At the fall Ad:Tech in New York, there was an abundance of search on the session list.

Strolling the exhibition floor at last week's Ad:Tech, it seemed like nearly every company had some connection to the search space.

Lately, I've received some e-mails expressing confusion about local ad placement programs and how they might be used within search marketing campaigns.

With Google's entry into desktop search, keyword ads can now appear anywhere - in a search engine, in your e-mail, beside a search for files on your computer. If Google launches or brands a browser, as is rumored to be the case, expect that to add more options for search marketers.

Sometimes you never know what you'll get out of a conference or seminar. As for the last one I attended, I left cringing.

Google's beta release of their desktop search tool was their shot across the bow of the USS Microsoft Search.

We've done three studies now on how people react with search engines, and one finding that has been consistent across all three studies still amazes me.

Could search engine marketing really be going head to head with e-mail marketing? How sad it is to see two siblings cut from the same cloth fighting over scraps when there is ripe bounty awaiting both.

While there has been much recent speculation that search engines are bringing the Yellow Pages industry to its knees, naysayers should take another look at the industry that founded local search more than 100 years ago with the first print Yellow Pages directory.

I have always been an "early adopter" of technology, one of those guys who runs into a colleague's office saying "You've got to see this!"