During a breakout session on Social Media, the group began discussing the tendency of younger demographics to roll out of bed and check Facebook first thing in the morning and the potential evolution targeting could play in search query volume. If behavioral targeting advances to a point where advertising and content could essentially become predictive, then would we seek out fewer answers from search engines?  This is an interesting question. Most direct marketers would love that capability; however, social media in general is not a direct marketing channel. You have to wonder when online advertising will evolve to …

Ladies and Gentleman, start your pocketbooks...

Breakfast was sponsored by AOL''s Platform-A, and VP of product sales Julie Greenhouse gave a brief presentation on why the Web giant''s ad platform is kicking butt.

3 macro issues - liquidity, inflation, real-estate reevaluation

Great to see that discussions are revolving around fundamentals of marketing rather than topics related to what we have come to know of search most prominently...tactics around SEM and SEO.  I believe this signals a true shift in our consciousness about the challenges and opportunities we all face as agencies, vendors, and clients. Yes, we all have operational issues to deal with around getting to the vision, but the vision must be there first, right?  Sounds like we're all thinking like marketers and putting the customer in the center of an overall marketing discussion rather than in the center of …

Carey Ranson from WebVisible reported back from his breakout session that 2/3 of all mobile queries are unbranded, category-related whereas 2/3 of all local search queries (non-mobile) are brand plus geo.

Gord Hotchkiss, Enquiro -- "Search is the thin edge of the wedge." He was referring to the role of search in the context of the Web changing the world.

Don Scales, who has been running the operations over at iCrossing for the past couple of years, has just been named CEO of the digital marketing shop known for its search expertise. Scales succeeds iCrossing Founder Jeffrey Herzog, who will play a strategic role as vice chairman of the agency's board.

The Universal Search breakout session came up with some quick hits RE: best practices for video and image optimization.

The breakout session on Cross-Channel Optimization started with Gerry Bavaro from DidIt pointing out how jaded marketers have gotten by the strong accountability of search, expecting all their media to be as measurable.