The landing page optimization / testing breakout focused on big brands like Expedia, Gap, Inc., and H&R Block that have thousands of pages and hundreds of thousands of search ads. But the knowledge gleaned applies to smaller Websites as well.

Gord asked attendees to raise their hands if they were frustrated with the lack of support or insight at the CMO/CEO level when it comes to devising a search strategy that jives with creative (both on- and offline) and has organized goals and tactics.

The Search Insider Summit is officially under way!  The Strategy of Search panel has done a terrific job of clarifying strategies versus tactics, which are too often confused.  The example Gerry Bavaro, VP of Client Services at Did-It, gave was: Objective:  Double Volume Strategy: Increase Conversion Rate Tactic: Landing Page Testing More importantly, the panel covered communicating search strategy with CEO's.  The question was asked, "Does your search strategy come down from the CEO or get pushed up to the CEO?"  The right answer is the objective comes down from the CEO and the strategy to achieve that objective should …

If your in-house search team is scrambling, trying to do split A/B testing, search re-targeting, landing page design, keyword research and social media all with no goal in mind -- then your search tactics are disorganized. And disorganized tactics stem from a disorganized strategy -- or even a complete lack thereof.

Gian Fulgoni of comScore heated things up (as if it weren't hot enough here already) as he preached about the importance of "non-clicks."

We're among the elite, according to our Chairman and publisher Ken Fadner. Willard Scott, Ted Koeppel, Steve Case (ex-AOLer), and Bill Gates all call Captiva Island their winter (or summer, if they're up for the brutal temps) home away from home. Only at Search Insider folks, only at the Search Insider.

Another SIS is underway and it's shaping up to be a fierce game of buzzword bingo. As always, I'll be your resident buzz tracker -- reporting on the most popular topics, trends, and tidbits.

Jeff continues to extol the virtues of DART Search and DFA (he is a DoubleClick sales exec, after all). But what's really interesting is the quantity of data that the platform takes in and spits out. Advertisers can follow a customer's clicks from the first search ad, to multiple clicks on publisher pages, to the final conversion.

Jeff Dumakowski of DoubleClick gave us the rundown of the history of DART Search - DoubleClick's search management tool. -The platform was built in 98 (by Performics).

At the table with the Ingenio/Yellowpages.com/AT&T guys and overheard: "Well, we should probably take notes on these 'Ingenio Pay Per Call Network' sponsored notepads."