Look how old this is! I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 18 years 7 months 7 days ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.
I’m leaving Boston today, and I got a lot out of this conference. I’m still amazed at the wealth of knowledge available here, and the willingness to share.
The keynote was given by Malcom Gladwell, author of “The Tipping Point” and “Blink”, and author for The New Yorker Magazine. While I found his comments insightful and thought provoking, I personally enjoyed last November’s keynote by Robert Cringely more.
The sessions that I went to were on Local Search – Affiliate Strategies – Organic Search options – Content & Copywriting – Conversion Tweaking and Forensic and Competitive intelligence, as well as all the super sessions, including the infamous “Search Engine smackdown” where google, MSN and Yahoo (and Ask.com – but why?) all give a short presentation about new features and share their thoughts on the future of search.
The most valuable information to me (and benefit to my clients) were the sessions on Conversion Tweaking and Competitive Intelligence, which were really fascinating.
Although there was lots of valuable and interesting information for us “search geeks” I thought that for end users, the coolest new rollout coming seems to be from Microsoft, with their offerings at “Windows Live” where you can customize your search results, add RSS feeds, and (in San Fransisco and Seattle) get a drivers eye view through the windshield for driving directions. Pretty cool stuff.
One thing I was hoping to hear more about the Google voice recognition patent that will undoubtedly change the way we all search, not just at home and work, but through our cellular phones and Mobile devices. However, that subject never came up, and even more strange, nobody even asked about it.
