I’ve been out talking to journalists and bloggers about SES New York 2010, which gets underway the week of March 22nd. One of the questions that I’m frequently asked is: “What will be the top stories at the event?”

Now, I’m not clairvoyant. But I have been writing about Search Engine Strategies since early 2002, speaking at an average of five SES conferences a year since mid-2003, and promoting “The Original Search Engine Marketing Event” since late 2007. Plus, Byron Gordon and I have just finished assigning the two video crews that we’ll be bringing to SES New York 2010 — to do interviews for SES Conference Expo’s Channel on YouTube.  Read more... (841 words, 2 images, estimated 3:22 mins reading time)

Experian Hitwise today announced that Bing’s share of searches has increased for the third straight month.

In other news, Google accounted for 71 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending Feb. 27, 2010. Yahoo! Search accounted for 15 percent. Bing accounted for 10 percent. And Ask.com received 3 percent. The remaining 73 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for less than 2 percent of U.S. searches.

Although marketers probably don’t need to change anything that they are currently doing because of the trends above, Hitwise reported another trend that may require some adjustments.  Read more... (355 words, 2 images, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

According to Outsell, spending on online advertising and marketing will overtake print in 2010 for the first time. The research and advisory firm’s annual forecast predicts companies will spend $119.6 billion on online and digital strategies, from search engine keywords to webinars, while committing $111.5 billion to print media such as newspaper and magazine ads this year.

Outsell’s “Marketing and Ad Spending Study 2010: Total US and B2B Advertising” says advertisers are directing dollars toward the channels which generate the most qualified leads and most effective branding as they emerge from the recession.  Read more... (464 words, 2 images, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Over the past three weeks, I’ve been to SES London 2010, OMS 2010 in San Diego, and SMX West 2010 in Santa Clara. As The Grateful Dead would say, “What a long strange trip it’s been.”

I’ve reported most of the top stories from those three events:  Read more... (738 words, 2 images, estimated 2:57 mins reading time)

• 1,500 attendees watch Avinash Kaushik, Google Analytics Evangelist, kick off SES London 2010
• Bryan Eisenberg shares 21 secrets of top converting websites at SES London 2010
• Jim Sterne tackles social media metrics at SES London 2010
• Sneak previews of Online Marketing Summit 2010 and SES San Diego

At SMX West 2010 in Santa Clara, California, Peter Norvig, who spearheads Google’s wide-ranging research efforts, offered a behind-the-scenes look at the cool technology projects Google is developing for future products and services.

Before joining Google in 2002, Norvig was the head of the Computational Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center, which means he is literally a “rocket scientist.” He’s also the author of over 50 publications in computer science, including Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. But he’s also the author of the Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation and the world’s longest palindromic sentence. So, he’s a modern day Renaissance man.  Read more... (510 words, 2 images, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

David Meerman Scott, the author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition” will be giving the opening keynote at SES New York 2010.

For decades, marketers have relied on buying expensive advertising and begging the media and analysts for coverage. We interrupted “prospects” with our egotistical “messages,” in the hopes of generating interest from buyers (who usually ignored us anyway).  Read more... (322 words, 2 images, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

Yesterday, I mentioned that I’m speaking on the morning roundtable at SES San Diego 2010. Later in the afternoon, I’m also speaking at the “YouTube & Video Optimization” session.

Once you decide that you need to include YouTube in your search engine optimization and social media marketing strategy, then you need to learn:  Read more... (523 words, 2 images, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

1. How to optimize videos for YouTube so they get discovered,
2. How to create videos for YouTube that get watched, and
3. How to promote videos on YouTube so they get shared.

Online Marketing Summit 2010 gets underway in San Diego this week. And Day 3 of the event features a Search Engine Strategies Forum also known as SES San Diego 2010. Here are some sneak previews.

On Day 1, the morning keynote is entiled “Social Media Heavy Weights, Weigh In.” John Battelle, CEO and Founder of Federated Media Publishing Inc., Aaron Kahlow, CEO of Online Marketing Connect, and a special “surprise guest” will share insider insights on what tactics are working, and just as importantly, what tactics are NOT working in Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.  Read more... (1146 words, 4 images, estimated 4:35 mins reading time)

At SES London 2010, there was an unconventional session held at the bar of the Hilton London Islington Hotel entitled “Black Hat/White Hat Unconferenced.” As you can see from the photo below, more than 200 people crammed into a space that could comfortably accommodate about 20.

The soapbox was available for a few select speakers on either side to make their case, but then the audience took over. All with a glass of their favorite beverage in their hand, of course!  Read more... (890 words, 2 images, estimated 3:34 mins reading time)

Jim Sterne, who has written six books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled the complex world of social media metrics in his morning keynote at SES London 2010. Sterne, who is also chairman of the Web Analytics Association and founder of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, revealed some findings from his upcoming book, which, coincidentally, is entitled “Social Media Metrics.”

According to Sterne, social media is now where the World Wide Web was in 1995. Everybody’s talking about it but best practices are far and few between.  Read more... (290 words, 3 images, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)