SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

June 24, 2009

More Former Yahoo!'s Head to Microsoft; Weiner Upgrades to LinkedIn CEO

The reasons for Microsoft to still consider a deal with Yahoo! diminished even further this week as news broke that three former Yahoo!'s have been recruited to Microsoft. They aren't the first. You would think there was a fire sale on former Purple People.

Larry Heck, Scott Moore, Qi Lu, and Sean Suchter have all ended up at Microsoft after leaving behind their Yahoo! gigs.

Now, joining them, is Kevin Timmons; Yongdong Wang, former Yahoo VP of international search; and Knut Risvik, who incidentally spent time at Google after his stint at Yahoo!

Microsoft isn't the only place former Yahoo!'s are making their mark. Jeff Weiner joined LinkedIn last year as President, having left Yahoo! last summer and then hanging out at a couple of venture capital firms. Now, he's changing his title to CEO.

What do you think about the departed? Does Microsoft have any incentive to negotiate a deal with Yahoo? Leave a comment and let us know!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2008

Web Content is Having the Worst Week EVER!

I don't know if everyone is in a bad mood over the economy or what, but web content is having the worst week ever.

First, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the internet was a cesspool. Then, Kevin Kelleher at GigaOm said that certain social sites are ruining the whole social networking industry because their nicheiness has gone just a little too far in his not-so-humble opinion. Finally, David Cowan decided that the "internet sucks" meme was a good idea for a marketing campaign to push MashLogic, including the tagline "Take back the web."

You may not want to join a social network dedicated to the admiration of David Hasselhoff, but that doesn't mean social media is doomed.

You may enjoy half the videos on YouTube, but perhaps they weren't all created for you.

In a modern day world of customization and the web making things more immediate, we've come to expect what we want when we want it.

But now that's leading to self-important decisions about what should be on the internet in the first place.

The problem with declaring the web as full of junk is that such elitist thinking generally leads to a social form of censorship.

The world wide interwebs thrive off of openness and access for as many people as possible. But if we begin to reign it in because some CEOs, bloggers, and startups decide that what they think is good is the only thing that matters, then the web will truly become a garbage dump of narrow, upper crust excogitation.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 19, 2008

Web Analytics Association Adds Yahoo's Mortenson to Board of Directors

The Web Analytics Association has announced the addition of Yahoo's Dennis Mortensen to their board of directors. Mortensen is Director of Data for the Sunnyvale search engine, arriving there from IndexTools, which was acquired by Yahoo earlier this year. He will serve through 2010.

WAA Chairman Jim Sterne said, "Dennis Mortensen is a pioneer and expert in the Web Analytics industry, having worked in the field of internet analysis and statistics since 1996. He is a thought leader in web analytics and online marketing, and we are delighted to have him on board. I know that he will be a tremendous asset to the Board as we work, lead and support the online marketing analytics profession in the years ahead."

"I believe the WAA is in a position to become a much larger and more prominent voice in the industry on such items as privacy, standards, member qualification and certifications," Dennis Mortensen noted. "I look forward to working with Jim and fellow Board members to move these issues forward."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 13, 2008

Ex-Googler Ben Ling Becomes an Ex-Facebooker

If you're looking for drama, go watch the Olympics or an episode of the Hills. Ex-Googler Ben Ling is leaving Facebook, but it's not for any rumored internal squabbles.

Instead, he's got a new opportunity on deck that is apparently great enough to leave the hottest social network in the world right now.

I don't know what opportunity is out there for a guy with Google and Facebook experience, but it had better be a doozy.

via AllThingsD

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 8, 2008

Ex-Google Exec Heads to Bebo Europe

Ex-Googler Kate Burns has been tapped by social networking site Bebo to head up their European operations, according to the Guardian. Burns previously was Google's managing director for the UK. She also helped launch DoubleClick and AltaVista in the UK.

Bebo was recently acquired by AOL for $850 million. The site boasts 40 million members worldwide. AOL's Platform-A recently announced a guaranteed CPM for Bebo developers. Platform-A was the largest ad network in March.

Also in March, Microsoft announced a data portability with 5 social networks, including Bebo. However, AOL joined Google's OpenSocial initiative in May. Google owns a 5% stake in AOL, and was recently given permission to unload the stock, though it has yet to do so.

Meanwhile, rumor of a possible Yahoo-AOL merger have reared its (ugly?) head again, but today reports are suggesting any deal would not be completed in July. Yahoo's shareholder meeting is August 1.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 30, 2008

Mike Moran Exits IBM, Joins Converseon

Mike Moran is leaving IBM after 30 years to take a position in the newly created role of Chief Strategist at social media marketing agency, Converseon. Moran will be involved in the development of Conversation Miner as well as provide consulting to Converseon clients.

“We're thrilled to have Mike join us,” said Rob Key, Converseon CEO. “He brings to the table the perfect combination of industry-leading expertise with hands-on knowledge of how to internally adopt and promote these practices within complex, enterprise environments. As we often say, social media can be technically relatively simple, but culturally quite difficult. His experience will be invaluable as we help leading brands develop and execute innovative social media campaigns. He will also play a key role in consolidating Converseon's position as a leading social media marketing and consulting agency offering end-to-end services, from listening to engaging to measuring.”

While at IBM, Moran led several search technology projects including IBM's OmniFind search and text analytics products, the first commercial linguistic search engine, and automatic categorization technology for business search at ibm.com. He has been granted multiple patents and is the author of Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules.

“With their focus on pushing the edges of innovation in reputation management, search marketing and social media, Converseon is the ideal fit for me,” said Mike Moran. “I look forward to working with their standout team and clients.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 13, 2008

Exclusive Interview with Craig Newmark about SEO

So I ran into Craig Newmark, of the eponymous CraigsList.org at The Marker's Com.Vention conference today outside of Tel Aviv, and I got to sit down with him for a few minutes and discuss SEO. Craig is generally known as no-BS kind of guy, so he was a great guy to speak to about how SEO and the SEO community have affected his site, which was one of the first user-generated content sites online.

Eli: What has CraigsList done--or not done--in terms of SEO?

Craig: As long as our guidelines are met, our users provide us with good SEO. But we do have people who spam our site for SEO purposes.

Eli: How do you deal with those spammers?

Craig: Usually, we just get rid of the spam. Some spammers are persistent, so we discuss it with them--or with their ISPs. Basically, we're trying to enforce honest behavior. SEO is a good, legitimate busines; just treat other people well.

Eli: And how do you catch dishonest behavior? Is it just users reporting spam or do you have technology in place?

Craig: We use a combination of techniques. Users find them. Sometimes a smart person on CraigsList will notice a pattern of spam and email us about it. The community helps us out.

Eli: Craig, you're famous for keeping CraigsList a small operation even as the size of the site has grown. Any advice for people who want to keep their businesses small and profitable?

Craig: Try to find ways to enlist the community to help, as we do with flagging. Listen to community; find out what they want. Don't waste time and resources on something your community doesn't want.

So, in that spirit, what do the readers of SEW want? Let us know.

Posted by at 10:22 AM | Permalink

December 14, 2007

Save the Date! "Meatball Sundae" Webcast with Seth Godin

We know you guys love Seth Godin (who doesn't?). You nominate his blog for ClickZ's annual Marketing Excellence Award every year -- and it's won. Twice.

As a marketer, Seth's brilliance borders on the uncanny. He's an unparalleled public speaker (who just delivered a keynote at Search Engine Strategies Chicago), and a prolific author. And we're delighted to announced that on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 2:00 PM EST we'll be presenting a Webcast featuring Seth on the topic How Do You Avoid the Meatball Sundae? in conjunction with the release of his latest book, Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?

You owe it to yourself to catch this Webcast, so

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