Self Illuminated

I am now using Windows Live as my main Instant Messenger.

I might as well dedicate the first post of the blog to SES 08. My business partner Matt Brooks and I visited San Jose, and attended the Search Engine Strategies 2008 Conference earlier this week.

TUESDAY AUGUST 22nd 2008

• 2:45pm-3:45pm Diagnose SEO Issues Using Live Search Webmaster Tools. Nathan Buggia, Andy Woods, and Ani Babaian introduced Live Search Webmaster Tools. Nathan was the main speaker, however most of the questions were answered by Andy. I didn’t get to see Ani Babaian at all. Nathan pretty much went over the webmaster tools and some of its new features. Overall it still looks like Microsoft is chasing Google’s tail with regards to search engine webmaster tools and services.
• Mobile Search Advertising: Are We There Yet? Speaker: Barry Chu, General Manager of Advertising, Medio Systems. Although I did not attend this session, I overheard someone say “basically Barry concluded that we’re not there yet”. As predicted! Mobile web industry in general has just began. It is going to take a couple years for the general public to demand Internet rich mobile applications (though I am personally in love with Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro)
• 7:00pm-11:00pm Google Dance - Glow in the Dark! For registered SES attendees, beginning at 6:30pm until 11pm. Google Dance was probably the most anticipated SES 08 event. Many attended and they all brought their big smiles with them. Google had setup booths for each department (Analytics, Adwords, Maps, etc) with one or two dedicated Google employees per booth. There were many questions answered by these professionals. I can now see why Google is such an attractive company to work for. A volleyball court in the middle of the buildings? Come on! Google Dance was not the typical nightclub scene that’s for sure. The music was alright and the people were mostly there to “have a good time”.Here’s a good video of the Google Dance 2008 Tour

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 23rd 2008

• 2:45pm - 4:00pm Social Media Analysis and Tracking In my honest opinion this was the least interesting presentation I attended. Maybe that’s why I don’t remember any interesting points mentioned. Edmund Wong and Todd Parsons mostly reviewed the importance of forum and community support management with regards to repeat traffic. Ground level material.
• 4:15pm-5:30pm Black Hat, White Hat: Playing Dirty with SEO. The funnest search marketing gathering of the entire event! Greg Boser (President, WebGuerrilla LLC), Todd Friesen (Director of Search Engine Optimization, Range Online), Bruce Clay (President, Bruce Clay, Inc.), David Naylor (SEO, Bronco), and Jill Whalen (CEO, High Rankings) where the presenters. Although no one admitted to being Black Hat, Todd, David and Greg were mainly the ones indirectly promoting Black Hat. Throughout all the fun Matt Cutts was made several reference to. Everyone’s eagerness to want his involvement in the whole Black Hat White Hat discussion motivated Matt to finally share his thoughts and make a few points clear, “Google does ban big companies even though we do not always publish and disclose their identity…”
• 5:45pm-7:15pm Domain Auction. My first live domain auction! How exciting. Biggest domain for sell was Ad.com which had a starting bid of $1,000,000 USD. I did participate in the auction however I did not win any domains. On the other hand, there was a little raffle and I won. Very exciting
• 7:15pm-11:00pm WebmasterRadio.FM SearchBash. Basically a failed attempt to throw a fun party at a nightclub. Although many seemed like they had a great time, it was all relative. For a party animal such as I, this was not an exciting one.

Overall, this was a productive experience and I am looking forward to the upcoming Internet Marketing events