Jon Myers Search Blog

Jon Myers added to SES Advisory Board

2010-02-02T14:48:00.002Z

Today has been a great day for me and it is great to be announced as one of the latest members of the SES Global Advisory Board as the UK representative. It is an honour to be joining some of search marketing big names as the UK representative of the board and I am looking forward to working with them starting with SES London 2010 in a few weeks.

Here is the official press release announcing it:

Search Engine Strategies Appoints U.K. and German Representatives to SES Advisory Board

Jon Myers and Thomas Bindl to Join Other Search Marketing Luminaries in Identifying Cutting-edge Content for SES Conferences

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 2, 2010 -- Search Engine Strategies (SES), the leading global search engine marketing (SEM) conference and expo series, announced today that they have appointed two new members to the SES Advisory Board. Jon Myers, Head of Search/Associate Director for MediaVest Group Ltd., has been appointed as the U.K. representative for SES London, and Thomas Bindl, Founder and CEO for Refined Labs GmbH, has been appointed as the Germany representative for SES Berlin.

Myers and Bindl will join 15 other SEM luminaries and SES staff in identifying resources to address the industry’s latest issues and trends and professional development resources – all with the goal to ensure SES conference attendees receive the latest industry information and training.

“With the addition of Jon and Thomas, we ensure that our EU attendees will be exposed to the most up-to-date industry content in each country we’re currently invited to present SES,” said Mike Grehan, Vice President and Global Content Director for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group. “The board will grow with international representatives in tune with our global expansion plans.”

The full release can be found here:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/sesadvisoryboard/announcement/prweb3538254.htm

Yahoo! Web Analytics Consultant Network Launches Today!

2009-07-29T11:03:00.005+01:00

Just been talking to Dennis for Yahoo Analytics and he has sent me his latest post on the new Yahoo Analytics Consultants Network. He has very kindly let me republish his post below. From my perspective I think this is a great idea. I have worked with and know Dennis for years from his Indextools days and now Yahoo and putting this in place is a really strong move for Yahoo. having a network of accredited consultants is a great thing for businesses in the UK to use. on top of this the Yahoo Analytics package is one of the best out there.

Well done the guys down at Yahoo and here is the official post on the new consultants net work in Dennis Words:

Today, we are launching the Yahoo! Web Analytics Consultant Network (YWACN) (please note that the link might not be active just yet).

I don’t know about you, but I personally think this is beyond exciting, and I am thrilled to see us take this (almost) final step towards full integration into Yahoo!

What is YWACN?

This is a network of third party companies with expertise in deriving insight from Web Analytics AND deploying Yahoo! Web Analytics in particular. The purpose of this network is amongst other things to help our clients get the best out of the tool - and hopefully also help us spread the gospel of YWA. It might even alleviate the stress on my personal in-box!

You are more than welcome to compare this in idea to the GAAC network - there, I’ve said it! :-)

Who are the Consultants?

A lot of the consultants are legacy IndexTools partners - and thus a bunch of folks who have years and years of experience in the actual technology, from before we turned purple. They are… drum roll please:

countquest.se, tribal-im.com, nordicemarketing.com, receptional.com, naviatech.fi, netvantagemarketing.com, e-dialog.at, Leads2Business.nl, milesbennett.co.uk, tricomb2b.com, sems.it, explido.de, booming.de, latitudegroup.com, emerite.cz, astrups.com, snowvalley.com, b-found.no, epsilonium.com, netprofiler.nl, acronym.com, networkintellect.com, coloradowebsolutions.com, contentmetrics.de, deducta.dk, eformation.de, e-interactive.es, eurorscg-riley.co.uk, engineready.com, inflow.dk, intellignos.com, onetomarket.nl, lbigroup.be, positive-thinking.co.uk, stonetemple.com, sundancemedia.ca, webcertain.com, studiocappello.it, zunch.com and creuna.dk.

We even added a few additional rock stars to that:

webanalyticsdemystified.com, semphonic.com, stratigent.com, sapient.com, purpleclick.com, thesedays.com, bitbang.it and insightr.com.

48 YWACN partners all in all - and you should be able to see (once the link is activated) a full list of YWACN partners on the YWA site. CALL them today, email them, tweet them .. heck, invite them out for dinner, they deserve it! (if you haven’t noticed, they are your new best friends)

Can I join?

Perhaps ;-) If you really excel in the field of web analytics and truly are one of those consultancies that help derive actionable insights from web analytics for your customers - we would love to hear from you. In return and as a Member of this exclusive, global professional network of Yahoo! Web Analytics consultants you will receive a number of benefits, this including:

* Yahoo! Web Analytics FREE account creation rights (This is sexy eh?)
* Listing on Yahoo!’s Consultant Network web page
* Potential client referrals from the Yahoo! Sales team
* Exclusive “Yahoo! Web Analytics Consultant Network” icon for display on your website
* Premium levels of technical support and access to a partner portal
* Access to an exclusive YWACN forum to share ideas and technical tips with other top analysts worldwide
* Unique opportunities to work with Yahoo! to provide trainings, books and speaking engagements

Go have a look at the criteria for becoming a member of the Yahoo! Web Analytics Consultant Network on the web site.

Cheers :-)
/ Dennis R. Mortensen (@dennismortensen)

Good luck mate and maybe I will make the list one day ;-)

Google Latitude Stunt

2009-05-09T15:05:00.005+01:00

Now I know Google Latitude has been around for a little while now but I was sat here and happened to watch this video which is a pretty cool way of showing what can be done with the technology.

Mind you I have to say, who is going to want to use it to find out where your friends are? Why not just give them a call and ask them to meet you as we always have done or send them an email or text? The only thing I can think of is it means you can sneak up on them where ever they are and scary them or you can secretley keep an eye on where someone is, its a bit like having a locater beacon on you! Technology is a great thing but is this to far?

Jon Myers, MediaVest - Interview at SES London

2009-03-04T16:44:00.005Z

It was good to be interviewed again by Byron Gordon from SEO PR this year at SES London. He asked me for my opinions after one of my Day 1 panels on "the state of search integration in the UK". Have a watch of the interview and I hope you agree with my thoughts on where the current Search Integration model is up to.

Rhythm and SEO Combined - Jon Myers Interviews Michel Leconte of SEO Samba

2009-02-12T10:16:00.006Z

Well it is that time of year again and SES London is upon us! The show is looking like a great one again and I am looking forward to a busy 3 days and 7 panels so hoping to see and chat to lots of you at the event.

I have been asked once again to do a pre event Q & A by the guys down at SEO-PR (thanks Byron!) and this year I have been lucky to get to interview Michel Leconte from SEO Samba to get his views on SEO, future developments and the SEO Samba tool itself!

I have asked him a series of 5 questions so enjoy and hope you all consider the tool as a great option to use. On top of this Michel has kindly offered a free trial!! It covers one website, and a one month of free access from the publishing date for one lucky reader of this post and you will find it after the Q & A…thanks SEO Samba!

1. Search engine marketing is a constantly developing and evolving practice. Is SEO Samba prepared for this and how do you plan to stay on the forefront of technological advances?

SEO Samba maximizes website's performance with search engines and other "free-to-play" digital marketing channels. It enables SEM firms and SEO experts to manage an unlimited number of organic search clients, projects and web sites from a single interface, and change SEO best practices across them all with a single click. From a conceptual standpoint, we propose that web marketers and professionals deploy and enforce best practices from a single point rather than manually coding these evolving best practices into each of these sites while hoping that end-users will not gradually undo these practices. So, yes, practices are evolving and developing, but SEO Samba's role is to facilitate execution and maintain best practices' integrity while letting expert users adapt their best practices to changes in algorithms.

From a product development standpoint, our mission is supported by our software-as-a-service architecture, a zero footprint technology (this means that web sites built with SEO Samba are W3C HTML-compliant and do not place any call back to our servers once uploaded to their published location), and two major effort areas.

Our objective as an organic search platform is to enable and promote cooperative efforts from end-users and SEO experts without the latter fearing a loss of clients to competitors also using the platform. We needed SEO Samba to segregate end-user pools from each other and be a complete, private-label solution for SEM firms. Hence, we provided an interface that can be branded in less than a minute, along with DNS routing so that the software can be accessed and served from our partners' domain of choice in complete confidentiality.

Now, for cooperation to happen, we also needed to remove competing interests from the picture, and we are doing this by aggregating data and providing it back to users under the form of proven, albeit optional, best practices.

Obviously, the system is flexible enough to allow for experts to pick, fine-tune and add their own best practices prior to making them available to a select pool of their clients as they see fit. By large, on that end, we're pursuing the old adage that a total can be greater than the sum of its parts. And as long as the platform can accommodate the evolution of search algorithms, and we are confident that it will, web marketers and SEO experts will be able to try different things and adapt their strategies as required.

In addition, SEO Samba provides an optimized distribution framework for information along with automation and alignment rules to make it very cost effective to successfully market through these "free," but crowded channels. Our R&D work consists of seamlessly integrating new distribution channels into the existing platform and proposing a set of proven best practices that are ready out-of-the-box upon launch. Lots of prioritization, research, and development and testing time go into this area.

For example, our first universal search module (provided free of charge) is a news module that provides a Google News-ready structure, news articles that are search optimized according to your chosen best practices, search friendly scrollers, automated RSS feeds creation, integrates with email newsletter platforms such as Constant Contact, Vertical Response etc. You can publish news across all your sites with a single click then aggregate news items across web sites to create unique newsletters and market to a cross segment of your email list, and finally save these newsletters with one click to any of your web sites. Each of our upcoming modules will provide the same level of details to ensure websites' visibility, while expanding the least time possible from a user, content writer, marketer and SEO experts' perspective.

As search algorithms evolve, so will the rules applied by the SEO experts using the platform and its associated modules. In the meantime, we'll be working in the background on behalf of SEM firms to make their clients more successful. Our team will focus on keeping existing and new SEO Samba modules functional from a search engine/technical requirement standpoint and increasingly leverage the community's knowledge and scale to the benefit of all.

2. What reactions have you had from clients using SEO Samba?

End-users are obviously ecstatic about their search engine rankings, but they do not usually fully grasp the extent of SEO Samba's capabilities until after they have been on the platform for a few months. On the other hand, SEO experts are usually convinced of the possibilities offered by the execution approach after seeing live demonstrations. Actually, the more questions, the more technical- and detail-oriented these questions are, the easier it is for us to explain our choices in building SEO Samba. When I had the chance to receive the visit from David Naylor at our U.S. launch at SES Chicago, he was understandably skeptical about our claims and had a barrage of both rather precise technical and conceptual questions ready for me. I was demonstrating the software and I only had to speak the first half of most answers for him to understand where I was going, and for him to shoot the next one at me. It was an enjoyable meeting for sure.

3. You say on your site that SEO Samba was created by search engine and search engine optimization veterans. What inspired you to create it?

I've provided SEO consulting services since 2001, from non-profits to Fortune companies, and I've observed a few things. SEO is sold by professionals as a process that requires an ongoing effort from web site owners. However, there's no life cycle management built into what SEO experts deliver. As a result, the execution is a hit-and-miss game that generates an awful lot of delays, frustration, and, ultimately, lost revenues for both client and experts. Furthermore, SEO is time consuming to research and test for experts, costly to execute by hand for end-users, and takes very little advantage from the scale of the SEO agency or its customer business size.

With an increasing number of applications built in the cloud, development of social networks, progressive deployment of custom and universal search, and a maturing SEO services marketplace, we thought the industry was ripe for a change towards higher value-added services, and that "smart SEOs," as Matt Cutts call them, would crave additional bandwidth to focus on strategy and business development, both for them and their clients. We invented the first organic search management platform to facilitate systemic execution of best practices, adoption of "free-to-play" marketing channels, and enable professionals to scale their practice through software instead of payroll.

4. What advice would you give to a small business planning on developing SEO activity from scratch?

You came to right place J. OK, seriously, the first step is to clarify what you are trying to sell and to whom. Make sure you get it right because everything else depends on it, and I have seen many small business owners enlightened by having to go through the SEO process. In fact, I think it should be very much part of the value proposition coming from SEO experts, as there's a chance that you're the closest thing to a marketing agency they have ever hired. An excellent resource for this that we feature in the SEO Bootcamp at SEO Samba is Pragmatic Marketing

5. Why should SEM or SEO firms considering using SEO Samba?

SEO firms need to adapt to the economic environment and differentiate their service offerings. A customer might not be able to tell which of two arcane SEO techniques is better, but most business people can make the difference between a method supported by an automated system that yields predictable results and a plain consulting engagement, even if backed with stellar experience. I think that's part of the reason why small businesses have reacted so well to the concept. Our direct SMB pricing is at $99/month/domain, so it is creating a new market of SEO-conscious businesses, a market where forward-looking SEM firms will be in prime position to grow in sophistication and profits.

On their side, SEM firms, through their branded interface of SEO Samba, complement their service mix with an offering that will win new business for them. Here, I'm talking about businesses with multiple site strategies, micro-sites, lead generation web sites, franchises, reputation management, and all sorts of small and medium businesses. Appropriately presented, we know already that an organic search management platform will tilt the balance in favor of one provider over another. In an increasingly competitive environment, I think this is welcome aid. Of course, SEO firms get a significant discount on the direct SMB pricing and are also free to bundle the platform with their own services and charge whatever they feel is appropriate through their private label interface.

Thanks for the Interview Michel and if you are interested to find out more visit www.seosamba.com or you can see Michel speak on his panel “Organic Listings Forum” at SES London 2009 on Feb 18^th at 5.45pm.

Now for the prize code! Only the first person to capture it under their account's finance tab at www.seosamba.com will be able to take advantage of it and the activation code is 9bd30d97760273333a36565e396a0bcd.

a4uexpo Speaker Advisory Board Announced

2009-02-05T13:08:00.007Z

Well it has been a while since I put anything on the blog apart form daily news feeds. But I wanted to PR the great work Matthew Wood has been doing with the A4UExpo and expanding it into Europe. To that degree he has formed a specialist speaker advisory board that will assist his team at a4uexpo with formulating the agenda for the a4uexpo Europe. An very kindly he has included me on it! (thanks Matt!)

You can see the official post here on a4uexpo but I have detailed it below as well. The board consists of thought leaders and experienced industry personalities who amongst them have many years of experience within the sector and experience and opinions on the challenges and opportunities that we face.

Members of the board currently include:

Judith Lewis - SEO Director, i-level
Shakil Khan- co-founder and Managing Director, Card Smart
Missy Ward - co-founder, Affiliate Summit
Ciaran Norris - SEO & Social Media Director, altogether digital
Todd Crawford, ToddTalks.com
Marcus Tandler, Mediadonis
Joris Toonders - Managing Director, Yonego
Joost de Valk - Founder, Yoast.com
Jon Myers - Head of Search, MediaVest Group Ltd
Kieron Donoghue - Director, UK Offer Media Ltd
Mike Allen - CEO, Shopping Bargains
Matthew Wood - Managing Director, existem
Irfon watkins - CEO, Coull
Peter Glaeser, Sponsormob
Kevin Edwards, Strategy Director, Affiliate Window
Julia Stent - Affiliate Manager, Vodafone

Jon Myers Interviews Ross Caveille of ContextWeb

2008-05-21T13:59:00.008+01:00

Recently, I was invited to interview Ross Caveille by the SEO PR Team. Ross has been instated
into the role of Country Manager for ContextWeb Inc’s renowned product ADSDAQ(TM) Ad Exchange
and has been challenged with selling UK inventory to advertisers, with the aim to assist in
their attempt to reach exchange’s UK audience.

So who are ContextWeb?

ContextWeb Inc. is a leading contextual advertising company. Enjoying major success, one of their
most celebrated products is the ADSDAQ™. Welcoming over 93 million monthly unique visitors in the
US, the ADSDAQ Exchange represents over 50% of the domestic online population.

A few days later, I finally settled down to produce a few concise but hopefully revealing questions for Ross to gives us his views on…

Country Manager sounds like an interesting challenge, what are your initial objectives?

Personally the role represents a very interesting challenge and one that I am very excited to be involved with. We opened the UK office on the 17^th of March this year with the aim to bring to the UK market the unique product that ADSDAQ by ContextWeb has to offer. Exposure and UK industry awareness of the ADSDAQ product and ContextWeb brand is the initial objective as up until we launched over here advertisers were not aware of the opportunities we could provide. In the US, we have around 5,000 publisher and 400 advertiser partners and have an established name within the online advertising marketplace, the aim now is to replicate this success over here in the UK (We’re already up to over 25% UK uniques according to ComScore in March 2008 - a good start.). In addition to establishing ourselves within the market the UK team will also be expanding and we plan to make additional hires in June this year.

Relating to these, do you see any major hurdles ahead and if so, how do you plan to jump them?

The UK marketplace is very competitive with regard to the number of vendors and options available to advertisers and agencies. Consolidation is happening within the marketplace, but as quickly as this happens new companies are born and so it is imperative that we differentiate ourselves and make sure our service levels are consistently high to match the standard of our product. This situation is mirrored with publishers in the way that there is growing demand for inventory both from advertisers and third party vendors. Fortunately, ADSDAQ offers opportunities to both advertisers and publishers alike on an equal scale as we operate an open exchange meaning publishers are able to name their price and advertisers are able to choose the brand-safe content and context in which they appear. There are a lot of opportunities for talented people within the market. We need to make sure we attract the right people in order to grow as a business and as this does represent a challenge we are prepared to take time in doing this if necessary.

ADSDAQ Exchange is well renowned over the water but how do you plan to build the status of and educate the UK audience about the system in the UK? Are you planning to or have you already established any partnerships?

The positive aspect of being established in the US is that our product is tried and tested and so we can be confident of delivering successful campaigns for clients within the UK. As eluded to above one of the main barriers is the lack of knowledge and understanding of the ADSDAQ Exchange so maximising exposure is a high priority. For example, UK advertisers are just beginning to learn about the brand safety offered by the ADSDAQ Exchange which is a result of the Exchange’s patent-pending, page-level contextual technology.

To date we have managed to secure press articles in NMA magazine as well as online with Reuters, Wall Street Journal and a number of additional publications. My role within the company is to make sure ADSDAQ is taken to market and as many agencies and advertisers as possible are allowed the opportunity to take advantage of the contextual targeting tool we have to offer. Since launching on March 17^th we have run successful campaigns for clients through Havas, WPP and Profero and are now about to launch campaigns with a number of other leading UK agencies. The contextual tool that we offer can be adapted to a wide range of clients and as such we have already delivered campaigns using standard and rich media formats to UK, European and Global customers across film, music, finance, travel, business, theatre verticals. The next step now is to grow the number of advertisers and agencies in which we are in contact with and the number of campaigns we are running which is why we will be growing the UK team with new additions joining in June.

In turn, how do you think ADSDAQ will infiltrate itself to sit beside technology already available in the UK?

The great thing about the ADSDAQ Exchange is the technology we use and the way we work is that we are able to compliment many existing technologies or at least work in conjunction with them. Many publishers use the ADSDAQ exchange along with a network or Google Adsense, for example, as we only serve an advert to a page if that page contains specific content relevant to one of our advertisers campaigns. Similarly, we are able to work with all third party ad-serving technologies so there are no barriers for advertisers. With regard to competitor technologies our contextual targeting tool is able to not only understand keywords and content but also the context in which they are in so we can guarantee a relevant and brand safe environment every time. This is of key significance to contextual tools that are keyword based only as adverts often appear out of context.

This is a great piece of software to have, especially completely free, do you have any plans to introduce a subscription fee?

In short, no. The ADSDAQ Exchange is an open exchange and so allows both publishers and advertisers to fulfil their objectives and the more partners we can attract the more liquid the exchange becomes giving both parties more options and routes to success.

And what makes the system different? Could you tell us your three defining USPs?

There are three key USPs to what we offer the market. Our contextual technology serves adverts based on the context of the entire webpage, not just a handful of keywords, and so we are able to serve adverts within a brand safe relevant environment every time. As well as ensuring brand safety for all our advertisers this also allows us to extend reach and acquire additional unique users without compromising targeting. For example, a laptop supplier will want to run adverts within a computer website which is relevant but there will also be relevant pages of content available within non-endemic websites e.g. technology section of a news site. As every advert we serve is at the page-level we are able to pick out only the page that is relevant to the advertiser effectively eradicating waste while facilitating extended targeted reach. A recent study by OTX Research found that serving adverts to relevant content within a non-endemic website increase brand recognition by a further 19% over showing the advert in an endemic site. In addition, each advert we serve is in display format, including rich media, which doesn’t restrict advertisers to using just textlinks and means we can effectively transfer a search campaign online in a more impactful format. The third USP is the way we work with publishers, many behavioural or contextual tools require publishers to add tags or code to each page of their website this is not the case with ADSDAQ. By using just one Java script tag we are able to access every page of a publishers website meaning we can access more pages gaining additional reach for advertisers and work with the publishers that do not facilitate third party tags being added to their web pages.

Thanks for taking the time Ross to give me and SEO PR your views and best of luck in the new role going forward.

Searching for an outcome: Google Vs the Trademark owner

2008-05-06T22:17:00.006+01:00

As a lot of us are probably aware now Google’s trademark policy launched 5^th May this year, these changes are already having a significant impact on the search aspect of some campaigns and subsequently, it has come to light that there may be questions relating to the legality of this change in policy.

Following this uncertainty, some large scale advertisers have stepped forward and expressed their willingness to challenge the overwhelming power that is one of the world’s largest sellers of advertising space: Google.

The Background

For almost 9 years, marketers and agencies have benefited from Google’s policy on Trademark terms. Enforcing a policy which stipulated no other advertiser could bid against a registered trademark, Google offered a welcome defence against the competitor and left advertisers safe in the knowledge that their brand and trademarks were well protected…

However, accounting for 80% of the UK’s market share, this change in policy sees Google open up keyword bidding on all keyword terms, including trademarks. Effectively, more than one advertiser can now bid on and appear in sponsored links after a user has typed in a search query using a trademarked term. Ultimately, trademarks are no longer protected against competitors and affiliates.

Lastminute.com speak up…

It has been reported by Channel 4 News that the chief executive of Lastminute.com, Ian McCaig, has stated that Google's proposals will “cost them millions”, could breach trademark law and that they are prepared to sue if Google do go ahead with this change.

Lastminute argue: "Google's policy change is a big problem and we object to it. We are investigating with vigour the legal position and if that investigation concludes positively then we will absolutely pursue a legal case, no question." (Channel 4 News)

Fundamentally, a high proportion of some of the UK’s biggest brands use Google to facilitate a major proportion of their Search advertising spend.

Lastminute.com do not stand alone in this view. Tesco “have consulted their legal team”, while some companies, including Auto Trader have stated they would “consider joining with other brands in a group legal challenge to Google.”

Google defends its decision…

Unsurprisingly, Google stand by their decision to change the policy and state this amendment will improve the user experience by offering competing choices, allowing consumers to make more informed decisions.

Google also have the advantage of experience, as it is not the first time the search engine giant has enforced this controversial change in policy.

In 2004, Google introduced the same change in policy to the US and Canadian markets. Some sectors, including; travel, finance and retail, saw large movements in market costing as competitor bidding initially became a battle field. However, after a few months, the market found its natural position and the cost acquisition consolidated down after rivals began to understand how much revenue and sales could be driven from competitor brand terms.

The MediaVest View

Only days into a policy which is unlike anything the UK market has experienced during its search marketing history, the conclusion of this debate and possible legal battle, is unclear.

In their Legal Guidance Notes, The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) point out that the law is very uncertain and untested in this arena. Their view is that, bidding on keywords of competitors may be an infringement of trademark.

“Clearly Google has taken the advice that it is not and for obvious financial and costs reasons, and due to its dominant position in the search market, Google is prepared to take the risk. Until an advertiser in the UK is prepared to bring a legal test case we shall not be sure of the way the courts will interpret trade mark law in this new media scenario.”

It will be interesting to see how this one unfolds in the coming weeks. Now that big brands such as Lastminute.com, Autotrader and Tesco have voiced their initial opinion to the media.

Steve Balmer Loves Apples?

2008-04-29T09:16:00.004+01:00

Well by the date of my last blog as you can see it has been a while since I posted as I have been really busy. But I could not let this one go past that one of my staff James emailed to me this morning.

I think the title of the Blog and the picture below will say it all!

You can just imagine Steve B's face as he turns up to his fully branded Microsoft conference to discover that for the next 30 minutes he has to use a Silver and Black Fruit based laptop from his good friend Mr Steve Jobs.

And on top of this know that all the PR pictures taken like the one above will have that lovely logo in it.....classic!!

Dublin Search Marketing is Stronger than Ever!

2008-04-05T14:50:00.007+01:00

Well it has been a while since I have wrote a blog but I have just got back from speaking at the Search Marketing World Conference again this year in Dublin and I have to say it was a great success so well done Martin and Aisling of Interactive Return and I look forward to the next one.

The conference this year was bigger than last year so no 'Church of Search' as per my blog on last years event but the venue was really good. It is great to see the interest in the event with around 270 attendees I believe and a hunger to learn about Search and the Media Industry. The conference had some good pre event coverage and I got the chance to be part of a piece in the Irish Independent...even if they spelt my Name and Company wrong!

Martin again managed to assemble a great speaker line up and it was good for me to catch up with the usual conference speaker crew/friends like Mel Carson, Li Evans, Chris Sherman, Teddie Cowell, Sara Anderson, Brian Clifton, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, Bill Hunt, Rob Kerry, Andrew Girdwood, Mike Grehan (geordies!!) and Dave Naylor. But also to get to know better some of Irelands good search marketers at the event such as Dave Davis, Rob Pryce, Chad Gilmer, Jonathan Forrest.

The event went well and if anything was very fast paced with so much content for 1 day. I was lucky enough to be doing 3 panels and the first of the day was Social Search Marketing which we had alot of good content in and were able to ask interactive voting polls of the audience. (The guy on the left is not asleep he was writing some notes!)

One of the results of the pole questions that I asked still sticks in my head, it was the fact that around 60% of the audience only went into their social media account once a week. This was very difficult for someone like me who spends everyday with social media!

After this panel it flowed straight into the next one with no break so I was seen physically running to another room from the stage to moderate the Advance Search Engine Friendly Design Panel with Mikkel, Brian Marin and Teddie. The session content was really good and even let it run for a bit longer as the guys were getting alot of questions asked.

Last but not least for me was the Integrating Search into the Media Plan panel which for me was alot of fun because it is not often I talk about the concept of the integration of TV and Search but more and more now we have to consider the effects and I certainly am for my clients. We can see a direct correlation between TV advertising and how this drive people to online. Some stats I used explained the concept of 67% of offline media advertising will generate traffic to online.

More and more people now surf the Internet while watching TV (I am doing while I am writing this blog!!) the last stat is 57% do. And with the ability now to run hourly reports on your Google campaigns you can see the direct comparison between TV and Search as well as the potential lag factors by industry.

This makes for very powerful marketing data and the ability to refine and drive your campaigns harder with conversion in mind at the right times. It is important after this that you then understand as all good search marketers should how the traffic interacts with your website and the route to conversion including time lag in order to maximise ROI.

All in all the event was a great success and all I heard on the day was positive feedback for the content and organisation of the event.

Will there be one in 2009?? I think there will and I will definitely look to be there.

The Brits are coming to New York!

2008-03-12T00:51:00.002Z

It was nice to be asked the other day by the guys down at SEO PR and SES to write a pre event blog about the up and coming SES New York Conference. So thinking about what I could write it on, I felt it was only right to pick my Top 5 sessions next week that involve my fellow UK and European speakers.

This year sees a selection of some top UK speakers flying in to give you some great insight it how search is done the European way. So if you want to pop in to some sessions to hear speakers with different accents here are my top tips of the sessions you need to attend next week in New York.

Top Session 1

It would be only right to start at the beginning and on Day 1 session set one we see a couple of the UK’s top SEO’s in Mike Grehan and Dave Naylor at 9.30am on the:

Organic Listings Forum
Pose questions to our panel of experts about free "organic" listing issues, plus participate in this session that allows the audience to share tips, tools and techniques. There's no set agenda, so this is an ideal session to discuss any major recent changes with organic listings.

Top Session 2

Sticking with Day 1 we see probably the most UK and European orientated session of the conference at 2pm called:

Search Around the World - Part 2: The UK & Europe
Eastern and Western companies are rushing to get a piece of the action internationally, but does anyone really understand the marketplace. In this session, attendees will learn how to separate hype from actionable activity. Leading experts with "feet on the street" in UK and the rest of Europe discuss the marketplace and the impact it's having on the world.

Every panelist including the moderator is from UK or Europe, looks like a good line up with Moderator Marie Dumesnil, Andrew Girdwood, Thomas Bindl, Sebastien Langlois, Joost de Valk, Massimo Burgio

Top Session 3

Well on to Day 2 now and at 1.30 we have for me what should be one of the best panels of the conference on one of the ‘hot’ topics of the minute. From the UK Mike Grehan and Lyndsay Menzies are involved:

Orion Panel: Universal Search
Search result multiplicity is not a new phenomenon, but recent advancements will guarantee the world of search and marketing will be changing forever. Before you attend this week's optimization and best practices sessions, hear from industry gurus about how search, marketing and information seeking is changing the industry that follows the search. Our ongoing series on universal search will include research data available only at SES.

Top Session 4

For this slot I am going with a session involving another UK speaker who lives in Washington DC now but is still English through and through Simon Heseltine who is speaking on Day 3 at 5.30pm on:

Social Search: The Next Step
Social media networking is changing the way people integrate the Web into their lives. Still, this seems one small step for searchers, but a giant change for search media. What do media such as Eurekster, Wikia, Google, Yahoo, ZoomInfo, Jookster, have in store? As Google and Yahoo move into this space will they retain share? What will the evolution of social media mean to marketing as customer behavior becomes nearly impossible to manipulate?

Top Session 5

Well for the last one I am going to pick a panel on Day 2 at 5.45 that I am moderating. The Local Search Marketing Tactics panel is always a good panel in the US and I have two great speakers with some brilliant content shaping up. As well as this we are going to shake up the format a bit to make it very interactive.

Local Search Marketing Tactics
This session looks at ways search marketers are tapping into an audience using local search engines, online yellow pages and other local search methods.

All in all there of some of the best UK and European speakers in New York next week for the conference, which is shaping up to be a great event. See you there next week and feel free to stop any of us for a chat we always appreciate it!

London SES 2008

2008-02-26T23:16:00.006Z

As a lot of you are probably aware there was a little show last week in London called SES, over the 3 days over 2000 people attended and I was very busy speaking on 5 sessions. Overall the event was a great success with a lot of positive vibes around the attendees that I spoke to before and after sessions. The content was great across the board with strong speakers and my fellow Geordie Mike Grehan at the helm as Chair of the London SES event.

There has been a lot of good session coverage over the last few days and it has been nice to receive some for the sessions I took part in. On Day 1 I had one of my usual SES sessions on Click Fraud, it was my 4th year doing this panel and it has amazed me how much Auditing has evolved. It was good to be on the panel with Shuman G from Google again and Mal Watlington wrote a great coverage of the session here

On Day 2 I had two sessions one as a speaker and one as moderator. First up was "Landing Page Testing and Tuning" which turned out to be a great session with good attendance and great Q+A. There was some blog coverage here to give you an idea of the session content. I also came across a really nice arty picture of the panel in action posted by Greg Jaboe on Search Engine Watch see if you can spot me!

In the afternoon I moderated the "Searcher Behaviour Research Update" this was reference prior to the SES event as one of the "7 Reasons to attend London SES" and the attendance did not disappoint the room was full. Thanks to the panelists Erica, Rob, John and Piers for some great insight and content.

On Day 3 again I had one speaking and one moderating, first up was "Search Advertising Clinic" this was a Q+A where for 60 minutes we invite the audience to give us problems with there campaigns to review online and give advice. I always like these types of session and it was great to do the panel with Christine Churchill, President, KeyRelevance

For my final one of the conference I moderated the 'Local Search Marketing' panel with Simon and Patricia Hursh. This again was a great content session, Simon has posted a good blog about the content of the session here

It was nice to be able to site down and down some video interviews with Dr Ralph Wilson for his internet viewers back in the US. Ralph has a website I have read and received his email news letter for about 8 years now so nice to contribute. And also the SES official coverage with Greg Jaboe on the Day 2 round up in my last post

It was a great but busy 3 days all in all and I am looking forward to getting the customary SES session scores back from the attendee surveys.

SES London 2008

2008-02-21T16:09:00.003Z

I have been down at Search Engine Strategies London 2008 this week speaking and moderating on some panels, and I was going to write a quick blog to some up the days so far but thanks to Greg down at SEO PR there are some great daily wrap up videos available.

Day 1

Day 2

There are some great tips and insight into what has been a great SES London 2008.

Day 3 to follow.....

Google Street View.....New Beta Test Option?

2008-02-06T00:30:00.000Z

I was shown at work today a great YouTube video of how you could take Google Street View a step to far. Interesting to see people are already thinking about the connotations of privacy and how far it could actually go. Will Google ever get to the point (trying not to spoil the vid!) portrayed in this YouTube spoof? Only time will tell....Enjoy!

Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo!!!

2008-02-03T22:06:00.000Z

Well last Friday started like any other Friday, until I read my RSS feeds at about 11.45am and you hear rumours of Microsoft bidding to buy Yahoo. At first you can of think 'Yeah Right!' but the reality is that the bid has been tabled at $44.6 Billion. (How much!!)

The question then has to be asked as to will the deal actually happen? It looks like Yahoo will entertain it but I can imagine it will take some time to go through. But I bet the Yahoo share holders are hoping it does when it values the shares at just over 62% more than what they currently are. It is getting a lot of mixed opinions on the business side with the Fox business teams saying it is a really bad deal for Microsoft share holders and they are paying to much.

Business aside I have to bring this back to one area, if they combined how will this affect their search market share?? In the US Google will still be 56% and the combined Yahoo and Microsoft will only be 31.5%. This is in the US which is the market where they are at the closest as well. Imagine the UK it will be Google 79% and Yahoo-Microsoft combined still only around 14%. As a joint force can they grow the share or will they focus to areas of Technology or Mobile Search?

The only other area to consider is the name....will it be YaSoft? or Microhoo? Time will tell and I am sure there will be a lot more news and discussion about the deal next week.

SpaceTime 3D Search

2008-01-14T00:15:00.000Z

I have always been one for trying a new beta but this is one that is worth a go. SpaceTime has launched with everything from 3D Search, 3D Ebay, 3D Image Search and 3D Tabbed Browsing. The strap line for the new concept is:

"I think I've found a product that makes the Google interface look like it was designed by Apple."

Which I can see where they are coming from as it is very like Apples new Phone and IPod navigation. Will it be another piece of clever technology that doesn't catch on? Only time will tell but I would say download it and have a go, it is well worth it, the screen grab above does not do it justice and if anything it consolidates all the results together.

You can view all it has to offer at http://www.spacetime.com

What will Google do in 2008??

2007-12-31T01:30:00.000Z

After the fast paced developments in 2007 for the online search arena a lot of people are wondering what Google will be looking to achieve in 2008 to keep the momentum up. I was reading a post on the 'Google Operating System' which is an unofficial blog and has been going now for a few years giving some great opinions on the search giant.

They posted a great blog on their thoughts of what will Google do it 2008. And I thought I would throw up a quick post as their are alot of interesting views and scenarios within the 15 or so areas they think Google will develop in 2008. And as we are 1 day away from 2008 the timing seemed right.

As they say "Some of these items are obvious, others are mostly wishful thinking." but all in all I think they make for some interesting reading:-

1. Google will try to unify its application and transform them into a big social network. The Maka-Maka project (or Google's activity stream) will enhance the already existing profiles. If Google doesn't understand that your Gmail contacts aren't necessarily your friends, we'll see a huge privacy backslash.

2. Google should finally go beyond indexing text and start to use image analysis and speech recognition in Google Image Search and Google Video. The NevenVision acquisition should produce visible results in the image search engine and we could see better results for famous people or the option to find similar images.

3. Google won't give up on universal search, but we'll see a different interface that separates standard search results from OneBoxes and other additions. Google's snippets will become smarter and they could include information about authors, locations, concepts.

4. Gmail will add another batch of new features, one of the most important being task management, and will finally go out of beta. Gmail will launch a Google Labs-like site with experimental features that could be added by those who are curious to see the next features before they are officially launched.

5. The first Android phones will be a disappointment, but developers will create a lot of interesting applications that could compensate for the poor designs.

6. Most Google applications will work offline using Google Gears, even if the functionality will be limited. Google Gears will also work on mobile phones and could become a part of Firefox.

7. Google Maps will be redesigned and could include more space for user-generated content. We'll start to see user's locations, important events from our area, recommendations from friends. Google Maps will become more personal.

8. OpenSocial won't work as well as expected and Google will focus on its own social network(s). iGoogle gadgets are about to become social and aggregate data from your contacts.

9. Google will launch a people search engine that gathers data from the web, especially from social networks.

10. Google Books will be more present in search results and Google will start to sell access to the full content of some of the books.

11. One word: sync. At the end of the year, Outlook and most mobile phones will be able to synchronize with Google Calendar and Gmail's contacts. Google Docs will have plug-ins that let you edit documents in Microsoft Office or OpenOffice and save the changes online. Google Toolbar will integrate Browser Sync and start to synchronize your bookmarks, cookies, passwords and your browser's history.

12. Multi-faceted search, searching from different points of view (objective information vs positive/negative opinions, official information vs comments from blogs, forums).

13. Google will differentiate commercial search results by integrating data from Google Base. Google will continue to try to promote Checkout, this time by showing small badges next to the search results from sites that accept Google Checkout.

14. Google Talk will move completely online: the embeddable gadget will let you create custom chat rooms, talk with other people and maybe even see them if they have webcams.

15. Picasa Web Albums will add some of the photo editing features from Picasa and will increase the free storage.

16. GDrive will finally launch, but it won't offer infinite storage or advanced features. It will let you access the files stored in different Google applications and upload new files from a single interface. Storage: 20 GB.

'touchEarth' - Google Earth Via Multitouch

2007-12-07T12:14:00.000Z

We have all probably seen the facility on the likes of the iPhone to manipulate Google maps via touch and the ability to 'Pinch' in and out. The Youtube video below I just came across that has been uploaded today shows how much more you can manipulate this. The demo of 'touchEarth' application shows how you can control Google Earth via multitouch gestures on a much larger scale.

It really is getting to the stages of the film Minority Reports a few years ago and for me starts to show how the Internet can start to move towards an integrated media centre option in the house bringing Internet and the likes of TV closer together. Microsoft have also been looking at these options as well with their 'Surface' table technology for a while now.

Steve Ballmer Goes Search Dunking!

2007-11-14T10:16:00.000Z

Here is a video of part of a longer interview with Microsofts Steve Ballmer at Web 2, he is asked about how Microsoft Search is coming along against the competitors like Google. The answer he gives is fantastic and delivered in only a way Steve Ballmer can!

Social Importance

2007-11-07T01:12:00.000Z

Theres been a lot of talk (myself included) for about 6 months now in the improving prominence of Social Media. Everyone seemed to warm up to the likes of Facebook in 2007 here in the UK. And we now have Social Media panels at the likes of SES and SMX conferences now. I had been a member for over 6 months on Facebook with no volume of interaction with it. But suddenly in a 6 week period around June/July time there was an explosion of interest and everyone wanted to be your friend!

I think the market can see the value and requirements to be as Search Marketers looking at strategies to integrate a social product as a string to the bow and be able to offer advertising insight to tap into a new market place.

I have always been trying to quantify the value of taking the time to position some marketing solutions and some statistics published yesterday by Hitwise really hit home the culture change here in the UK.

For the fist time last month, UK visits to social network websites was more than visits to web-based email services. The Hitwise chart below shows, a line for social networks, which includes Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, accounted for 5.17% of all UK Internet visits, compared to 4.98% for Email, which includes Hotmail; Yahoo! Mail and Gmail as the main factors.

This gives some real concrete information that Social has had a very speedy growth within the UK market and all projections say it will continue to climb as the mentality it seems is to drop your friends a quick Facebook message rather than send them an email these days.

For me the ironic thing is that you get an email notifying you when you have received a Facebook message.

So on that basis email can never die! ;0)

Google Analyst Day 2007

2007-11-03T18:43:00.000Z

Thought I would throw this one up on the blog. It is the Search and Apps Overview at Google Analyst 2007 day. It is a bit of a long video at 67 minutes but well worth a watch. The vid gives some great insight into the history and theories behind Google. Where they are today as well as looking to the future developments.

It is the 3rd year of the Analyst Day and it has an all star line up on the speakers front.

Google Partners Conference Interview

2007-10-23T14:01:00.001+01:00

Was reading an article on Andy Beals Blog the other day which covers a video which was part of Google’s annual closed-doors partner conference. It is an interview with Sergey and Larry, hosted by journalist James Fallows who asks them some pretty direct and interesting questions.

The video which was posted on Youtube is just over 30 minutes long but is well worth a watch as it give some great insight.

Who wants to be a millionaire with Google?

2007-10-17T00:59:00.000+01:00

I was at an event today and got shown this video on Youtube. I know it is a year old but I have never seen it and thought is was worth a blog. It is part of Australia's version of Millionaire where they go to Phone a Friend as they have no idea of the answer and are quite open to the fact his friend will have Google ready to look for the answer! (often wondered if people did that)

Host is adamant they should use MSN....see what happens for yourself but a very funny clip.

It was an easy find! Think they just used the wrong friend.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0066244/awards

Youtube now on Google Earth

2007-10-12T16:38:00.000+01:00

Was having a look on the Google LatLong blog today and thought this was a really cool idea. In some cases now on Google Earth you can play videos of what you are looking at. It seems like the obvious natural progression after we have had detailed pictures on there that are clickable for about a year now.

The video's will be geo-targeted across Google Earth meaning again that you could find any videos you may have done and tagged geographically or with a specific landmark name will start to appear to the masses of dedicated Google Earth users.

Great idea and as an online marketer I will be looking at ways to utilise this content opportunity!

The Blog is Back!!

2007-10-10T20:31:00.000+01:00

Well it has been 4 weeks now since I have had a live blog! I was living in a world of Redirect hell on my domain name and it has taken till now to sort it out (big thanks Dixon).

It's great to be back and I thought I would get straight back in with a quick news piece I noticed today which I felt made some interesting reading. Adsense Video Units from Google came to the market as a closed test earlier this year but it is now available on open release as of today. Google pitches it as:

"A new way to enrich your site with quality, relevant video content in an embedded, customizable player"

You can read about the full functions on the Google Adsense Blog and it looks like an interesting concept.

So I thought it would be correct to embed a video on it below ;0)

Gorilla's + Chocolate + Drums will never work online!!

2007-09-13T16:33:00.000+01:00

Well I would have to say it has! By now I am sure that you have all seen the advert on the TV with Phil Collins and the amazing drumming ability of the gorilla. If you haven't here it is:

Probably about 1 million people have now watched the advert on Youtube which is great advertising in its own right.

But in the Facebook world we live in now it has also created 4 Facebook groups called 'We love the Cadbury's drumming gorilla ' with 2,952 members so far.

Google is on the up!

2007-09-12T10:44:00.000+01:00

I was reading and article today which to me is a stark reminder on how powerful the mighty Google really is. For years I have talked about Google market share and the dominant position they hold in the UK and generally globally but recent numbers published from JMP Securities analyst William Morrison's analysis of Comscore data, Google is still growing and at a frightening pace!

From July06 to July 07:

worldwide users +20%
US users +18% (now 22% of 552 million global total)
time spent on sites +113%
page views +56%
Google Maps: blows past Yahoo to 682 million pageviews/mo +98% (vs. Yahoo's 397 million, +32%)

And even more amazing is that little thing called Youtube. It now accounts for 28% of total minutes spent on Google worldwide and an astounding 35% of global users time.

San Jose the Recap

2007-08-31T17:30:00.000+01:00

Well as I mentioned on my blog last week I was out at SES in San Jose last week as well as most of the usual search culprits. Looking around all the blogs most people have beat me to a post on it, but work comes first!

There are a couple of good ones, my old search mate Mike Grehan who never stops amazing me as he manages to go from place to place and keep racking up the miles! Bet you it is not very often you go from San Jose to Liverpool to the Lake District. Denis down at Indextools has a full post as well from his week of analytics and talking to a lot of people by the looks of it in San Jose. thanks for the mention by the way Denis!

Well I left on Sunday morning and arrived at the hotel late Sunday night after about 18 hours of fun filled traveling and a lot of film watching. It is amazing after going out for a quick walk after traveling around 5,500 miles the first person I see is Mel Carson from Microsoft in London, we just keep turning up in the same place. As you can imagine it was an early night and up the next day to be greeted by a sun filled half decent view from the hotel.

Nothing like sun and heat after the summer we have had in the UK. First up I was lucky enough to get a trip up to have a look around Googles head office up at Mountain View (The Googleplex). Really interesting to see how the search giant operates and also have lunch there. They always say the food at Google is good and I have to say it was. Below is a picture of the main buildings from the outside, I was not aloud to take internal shots at Google so I cant show you the one of the X Prize Space Challenge ship in the reception I took (I didn't say that did I?) but it was actually a Paul Allen of Microsoft project which I thought was quite ironic to see it hanging in a Google office!

You can also see in the picture at the back a little sneak preview of the Google Dance main stage. But then it was down to the first day of SES San Jose. I was not speaking till the second day so it was good to go and see the sights and see some of the other guys do there bit.

The first day was very good and it was nice to see a lot of old faces again and meet a lot of new people in the process at the speakers and exhibitors early evening reception. Day 2 came around and so did my session, it was a touch different to the norm as for the first time it was split in two with Search Marketers up first followed by the Search Engines in the next session. For me it worked really well and has had some good coverage from the likes of Search Engine Roundtable and a good piece the other day from Greg Jarboe who talked about Click Fraud have the second most buzz behind Google Universal on the blogs around the conference period when searching for 'Search Engine Strategies' which is great to here.

Here is a picture of the start 'Search Engines on Click Fraud' panel which followed mine as the room started to fill...and I lost the good view I had at this point! (bit of a struggle to take your own pic while speaking hence none).

Overall the sessions worked really well in the new format and long may it continue! That evening was the long awaited Google Dance. And you have to wonder if the queues for the buses set a world record for the 'most search marketers' stood in line. What you can see below is only about 2o% of all the queues. This one includes my mate Dave Naylor towards the back. Sorry Dave my queue moved first! As I took this as we got on the bus. Was good to see you at the event later and over the next few days and well done on a good session on Day 4 early doors!

Was nice to spend some time again with a fellow friend and Search marketer from the US in Jon Kelly from the agency Sure Hits. He has just started blogging again (probably after we spent about 2 hours catching up with Andy Beal and Loren Baker who talked him round) So check him out as he has a lot of good things to say about search and optimisation.

He is the queue for the fabled Google Dance T-shirt, which did run out towards the end of the night so they are a sort after item!

There was two great keynotes which all the bloggers have covered from Ask and Google giving some good future views on where their direction is heading and Jim Lanzone used the Ask commercial I mentioned in one of my last blogs before heading out there.

Well I could go on to talk about the next 2 days in detail but this is already turning into a long post. Overall great conference and session on all 4 days and some great events though out the week. Search is still riding high and with so many exciting things being developed with in the media space I think there are a lot more SES San Jose's to come in the future.

Ask.com New TV Commercial

2007-08-15T12:37:00.000+01:00

Saw a piece by Lisa Barone on the Bruce Clay blog yesterday about the new commercial in the US for Ask.com. First of all you sort of ask yourself who the heck came up with the line 'Experience Instant Getification' I Ask you! (pardon the pun).

But I think they have positioned it really well the new interface works. I have been playing with it for about 6 months or more now since it was launched as 'AskX'. Loved it back then and it has grown on me even more now.

Everything is there that you would want functionality wise and you can tell they have really thought about how to effectively position 'Vertical Creep' but still let the different products stand in their own right. The ability to move between text, images, local and other areas of the search results returned works well and at first I was a touch annoyed by the preview function as you roll over the search results but in all honesty it makes perfect sense and you actually start to enjoy using it.

Looks great, works great and the commercial isn't bad either!

On the Speaking Road Again

2007-08-07T12:22:00.001+01:00

After a break of a couple of weeks its was good to get out again last week and talk about Search. I did a great session for the Marketing Society in London perfectly entitled 'Search Me!'

Well not literally! it was an event run by Microsoft so it was good to hook up with my old mate Mel Carson again to present search in the UK space, Mel has blogged about it as well on his brand new blog on Brand Republic called Digitales, definitely stick it in your favorites.

It was a good session and well received by the attendees but as Mel mentioned in his blog and I will as well the hot topic was 'Privacy'. We here about it more and more in the media press and it is interesting to see that this is echoed in the industry as well as the public domain.

We talked a lot about how the search engines need to deal with it and as the search landscape moves more into maps, mobile and particularly social search the lines need to be carefully defined.

Well the next speaking stop is in a few weeks over in the US at San Jose SES Conference where I will be speaking on the 'Search Marketers On Click Fraud' panel. I have done this panel for a few years now at various SES conferences and it always makes for lively conversation you could say.

Should be a good session so if your there come and say hello!

Google v Microsoft...the Road Wars

2007-07-31T14:07:00.001+01:00

I Was reading a great post on gizmodo.com today which I though I had to share. On the blog they have gone on to compare the vehicles that Google and Microsoft are using and the performance that they will be both getting around town from an MPG stance.

Initially you sort of wonder what the concept is about but this is one of the hottest areas online at the moment with both of the parties really pushing hard to create the next online mapping technology.

A few years ago we were in awe at the launch of the satellite imagery on things such as Google maps. but now they have moved forward with areas such as Google Earth and then Virtual Earth from Microsoft and then pushing the boundaries into better quality higher resolution images and 'Mash Up' map overlays for buildings and monetisation opportunities for businesses on the maps.

The next area that both parties are looking more into the the 'Street View' concept. Google has already done some limited street view testing in 5 cities across the US but imagine taking it to the level of higher quality imagery, maybe video and having advertising options within this. And early runner in this concept can be seen at Everyscape.com.

Jon Myers....who are we???

2007-07-31T12:15:00.000+01:00

Well I was having a play with a site called http://www.yournotme.com which is basically a website where you can find out how many other people with your name there are in the UK. It was great to see that there are only 6 of us....as in 'Jon Myers'.

There are 338 John Myers so that 'H' makes you a whole lot more common (no offense intended as we are all Jon Myers together!).

So I am thinking it would be good to try and find the other 5 Jon Myers here in the UK and try and see if they have blogs which means we could create a blogging group for Jon Myers named people. Watch this space and I will let you know how I am getting on.....THE SEARCH COMMENCES!

Yahoo One Search

2007-07-24T12:53:00.000+01:00

I noticed the other day that Yahoo has started to push out commercials for the new yahoo Onesearch Mobile Platform. I think it looks really good and works very well but I guess the touch of irony is that i am posting it here for you to watch via Google's You Tube.

Come on Yahoo get the video package up to speed as well!!

Tunnel through the earth will Google

2007-07-18T16:49:00.000+01:00

No I haven't lost it (well a few people I know may beg to differ!). Do you remember when you were a kid and you would be digging a big hole and someone usually a 'grown up' would say "if you carry on digging you will reach Australia"!

Well I always used to think what are you on about, the centre of the earth is full of liquid and you would never make it! But if you were able to negotiate the 4000 degree heat (thanks Wikipedia) you would not come out to far away according to Google.

As you can imagine I started my journey from Newcastle upon Tyne and you can see it here

Unfortunately it would have been a doomed trip as upon digging out the other side I would have come out on the bottom of the Southern Ocean around 1100km south of New Zealand so would have drowned or been lost at sea.

Real shame as I was starting to enjoy this expedition!

Have a go and see where you can dig to around the globe at Google My Maps

One less Apple iPhone in the World

2007-07-13T11:04:00.000+01:00

Those boys down at Will It Blend have done what I only thought they would....go Tom blend that phone!

Bourne Identity meets Google

2007-07-12T14:54:00.000+01:00

At first you may ask what am I on about with the tile of this blog, but Universal Pictures and Google announced a new online game, The Ultimate Search for Bourne with Google. It is designed to promote the new ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ film and is designed for the player to use a suite of Google products such as Search, Maps, Images and of course YouTube.

The game will be promoted on Google via search results and customized iGoogle home pages. The film is released in the US on 3^rd August, but don’t worry we don’t have to wait that long for the game! It is only 4 days away (16^th July) and you can sign up at www.google.com/bourne from then

It will launch in seven countries and incorporates a sweepstakes element. Players will have to track rogue agent Jason Bourne across three continents and solve clues that bring them closer to uncovering Bourne's identity.

But here the best bit…the prizes! Top prize is a Volkswagen Touareg 2, Mastercard are awarding 15 daily $1000 gift cards, a $25,000 prize, 4 trips to New York, Paris, London, Madrid or Tangier and in my eyes best of all 10 Apple iPhones.

See you in there on the 16th I know I am going to be there.

Advertising search marketing the Microsoft way

2007-07-09T15:32:00.000+01:00

Microsoft has started using the power of Soapbox video to advertising their search offering from Live Search. Historically search is not an easy thing to advertise and you could say there is no hip and trendy way to do it. But this is a dam good attempt from the Microsoft guys.

Video: Live Search commercial

I have to say mind, I don't have the version of Live Search that allows me to do a search on Live Search and find things around the house such as underwear. Is this in the new Vista? Can I get one of those please Microsoft?

Google Mapped not Google Maps!

2007-07-06T17:43:00.000+01:00

Great link here to see the history of all Google products, it comes from a Google french blog but you can always use Google Translate Tool in the toolbar to get it into english!

http://logiciels.zorgloob.com/graphe.php

Just click on each of the Google product icons to see the background on each one. For those who don't fancy navigating the map (its big!) you can get a list version as well

http://logiciels.zorgloob.com/liste.php

Nothing like a good interview

2007-07-06T09:16:00.000+01:00

While I was down at the Online Marketing Show last week doing a speaking session we decided to set up a series of interviews with some of the main search providers in the industry which I was able to sign up on the day and get them in front of the dreaded video camera.

We have just published interviews with Richard Firminger - Yahoo, Mel Carson - Microsoft, Ajay Syal - Yell and Steve Miller - IAB to the Latitude Website and Youtube.

Google will follow shortly as it is still getting signed off by their legal team, but it will be added as soon as I have it.

I decided to ask in general only two questions to them all:

1. What is the next big thing in search marketing in the next 12 months?
2. How do you see search developing in the future over say the next 3 to 4 years?

What was interesting to here is that generally everyone had a different opinion! Obviously they had to talk about products from their own organisations (who wouldn't!) but when you listen to their concepts in makes for great insight and a lot of different opinions.

I have put the interview with Richard Firminger - Yahoo Regional Sales Director Northern Europe below. But I recommend going and having a look at them all. You can see them at:

http://uk.youtube.com/user/latitudegroupvideos

Watch out for the Everyclick blue mouse putting in a guest appearance as well on the Yell.com interview. that mouse was everywhere for the whole 2 days at the show, you couldn't get away from him!

Photosynth meets Google Street View

2007-06-29T11:33:00.000+01:00

I was speaking earlier this week at the Online Marketing Show in London doing a slot on how we see more rich media integrating to search.

but for me one of the interesting little tech developments that we have coming later this year is something called EveryScape.

I have always been a big fan of Microsoft Photosynth and always will be and when a bout a month back Google launched Street Views in Beta on the maps in the US.

But what Everyscape does it to combined the two and give you the directional ability of Maps but then takes the like of the views from Google Street Views to the next level by giving you the ability to navigate in a virtual world of cities and step off the street in to shops and cafes and view the interior as well. The possibilities are endless and the marketing opportunities great.

Watch out for the launch later this year.

Where will this lead? Interesting eye project.

2007-06-29T09:11:00.000+01:00

KDDI Corporation is a Japanese technology company and the have set up a form of imaged based viral marketing site. it is well worth a look as there is nothing around quite like it.

The project that assembles photos, Web images and movies into a constantly morphing display which will show thousand of individual images making up one consolidated picture you can then choose to zoom in and out on the individual panels

Will be interesting to see what the plans are for it, i recommend giving it a go at the Eye-Project site will send you crazy hunting round all the images but it is very addictive!

The Power of the YouTube

2007-06-22T18:08:00.000+01:00

I have to say when you think about it after seeing some of Britain has Got Talent last week you could never have imagined a phone salesman called Paul Potts from Carphone Warehouse would let alone be able to sing Opera but actually win the whole thing.

But that's enough about that as it has nothing to do with search. What I am keen to watch is how many views it gets on YouTube. I have found 2 instances of it uploaded on there and already 3.2 Million people have looked at it and with YouTube growing a gathering pace a a rapid rate how high will it go and who will seize the chance to use the space as a marketing opportunity?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

I have seen the future and the future is 'Surface'

2007-06-14T17:51:00.000+01:00

I was having a play with this concept the other week and for me it it a sign of things to come. www.surface.com is another one of those rare things that you look at and it genuinely makes you take a sharp prolonged intake of breath and go 'wow!'

Check out the video on the right hand side and imagine being able to pay for bills, pass directions and images between devices without cables. Fantastic! Very cool website too!

Steve Balmer as you have never seen before

2007-06-12T15:27:00.001+01:00

Here is a blast from the past!

Photosynth.....Oh Yes!

2007-06-07T17:44:00.000+01:00

Now I was talking to my mate Mel at Microsoft today and he pointed out that the Photosynth technology is now live on the the BBC website for buildings in the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/britain/photocollection/index.shtml

This is one cool product, I first saw the video for this at the back end of last year giving the vision of how a wire frame was created of St Peters Square in Rome and how you could potentially upload images to the wire frame. It was one of the few products as you say made me sound like the dog from the Churchill ad when I first saw it and i let out the usual advert line of 'Oh Yes'.

Go and check out the product as Mel can always be heard saying at........ http://labs.live.com/photosynth/bbc/default.htm

It really is worth the time to check it out! Cheers Mel.

Natural Mapping....a good thing??

2007-06-04T14:15:00.000+01:00

I was looking at Google the other day and playing a bit with trying to get map data at the top of the natural listings. This seems to be generally the case now in some sectors if you do a location specific search such as 'Gym Manchester' on the main SERPS page.

You will then get a Google Maps listing at the top which links you through to the Maps functions from there.

But I did see another I have not seen before which is a expand function within the Natural Listings.

This seems to be a Google Base upload which integrates through into the Google Maps technology. It shows Google pushing more product to the natural listings offering more control as well. Is this a good thing?? Only time will tell......

What a week of Talking!

2007-06-01T12:33:00.001+01:00

Last week was one of those weeks but of Great value. On Tuesday Latitude participated in one of the first ever live video Webinars in the UK. myself, Richard Firminger (Yahoo), Mel Carson (Microsoft) and Phil Buxton (Revolution) all sat down in front of the cameras for an hour of chat with questions about the Search Landscape.

It all went well and you can watch the event back at:

http://revolution.webseminars.co.uk/index.php?c=406

Wednesday was another full day and spent it with a good friend of mine Mike Grehan.

We were doing the NMA Search Training day which was a good event and a chance to impart search knowledge to people looking to run camapigns in the industry. u would highly reccommend anyone attending courses like this (not just because i was one of the trainers!).

Great day and a great chance to catch up with Mike as even though we are both Geordies it is not often we are in the same place at the same time!

the final of the trio was on Thursday where i got the chance to be the Chair of the Marketing Weekly Killer Search Conference this was another great day with some great speakers and the event always seems to go down well.

Onto the next ones in the coming months with the likes of the Online Marketing Show at the end of June

The Search is Over!

2007-05-15T23:14:00.000+01:00

Well today was a big day and the search is over...I know my blog is generally about Search Marketing but there has been another big Search going on within a big passion in my life and today the search is over!

Newcastle United need to search no more as Big Sam is now in town!

Sam Allardyce has become the next in a long line of recent Newcastle United managers and for one I hope the search is over for a while!

Come on the Toon!

Another Wag at Internet World 2007 with a little Excite

2007-05-08T00:13:00.000+01:00

Well we did it again last week at Internet World 2007 on Wednesday. After the success of Chinwag Lives PPC Earthquake event I was on the panel at few weeks back in london we gave it another go!

Same format and panel just a new audience and I have to say it seemed to work just as well if not better. All seats were taken and a lot of good questions asked.

The hour seemed to fly by and chatting with Mike and Sam from Chinwag after the event we were keen to do it again and make a regular occurrence of the format at shows. Mike fancied a European tour.

The day finished wit a few celebratory beers at the pub just down the road where all the chinwag crew attended.

I got talking to a couple of people from Excite one of my personal favourite search engines over the years and I promised that I would say on my blog as I did on the night (exite people thought I wouldn't!...but here you go guys) that I feel that the web based RSS reader functionality on the homepage of Excite is second to none out there!

Keep up the good work and long may it last Excite!

Its a long and dangerous journey from New York these days....according to Google!

2007-05-01T15:37:00.000+01:00

Well most of us would take a flight I would say and arrive into London in about 7 hours. Google Maps has another idea I am afraid which I would not take literally! Go on to Google.com and do the following:

1. click on "maps"
2. click on "get directions"
3. type " New York " in the first box (the "from" box)
4. type " London " in the second box (the "to" box)
5. click on "get directions"
6. Read step #24

Yes they are actually asking you to swim the Atlantic!! Best of luck to all that follow these directions.

Marge Simpson uses Google

2007-04-25T17:18:00.000+01:00

Well it has been a while since I posted due to my blog being broke! But I thought I would start again with a light hearted one. It has happened and Google is now being used by the Simpsons!

It is interesting to see her say "629,000 results. Wow, and all this time I thought 'googling' yourself meant the other thing,"

She then clicks onto Google Maps to find the house, where husband Homer is sunbathing naked in the backyard.

Will be interesting to see if Google ever get to a live video feed in maps....imagine that! Until then only the Simpsons have it!

Chinwag the Online Re-Run (If you fancy it)

2007-04-06T22:10:00.000+01:00

The guys down at Chinwag have put the pod cast up now on the site so for all you who missed it first time due to not being there! Can listen to the event on the following link.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/chinwaglive

All 'Joost' Up

2007-04-06T21:53:00.000+01:00

The world of Internet TV wonder and as they say 'TV Anywhere, Anytime'. Thanks to an old mate of mine Satish (Carnelite), I am finally hooked up. At first glance it is looking like a good idea and generally the quality is pretty good.

All I can say is come on Joost get some more mainstream TV on there! But there is some good stuff to keep you entertained if there is nothing on the BBC! (which isn't unusual these days!)

Nothing Like a Good Chinwag!

2007-03-30T00:49:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday night this week in London I decided to go down to the PPC Earchquake Chinwag event at the Slug and Lettuce in Soho. I was looking forward to having a beer and a good night of being in the audience for once and listening in rather than speaking.

But within 3 minutes of arriving I was asked by the organisers to be on the panel, as a member of the panel had dropped out! No search rest for the wicked you could say!

Chinwag managed to get a great turn out of people across the board, the event is to be put out on a Pod Cast next week to boot. With a follow up session at Internet World on 3rd May.

Not the best picture but that's me in the middle! There was some good questions and some contention... which is always good! The 90 mins of Q and A flew by and it was nice to see me old mate Teddie from Neutralize again, even if we had only been at Search Marketing World 2007 in Dublin the week before!

Good event Chinwag look forward to the rerun!

The £2 Billion is here!

2007-03-28T18:12:00.001+01:00

Today I attend the IAB Conference at which the annual media spend figures were launched. It amazed me to hear that this has been run for 10 years now and in the first year 4 media owners supplied figures. This year 102 did!

Online has finally passed the £2 Billion mark in 2006. And it is great to see that Paid Search makes up 57.8% (£1.165 Billion) the second largest segment in the online area was Display at 22.8%.

Looking at this against 2005 which was around £1.4 billion online spending, it gives us a year on year growth of 41.2%. This is great and shows the shift in media spend with areas like TV dropping by 4.7% year on year and the whole industry only up by 1.1%. the market is being driven by Online and within that paid Search is the main driver.

Looking at the big picture of all media spend, Internet now has an 11.4% slice of the media pie in 2006 which is up from 7.8% in 2005.

More data on the numbers can be found at http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/iabadspend2006.mxs

Bamber Gascoigne launches a search engine. yes, really!

2007-03-27T13:55:00.000+01:00

Got an email today from a Colleague at Latitude with a url to this site and at first I must admit I though Bamber Gascoigne....No Way!

You have to ask yourself what is Bamber upto, but once you start to play with the concept it actually becomes quite addictive, you can find out anything that happened in any year, so quite useful. You still have to ask you self why Bamber? but it is something that will come in handy at quiz night!

http://www.timesearch.info/timesearch/default.asp?conid=home

The Church of Search!

2007-03-23T14:22:00.000Z

This week I was over in Dublin speaking at Search marketing World 2007 conference. This was Ireland's first ever Search marketing event so as a lot of the speakers arrived the night before and we were catching up. I think it was fair to say that we did not know what to expect the next day.....would many people come!!!!

In the usual way people had descended on Dublin by plane for the corners of the Globe with the like of Chris Sherman, Danny Sullivan and Jeffrey Rohrs coming in from the US and a whole host of us appearing form Europe.

As ever great to catch up with all the usual faces and see what was new in the World of Search and a thanks to Martin Murry the event organiser for hosting us that night! It was also good to see the only other Geordie I have known for a lot of years in search Mike Grehan.

On the day of the event it was great to get there in the morning and see so many attendees buzzing around in anticipation of the days events at a location that was steeped in history.

You may be wondering why i have entitled this blog the 'Church of Search'...well this purely comes down to the location of my talk. On landing I went to look for the speaking room to survey where I would be doing my bit later and all I can say was WOW!

This is the Baroque Chapel which we renamed the Church of Search on the day and is has to be said it is not often you get to speak in places like this!

On the day the choice of topic for me was Click Fraud and myself, Jeffery Rohrs and Shuman Ghosemajumder met up again from SES London panel in February this year to pitch in with Matt Trimmer being a new addition to the panel.

On the whole the event was great and hats off to the organisers for getting us all together and all those people down to listen.....looking forward to 2008!!