State of the Search Marketing Industry 2004

[Chris Sherman]

If you missed Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, you might have seen Rustybrick's real-time coverage of the event here in the Search Engine Watch forums, including his coverage of Danny's keynote address (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=905).

In today's SearchDay article, Search Marketing 2004: What's Right, What's Wrong (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3421021), Andrew Goodman offers his perspective on Danny's keynote, adding provocative and enlightening commentary on some of the subtexts and undercurrents that were running through just about all of the events, formal and informal, at the conference. It's a great read, and should push you off the fence if you're still wavering about attending upcoming SES conferences in Stockholm, Chicago or New York.

Comments welcome!

Chris

[I, Brian]

Certainly an interesting article - it somehow manages to convey a sense of tension as well.

If I may ask, is there an available transcript of Danny's speech online?

[Chris Sherman]

If I may ask, is there an available transcript of Danny's speech online?

Only if someone in the crowd "bootleged" his talk -- Jupiter doesn't record the sessions.

And that just provoked an interesting thought: Can you imagine a few years down the road when SES-heads have an active trading network of booted conference MP3s? "I'll swap you Mikkel's 2007 'Optimizing databases for Microjeeves' for a copy of Nacho's "How to afford Google's Paid Inclusion Program."

The mind boggles.

[andrewgoodman]

Hi Chris,

I was at a seminar this morning where a woman (intermediate grasp of SEM) said "she would have loved to have heard about SES" -- many people still do have trouble even knowing what info they can trust and not everyone knows SES believe it or not! Apparently, Google and MSN are not that great about helping companies figure out the algo when you ring them up -- even if you're an advertiser. :)

Anyway, I invited her to attend the Chicago show and she immediately inquired as to whether a web conference capability was offered.

There are definite pros and cons on that front. I personally think a mix of media is helpful, but when it comes to some conferences there is simply nothing that can match being there. I hope she decides to come out and see what all the fuss is about.