The Search Engine Strategies conference that just concluded in New York was nothing short of a phenomenon. Danny Sullivan has the unique role of being the conferences consensus, organizer and spokesperson. Danny is the Editor and Chief of the SearchEngineWatch website, I wish he had a blog because he does have much to contribute to the conversation about Search.
Search is constantly evolving on the internet, I remember that first Yahoo Search bar back when there were about a thousand websites. Then there was Lycos, Exsite and AltaVista and people were quoted saying that it would be impossible for anyone to enter this market......just like that guy who said guitar groups are finished in 1963, or that guy who closed-up the Patten office in 1908 because everything had been invented.
The attendees at SES were mostly Ad Sales and PR types who say the're in Search Marketing. They call every product, service and company a Brand, but to me that's analogous to calling every aspiring Broadway actress a Star.
The panels I attended were excellent, Danny knows the best people in the search space and he is able to assemble them all together to share what they know with the multitudes of people who want to know more.
I was very disappointed in the booth personal at Google, Ask, Yahoo and particularly MSN, they were all smiles and no answers. Where were the MSN Search Champs? What a great opportunity this would have been to evangelize the new and improved Live Search and build the Brand.