal, the Board feels the bid is far below the true value of Yahoo and wants Microsoft to sweeten the offer by at least $9/share.

The 4 Biggest Threats Google Faces
I had a fascinating breakfast discussion with Jonathan Hochman from Hochman Consultants on Friday about Google’s market dominance and the potential roads that might eventually lead to their fall.

AOL Yahoo Talk Merger – Microsoft Rebuked
Yahoo merges with AOL, saves Time Warner and re-Bewkes Microsoft. That’s a best case scenario for Yahoo from investment bank advisers at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.

Feb 11
Microsoft Won’t Take “No” for an Answer
Yahoo’s board of directors may have spurned its advances, but that’s not going to stop Microsoft in its effort to acquire Yahoo.

Israeli Town Suing Google
Seems Google is being sued by a northern Israeli town because Google Maps claims it was built on an old Arab village, according to the International Herald Tribune.

Phones Debut with Google’s Android
The first prototypes of cell phones with the Android operating system, were shown to industry experts and journalists today.

NoFollow: An SEO Red Flag?
It is my belief that using the nofollow with the purpose of controlling the flow of links or link juice is a gigantic red flag in the eyes of the engines.

Yang to Microsoft: Nuts!
No deal, says Yahoo’s CEO, in response to a hostile $44.6 billion bid from Microsoft.

Google Indexing Blogs Quickly
Evidence lately seems to suggest that even if you don’t have many, or in some cases any, incoming links that Google will still index your blog pretty quickly.

Yahoo and Apple Merger?
I’m not a financial analyst–so forgive my ignorance here–but why isn’t anyone talking about a merger between Apple and Yahoo?

What, Exactly, Are Google AdSense “Other” Relevancy Factors?
If you read through Google’s official descriptions, you’ll also see references to “other relevancy factors.” What are these mysterious factors?

WordPress.com and SEO Blogs – Love or Hate?
While doing some research for a presentation, I was checking out the WordPress.com site on “types of blogs” looking for creative ways to categorize them.

Feb 12
How 404 pages work in Google Toolbar Beta 5
I thought I’d play hooky from a meeting and talk about how the newest version of the Toolbar handles 404 pages for users, because I see some people writing about it this morning.

Updated: Yahoo Layoffs Happening Now
The expected Yahoo layoffs started a few hours ago. Two very good people I know are among those cut. No doubt we’re going to be hearing from many more.

Google Toolbar Hijacks Custom 404 Pages, Webmasters Not Happy
The latest version of the Google Toolbar replaces the custom 404 “Page Not Found” on the website you’re at with a Google version, which has many webmasters concerned that this change may direct users away from the website they’re browsing.

Looking For Generation Google Panelists
At our SMX West conference later this month in California, we have a special session I’m really looking forward to: Generation Google: A Talk With Today’s Teens.

Five Situations Where You SHOULD Use NoFollow for Linking
Yesterday Eric brought up the NoFollow attribute and his theory about it setting off red flags at search engines for them to look deeper into a site’s SEO practices…

Tech Companies Go After Yahoo Employees In Wake Of Microsoft & Layoff News
Silicon Valley Recruiters Zero In On Yahoo Employees from CNNMoney reports that technology recruiters are being inundated with requests from technology companies for them to find and secure Yahoo employees.

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft, Microsoft to “Pursue All Necessary Steps”
And so as expected, Yahoo issued an announcement rejecting Microsoft’s undervalued bid and even contemplated on renewing merger talks with AOL.

Android at WMC from a developer’s perspective
Android is building momentum at the Mobile World Congress ‘08 in Barcelona this week.

Feb 13
Debunking the “Over-SEO” Myth
Over at Search Engine Journal, editor Loren Baker makes a good point in a short post titled, “SEO Red Flags & SEO Misinformation : Let’s Put an End to It“.

Yahoo Mails Letter to Shareholders: Full Text
Yahoo mailed a letter to shareholders outlining the reasons the Board believes Microsoft’s proposal significantly undervalues Yahoo and isn’t in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders.

Microsoft Live Search Announces Improvements to Crawling
This week, Microsoft announced updates and improvements to the Live Search crawler, which they say will “improve the efficiency” with which they crawl and index websites.

Tamar Weinberg Joins Mashable as Community Director
Some people seem to stretch their work day into 36 hours and make the most of it. One of those people out there who continues to impress me is Tamar Weinberg…

SEO Red Flags & SEO Misinformation : Let’s Put An End to It
This really got me thinking, how much miseducation about SEO in forums and discussion groups has led to some aspect of fear amongst web publisers and businesses not to do too much SEO?

Layoffs and Social Media
I had not anticipated how quickly news of the layoffs (specific people leaving or being asked to leave) would spread on-line.

News Corporation A Potential Partner For Yahoo In Avoiding Microsoft, Google Interest ‘Wanes’
Silicon Alley Insider suggests how a News Corp. strategic investment and asset swap might turn it into Yahoo’s largest shareholder, which could then resist Microsoft’s offer

Yahoo’s Bradley Horowitz Switches to Google
Bradley Horowitz, head of Yahoo’s Advanced Technology Division … has accepted a position with Google, we’ve confirmed via a source at Yahoo.

Third Annual Yahoo Searchlight Awards Happen Against Surreal Backdrop
As Yahoo was apparently laying off its promised 1,000 workers today, I was at the Time-Life Building in New York as a panelist for the third Yahoo Searchlight Awards.

Yahoo Loses New Product Chief as Part of Layoffs
As we reported earlier, Yahoo today started laying off many of the 1,000 employees it plans to let go. I’ve started hearing from those that have been given pink slips, but the most intriguing is that Salim Ismail is out the door.

Feb 14
More Debunking Required
There is NO SUCH THING as excessive search engine optimization. There are foolish SEO practitioners applying SEO techniques in dangerous ways but that doesn’t equate to “excessive SEO”. That sounds more like stupid SEO to me.

Official: Microsoft Management Reorg Announced; Dueling Ad Groups?
We expected a management shuffle from Microsoft today, and now they’ve delivered it.

Death of SEO Transparency
There’s a problem in the search industry: SEO noise pollution! What was once a tight community of enthusiastic pioneers has fizzled into a sea of mediocrity.

The Inconvenient Truth About Social Media Marketing
Social media is hot. Everyone wants to be on Digg’s home page. Link baiting, especially using things like numbered lists, imperative rules, or controversial hooks is the SEM strategy du jour.

Long Tail Searches Are Becoming More Mainstream
A Search Engine Watch Forums thread reports that Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik spoke with webmasters last week and reported that, for the first time, the average number of keywords per query has gone from 3 to 4 words per query.

Feb 15
Newspapers Enter Online Ad Market
A conglomeration of four large American newspaper companies is forming to sell advertising space on the Internet sites of newspapers those companies own. It is estimated that the total advertising audience could reach over 50 million unique visitors each month.

Jessica Bowman – Former Yahoo In-House SEO Evangelist
We hate it when our successful friends get the shorter end of the stick. Yahoo is shedding some serious talent. Among that talent is a good friend of mine and one of the stars in the SEO community.

Feb 17
SEO, Social Marketing & Scientology
It was my first paragraph, about YouTube’s response to the Anonymous-vs-Scientology online battle, that got attention.

The Speed Of The Web: Do We Realize How Far We Have Come
You hear it all the time, “the world moves fast” with high speed connections and wireless access, we have come a long way in a very short time.

Feb 18
del.icio.us Find – Metamend SEO Notes Weird Robots.txt Files
Metamend SEO specialist Colin Cochrane posted an interesting find on his blog Saturday. While collecting materials for work on one of his personal sites, Colin attempted to extract material he had previously bookmarked at del.icio.us.

Well-Off Use Google, the Poor Use Yahoo
Hitwise recently released some new data, which suggests that those in different income brackets have a tendency to use one search engine over another.

Yahoo Blocking Bots from Spidering Delicious Bookmarks
Colin Cochrane found this out the other day, saying that ‘This isn’t a simple robots.txt exclusion, but rather a 404 response that is now being served based on the requesting User-Agent.’

Google Establishes Hydro-Power Data Center
Harper’s Magazine discusses the plans for Google to establish a hydro powered data center in The Dalles, Oregon.

All Clicks Aren’t Created Equal: Q&A With Danny Sullivan
Earlier this month, in a blog post reporting our clients’ aggregate ad spend across the major search engines, we noted that Google’s slice of the pay-per-click pie increased across 2007. I wrote:

Feb 19
How to Track the Evolution of Search Engine Algorithms & Why It’s Important to Do So
The vast majority of search marketers operating in the organic space at least lay claim to “following the latest algorithms” at the search engines, and in 90% of the client pitches I’ve ever heard (or made, for that matter), the subject comes up at least once.

Bill Gates – Microsoft Won’t Offer More For Yahoo
Rather than upping their bid to buy Yahoo, as many speculate, Bill Gates said Microsoft’s offer is firm.

Survival of the Small Webmaster in a World of Link Building
If you’ve been following the paid links debate and related linking news, you’re probably wondering what to do next.

Fidel Castro Resigns : Search Engine Coverage of the Historical Event
Fidel Castro today announced that he will not be seeking ‘reelection’ by the Cuban Parliament to renew his position as the leader of Cuba on Sunday after nearly 50 years;

v7n Network For Sale : $500,000
The v7n Network, which consists of v7n Webmaster Forums, the v7n Directory and the Contextual Links link buying service is up for sale on Sitepoint Forums.

Microsoft To Make Its Indexing Algorithm Less “Strict”!
During the closing months of last year, there were complaints from many webmasters not Live search not indexing their sites, and there were others who complained that their sites were unfairly banned…

Feb 20
Content Optimization – Metamend Live on WebmasterRadio.fm
Tune into Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm tomorrow at 2PM (eastern) or 11AM (pacific) to hear three of Metamend’s finest discuss content optimization.

SES Audience: Pro-Merger
The votes in favor of merger ran 7:1 (that’s the ratio – actual vote about 21-3 among the subset who bothered to raise their hands).

Gates On Yahoo Acquisition: It’s The Engineers We Want
CNET reports on Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ speech at Stanford University yesterday in which he said that it wasn’t the advertisers, the brand, or the traffic so much as the engineers that Microsoft wanted in the Yahoo acquisition.

Boycott Puts EBay Future at Risk
Now is not the happiest of times for those inside and around eBay. Some of the top sellers on the auction site are boycotting eBay because the company has raised fees for listing goods for sale.

Can A ODP (dmoz.org) Removal Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings?
A WebmasterWorld thread has a Webmaster saying that a site of his recently was removed from the ODP. He said, soon after he noticed his rankings drop in Google.

63% of AdSense Publishers Say Earnings Down in 2008
… on January 31st, I decided to run a new poll asking Google AdSense Earnings Way Down in January 2008?

Microsoft-Yahoo Fight Heats Up
Microsoft’s unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo is heading down an unpleasant path. This week, Microsoft is reportedly undertaking a proxy fight…

The Decline of Technorati
Technorati at one time was heralded as one of the most popular blog search engines, providing quick updates and an easy method of tracking topic through tagging.

Google Issues Notice of Change in Ad Display URL Policy
The Inside AdWords announced that starting April 1, AdWords will no longer allow redirects and vanity URLs in place of ad landing pages.

Feb 21
Ballmer Gets Bowlegged – Microsoft Adopts Open-Source Stance
Microsoft announced today that it was committed to opening up and sharing far more of its technical secrets with users and the software industry.

Content Optimization – Companion Article for Webcology at WebmasterRadio.fm
Content is king. More than a truism, the phrase is a mantra. Content is the stuff people are looking for on a website. A commitment to developing and deploying great page, document and site content is a commitment to good SEO.

I Don’t Buy Links
In my eyes, there is no paid links debate – I simply don’t buy links, for our own sites, or those of our clients.

Underdog Ask.com Grows 20% in January
According to comScore data released today, Ask.com had the biggest jump in search queries. By that measurement, Ask had more growth than Google, MSN, or Yahoo last month (January 2008) compared to the prior month’s volume.

Yahoo Moves to Protect Staff in Takeover Battle with Microsoft
Microsoft has made their intentions about taking over Yahoo very clear, and are determined to succeed.

Is There Anything Wrong With Reciprocal Linking?
We’ve asked this a lot, but it happens to be a question that concerns a lot of webmasters.

Google’s Efforts To Combat Accidental Clicks Could Harm Its Revenues!
Goliath Google’s latest SEC filing points to a possibility that its future revenues could be hurt while trying to contain “accidental clicks” on Web advertising. The effect could be felt on Google’s near-term advertising revenues.

Session: Beyond Linkbait Getting Authoritative Online Mentions
Link building is crucial, but linkbait tactics that worked this year may not be as effective next year.

Feb 22
The Wiki of Obsolete Skills
It’s just what it sounds like – a wiki devoted to skills that are no longer useful or necessary.

Obama Steps Up Online Advertising on Campaign
Barack Obama set a record in January by raising the highest amount of any candidate in a primary race. Online advertising may have contributed to his astonishing success.

Flickr Adds NoFollow to Photo Description Links
Flickr today took away a major source of link juice for the social media marketers and search engine optimization link builders who were using its description area for link building via installing a NoFollow attribute on outbound links which Flickr members add to their photo descriptions.

Is The Time Ripe For Search Marketing Standards?
Over the past ten to twelve years, various SEM practitioners have brought up the need for industry standards.

Internet Twice as Popular as TV
A new study from IDC indicates that on average people spend 32.7 hours online a week and only 16.4 hours watching television.

IM-NY / BOTW SES Charity Party
As with last year’s SES party – the boys have outdone themselves. IM-NY and Best of the Web Directory will be holding a Charity Party for SES NYC

The Last Days Of SEO
Rather, this is a look at the evolution of SEO to DAO.

History of TLA is History of SEO Industry
Patrick Gavin, co-founder of Text Link Ads, started his personal blog and wrote about the History of Text Link Ads, also known as TLA.

Two Approaches To Determining Intent: The Wisdom Of Crowds And Personal Values – VortexDNA
… disambiguating intent is the holy grail of search. John Battelle called search the “database of intentions.”

Feb 23
Rubel Takes “SEO Shenanigans” to Task
… the attacks on SEO never cease — this one by popular PR guru Steve Rubel, in connection with social media marketing.

Microsoft Memos Employees about Microsoft-Yahoo Merger Plans
If there is one clear indication that Microsoft is seriously bent on taking over Yahoo that has got to be the recent memo issued by Microsoft Platforms & Services Division President Kevin Johnson to his employees.

Feb 24
1:1 Interview With Search Marketing Authority and Visionary Hamlet Batista
It was a balmy 85 degrees (30 C) on this late Friday afternoon as I arrived in the Dominican Republic’s bustling capitol city of Santo Domingo to meet with and interview search marketing entrepreneur, blogger, and industry visionary, Mr. Hamlet Batista.

Feb 25
Is Yahoo the Wrong Target for Microsoft? – MIT Prof Thinks So
Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management was quoted in Sunday’s New York Times over his suggestion that Yahoo is the wrong target for Microsoft.

What should NOIDEX do?
Okay, this post will be colossally boring to some people. But I wanted to give you a peek at debates behind the curtain in Google’s search quality group.

Surprise, Surprise: SEO Works
MarketingSherpa today has the results from an SEO case study—4 tactics that increased traffic 58% (free until Feb 27).

Yahoo, You’re Not Off The Hook Over The Chinese Dissidents Case Says New Lawsuit
Yahoo Sued Again for Assisting the Persecution of Chinese Dissidents from the Epoch Times reports Yahoo is being sued once again for allegedly leaking personal information and aiding the Chinese Communist Party in Internet censorship and the persecution of dissidents.

Matt Cutts Addresses Bad Linking and Google Penalties
Google’s Matt Cutts has responded to a Google Groups discussion on the Google -60 penalty…

Feb 26
Yahoo Changes Minimum Bids to Follow Google’s Method
I just learned that Yahoo Search Marketing is introducing reserve pricing in their keyword auction.

Local Search & Blended Results
Found a hot spot for power and to comfortably blog a session. Plugged in and blogging in live mode.

Net Neutrality Conference for FCC
The FCC continues to investigate the allegedly “anti-Net-Neutral” actions of ISP (and cable co) Comcast.

Yahoo Opens Search With “Search Monkey,” Kind Of Like Google’s Coop
What is it? Basically, it gives publishers a way to tell Yahoo how to enhance their search results for free in Yahoo.

Yahoo’s Yang Finally Breaks Silence on the Microsoft Takeover
It might really be difficult to be at the helm of a giant web company that is being touted for takeover by another giant company.

Feb 27
SEO & User Generated Content
Search engines love good content, but good content can take a lot of time to prepare. So why not turn to your users and visitors?

SEO and Blogging
SEO & Blogging – Blogging can help SEO in a variety of ways. Blog posts are “syndicated,” meaning your content — and your links — spread across the web.

Adsense Announces New Terms & Conditions
Google has updated the terms and conditions of AdSense. The changes were announced on the AdSense blog.

Feb 28
Google Health, a first look
It’s been a busy week for the Google Health team. Last week we announced our partnership and pilot with the Cleveland Clinic.

Yahoo Faces Second Lawsuit from Chinese Dissidents
Yahoo Inc. has been sued by a group of Chinese political activists who claim that the company aided the Chinese government in tracking the online activities of political dissidents.

Generation Google: A Talk With Today’s Teens
Generation Google: A Talk With Today’s Teens – They’ve grown up with search engines as an everyday fact-of-life, rather than some magical new technology that’s revolutionized finding information.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Unite on Cross-Submission of Sitemaps
In trying to help webmaster’s life easier, at least the three top search engines could agree on something.

That’s it for February 2008. The last post covered January 2008. Stick around for the March 2008 post sometime this weekend.

The extraordinary events of the past year drained a lot of life and talent out of the industry. Ironically, these events happened just at a time when the search and digital marketing sectors are being widely considered and understood by the greater advertising industry. Having managed to grow the search marketing sector from what was essentially a miscellaneous line-item on corporate marketing budgets to a multi-billion dollar advertising industry, 2008 and 2009 were supposed to be the hyper-breakthrough years. Now the industry feels like it is stuck at the nozzle of an aerosol canister with enormous propellant force behind us but stopped by an untimely blockage near the top of the tube.

Before diving into a long review written to wrench your hearts and hurt your brains, I have one overarching prediction for the coming year. The tale of 2009 for the search marketing sector will be told in first quarter transfers of ad-spends from traditional to digital marketing sources. If all goes as predicted, most of the sector will survive to see another year. If, by the middle of the second quarter 09, we do not see a massive transfer of spend to digital marketing channels, we’ll see a lot of smaller firms closing up shop. If 2009 will be the Year of the Darwinist, what exactly was 2008?

Let’s start with the fellow who saw it coming. On Friday January 4, Greg Linden wrote, “The coming 2008 dot-com crash“. Check out Greg’s post and then settle back for an unsettling year-end review.

January 2008

GOOG

$685.19/share, Jan 2

$564.30/share, Jan 31

YHOO

$23.75/share, Jan 2

$19.18/share, Jan 31

MSFT

$35.22/share, Jan 2

$32.60/share, Jan 31

Jan 2
AOL Retires Netscape Browser
Marking the end of an era, AOL has decided to retire the Netscape Web browser after nearly 14 years of operation. As a result, AOL has decided to throw its weight behind Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

Google Ranking #6 Penalty / Filter
In early December some astute webmasters noticed that some of their longterm (in some cases many years) #1 or #2 ranking pages in Google now rank at #6.

Jan 3
Ask Settles Click Fraud Suit
Click fraud settlement between Ask and Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles.

SEO Firm CEO Jailed
Infamous Traffic Power CEO Matt Marlon arrested for foreclosure scam. (Matt Cutts from Google also wrote about Matt Marlon being jailed)

Jan 7
Gray Outs Google for Not Following its Own Paid Link Rules
… what I’d really like to know is why isn’t Google following their own recommendations and implementation suggestions for nofollows, redirects, and robots.txt.

Wikia Search Debuts Today
Over a year ago, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales stated he was going to start a people-powered search engine. After a couple delays and a great deal of hype, Wikia Search launched its initial Alpha test earlier this morning.

Jan 8
Yahoo Announces Mobile Software for Third Party Developers
Yahoo is now also turning to mobile for more ad dollars and making sure they have their share of the mobile space.

Microsoft Moves to Buy FAST
Earlier today, Microsoft released information stating they will complete a $1.2billion purchase of Norwegian search firm FAST Search and Transfer sometime in the second quarter of this year.

Google SERP Changes Result in Traffic Spikes
A huge number of webmasters are reporting a significant increase in traffic. Some even report the hike to be as big as double.

Matt McGee publishes the SEO Success Pyramid
Well, the best SEOs don’t talk to their clients about rankings; they talk about the process of making great web sites that earn traffic and convert visitors into customers.

Network Solutions Registering Domains After Availability Lookup
If you go to the Networks Solutions site and look up a domain name to see if it’s registered then Network Solutions, within seconds, will buy the domain name, causing you to have to go buy it from them.

Jan 9
Jim Lanzone replaced as Ask.com CEO
Search Engine Journal is reporting that IAC has announced today that Jim Lanzone was stepping down as CEO of Ask.com and being replaced by IAC insider Jim Safka.

Network Solutions Charging For Protection
Controversy is brewing about domain registrar company Network Solutions’ newly instituted practice of automatically registering domain names users search for and then jacking up the price during ICANN’s return grace period.

FCC Stepping in on Net Neutrality?
Back in November we mentioned how Free Press and other groups wanted ISP/cable company Comcast brought before the FCC for the way the company imitated users on BitTorrent to terminate downloads. And now, the FCC will be looking into it—at least according to Chairman Kevin Martin, speaking at CES.

Jan 10
Network Solutions amends Net registration process
Network Solutions, a dominant registrar of Internet sites, has stepped back from some controversial elements of a new registration process.

New Google Toolbar PageRank Update
Google ‘Toolbar’ PageRank is updating this week, in what seems to be the first PageRank update of 2008. Barry points to this Webmaster World thread about sites being penalized and dropped down to a zero.

Google vs. MSN on Paid Links and Cloaking
Gray areas getting gray-er…

Report: Nearly 90% Don’t Pay Attention to PPC Ads
A report from Ad Age published recently, reveals some eye-popping facts and figures about search marketing.

SEMPO releases SEM Salary Survey Results
In-house search engine marketers (SEMs) are receiving healthy salaries in line with their experience levels but if you want a salary in the mid-to-high $100s to the $200K range you are usually going to have to invest five to seven years to get there

Gizmodo Blog Pranks CES
CES has no shortage of displays. And when MAKE offered us some TV-B-Gone clickers to bring to the show, we pretty much couldn’t help ourselves. We shut off a TV. And then another. And then a wall of TVs. And we just couldn’t stop.

Jan 11
Google Boots IncrediMail from AdSense Program
IncrediMail revealed today that they had received a notification from Google indicating that they had been dismissed from the Google AdSense program. Upon the announcement of this news, IncrediMail shares plummeted more than 45% to a new year low.

Wired Gets Buzz-Bombed by Barry
An unfortunate chain of events started moments after Search Engine Land editor Barry Schwartz published a piece that noted Wired Magazine’s “How-To” Wiki pages did not discourage link seeding with NOFOLLOW tags. “Get a Free Link From Wired”

Naturally a serious number of SEL readers immediately did the predictable. They spammed the hell out of the How-To wiki in an immediate lesson on How-To suck PR from thin air. Wired got righteously freaked out and contacted SEL publisher Danny Sullivan. Danny got good and freaked out too. He published an apology the next business day.

Before his apology however, a flame-war at Sphinn erupted and some folks from the SEO community took a lot of frustration out on each other.

Jan 14
An Apology To Wired & The Search Marketing Community
On Friday, Search Engine Land published a piece about the Wired How To wiki, and how easy it was to gain a link from it. Our piece – which I gave the go ahead to — generated some serious spam issues for Wired…

You have to be in the search community to understand what a wrenching feeling it was reading Danny’s apology. This is the dude who best articulated and popularized search engine marketing over the years. He has global street-cred. More than anybody else, Danny has represented and guided the industry and the results of an honest article with an unfortunate link-bait headline made him feel so obviously crappy. AOL killing Netscape was one thing but this short episode seriously sucked.

Being the Blogging Media: Ethical Questions on the Fly
An ugly flame war started over the weekend in reaction to the story. By Monday, Danny was moved to eat public crow and issue the lengthy apology. As someone who regularly writes about the search marketing space, I appreciate his sentiments but really wish he hadn’t.

Google Launches iGoogle for the iPhone & Mobile Phones
Google has gone live with a version of iGoogle, their personalized home page, for the iPhone and other mobile devices.

The Face Behind Facebook
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears on CBS 60-Minutes

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Ask.com For Failure to Prevent Click Fraud
Ask.com is apparently being sued in a class action lawsuit for “failing to adequately detect and stop ‘click fraud’ or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.”

Worst Stock for 2008: Yahoo!
The Motley Fool called it… Little could they know about what was to come…

Jan 15
FCC wants to know: Is degrading P2P traffic ‘reasonable’?
As foreshadowed at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, federal regulators this week took the first formal step into investigating complaints about how Internet service providers, such as Comcast, manage peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic on their networks.

Another Media Exec (Vince Broady) Leaves Yahoo
As Yahoo narrows its focus on a few key priorities, it’s not surprising to see those whose projects fall outside those areas leave the company. And Yahoo’s media group, whose once lofty mission to produce original, Hollywood-style content has been scaled back significantly over the past year or so, has seen its share of departures.

Jan 16
Ron Paul is the Snakes on a Plane of 2008
Up until now, if you had been reading reddit and other social media sites fairly regularly you would have thought that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul was the second coming. He had a ton of online exposure, support, and young followers.

Robert Scoble Joining FastCompany.tv
Top blogger, social media guru, and video podcaster, Scoble will join Mansuetto Ventures–the company behind Fast Company and Inc. magazines–and create a new video channel called FastCompany.tv.

SEMMY 2008 Nominations Declared
The SEMMYS are an annual awards event created to honor, “the content produced across the search and online marketing industry.

Jan 17
Target Insults Bloggers, Shoots Self In Foot. Again.
Target’s back facing the ire of bloggers after they released an arguably offensive ad campaign and then refused to speak to Shaping Youth blogger Amy Jussel when she inquired about it. Target told Amy they couldn’t speak with her because the fine establishment they’re running “does not participate with non-traditional media outlets”.

Microsoft’s Live Search Still Can’t Work Out 301 Permanent Redirects
A 301 redirect typically tells a search engine that page A (old URL) moved permanently to page B (a new URL). A search engine will see that 301 status code and log that the new URL is in a new location.

Jan 18
Jupiter: Local Online Advertising Will Be Worth $8.9 Billion In 2012
… local online advertising, defined as display, search, and classifieds, will be worth $8.9 billion in 2012. Local search is $2.5 billion of that total, according to Jupiter.

Are Digg Editors Burying Your Story?
OK, if Valleywag’s revelation–that Digg employs editors to bury certain stories–is news to you, welcome to the nightmare.

Google Wants to Change the World with 5 Initiatives
Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org announces its 5 core initiatives that will be the focus of its social responsibility activities.

Jan 20
Yahoo! integrates del.icio.us bookmarks into regular search results
After the regular search listing Yahoo! will add a line saying something like “X people bookmarked this page under [these categories]“.

Jan 21
Big Changes Coming to Yahoo?
Nearly nine months ago, co-founder Jerry Yang replaced Terry Semel as CEO of Internet search icon Yahoo. The change in management was necessitated by Yahoo’s continued second place showing to rival Google in search market share and Yahoo’s subsequent lagging stock performance. Yang came in promising to reshape Yahoo into the Internet power-hitter it used to be.

Hundreds of Layoffs Expected at Yahoo
Yahoo is planning to lay off hundreds of employees in an effort to increase its profitability, prop up its deflated stock price and narrow the focus of its sprawling Internet portal to a smaller number of crucial areas, people close to the company said Monday.

Say Goodbye To WebSideStory: Omniture Shareholders Approve Visual Sciences Purchase
Last week Omniture shareholders approved the acquisition of Visual Sciences and in essence started the burial process for WebSideStory. Remember WebsideStory bought Visual Sciences and then VS took over from within.

The Anatomy of a RipOff Report Lawsuit
Last week, there were several excellent posts elucidating the many ways RipOff Report violates Google’s Terms of Service, and yet manages to stay on top of the Google search results pages.

Recession-Ho! (The Search Ecosystem Enters its First Economic Downturn)
Most serious observers of the U.S. economy agree that we’re already in a recession; the question for us in search marketing is how badly we’ll all be hit. (This is the first article of 2008 based on the effects of recession)

Jan 22
Google and IncrediMail Collaborate Once Again
A little over a week ago, we reported that Google and IncrediMail broke up as the search engine giant decided to stop serving Google AdSense ads on the IncrediMail site. Well, it looks like all is well now, and IncrediMail is now back on track with Google.

What To Do About Yahoo
Yahoo either has to start fighting or get the hell out of the way. Do or do not, there is no try.

Jan 23
Search Stocks & The Stock Crash: GOOG, YHOO, & MSFT
Today John Battelle noted what a plunge Google took on the stock market yesterday and in general through the current year. I thought it would be fun to look at Microsoft and Yahoo as well.

Meg Whitman to leave eBay
The last CEO standing from the days before the 2000 dot-com crash is leaving her post at the end of March. Long-time eBay CEO Meg Whitman is stepping away from the executive office she has occupied for nearly ten years.

Google’s Mysterious Position Six Penalty
The signs of being hit by a “position six penalty” is when you see your number one or two rankings shift downwards to position number six in Google.

Google Reverses Number 6 Penalty?
folks over at WebmasterWorld, starting around message number 3550215 on January 16th, have noticed that for many of their keywords hit by the number 6 penalty (or whatever you want to call it), noticed they were back at number one!

A Gloomy Searchonomic Forecast
Kevin Ryan suggests that long-term thinking may be Yahoo’s best approach.

Jan 24
Day 2: Search Stocks & Is Search Recession Proof?
Let’s do the stock thing again. As with yesterday, the chart above shows Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), and Microsoft (MSFT) against the NASDAQ, over the past month. The key difference is that while the latter three stabilized, Google kept dropping. That leads some to wonder if search is going to be in trouble.

Redirects: Permanent 301 vs. Temporary 302
Using the correct redirect, in most cases a permanent 301, is key to helping maintain your existing rankings, whether your site is undergoing a complete face lift, or if you simply want to move a few pages around.

Southwest Airlines to Test Internet Access
Southwest Airlines announced Wednesday that it plans to begin trials of satellite-to-airplane broadband Internet service sometime this summer

Google News Searches Stop Working Temporarily
Yesterday, at about 10AM Eastern Time, reports came in that Google News search was not working.

Think You’re Successfully Flying Under Google’s Radar? Think Again.
Have you been trying to “fly under the radar,” engaging in activities outside of Google’s guidelines but subtly so as not to get caught?

The Importance of Page One Placement
From a search engine optimization perspective, (or PPC), all that matters is customer acquisition.

Jan 25
Google Moving to De-monitize Domain Tasting?
Google is rumored to be ending the monetization of controversial but lucrative practice known as domain tasting by ceasing to provide AdWords inventory to domains that are less than five days old.

Google Shares Down more than 20%
On Dec 26, 2007 Google shares closed at $710.84. Today one short month later, Jan 25, 2008, Google closed at $566.40.

EU Regulators Likely to Approve Google’s DoubleClick Deal
Despite rivals’ concerns that Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick may increase the cost and difficulty in advertising online advertising, EU regulators reviewing the case are likely to approve the $3.1 billion takeover deal.

How Microsoft Makes Money
As we all know Microsoft has recently released their second quarter earnings and they did very well: $4.7 billion, or 50 cents a share, on revenue of $16.36 billion. But how does Microsoft make money? The table below starts to segment their revenue by their various online/offline channels.

What Does A Recession Mean For Your Search Program?
By most accounts, the U.S. economy is about to enter the 12th recession since WWII.

Microsoft Earnings Soar, Gates Calls For More Help To Poor
Microsoft issued fiscal Q2 earnings yesterday and simply crushed estimates. The company had quarterly revenues of more than $16 billion, which exceeded the highest previous quarterly earnings mark by a whopping $2 billion

Geo-Targeting Organic Google Placements
Google maintains country-specific search results for almost all major nation states.

Jan 28
Sculpting with Nofollow Works Pretty Darn Well
Back in mid-December, SEOmoz made a number of changes to our use of the rel=”nofollow” tag on the internal link structure of this site.

Search not understood and used in PR campaigns
Search, however, is not part of the PR lexicon yet. In answer to a question from the floor Joe Kessler of SS & K said that search is an area every PR person should understand and use, but it is a gaping hole in the PR toolset.

Yahoo (YHOO) Going Forward With “Drastic” Layoffs–Source
A source close to Yahoo reports that Jerry Yang has decided to go forward with aggressive layoffs.

Jan 29
eBay to Create a Quality Score
eBay announced they are planning on launching something like a quality score

Waiting to exhale at Yahoo
Once the markets close, Yahoo will report on its Q4 and full year earnings.

Jan 30
1,000 Yahoo Layoffs and 4 Key Yahoo Trends for CEOs
Yahoo Panama posted a 20 percent improvement in RPS (Revenue Per Search) in Q4, following three consecutive revenue growth quarters.

Yahoo’s Stock is Going Down
Yesterday, we heard again that Yahoo is laying off 1000 workers. Sadly, Yahoo’s stock is also faltering.

Jan 31 (The last day of “normal” in search. Seriously… it goes downhill fast from here)
Google in Wall St. Matrix: Faces Red or Blue Pill Dilemma
The message from Wall St. to Google rang as clear as the opening bell today. Unfortunately for Google, it was finally “For Whom The Bell Tolls.”

Google wins 700mhz FCC auction
Of course there is no way yet to say if Google is the current high bidder, but we do know for sure that Google has won.

The Google Bosses’ 20-Years Pact
Actually, we agreed the month before we went public that we would work together for 20 years.

5 Reasons Why Rankings Are A Poor Measure Of Success
Are you still measuring your SEO success by the rankings you obtain? If so, you need to stop—right now!

—
OK. As I said, the year started out on a promising note. As of February 1 however, things started to go decidedly downhill…

These sorts of conversations are usually pretty interesting and though each of them is unique, they tend to follow a similar pattern. People attending search marketing conferences are there on their company’s budgets or pay thousands out of their own pockets. They are expected to return with a lot of fresh info that will build their online businesses. When talking to speakers, smarter conference delegates tend to pry as much information as they can.

It takes between 30 – 60 seconds to understand a good business idea. It takes far longer to understand the mechanisms that make an idea into a viable business. Search engine optimization is very much like that. One can explain the basic concept fairly quickly but the details are far more difficult to explain. That’s especially true when the environment search marketers work in evolves as quickly and rapidly as Google does.

Search engine rankings, as a definitive measure of the progress of a search engine optimization campaign went out of style a couple years back but many still believe placement is the ultimate success metric. About three years ago, Google began experimenting with the delivery of search engine results designed to match the interests of unique searchers. Somewhere in the last few months, they became very, very good at it.

Google has gone for personalization of results and that makes everything different. Google draws from factors as divers as user click behaviours, individual bookmark files, previous search history and localized indicators to determine each user’s unique search query results. Underlying personalization of results are localization factors used to create query results produced to feature references that are actually useful to local searchers.

In other words, if you are in Victoria BC and type PIZZA Victoria, you should see a lot of references to pizzerias on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. If you had a favourite pizza place and you clicked that link frequently, that link would likely move upwards in your personalized search results, especially if you spend a lot of time the pizzeria’s web pages.

There are no universal set of search engine rankings. At one time there were only ten top ten results to get to, period. Now there are as many results sets as there are individual users. It took three written paragraphs to give a very basic explanation. Unfortunately, late night conversations at conventions do not allow the luxury of multiple paragraphs.

My friend had gotten to a fine point of frustration when he declared he, ” …would never work with a client whose idea of SEO consisted entirely of chasing after search engine rankings!” Dramatic enough to draw my imagination back into the conversation, my friend was swimming upstream against a flow of out-of-date understandings of what search engine optimization is. A few of the other listeners grasped the implications of personalization but it took several more statements to move the potential client vetting my friend.

As the conversation mellowed down from the precipice my friend’s statement took it to, we started talking about usability, strategic link placement, traffic acquisition and finding ways to appeal to “the right web surfers” as being the new focuses of SEO. By the time we moved from the cold winds of Michigan Ave to the raucous melee of of Kitty O’Shea’s, the conversation had taken us through a short history of Google rankings and two eloquent explanations of a world beyond rankings. Conference conversations are cool.

Actually, I haven’t read the news today. I haven’t wanted to. I don’t have the stomach for the Dow today and having spent a week talking with CEOs, SEOs, Social Marketers and most importantly, CFOs, I don’t have the strength for another download of economic downturn stories. Except for one…

The chill running down my spine is very real and that’s not because I have spent the last week in Chicago attending the final Search Engine Strategies Conference of 2008. Though the temperature was low the caliber of the conference was high. This event was arguably the most interesting and well organized Search Engine Strategies show ever produced but that’s not going to be the story of the show. The predominant story of this show will (unfortunately) be the economy. The chill running down my spine is a shared sensation amongst most of the people I spoke with loosely referred to as “THE FEAR”.

Every conversation began or ended with a discussion about the economy and THE FEAR was felt crawling beneath the surface of almost every interaction. Everyone is concerned and everyone wants to know each others’ coping strategies. Again, the extraordinary efforts put into making this event work will likely receive less recognition than it should as the story will be about how attendance was lower than ever and the absence of certain well known names gave fuel to rumors of doom, gloom and despair.

“Registration numbers are up over last year”, conference chair Stewart Quealy and Search Engine watch publisher Matt McGowan said to me. Though registration numbers might be higher, actual attendance was visibly down as corporate travel bans are taking effect towards the end of a difficult budgetary year. The fee for admission is only half the cost of coming to a major conference. Accommodation, meals, drinks and innumerable incidentals tend to double the amount of real money spent sending delegates to SES. There were a number of companies who simply didn’t make it this year, lending fuel to rumors that there are a lot of companies which totally will not make it through the next year. THE FEAR is real. OK. that’s it for the economic stuff.

Be that as it may, the strength and brilliance of the search engine marketing has never been more apparent than it was in Chicago earlier this week. With extraordinary keynote speakers, great information and education sessions and the collective wisdom of over 80 industry thought-leaders, SES Chicago was enormously well done.

The conference opened with a killer keynote speech delivered by one of the world’s undisputed Intellectual Property experts, Professor Lawrence Lessig. Speaking on the topic of “IP Extremism”, Dr. Lessig outlined the evolution of copyright and IP law and offered a number of ideas on how it should evolve to meet the challenges of living in a digital society.
(please click here for WebmasterRadio.FM’s podcast of Dr. Lessig’s speech. )

Metamend was represented on the first day of sessions by myself in an hour long speech regarding Network Neutrality. I have spent a lot of time studying and covering the concepts associated with Net Neutrality because I strongly believe the outcome of that debate will set the future of the digital marketing environment we work in and the industry we have worked so hard to build. From where I stand right now, the outlook is fairly good, especially with the positions stated by the incoming U.S. administration. Nevertheless, as a unified digital marketing industry we need to continue to pressure our elected representatives and the Internet service provider community to retain and strengthen the traditions associated with Net Neutrality.

Unity within the community was the second most important topic at SES Chicago and I am pleased to announce the final MAJOR rift within the SEO/SEM community was healed at the conference. As Metamend Blog readers and our clients are aware, we are “Best of Breed”, best practices focused digital marketing agency. That means we follow the best practice rules as outlined by the search engines and by thought leaders (like ourselves) within the search marketing community. This is important to us as an agency because it guarantees our clients will not run afoul of industry or search engine standards. The problem is, there is no set-in-stone rules to follow other than those posted by the engines themselves. That’s why Metamend follows what are called the Google Guidelines as closely as we can.

The rift in the community stemmed from interpretation of those guidelines with SEMs who stray from them being called “black-hats” and SEM’s who follow them being labeled, “white-hat”. Having never been fully comfortable with such stark terminology, we use the phrases best practices and best of breed. At SES Chicago, many of the most outspoken and often virulent voices in that debate met, talked rationally, and decided their opinions were actually much closer than they either realized or would previously admit. This might come as a shock to old-time SEOs but Doug Heil, Todd Friesen and Dave Naylor all got along quite well. I think the path is now clear for the digital marketing community to begin articulating a TRUE set of standards we can present as an industry baseline to mainstream advertisers and clients. As the influence of digital marketing grows, I believe such a baseline will be critically important. Until this week however, I did not think the SEO/SEM industry was mature enough to get there. Now I do and I feel that is a great accomplishment.

The third most important topic covered at SES Chicago was the need for SEO/SEM companies to up their game with analytic measurement of digital marketing success. General search engine ranking reporting is over because there is not such thing as “general” search engine rankings at Google any more. Google is now committed to delivering highly personalized results to every one of its users. In order to prove our worth to clients, SEOs and SEMs need to provide clear measurements of increased traffic and ROI. Though Metamend has been ahead of this curve in out use of analytic data to create enormously detaile reports for our clients, we picked up a few new tips and ideas on important reporting metrics at the conference. That said, I think Metamend is far ahead of the vast majority of digital marketing shops when it comes to using analytic data to improve the results we bring clients and the information we share with them.

A review of SES Chicago would not be complete without complimenting and thanking the organizers of the show from Incisive Media. Stewart Quealy, Matt McGowan and Marylin Crafts organized and marshaled an excellent line-up of speakers. The “face” of SES Conferences, Kevin Ryan gave an incredibly strong performance and did great interviews with speakers after each keynote session. The stuff attendees and delegates saw up front was excellent.

One of the most outstanding facets of this show was the stuff attendees and delegates don’t actually see being organized but effects all of us in profound ways. The behind the scenes organization and the actual set-up of the event were amazing. Incisive Media Director of Operations, Michele McDermott did an incredible job with the logistics of an incredibly complicated event. Folks like her rarely get the credit they deserve and rarely receive the thanks they should get. On behalf of the community, thanks Michele… (for instance… NO MORE BOX LUNCHES!)

SES Chicago 2008 was a good show. The line-up was excellent and the organizers made attending and doing our jobs easy. The next major Search Engine Strategies event is in London in early February. The next North American SES show is in New York in late March. If you happen to be able to attend either, it is well worth the price of admission and travel.

While many commentators in the financial and marketing sectors cast doubt on Miller’s chances to mount a successful take-over, favourable interest in the attempt demonstrates a belief Yahoo! could be a viable operation under the right leadership.

Virtually everyone, including folks at Yahoo! has conceded dominance in the search space to Google. What tends to be forgotten when people write-off Yahoo! as a second ran in search is that Yahoo! remains the world’s largest content network and the most visited domain on the Internet. Yahoo! is still an online superpower but it has languished under its current and previous leadership for over half the decade.

The saddest irony in the recent Yahoo! sob-saga (which we will try really hard NOT to recount unless absolutely necessary) is that the path they pursued several years ago might actually have been a fertile one in the business and development climate of late 2007 and early 2008. In an alternative universe most remaining Yahooligans really wish they lived in right now, Yahoo! could have used its insanely massive content network to leverage some premium entertainment content out of the major television networks and music studios.

Under the previous former CEO Terry Semel, Yahoo! had been following a get Hollywood and professionally produced content scheme. It was establishing a grassroots news bureau and developing a publishers’ content network to allow independent webmasters to distribute licensed content as they saw fit. The entire scheme could have been monetized through the reinvigorated Yahoo! Search Marketing platform, Panama.

In this alternative universe, Yahoo! would have been doing something useful during the lost half-decade the past five years have turned out to be. In the real world however, they didn’t. Their 2003 – 2007 bid to build a licensed content network backfired, mostly because conditions were not quite ready. The great stuff Yahoo! did accomplish in that time (and there’s a lot of great stuff in Yahoo!’s stable) tended to be classed or out marketed by rivals, or out of vogue by time of release.

To repeat an oft written mantra, over the past five years Yahoo! has created great products, maintained and expanded a fine search engine, built a capable paid-search advertising system and grown the largest content network in the world. Unfortunately, it has done all this in the shadow of a greater Google.

Even though Google looms over the industry with an awe inspiring dominance, don’t count Yahoo! out just yet. Even though Jon Miller might not be able to assume sufficient debt to buy Yahoo! outright, there is still a lot of public and capital interest in the old purple cow.

SES Chicago is considered the most intimate of all large shows on the annual circuit. The sense of urgency that surrounds virtually every other show is toned down a notch in Chicago. Perhaps it’s because it is the end of a busy year and autumn is an especially busy time of year. People are too tired to work all day and then party all night so the tone of conversation is a little bit deeper. Perhaps it’s because Chicago tends to be insanely cold at the beginning of December and nobody wants to leave the comfy confines of the hotel. The conference venue in Chicago in particular seems to promote interaction between speakers and attendees.

SES Chicago 08 has one of the best speaker and session line-ups. Because there are three or four tracks running concurrently, it’s never possible to see or learn as much as one might wish to. Here are some of the features I want to see…

Monday Dec 8
9:00 – 10:15 – Keynote Speaker, Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

10:30 – 11:30 – Universal & Blended Search
Moderator: Kevin Ryan, SES Advisory Board Chair & CEO, Motivity Marketing
Speakers: Dr. Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search
Mike Grehan, Global KDM Officer, Acronym Media
Chris Blakely, Director, Client Services, comScore, Inc.
Todd Schwartz, Group Product Manager, Live Search, Microsoft Corporation
Jack Menzel, Senior Product Manager, Google

11:45 – 12:45 – Mobile Search Battle Update
Moderator: Eric Chan, Consultant in Mobile and Wireless Technology, Mobileslate
Speakers: Cindy Krum, Founder, Rank-Mobile.com
Bryson Meunier, Associate Director of SEO, Resolution Media
Rachel Pasqua, Director of Mobile Marketing, iCrossing
Phyllis Reuther, CTO, Mobile Content Networks, Inc.
Shawn Prutsman, Product Manager, APS Network Prod Mgmt, Microsoft Corporation

1:45pm-2:45pm – Orion Panel, The State of Integration
Moderators: Kevin Ryan, SES Advisory Board Chair & CEO, Motivity Marketing
Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media
Speakers: Robert Murray, President, iProspect
Aaron Goldman, VP, Marketing & Strategic Partnerships, Resolution Media
Josh Todd, Director of Acquisition Marketing, Constant Contact
Gregg Stewart, Senior Vice President, Interactive, TMP Directional Marketing

3:00 – 4:00 – The End of the Search? (This one is my panel so I sort of have to go to it)
Moderator: Cindy Krum, Director of New Media Strategies, Blue Moon Works, Inc.
Speakers: Jim Hedger, SEO Consultant, Metamend Search Engine Marketing

4:30pm-5:30pm – Intellectual Property & Trademark Issues: What SEMs Should Know
Moderator: Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink
Speakers: Mark J. Rosenberg, Esq., Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.
David M. Adler, Esq., Partner, Adler Law Group
Jonathan Moskin, Esq., Partner, White & Case LLP

Tues Dec 9
10:30 – 11:45 – Advanced Keyword Research
Moderator: Ron Jones, Search Engine Watch Expert & President/CEO, Symetri Internet Marketing
Speakers: Damian Finlay, Managing Director, Epiar Inc.
David Snyder, Search Specialist, JRDunn.com
Martin Laetsch, Sr. Director of Search Strategy, Covario
Monte Cahn, Founder & CEO, Moniker

4:15 – 5:30 – Advanced Link Building
Moderator: PJ Fusco, Natural Search Director, Netconcepts
Speakers: Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web Service
Wil Reynolds, Founder, SEER Interactive
Chris Boggs, Manager, SEO, Brulant, Inc., recently acquired by Rosetta
Rae Hoffman, Principal, Sugarrae SEO Consulting

Wed Dec 10
9:00am-10:00am – Keynote Speaker, Josh James, President and CEO, Omniture
Avoiding the Chasm of “Anticipointment”

10:30 – 11:45 – Podcast & Audio Search Optimization
Moderator: Kevin Ryan, SES Advisory Board Chair & CEO, Motivity Marketing
Speakers: Amanda Watlington, Owner, Searching for Profit
Daron Babin, CEO, Webmaster Radio

12:45 – 2:00 – Social Media – Measuring the Business Value
Moderator: Pauline Ores, SES Advisory Board & Sr Marketing Mngr, Social Media Engagement, IBM Corporation
Speakers: Bill Hunt, CEO, Global Strategies International
Rob Key, CEO, Converseon
Brian Halligan, CEO, Co-Founder, HubSpot

2:15 – 3:30 – Ads in a Quality Score World
Moderator: Jonathan Mendez, Founder & CEO, RAMP Digital
Speakers: Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media
Kristopher Jones, President & CEO, Pepperjam
Ron Jones, Search Engine Watch Expert & President/CEO, Symetri Internet Marketing
Mary Berk, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft

Thurs Dec 11
9:00 – 10:00 – How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Get Stuff Done
Moderator: Chris Boggs, Manager, SEO, Brulant, Inc., recently acquired by Rosetta
Speakers: Matthew Bailey, President, SiteLogic
Bob Tripathi, Search Marketing Strategist, Discover Financial Services
Robert Heyman, Chief Search Officer, MediaSmith
Stephan Spencer, Founder & President, Netconcepts, LLC

11:30 – 12:30 – Brand & Reputation Management
Moderator: Elisabeth Osmeloski, Founder, AdventuresinSearch.com
Speakers: John Tawadros, Chief Operating Officer, iProspect
Simon Heseltine, Director of Search, Serengeti Communications
Michael Kiefer, SVP, Brand Protect
Noah Elkin, Ph.D., Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Steak NYC

Set in the elegant Chicago Hilton hotel, SES Chicago presents a number of quiet places to duck away for a chat with friends or new contacts. Knowing the good places in the venue can make meetings and appointments easier. Many of the best SEM business deals get done in Chicago. I think that has a lot to do with the venue.

Though it is the smallest of the shows, SES Chicago also sports one of the most confusing floor plans. The hotel itself is massive, stretching a full city block in front of Grant Park and Lake Michigan. SES takes over the entire basement section and one or two second floor lecture/conference rooms towards the back of the hotel.

As you enter through the front door you’ll pass a central display in the massive stone and marble foyer. This display is used as one of the meeting points for groups heading out to supper so make a mental note of it. Moving forward you’ll enter a long hallway leading north and south. Hotel check-in is to the right (north) and half-way down the hall. To the left you’ll find stairs down to the conference level.

1st floor, North
The quiet lounge
One of the nicest hotel lounges in America is found at the far north end of the long hallway. The lounge has several places for meetings and a number of smaller tables for individuals or couples. The layout of the lounge gives most seating spaces a sense of privacy even though the lounge is built to offer an open-space environment. Attendees will want to schedule team meetings here and the lounge provides a quiet alternative to the more raucous pub at the other end of the building.

The Hotel Restaurant
Across from the quiet lounge is the hotel restaurant. Usually packed for lunch and supper, the restaurant offers a full menu ranging from light food to steakhouse specials. The hotel restaurant is a good place to grab a breakfast meeting. Conference attendees and speakers tend to be found here in the morning. Note: 30-minutes before the morning keynote, the hotel restaurant is packed. If you want to have a good breakfast and show up on time, start early.

Check-in / Concierge
Chicago is a very cold city in the winter. The folks working the check-in desk at the Hilton know this. Nothing phases them when it comes to requests for cars, taxis, dinner reservations, last minute tickets, etc… If it can be gotten in Chicago, these folks can find it for you fast.

1st Floor, south
The Clubhouse
The conference clubhouse, Kitty o’Shea’s is found in the south-east corner of the first floor. When you want to find someone after a session or in the early evening, this is a good place to look. Kitty’s is a loud room. A “U” shaped bar separates a front and back area. The back area is usually quietest and a good place to meet people in. Some of the greatest innovative and educational conversations happen in Kitty’s.

The Side Lounge
There is a hallway running towards the back of the hotel. Near the south end of that hallway is a plush lounge that feels set away from the bustle of the hotel. This is a good place to have a quick bite to eat in the evening as the service is faster in here than in Kitty’s or the north-end lounge. Usually less crowded than either other gathering place, the side lounge is a quiet out of the way place to catch-up with old friends and engage with new ones.

The basement and conference levels of the hotel involve lots of hallways and turns. Some of the session rooms are at the far north end while the keynote speeches are found in two second floor lecture theaters accessed by escalators which are partially hidden at the back of the hotel.

SES Chicago is arguable the nicest and most pleasant show of the year. If you find yourself in Chicago next week, make your way down to S.Michigan St and join thousands of search marketers at the Hilton.