It’s that time of year again. San Jose plays hosts to the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference and Google plays party host to the hoards of search marketers and online advertising pros who flock together for the week.

The annual Google Dance was celebrated at the Google campus in Mountain View and it was every bit of over the top fun that you could (and at the same time, couldn’t possibly) imagine.

It was an amazing festival of smart, successful, driven, and influential people all coming together to have fun. We did after all, spend the day learning and networking, and we were ready to cap the night with the highly anticipated party of the year (for the search industry that is).

It was nothing short of amazing. We’re talking outdoor dance floors, pool tables, sand volleyball courts, twister games, karaoke with green screens for crazy videos, fun foods, all the beer and wine you could “visibly” handle, video games, and outside lounges.

It was a blast for those who didn’t happen to have the misfortune for the evening as being branded as “press.”

We’ll follow up this post with our legitimate coverage of the event. We got great interviews with the teams behind YouTube, GoogleDocs, Universal Search, and Google Maps. But, I needed to run this first, as I’m still in a bit of shock over how we, as press, were treated last night.

If you were press…you were immediately greeted by a junior member of the Google corporate communications team.

Yes, Google brought out a small army of young, inexperienced, and not really helpful “escorts” to make sure that press were given a small tour and access to information and demos.

I say not helpful because several times we had questions about spokespersons and products and the only response we could get was, “I don’t know. Let me ask someone for you.” Then they would make 18 phone calls, ask other junior members, only to follow up and say, “I still don’t know the answer. Do you want me to still look into it?”

Google handler #1 (yes I asked permission) and she was actually very nice and helpful

Attention, Google marketing. I think you intended this to be helpful…but the impression I leave with is, well, hmmm, icky.

After being escorted and handed off to no less that five various handlers, I soon realized that their real purpose was to keep us herded and controlled so that the information, pictures, and video that came out of the Google Dance party, adhered to a legitimate standard for security

I absolutely understand. It’s your party and we’re your guests. It’s just the way this entire thing transpired that could have been managed a bit more respectfully.

Number one…if you attend the party and you’re press, let us know the rules of the game as you’re following us around.

For example, rather than simply tell me up front that they would prefer that we not take pictures of people unless we get permission, let me share with you how I found out.

One of the great things about the Google party is the amount of cool and off the wall activities in which you can participate. As I am not only an author, I am also a photo blogger, part of the way I tell a story is to capture it visually. I went to take a game of a few people playing twister…nothing abnormal, nothing incriminating, not even an angle from which faces are visible, but just as I got in position to snap the shot, this particular handler grabbed my arm, pulled me, and said, “you’re not allowed to take pictures of people without their permission.”

It was a bit embarrassing. All I could say was sorry, that I didn’t know.

After that little incident…I just felt a bit numb to the whole thing.

So for the rest of the time that I was there, we just focused on getting the demo on video, and snapping pictures of miscellaneous stuff all the while being escorted around to make sure we obeyed the rules.

At one point, I asked, “do you really have to follow us everywhere we go?” The answer was, “as long as you have your equipment out, then yes.”

So we walked by the karaoke booth, which I really wanted to shoot and share with you…but, I couldn’t snap it because I was reminded that I “especially” need their permission for this shot – and I wasn’t about to stop their fun to ask.

It felt as if I was a teenager again walking around a store with security following and analyzing my every move.

Since we parked quite a distance away, I didn’t feel like dropping the stuff off and walking all the way back. So, we left the party and called it an early night.

Throughout the night, I observed regular attendees with point and shoot cameras, camera phones and small palm-sized video cameras shooting away without regard. I wonder if they were given escorts too. In the era of citizen journalism, blogs, social networks, and public photo albums reach an impressive array of people.

Again, I’m not here to challenge Google’s requests. I respect them. I’m sure there are security reasons driving the need for escorts. I just wish we were treated a little bit more respectfully and maybe, I don’t know, told the rules when checking in for the party.

Visit Google Blogscoped for more on the party.

Read bub correspondent, Alex Ho’s more lively post for a different perspective.

Stay tuned for Part II – the video interviews.

For more pictures, visit my album on flickr.

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Tagged as: prototyping