search engine strategies Archive

This evening, Danny Sullivan from SearchEngineLand provided the Keynote conversation at Search Engine Strategies. Before I get into the comments, the room was pretty well filled, and certainly more attendees than the Keynote with Jason yesterday.

I thought Danny did a great job. He provided some humor throughout the discussion and really showed why you should not just read slides. I could have listened to him for three hours without looking at my watch once.

I took pictures of many of his slides, you can see them below. The address is 50 minutes and the file is 20MB in size. I had to put the file on RapidShare due to the size. Download here (no registration needed)

Photos

Check out all of the images from the event on my Flickr set

As I sit here in my hotel room, getting ready to head over to SES day 3, a friend of mine called me and asked if ad:tech or Search Engine Strategies was a better investment. I told him my thoughts and then I thought it would make for a good post. So without further ado, let me present the CenterNetworks 2006 conference battle between ad:tech NY and Search Engine Strategies Chicago.

Some general/fun comments:

• Greater overall value: SES Chicago
• Better sessions: SES Chicago
• Better location: ad:tech NY
• Better expo: ad:tech NY
• Better city: ad:tech NY
• Better pizza: ad:tech NY
• More booth babes: ad:tech NY (though there were very few overall)
• More breathing room: SES Chicago
• More men in suits: ad:tech NY
• More men on stilts: ad:tech NY
• Greater interaction ability: SES Chicago

ad:tech NY loses major points for the space:people ratio. The Hilton NY cannot handle that many booths and people. It was like the number 6 train during rush hour. ad:tech has a much larger expo but the tight, cramped quarters really take away some of the quality. Knocking into people is no fun. If they moved to the Javits Center, the expo would be infinitely better. I would love to see better speakers and a focus on the future. It seemed many of the sessions were stuck in yesterday. ad:tech is built around the expo, with the sessions secondary.

Search Engine Strategies Chicago gets top points for the sessions. Four days (plus a fifth training day) and so far, the quality has been great. The speakers and keynote presentation have really hit their marks. The Russian judge gave all 10s. I particularly liked Shoemoney and JenSense discussing contextual advertising. Though I don’t get why they left out the Intellitxt type inline advertising. Maybe they don’t like this type of advertising or maybe they don’t know how it works or it could be because most users hate it. SES has a much smaller expo, almost felt too small. There were booths from Chinese and Japanese text link ad firms which is interesting. SES is built around the sessions, with the expo secondary.

And the final overall winner is: Search Engine Strategies Chicago. The SES sessions are better than ad:tech and the environment is better as well. Feels more relaxed and the participant discussions are on-point. If ad:tech NY moves to the Javits Center, and increases discussions about the future, they will probably win in the 2007 battle. I can’t believe I am giving Chicago anything over NYC, but alas, I must. But remember one thing, NYC has better pizza.

Jason Calacanis participated in the keynote discussion at Search Engine Strategies this morning. The big news is that Jason has accepted a position at Sequoia Capital as Entrepreneur in Action. Now he is looking for an idea to create a startup with. Listen to the audio files at the end of this post.

Some of the other things he spoke about include:

• On Netscape/AOL: I was there for a year and it was very educational. I am an entrep. and I could have left at any time from Netscape. We had an arrangement that I would stay for a year and I would stay longer if they made me President. Out of nowhere they fired the CEO supposedly, and I was like, this was my guy and so I thought I needed to do my own thing. I felt confident that Netscape and Weblogs was in a good place.
• Do you think you would do something in hardware?
  I mentioned it on my blog about a mp3 player that is DRM-less. And somehow it got picked up on all of the big blog sites.
• Talk about Netscape…
  I remember Mosaic, the blink tag, when each browser would be colossal. AOL created Firefox. One of the suggestions was to turn off Netscape and point it to AOL. I thought there was a social news concept and let’s bring it to the masses today. The people who say we copied Digg are the 12 year old people on Digg. Digg did not have any editorial safeguards on it. We wanted someone to check the facts, and so we put editorial controls on it. Even if Valleywag says that we aren’t. The pageviews are going up.
• When you work at a big company, you can’t act like a startup guy.
• Payperpost is evil. The intent of the site is to do deceptive marketing. ReviewMe could work – if they put in the first sentence about the payment.
• Netscape – We tried a concept of paying people for their work. We thought to pay the top diggers $1,000 a month to put 150 stories on Netscape. They did more than just post stories; they got rid of spam and taught other users how to use the system. The top users also helped with teaching us what the problems are on Digg. They helped us make the product better. And helped us with consolidating stories by creating a de-duping story.

Audio Files

Part I – Discusses hiring by Sequoia Capital(download mp3)

Part II – discusses Digg, Netscape, TechCrunch and other misc comments (download mp3)

Part III – Discusses Payperpost and other general industry comments including word association (download mp3)

The Search Engine Strategies conference has announced that Jason Calacanis will keynote and appear live in his first and only appearance since his Netscape departure. Details below.

Remember, that we will be covering the event. Check the SES Chicago page or grab the RSS Feed.

From the SES release:

Search Engine Strategies (SES) Chicago To Feature Jason Calacanis in First and Only Appearance since Netscape Departure

New York, NY – November 21, 2006 – In his first and only public appearance since stepping down from Netscape recently, Jason McCabe Calacanis is slated to deliver the keynote at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2006, kicking off December 4-7, 2006, at the Chicago Hilton. Calacanis is scheduled to speak on Tuesday, December 5, at 9:00 a.m.

As the search industry continues to reinvent itself at breakneck speed, marketers can make sense of it all at SES, which is hosted by Incisive Media (FTSE: INM). The recent sale of YouTube, click fraud settlements, and the rise in video search and podcasting are topics from the constantly evolving world of Web search to be aired at the premier search industry event.

Chaired and programmed by recognized search authority Danny Sullivan, SES Chicago offers a forum in which novice and experienced search marketers can learn both by networking with colleagues and by listening to expert search engine marketers and the search engines themselves.

SES Chicago ‘06 promises to be the largest SES Chicago ever with an increase of approximately 75 percent in fully paid attendees compared to the 2005 event.

The conference, part of the Search Engine Strategies premier global series, features over 50 sessions and panels offering up-to-the-minute advice on the search industry and search engine-related promotion.