During a weekend in the nation's heartland, I learned the best benchmark anyone could possibly use to measure his campaign's success: Manage your search engine strategies so well that competitors want to kill you--literally.

Last Friday's Wall Street Journal discussed the new e-Media Exchange, an automated ad auction exchange created by disgruntled blue-chip advertisers, with technology managed by eBay. The advertisers, which include Toyota, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Home Depot, have decided to move away from unaccountable, non-transparent, human-controlled networks, creating, instead, an exchange that sells cable and broadcast TV, radio, and print ads through automated auctions.

Hopefully, most of you are able to read the above title with the two pronunciations of potato, so it sounds better than it reads. This seemed easier than trying to phonetically spell "potato" And the title highlights an interesting convergence of machines and people that is upon us in the search space.

At the end of this week, thousands of search marketers will begin their pilgrimage to the west, to the mecca of search that is San Jose. It's time for what has emerged as the premier search gathering, the West Coast version of Search Engine Strategies.

In April 2006, Emarketer/Marketing Sherpa reported that marketers will substantially increase Web site redesign spending more than any other interactive activity, including search marketing. As redesigning becomes a more popular option than starting from scratch, it is imperative for marketers to understand the major elements that impact a pre-existing natural search presence....

"People spend only 5 percent of their time searching, but search commands over 40 percent of the online advertising market." Someone has to cite that supposed fact--"the line"--at every Ad:Tech to illustrate the disconnect between Internet usage and media spending. What kills me is that they always get away with it.

At the MediaPost Search Insider Summit last week, my colleagues Kevin Lee and Brian Silver had the opportunity to sit on in the Insider's panel. At the end of the talk, the floor was opened up for the crowd to request future articles they'd like to see. I hope to get to all of the topics that came up; for today, I'd like to tackle just one: the issue of how to know how much to spend in search.

Vertical search is an area in considerable ferment. Much VC funding has flowed to the area, under the assumption that the big search players are so broad that there is opportunity for sites devoted to specific niches....

You probably haven't given a lot of thought lately to vertical search results, that thin sliver of search real estate that is sandwiched between the top sponsored ads and the top organic ads, and generally shows a few lines of news results, or local, or products. I have. Don't panic, there's really no reason why you should have....

I recently came across a paper written by Google and the Center for Neural Consumption at Hebrew University describing "social and interactive television applications" that allow your computer to listen to your television, determine what you're watching, and display relevant Web applications. Imagine watching Rachael Ray on the Food Network and having a Web site pop up with the recipes she's using, along with a chat room for people who have cooked that particular dish.