Search Engine Strategies 2007 in San Jose – Shoulda Been in San Francisco

by lornali on August 23, 2007

words and photos by Lorna Li

OK, I know that the big search engines are located down yonder, and that Google is a premium sponsor, however, I can’t help but think that SES 2007 would have been way better had it happened in San Francisco, not San Jose.

Not just because I live a block away from the Moscone Center and the hour and a half long crawl through rush hour traffic on the clusterfucked 101 is a simply a buzzkill.

The nightlife in San Francisco is simply way better than in San Jose. If SES 2007 were in San Francisco it would be bub.blicio.us.

SES Highlights

Search engine optimizers are up in arms about Google Universal Search and what to do about it. Universal Search, is a “system that will blend listings from its news, video, images, local and book search engines among those it gathers from crawling web pages”.

Danny Sullivan interviews Marissa Mayer

This potentially reduces the amount of real estate that SEOs can compete for on a search engine results page (SERP). Imagine your organic web site listing or text ad eclipsed by an eye-catching image that pops up in the top left of search results for your most important keyword. Ouch.

Not everyone sees this yet, and sometimes search results alternate between the new and the old presentation. But expect Universal Search to become, well, more universal.

Personalized search is another development that will become increasingly widespread, and is another Google initiative to improve their users’ search experience. Currently, search results are personalized for those who are logged into a Google service, such as Gmail, Google Adsense, or Google Analytics.

The catch is, most people miss the fine print and have no idea that this is going on – note Search History is enabled by default.

Most folks continue surfing the web while logged into their Gmail accounts, blissfully unaware that Google is tracking and analyzing their search history in order to determine what to dish up next. Many feel that the whole purpose of web search is to find sites that are completely new and not skewed towards what they might have been searching for at work.

While these developments will undoubtedly make the work of search engine optimization more challenging, at the end of the day, the point of all this, says Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of Search Products and User Experience, is improving the relevance of search results for users.

Google Dance 2007

The Google Dance was the highlight of Search Engine Strategies week. The Google Dance was much like a big college frat party with an unlimited budget, sans strippers. This was my first time at the Googleplex, and I spent most of the night wandering around gawking. Firstly, Google has an unusually high concentration of smart, attractive employees, who all seem younger than 25.

Secondly, the whole place was tricked out like an amusement park, with ominous Communist underpinnings.

As I was snapping photos, a zealous underage Googler in a green Google Dance T-shirt barked at me for walking around unaccompanied by an official representative of the Ministry of Google Corporate Communications and PR. I was shadowed by a youthful Googler in a red Google Dance T-shirt, who was unable to recommend what I should be taking photos of.

Eventually I dismissed him, and continued taking photos, more of which can be viewed on my Flickr Google Dance 2007 album

Web 2.0 Expo vs. SES San Jose

I have to admit, I didn’t get much out of SES that I didn’t already know, although I did learn some good nuggets of information about search engine marketing strategies here and there.

Compared to the Web 2.0 Expo, which was definitely more hip, energetic and chock-full of great insights on the state of the union of the participatory web, SES was simply not that groundbreaking.

Here’s my two cents:

Cool Factor
- Web 2.0 Expo = 8
- SES = 5

Web 2.0 is cool – need I say more?

Ego Factor
- Web 2.0 Expo = 9
- SES = 4

Yes, geeks at the cutting edge of tech innovation tend to have bigger egos, especially if their startup has benefited from a recent large cash injection. The folks at SES were more down to earth, friendly and approachable.

Food Factor
- Web 2.0 Expo = 6.5
- SES = 5

OK, no one expects conference food to be all that great, but, for the $1500 price tag it would be nice to have coffee available until 11am. I mean, how else are we going to sit through all those PowerPoint presentations. The Web 2.0 Expo also provided danishes and coffee cake in the morning – SES did not.

Sex & Dating Pick-Up Factor
- Web 2.0 Expo = 3
- SES = 7

Perhaps this is the difference between geek engineers and online marketers – online marketers get more action?

Forest Kolb, Brent Csutoras, Will Radcliffe, Neil Patel

Companies and people I found interesting include:

David Szetela of Clix Marketing, who is a wealth of knowledge on paid search marketing.
Adam Sorenson of Lavalinx, a nifty platform for triangle, reciprocal, 3 way and parallel link trade and management.
Carolyn Shelby, Webmaster, SEO, former co-host of Webmaster Radio’s ‘Rush Hour’, current co-host for SEO 101 and uber-achiever.
Britta Meyer, of Eurekster, which creator of the Swicki custom search portal.
Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl, premier SEO consultant and the guru of link strategy.
Ofer Ronen of Sendori, a company that auctions off redirects from parked domains through their servers and to sponsored advertiser pages
Niel Patel, who started dong SEO when he was 16, and is currently the CTO of Advantage Consulting Services, a social media marketing and search engine optimization agency – though he hasn’t yet graduated from college.
Emre Sokullu, blogger for Read/WriteWeb and Search Evangelist for Hakia, a new, “meaning-based” search engine.
Natasha Robinson, That Girl From Marketing.
Will Radcliffe and Forest Kolb, of BizzFlip, a community where people can freely conduct business, cultivate ideas, and explore the infinite potential of today’s business world.
Brent Csutoras of Weird Asia News, who occupied the number one spot for the world’s largest orgy (he’s now number 2).
David Mihm, small business web site designer and internet marketing consultan
Daniel Riveong of e-Storm, a SF interactive agency.
Neal Kido, of Akamai SEO