Below is live coverage of the Keynote: John Battelle 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: John Battelle | (02/12/2009) Powered by: CoveritLive |
8:57 | Barry Schwartz: Starting in 3 minutes! |
9:02 | Barry Schwartz: Danny starts off by saying how Google banned Google Japan https://www.seroundtable.com/archives/019409.html |
9:03 | Barry Schwartz: He mentioned Darwin beat out Lincoln in the Google logo http://searchengineland.com/sorry-abraham-lincoln-charles-darwin-gets-the-google-logo-16550 |
| 9:03 |   |
9:03 | Barry Schwartz: He introduces John Battelle now |
9:04 | Barry Schwartz: John Battelle is author of the outstanding book on how search engines developed, The Search, in which he also coined oft-repeated description of search engines as a “database of intentions.” A veteran journalist and entrepreneur, this keynote conversation will cover how John sees search developing, the challenges ahead and searches greater impact on the internet and society. |
| 9:04 |  |
9:05 | Barry Schwartz: He starts off about the book and how it wasn't named "The Google" :) |
9:05 | Barry Schwartz: They let him call the book "The Search" and they took the title and put it into Google fonts and Google colors |
9:05 | Barry Schwartz: He said in some countries, it is named "The Google" this or that.... |
9:06 | Barry Schwartz: Fundamental changes in companies since the time of the book? |
9:06 | Keri Morgret: He got the idea to write the book after a meeting with Eric Schmidt. |
9:07 | Keri Morgret: Battelle thought that search was the largest intersection of media and technology that ever existed, but was hard to convince Schmidt of this back in the beginning. |
| 9:08 |  |
9:08 | Keri Morgret: There were 900-1000 employees at the time Battelle left the Google offices from this meeting. |
9:08 | Barry Schwartz: Apparently, Google is losing a couple employees here and there, he said.  |
9:09 | Keri Morgret: There isn't an ocean Google hasn't boiled, or has tried to boil. |
9:10 | Keri Morgret: Music industry is good example of a shift from one presumptive model to another. |
| 9:10 |  |
9:11 | Barry Schwartz: He compares this industry to the music industry... |
9:12 | Barry Schwartz: The music industry is now adapting to this world |
| 9:13 |  |
9:13 | Keri Morgret: It may be true that you want to pay for the Wall Street Journal, but your local paper may not be worth paying for. |
9:13 | Barry Schwartz: He thinks the newspaper business model is broken |
9:14 | Barry Schwartz: he thinks you can monetize papers just with ads, and he disagrees with Walt on his write up on this. |
9:14 | Keri Morgret: All of the search engines have benefited by all of the traditional media that has been put in the web. |
9:14 | Barry Schwartz: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1877191,00.html is Walt's theory |
| 9:15 | Will the newspaper business survive? Yes ( 60% ) ( 40% ) |
9:15 | Keri Morgret: Keeping our government honest and keeping citizens informed is one things newspapers will keep rpoviding. |
9:16 | Keri Morgret: Successful models abroad have newspapers as public trusts. |
9:17 | Barry Schwartz: "Google has been doing pretty well on the balance sheet" |
9:17 | Barry Schwartz: At the end of the day, there is a certain part to journalism that is above pretty profit margin but it needs to be honored by our culture... we need to get to at least break even point... |
| 9:17 |  |
9:18 | Keri Morgret: There will always be a market for certain types of journalism. Hard to make a profit in straight news though. |
9:18 | Keri Morgret: Danny reminds us that Battelle has a blog and a Twitter account that we should all visit. |
9:19 | Keri Morgret: http://battellemedia.com/ and http://twitter.com/johnbattelle |
9:20 | Barry Schwartz: HE thinks MSFT will grow 5 points in search share because they will "Buy it" -- not necessary buy yahoo or aol but buy distribution deals |
| 9:21 |  |
9:21 | Barry Schwartz: Just the other day, another Yahoo exec went to Microsoft http://searchengineland.com/microsoft-continues-peeling-off-yahoo-search-talent-16547 |
9:21 | Barry Schwartz: He thinks Google will lose some share to Microsoft |
9:22 | Barry Schwartz: Q: Do you think Microsoft will bull past Google? |
9:22 | Barry Schwartz: A: Battelle said not this year... |
| 9:22 | Do you think Microsoft will bull past Google? Yes ( 33% ) ( 67% ) |
| 9:22 |  |
9:24 | Keri Morgret: He gives an example of Shazam as a way of search. It's an app for the iPhone where you can have it listen to some music playing and it will tell you what the music was. It's search, but not what we think of search. |
9:24 | Barry Schwartz: http://www.shazam.com/iphone |
9:24 | Keri Morgret: He talks about how he thought that having a search engine (hotbot) in 1995 was a bad idea. We already have seven. Why do we need any more? Laughter from the audience. |
9:27 | Keri Morgret: "three bump theory of interface culture". What Battelle argues is that in the interface between man and machine, the first interface was a non-grammatical foreign language that made no sense to most people. Gives example of COBAL or FORTRAN programmers. Then we got Windows and Mac. We got to what he calls the "hunt and poke" interface. Being in a foreign country where you don't speak the language, but you can "hunt and poke" by clicking icons to figure out what's going on. |
9:27 | Keri Morgret: Fairly full house here this morning. |
9:28 | Keri Morgret: We have so much information now that the hunt and poke method just doesn't cut it. We needed a new interface, and he argues that this interface is search. Using natural language to talk to computer. |
9:28 | Keri Morgret: Right now, search is still the command prompt and blinking cursor. He thinks we're about to shift into a new interface. |
9:29 | Barry Schwartz: There are problems with voice search, but it will get better... |
9:29 | Barry Schwartz: Language is going to be huge in the next search interface... |
9:29 | Barry Schwartz: It doesnt have to talk back to you, but we are just getting started in this area. |
9:31 | Keri Morgret: Danny offers Battelle a Twitter break. John doesn't have his phone, but Danny needs to feed his Twitter addiciton. They start talking about Twitter and where this is taking things. |
9:32 | Keri Morgret: He asks how many people here Tweet. Nearly everyone raises their hand. He talks about how hard it is to explain Twitter to people that aren't familiar with it, like trying to explain that you used FORTRAN. |
9:32 | Keri Morgret: Once you figure out Twitter it's insanely useful. |
| 9:32 |  |
9:32 | Keri Morgret: When you get to a critical mass of people talking about what they're doing, eating for breakfast, etc. you have a database of intenions with what is happening right now. |
9:33 | Keri Morgret: Can be insanely useful to be able to query this database of realtime information. |
9:33 | Keri Morgret: Gives example of someone going to Twitter to start asking for recommendations of purchases like cars instead of going to a search engine. |
| 9:33 |  |
| 9:34 |  |
9:35 | Barry Schwartz: John then talks about his question on AT&T's network, here is his blog post on that http://battellemedia.com/archives/004822.php |
9:35 | Barry Schwartz: Best use case for Twitter to adopt it, is the comcast cares |
9:35 | Barry Schwartz: http://twitter.com/comcastcares |
| 9:36 | Are you own Twitter? Yes ( 80% ) ( 20% ) |
9:36 | Keri Morgret: He's telling people to join Twitter, even if you only use it for Comcast customer services. Tweet comcast sucks, you'll get help right away. |
9:36 | Barry Schwartz: Is paid search and SEO gaining on traditional media? |
9:37 | Keri Morgret: He's talking about big brands realizing they need to own their name space. |
| 9:39 |  |
9:40 | Barry Schwartz: "Conversational Marketing" |
9:40 | Keri Morgret: Marketing online was stuck in two modes -- billboard mode and demand harvesting. |
9:42 | Barry Schwartz: we now know what engagement online means |
9:43 | Keri Morgret: Conversational marketing -- You have to have a practice in figuring out how to create media that adds value to the conversation online. If someone runs in and yells that IBM servers are wonderful and runs out, it wouldn't work well. If you were from IBM and sitting there and answering a question and can talk about yes, I'm from IBM, and I think that x might work and here's why, that's much better. |
| 9:44 |  |
9:44 | Barry Schwartz: Chris Silver Smith snapping pics right in front of me.... |
9:44 | Barry Schwartz: Last two questions... |
9:45 | Keri Morgret: "The Conversation Economy" is the name of his next book. |
9:47 | Barry Schwartz: Web 2.0 Expo coming this March |
9:47 | Barry Schwartz: They don't have the theme, 100% for the next show |
| 9:47 |  |
9:47 | Barry Schwartz: Lots of industries are being forced into being reborn, such as banking |
9:48 | Barry Schwartz: People laughed there, did you?  |
9:48 | Barry Schwartz: That is all folks, in less then 15 minutes we will be covering Ask the Link Builders live... should be fun...!!! |
9:49 | Barry Schwartz: That is all we got for this session. We will be ending the live blog session but you can reply or view the transcript immediately after I end this broadcast. Thanks for tuning in to the Search Engine Roundtable's Live Coverage! |
9:49 | Barry Schwartz: More at https://www.seroundtable.com/ |
9:49 |  |
