Last week, search geeks from around the world converged on Park City, Utah for the 10thSearch Insider Summit (SIS).
During his opening remarks, MediaPost Publisher Ken Fadner polled the audience to see if anyone had been to all 10 and no hands went up. But then Roger Barnette from Search Ignite made a dramatic
appearance mid-day on Friday and confirmed that this was indeed his 10th show.
I've been tracking the buzz at every SIS except the first and have published the buzz-o-meter in
these here pages to give folks that couldn't make the show a sense for the trending topics.
Below are links to recaps of each of the previous eight shows...
April 2010
December 2009
May 2009
December 2008
May 2008 - Part 1 and Part 2
December 2007
May 2007
November 2006
Gord Hotchkiss, the Cal Ripken of search, had his 7-show streak broken last week and
left the door open for yours truly to step up the MC role.
Seizing the opportunity, I took my MC title literally and opened the show each day with a rap...
Day 1: Park City Love
Day 2: Fresh Prince of Deer Valley
Day 3: Search Search Data
Rap interludes notwithstanding, the show was filled with great content and, as always, the
intimate setting allowed for plenty of interaction.
Here are the top 10 buzzwords from SIS last week and the tweets that best embody them:
1. Google. The
theme of this year's summit was "All roads lead through search," but it could have just as easily been "All roads lead through Google." Google's dominant market share has made its brand name
synonymous with search. And SIS attendees certainly seemed to use these terms interchangeably. Beyond just search though, the content focused on the impact of search on other channels (and vice
versa), and once again Google was part of the recurring thread, as it has aggressively penetrated areas like display (to the tune of $2.5 billion in annual revenue) and mobile (now a $1 billion annual
business for the Big G). One of the show's highlights was the opening keynote from Dr. Jim Koehler, director of research at Google, who shared insights about conducting effective tests and the meaning
of chemometrics.
@SearchBoss: BREAKING: Google cracks code on one of life's great mystery: How to spend more money
with Google.
2. Facebook. Hot on Google's heels was the Big F. (Not to be confused with the Yahoo F Bomb. More on that later.) From panels exploring social graph
integration with search results to the changing dynamics of people using Facebook to query their friends, there was no escaping the impact Facebook is having on our space and our roles. Some attempts
to link Facebook and search were a bit of a stretch, though...
@robwilk If brands
want more Facebook fans, shouldn't they use search to bid on terms like "facebook" to drive new fan acquisition?
3. Like. On the Like vs. Link panel, we explored what the
future of SEO holds when likes are counted alongside links. Dave Tan from Resolution Media proposed a "hate" button to give off more signals, while crowd-favorite Marty Weintraub from aimClear made it
clear he likes likes, like, a lot.
@telerob: It's hard to follow some one's rational about 'likes' on Facebook if they
keep saying like every third word....
@jeremycrane: @telerob very amusing how Facebook is making seasoned marketers
all sound like teenage valley girls, but with a straight face
4. Data. The content for Day 3 centered around data, so the fact that this topic trended was a bit of a
self-fulfilling prophecy. As any good analyst would, we examined data from every possible angle -- tracking, targeting, privacy, discrepancies, 3rd party sources, etc. -- before concluding
that...
@vikramsomaya: Data is so sexy. Even at a sinfully hot conference like #mpsis
5.
Bing. Lots of chatter about the impact of the Search Alliance and Microsoft's continuing commitment to search innovation. Many folks think Microsoft has out-Googled Google when it comes to
putting the emphasis on user experience, even at the cost of revenue. As for Bing's Facebook integration, the jury is still out...
@meprieb: Like the bing+fb liked results but can I choose friends that get referenced? Don't trust all friends' recs on food, tech,
beauty...
6. Mobile. Despite cracking the buzz-o-meter at #6, mobile got decidedly less play than expected. Ironically, while it wasn't talked about that much, all it took
was one look out from the stage and seeing everyone's faces buried in their mobile devices to remind me that mobile is now like the Internet itself -- just something that's there, almost omnipresent,
and doesn't require explicit call-outs.
@cberdie: Facebook is important but what happened to Mobile? Fastest growing
trend ever. Maybe everyone else has already mastered it.
We did, however, have one panel specific to mobile in which Jamie Wells from Microsoft reluctantly acknowledged the contributions of
his competitors to the market...
@MediaPost: Microsoft values innovations by Apple, Google; Hell freezes over
7. Attribution. The popularity of attribution can probably be attributed to the fact that data was a hot topic. Meanwhile, aforementioned SIS vet Roger Barnette won the buzzword
density award with his presentation...
@jennyc: Buzzword bingo with the title "marketing cross media channel attribution
and optimization". Forgot "synergy" in there.
7. Display, Yahoo (tie). After turning the reins for algorithmic search over to Microsoft, the scope of the buzz about Yahoo
was relegated mostly to display. David Zinman of Yahoo keynoted day 2 with a presentation about the interplay between search and display that pleased almost everyone...
@SearchBoss: Breaking: Yahoo keynote fails to drop F bomb, Bartz outraged
9. Groupon. SIS was buzzing
abouthow Groupon turned down Google's reported $6 billion offer. For the first two days of the conference, everyone was speculating about what Google would have done with Groupon and
what the future of location-based advertising holds. And then we got a dose of reality on day 3, when over half of the students on the consumer panel had no idea
what Groupon was and one of the few that did thought "Groupon is for moms." To which Frank Lee tweeted...
@franksem:
groupon should've sold!
10. Funicular. The setting for the latest show was the new St. Regis resort in Deer Valley. Among ski-in, ski-out slopes
and butler service (no sign of Jeeves, though!) , perhaps the most buzzworthy feature was the....
@micahn: Funicular - a
railway up the side of a mountain pulled by a moving cable & having counterbalancing ascending & descending cars
That's a rap! See you in Captiva...