Several agencies, my own included, have conducted analyses of the SEM campaigns and integration of online and offline advertising efforts of the presidential campaigns. It has been quite interesting to watch the rapid evolution of the online marketing efforts of each of the candidates. Throughout the past several months, I, along with our team, have remained completely objective and unbiased in each major event that we have evaluated. And now I'd like to address the harsh criticism of our commentary from McCain search campaign strategist Eric Frenchman.

Last week, I talked about the nature of engagement and the neural mechanisms that underlie it. This week, I want to explore why those same mechanisms dictate that our search interactions are going to be completely different from engagement with a TV ad or a billboard

Like many of my search marketing brethren, I've been somewhat insulated from the hefty budget and job cuts as the U.S. economy tanked faster than the Chicago Cubs' World Series hopes. That is, until my wife, Lisa, was one of the 173,955 victims of mass layoffs in the U.S. in August. So how did Lisa start out her search for a new job? The same way most people start out any search. She Googled it. It seems search is playing a heightened role for job-seekers across the board....

What were you searching for in January 2001? Google can jog your memory, as it brought back the earliest index it has in honor of its tenth anniversary. Here's a rare opportunity to experience the Web as it once was, when it was about half as old as it is now, if you date the origin to the launch of the Mosaic Web browser in 1993. So, how do search results on Google compare then and now?

I spent two days at SMX East last week, and it was a somewhat surreal experience. The last time I dragged my carcass through the Javits Center was PC Expo during the dot-com boom. SMX was held in the subterranean concrete cavern of the North Pavilion, an exhibit space representing less than a 10th of Javits' exhibit space that still managed to dwarf SMX' 40 or so exhibit booths (now I understand why most search events happen in hotels, whose smaller spaces manage to make them look much bigger than they actually are).

In my last post, "The Emotionally Abusive Relationship Between Google And Its SEOs," I pointed out -- somewhat irreverently -- the challenges of trying to keep up with Google's ever-changing algorithm. In this post, I'll cover the other side of the argument: why Google can't let you know how it does what it does if it wants to keep doing what it does well.

In a single day, you will be assaulted by hundreds of thousands of discrete bits of information. I'm writing this from a hotel room on the corner of 43rd and 8th in New York. Just a simple three-block walk down 8th Avenue will present me with hundreds bits of information: signs, posters, flyers, labels, brochures. By the time I go to sleep this evening, I will be exposed to over 3,000 advertising messages. Every second of our lives, we are immersed in a world of detail and distraction, all vying for our attention. Even the metaphors we use, such as …

A story last week on Search Engine Land ("Who Coined The Term SEO?" by Bob Heyman) got me to thinking about the somewhat nebulous origins of the term "search engine optimization," or "SEO," as well other common search terms such as "SEM" and "SEA." There are a number of claimants and facts around the term "SEO," so I revisited a few of them, and found some interesting facts along the way.

With browsers turning their address bars into search bars, as we discussed last week, which browser delivers the best search experience? I assembled a panel of judges (OK, me) and put together a scientifically ironclad roster of searches (what came to mind while watching TV Sunday night) and put them to the test. All searches were conducted at the same time. The goal was to discover which browsers among Firefox 3.0.3, Google Chrome 0.2.149.30, and Internet Explorer 8.0.6 (the latest versions) were the best at delivering the most relevant sites from searches conducted through their address bars.

The financial crisis is top of mind among marketers across the U.S. Many are wondering what it all means for the advertising industry as a whole -- and, importantly for us in search marketing, how we'll be affected. Here is my take on how the changing macroeconomic environment will influence the evolution of SEM.