• by Gord Hotchkiss , Featured Contributor, May 7, 2007

It's been a hectic day...and I'm just trying to get a quick post in before dinner and after the Everglades Tour..which was very cool! Some of the things that stood out today: Started the day with the introduction of some new intelligence tools from Compete.com. Definitely take them for a spin. (I tried to provide a link but couldn't get to the site as I was doing the post. I'll try later tonight.) As Jeremy Crane mentioned when I chatted with him, this is not meant as a substitute for the subscription based tools and services (i.e. Hitwise or comScore) but it's just a step towards greater transparency into some of the data they collect. Increasingly, this seems to be the return that companies are providing in return for the user click stream data they use to power behavioral targeting and personalization. It's the same rationale Google is using with Web History. I then had my 15 minutes of fame with the opening remarks. I commented on how hard it is to be an industry pundit when the industry keeps changing every 5 minutes. So I focused on a higher level, talking about communities and connections, and how the Web and search are altering both. I believe search will cease to be a distinct activity online and will instead become a functional engine, powering all connections. Which was a nice segue into the keynote with Esther Dyson and David Vise. David was again playing at being Bill Gates (I've seen David present twice now and he does seem to be very comfortable in Bill's shoes) which made for an interesting look at a number of "big picture" topics. Esther's words of wisdom to Bill (via David)? Give up on search. Move on. Go cure Malaria. Speaking of moving on...got to head to dinner. I'll try to get one more post in tonight before I shut down the ol' laptop.