Content at the Google i/o conference fills the heads of developers with ideas about innovative and semi-futuristic applications that will change the world, but how do search engine marketers absorb all this Trek-like stuff and stay focused on how shipping prices or copy converts, or when to serve content?

Google plans to deploy a series of sensors at the Google I/O developer conference that begins Wednesday to collect data about environmental conditions in the Moscone West center during the event. "The sensors network will provide over 4,000 continuous data streams over a ZigBee mesh network managed by Device Cloud by Etherios," according to Michael Manoochehri, developer programs engineer at Google.

Oh, please. The reports that Yahoo wants to wiggle out of the 10-year deal with Bing should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially with Marissa Mayer at the helm. If Bing hadn't locked in that deal prior to the former Google engineer taking charge at Yahoo, the search landscape might look a whole lot different today.

When engineers build a product, they often begin with a reference design or kit, which contains the building blocks for products or services. Web developers use a similar model when designing Web Services. In the long term, search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo will become the building block for automation and automatic identification technologies, platforms and systems, from advertising networks to automotive alerts and services.

YouTube released plans Thursday that allow channel producers to sell paid video subscriptions that will create a new marketplace for programming on the Internet, making it crystal clear why the company continues to build out an Internet-connected fiber network at 1-gigabit-per-second speeds. By 2020, that content could serve up on many of the 30 billion wirelessly connected-to-the-Internet devices -- up from about 10 billion today, according to ABI Research. What do marketers need to know?

If you leave your printed coupons at home, don't want to pay for ink or waste paper, or for some reason forget to download the digital coupon to your phone, do you still purchase the product when you see it on the physical store shelf in the store? Money doesn't grow on trees, and every penny counts -- even if the government now tells us it takes 1.5 cents to manufacture one penny. So I asked Mike Scriven, VP of client marketing at Coupons.com, that question after reading a study released by the company Thursday.

The next generation of search not only makes it easier for consumers to find brand information, but for brands to connect with consumers. Consumers using Internet Yellow Page (IYP) services tend to view ads more frequently, and are 51% more likely to have an income greater than $100,000 versus all smartphone users, according to The Local Mobile Search Report 2013.

Analyzing data and cross-channel segments can give search marketers deep insight into their customers, but did you ever think about what type of food a consumer converting in the Financial Services segment might like? It turns out that these consumers prefer regular soda, dietary supplements, and sweet and savory snacks, according to a report scheduled for release this week.

Brands and retail stores are ready. A local inventory feed that enables consumers to search Google Shopping, Bing Shopping and Yahoo Shopping for the real-time inventory status of nearby retailers and brands will begin to emerge within the next few years.

Content, personalization, and testing have emerged as important strategies for search marketers who think about the content behind the concept and the words that inspire a click that takes consumers from paid search or product listing ads to landing pages. Click-to-call ads take the consumer from the mobile machine to a live human being.