Over the weekend, I used Google Suggest on Google News to identify the most common news queries used recently by people keeping tabs on Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York coverage. They were "Search Engine Strategies" and "SES New York."
Then, I conducted a query in Google News and found 282 stories for "Search Engine Strategies" and 71 for "SES New York" during the past week. Similar queries in Google Blog Search found 1,381 blog posts for "Search Engine Strategies" and 296 blog posts for "SES New York" during the same timeframe.
That's a ton of blog posts and news stories for the 2007 conference and significantly more than I recall seeing after the same event in 2004, 2005 or 2006. But, there are several forces behind this tidal wave of blog and news coverage.
During the past year, the number of news sources that Google News indexes jumped from 4,500 to 10,000. Over the same period, the number of blogs has doubled from 35 million to 70 million, according to Technorati.
In addition, more than 85 media organizations covered the Search Engine Strategies 2007 Conference & Expo in New York City. And several sent larger teams of bloggers and journalists to SES New York this year than they did a year ago.
So, what were the top 10 stories to come out of the show?
The #1 story was Search Engine Land's Searcharazzi: Google Hearts DoubleClick, which ran on Friday afternoon, April 13, the last day of the event. The announcement that Google has acquired DoubleClick "for $3.1 billion in cold hard cash puts to shame even the juiciest details from this week's SES New York show - from Reprise Media's announcement that it was picked up by IPG to the pole dancing on the Epiar party bus shuttling guests to the Vintage Tub & Bath Bacchanalia Tuesday night."
The #2, #3 and #4 stories at Search Engine Strategies were all generated by Danny Sullivan's keynote conversation with Windows Live Chief Steve Berkowitz, which was held on Wednesday, April 11.
2. Berkowitz: Microsoft will 'crack open' its tech vault, Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA - Apr 11, 2007
3. Microsoft boss admits to marketing mis-step, New Media Age, UK - Apr 11, 2007
4. Microsoft Steve Berkowitz upstaged by Ms. Dewey, LIVE in the Big Apple, ZDNet.com blogs - Apr 11, 2007
The rest of the top 10 stories to come out of SES New York were:
5. Jupiter Finds Search Spending On Rise; Marketer Demand Fuels ..., Mediapost.com, CT - Apr 11, 2007
6. Search expert Hotchkiss talks about trends, BtoB Magazine, NY - Apr 11, 2007
7. Yahoo Remixes Site Explorer, WebProNews, KY - Apr 11, 2007
8. Search Engines Come Together on Sitemaps Auto-discovery, Search Engine Watch - Apr 12, 2007
9. Search Chicks, ClickZ News, NY - Apr 12, 2007
10. Search marketing issues grow with opportunities, DM News, NY – Apr 14, 2007
Since as many as five conference sessions were being held concurrently, it was impossible to attend more than 17 out of the 75 sessions. So, where can you find out what you missed at SES New York?
The first place I'd look is Search Engine Roundtable's Search Engine Strategies '07 New York Session Coverage Roundup. Barry Schwartz oversaw another fantastic round of live-blogging 52 SES sessions, joined by Kim Krause Berg, Debra Mastaler, Chris Boggs, Greg Meyers, Ben Pfeiffer, Lisa Barone, Li Evans, Rob Kerry, Carolyn Shelby, and Tamar Weinberg.
Next, I'd check out the Search Engine Strategies Blog and read SES NY: What's Really Going On. It links to 44 news stories and blog posts about the event.
Then, I'd visit The Bruce Clay Blog's SES NY '07 Session Recap, which covered 19 sessions, and Pandia follows the New York Search Engine Strategies Conference, which covered 16 sessions.
After that, I'd go to the WebProNews Video Blog to watch the Latest WebProNews Videos, to Technorati and find everything in the known universe tagged with SES-related tags, and flickr to see the 527 photos tagged with variations of sesny2007.
You can also check out the SES-related flickr photosets from the SEOmozzers, Tamar Weinberg, Matt McGee,Barbara Boser, Christine Churchill, Li Evans, Rob Kerry, Carolyn Shelby, or Vanessa Fox.
Finally, to get an up-close-and-personal view of surviving Search Engine Strategies, read the series of posts on Lee Odden's Online Marketing Blog: Better Late Than Never, SES New York Day One, Vintage Tub and Bath Party SES New York, SES New York Day 2 Notes and Photos, SES New York Day 2 Videos, and SES New York Day 3 Videos.
And of course, you must keep an eye on the SEOmoz blog for Rebecca Kelley's famous SES cartoons, created from conference photos.
Of course, nothing beats actually attending Search Engine Strategies to get the latest news about the search engine industry. If you can't do that, then you can always try twirling a lasso while quoting Will Rogers, who said, "All I know is what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance."
Greg Jarboe is the president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization and public relations firm. He is also the news search, blog search and public relations correspondent for the Search Engine Watch Blog.
Search Headlines
We report the top search marketing news daily at the Search Engine Watch Blog. You'll find more news from around the Web below.
- What Will Google Do With Performics?, Search Engine Journal
- Should Google Acquire Wikipedia?, Google Blogoscoped
- Newsvine Beats Digg To Punch, Search Marketing Gurus
- The Cleansing Of The Links, Search Engine Land
- New York Moments and their Stories, SiteProNews
- SEM Settled? Good, Now On To Real Marketing, WebProNews
- Why marketers should care about the Google-DoubleClick deal, Biznology
- Dirty Ideas & Clean Link Sources, SEO Book
- Microsoft Silverlight Takes On Adobe's Flash, Read/Write Web
- Telltale Signs of a Chasm Crossing from NY, Out of My Gord
- SES NYC 2007 - The Wrap Up, Search Marketing Gurus
- The Importance of Search in Internet Marketing, 15 Digital Marketing
- SES New York 2007, SEO Wife
- I am not a Link Communist, Revisited: Perspectives on Buying Links, Stuntdubl
- Did dodgeball Even Have a Chance?, Baron VC
- Vertical Search Is Better For You, SEO'Brien
- Black Hat SEO meets Web 2.0, Stephan Spencer
- ARF Conferees Weigh In On Google Deal: Game-Changer or Olive Branch?, MediaPost
- Google/DoubleClick: It's About Display, Data And Defense, MediaPost (Tacoda CEO Curt Viebranz)
- Are we filtering ourselves into an internet ghetto?, Information World Review
Introducing SES Online
Want to view one of the sessions you missed or listen to an especially informative presenter a second time? SES New York sessions are available for purchase on ClickZ Academy's new e-Learning site. SES is now Online!
