Below is live coverage of the Keynote with Danny Sullivan from SMX West 2009 conference.
This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs.
We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed. In addition, you can interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog.
| Keynote with Danny Sullivan | (02/10/2009) Powered by: CoveritLive |
8:55 | Barry Schwartz: We are live! About 5 minutes until Danny starts his keynote! |
| 9:02 |   |
9:05 | Barry Schwartz: Danny took the stage, with a big musical opening and a great loud welcome from Chris Ewell |
9:07 | [Comment From Mo_far] Hi Barry, I can't hear the sound, is this normal? |
9:07 | Barry Schwartz: There is no sound Mo_far |
| 9:07 | |
| 9:07 |  |
9:08 | Barry Schwartz: Marin Software is announcing the winner |
9:08 | Barry Schwartz: Winner is Keri Morgret |
9:09 | Barry Schwartz: Keri won the http://www.biggestsearchgeek.com/ award |
| 9:11 |  |
9:12 | Barry Schwartz: Keri with her award! Congrats! |
9:12 | Barry Schwartz: Danny starts talking about his "children", Google, Yaho and Live Search |
9:13 | Barry Schwartz: Google really gaining on market share, at 70% mark |
9:13 | Barry Schwartz: Yahoo at 20% or so, and live at about 10% or so |
9:13 | Barry Schwartz: He is sharing comScore's figures from a few months back... |
| 9:13 |  |
9:14 | Barry Schwartz: What is Google's trick for being so powerful? |
9:15 | Barry Schwartz: Google really loves search, really loves it |
| 9:15 |  |
9:15 | Barry Schwartz: Google has a great algo, has great signals to mine data and has a great business strategy |
9:16 | Barry Schwartz: Check out Google Hive Mind post from Danny |
9:16 | Barry Schwartz: The problems are: people don't need to switch, chief competitors are in "disarray" and it leads to them being stronger |
9:17 | [Comment From Pat] Barry - here is code for this to be google gadget - |
9:18 | Barry Schwartz: Wish list: show real time CPCs, tell publishers what adsense split is, solve map spam issues... |
9:19 | Barry Schwartz: he said, mike blumenthal turned Google into an escort company, related to the comment about Google map spam. |
9:19 | Barry Schwartz: He warns Google needs to be more careful before moving itno further Google hosted content, such as Google Book Search, Time Life images in Google Images and Knol... Google is becoming more of a media company and content company |
| 9:21 | Google stepping over the line with hosting content? Yes ( 75% ) ( 0% ) ( 25% ) |
9:22 | Barry Schwartz: Next title named "Yahoo: Little Engine that Should've" |
| 9:22 |  |
9:23 | Barry Schwartz: Yahoos leadership is in disarray |
9:23 | Barry Schwartz: loss of talent and "mojo" factor |
9:24 | Barry Schwartz: Yahoo is throwing search to the wolves to survive... they can't partner up with Google and it seems like while Yahoo is giving up, Microsoft is.... |
9:25 | Barry Schwartz: Danny wishes Yahoo would restore faith, keep innovating with search monkey and search pad |
9:25 | Barry Schwartz: Personally, I don't think search pad is innovation  |
9:26 | Barry Schwartz: Danny is sick of Yahoo's "Open" solution |
9:27 | Barry Schwartz: Then he goes into Yahoo is making advertisers angry https://www.seroundtable.com/archives/019291.html |
9:27 | Barry Schwartz: He then shows the Google home page versus Microsoft home page and asks audience, what is each's business |
9:28 | Barry Schwartz: Google's tag line: Search, Ads & Apps Microsoft: Software + Services |
9:29 | Barry Schwartz: Danny's wishlist for Microsoft |
| 9:29 | Do you want Microsoft to compete in search? Yes ( 92% ) ( 8% ) |
9:30 | Barry Schwartz: He pleads with Microsoft to show us they love search |
9:31 | Barry Schwartz: Danny said we are rooting for you, Microsoft... Google wants microsoft to compete also, at least more than they are now |
9:32 | Barry Schwartz: Microsoft, pick a brand already! They keep changing their brand... Live what? Live Search? |
9:32 | Barry Schwartz: Examples of bad moves from MSFT is dumping Book Search |
9:34 | Barry Schwartz: We don't have good third party relevancy factors, measuring how relevant search engines are |
9:34 | Barry Schwartz: I ran one years ago, named the Search Engine Relevancy Challenge, http://www.rustybrick.com/search-engine-challenge.php YAhoo won back then, but now they are not leading.... |
9:35 | Barry Schwartz: Plus we need to standardize metrics on what is a search, search share, volume of searches, number of unique searches, etc |
9:36 | Barry Schwartz: Danny said, we won't see a start up coming in any "killing" Google within the next three years |
9:36 | Barry Schwartz: He is sick of hearing from PR companies on this, as I am |
9:36 | Barry Schwartz: Google Killer, Google Killer - whatever! Kill Google or go back into your hole. |
9:37 | Barry Schwartz: The closest Google Killer, Danny said, was YouTube, and Google acquired it. |
9:37 | [Comment From Guest] PR companies saying that it will or won't happen? |
9:37 | Keri Morgret: Danny asks why don't Google and Yahoo offer Twitter search. |
9:37 | Barry Schwartz: HE said PR Companies are promoting these Google Killer companies |
9:37 | [Comment From @Dalka] I'm listening to Guy Kawaski at UGCX and watching Barry's chats of Danny Sullivan's keynote at SMX - you can have the best of both world's I guess :) |
9:38 | Barry Schwartz: Keri, doesn't Twitter block Google from indexing them? http://twitter.com/robots.txt or am I wrong? |
9:39 | Barry Schwartz: So danny is upset with Google over no twitter search |
9:39 | Barry Schwartz: Personally, I don't think that is fair of Danny, but I can be wrong. |
9:39 | [Comment From @Dalka] Barry - I saw a backlink from twitter on a domain last week - i can't recall the site |
9:40 | Barry Schwartz: He then talks about Urbanspoon, he loves it and wonders why Google's reviews are not as good. |
9:41 | Barry Schwartz: They have a great iphone app http://www.urbanspoon.com/ |
9:41 | [Comment From Guest] I tried Urban Spoon. It didn't do such a great job for me in richmond, VA |
9:42 | Barry Schwartz: Yelp rocks, Danny said.... Google Maps is 100% growing in this area, but Yelp is really wonderful and powerful |
9:42 | [Comment From Guest] but I love the shaking part :) |
9:42 | Barry Schwartz: So true, Danny says how it is hard to remember all the tools, sooo true! |
9:42 | Barry Schwartz: One example is Farecast.com, Microsoft bought them |
9:43 | Barry Schwartz: Maybe Google will kill itself... |
9:43 | Barry Schwartz: I.e. YouTube, Google Blog Search, Google Maps, universal search --- so much out there, so much to do |
9:44 | Barry Schwartz: Danny then shows his search 4.0 slide |
9:44 | Barry Schwartz: reshaping results based on personalized search, trust, location.... |
9:44 | Barry Schwartz: Google is way out in front in this area |
9:45 | [Comment From Guest] anything on BrightKyte? will they get into business directories? |
9:45 | [Comment From @Dalka] I like Yelp from an SEO standpoint, but from a review integrity standpoint, the site has serious issues - just ask @cshel about her lafayette-online.com experiences to get more color |
9:46 | Barry Schwartz: Search results continue to be more tailored to individuals |
9:46 | [Comment From @smaha] sorry, i forgot to give my name, i was asking about brightkyte, and ranting about urbanspoon :) |
| 9:46 |  |
9:46 | Barry Schwartz: SEO dead? depends on how you define it.... |
9:47 | Barry Schwartz: He then brings up the John Dvorak of PC Magazine http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2340694,00.asp This is a typical article, this is just bad... |
9:47 | Barry Schwartz: Probably not worth looking at this but Danny is making a point that people are misinformed |
9:48 | Barry Schwartz: He basically said, John, why are you talking.... |
9:48 | Barry Schwartz: But there is some truth to that, but not to where he has taken it. |
9:49 | Barry Schwartz: He then shows all the bloggers who trashed SEO in the past years... Seth Godin in 2004... Mary Hodder in 2005 and Jason Calcanis in 2007 |
9:49 | Barry Schwartz: then Shomoney trashes SEO (likely for fun) in 2008 |
| 9:50 | Is SEO a Scam? Yes ( 9% ) ( 27% ) ( 64% ) |
9:50 | Barry Schwartz: Danny asks, is it time to change the SEO name to other things such as.... |
9:50 | Barry Schwartz: Content SEO or Technical SEO.... |
9:51 | Barry Schwartz: He then calls John an "idiot" ;-) John from PC Mag |
9:51 | Barry Schwartz: Danny then pleads... Forget the black hat/white hat debate - we are tired of it. |
9:53 | Barry Schwartz: tell people to say no to black hat, say "no" to it now.. Just say no! |
9:53 | Barry Schwartz: He kind of equates black hat and joking about your black hat tactics as a racist joke |
9:53 | [Comment From John] It will be Mashable's turn to trash SEO in 2009. TechCrunch in 2010... |
9:54 | Barry Schwartz: comment spam, bad mp3 sites, its enough already! grow up! |
9:54 | Barry Schwartz: how has inhouse SEO grown? there are no stats.... |
9:55 | Barry Schwartz: agencies should support in house people, i guess they don't support them enough? |
9:55 | Barry Schwartz: smart agencies should figure out how to support these in house, cause maybe the market is moving in that direction... |
9:55 | Barry Schwartz: SEM is not, not not paid search! |
9:55 | Barry Schwartz: SEM is both SEO and PPC |
9:56 | Barry Schwartz: Saying, I do SEO and SEM, is like saying "I drink water and water", what he meant to say, "I drink water and dasni" I guess |
9:56 | Barry Schwartz: Financial Crisis, still hard to say how hard it will hit us |
9:57 | Barry Schwartz: there are conflicting reports on spend and budgets this year |
9:57 | Barry Schwartz: If budgets do get tighter, then analytics become more and more crucial .... |
| 9:57 | Financial Crisis hurting your SEM company? Yes ( 75% ) ( 0% ) ( 25% ) |
9:58 | Barry Schwartz: Danny said he will write a book this year, focusing on how people just dont get sem |
9:59 | Barry Schwartz: i also want to write a book, i got my topic also, but wont share it yet. |
10:00 | Barry Schwartz: Be proud of what you do! |
10:00 | Barry Schwartz: That is it folks, keynote is done. |
10:00 | Barry Schwartz: Next session coming up soon. New blog post for that.. Keri and I will be going solo now... |
10:00 |  |
