This is the fourth annual SearchFest, which is Portland’s largest search engine marketing conference. But this is my first time attending the event. Topics include Social Media Marketing, Advanced Search Engine Optimization, Local Search, Analytics, Paid Search Marketing and so on. See SEMpdx.org or follow @SEMpdx for more information.

I am most looking forward to the late morning session on blogging with the very funny Matt Inman (AKA The Oatmeal). I usually live blog about the sessions I attend at WebVisions each year, so I’m going to try to do that here as well. See my notes from WebVisions 2009, 2008 and 2007.

Below is a quick, in-progress overview of the SearchFest sessions I am attending, with links.

Keynote Presentation – Stefan Weitz (Bing)
(8:30 am – 9:20 am)

Bing’s search engine market share is growing. Bing is a “decision engine.” And that isn’t just a cheap marketing term. Except that it is. Lots of shared stats about how Bing is actually usable and growing.

So, what is the future of the Internet and of search? The Web is moving away from text and toward a “web of objects” . . . spatial search . . . semantic modeling . . . emerging modes.

Web of Objects: Real-time Firehouse, Services, Multimedia and Devices. Search can expand what is possible and should “deliver knowledge by computationally understanding user intent.” The goal is to try to disambiguate a very ambiguous query. A search engine result shouldn’t always be a list of links. Attempt to structure, assemble and filter the returned services and objects in an interesting way.

Spatial Search: Large Hadron Collider as an analogy to search engines. There is a small chance that Bing might destroy the planet. Oh, wait. This might not be the point he’s making. The point is: How do we save Rachael Ray from the wave of Higgs boson particles? Well, by taking all of the data on the Web and mashing it back into the real world . . . by giving it context and reassociating it on interactive maps (physical context). Geolocating tweets and stitching user photos/videos into an interactive canvas.

Semantics: The most overused concept in the history of computing. But this is the year for it. No, seriously. Semantics is just understanding how words and objects relate to each other. It helps use to parse queries and to understand how to ascribe meaning to a web of objects. Perhaps even using natural spoken language: Siri example.

Emerging: Mobile and augmented reality. TED demo. Overlay web video of indoor environments onto existing street-side/map images . . . transition indoors.

Prepare yourself: “Service description, object ranking.”

Competitive Intelligence: Know Thy Competition . . . Know Thyself – Mike Roberts (SpyFu) and Larry Kim (WordStream)
(9:30 am – 10:20 am)

Wisdom of your Frenemies – @mrspy

SpyFu is a competitive intelligence company. How you can take a list of keywords that your competitors buy and create what is the Holy Grail of keyword research: Find out the most profitable keywords of your competitors. SpyFu was the first and has 3 1/2 years of ad history.

When your competitor buys a keyword . . . they care enough to bet some money on it. When they buy the same keyword twice . . . it might be profitable. Or:

1. They lost money, but it didn’t suck that much, so keep trying.
2. Inconclusive . . . not enough volume to make a decision.
3. Asleep at the wheel.
4. Vanity buying, for branding, client imperative and just because.
5. Randomness and libel.

So, knowing that a competitor buys a keyword isn’t enough.

There are antidotes for the above list. Antidote: Time. Longer = better, because it eliminates unprofitable reasons. Should be consistent and recent. Antidote: Money. Expensive keywords have to be profitable on a long enough timeline or even lazy or determined people will stop buying. Antidote: Activity. Note changes in ad copy, etc.

Which ARE your competitors’ best keywords? For one: Buy your brand. It will always be profitable. Five out of the top 10 keywords for eBay are its brand. Eight out of 10 for Apple.

Compile all of your competitors’ keywords. Identify the profitable ones. Filter out the ones that aren’t universally profitable. (Make a Venn diagram of profitable ad keywords of competitors and see what overlaps and will also be profitable for you.) Highlight the ones to act on now.

Competitive Intelligence in Search – @larrykim

Four popular competitive intelligence blunders (and how to avoid them):

1. Assuming your competitive intelligence data is relevant (don’t blindly assume).
2. Too much analysis, not enough action! (make actions scalable and data-driven).
3. Mistaking estimated CI data actual campaign data (still give it a try). Ad Rank = Bid * Quality Score. Reflect back intent of the search in the ad text and landing page design to get a better quality score and conversion ratio. Take unfavorable CI data under advisement, but don’t be deterred.
4. CI data is an important component of keyword research – should be use in addition to other keyword research tools. It should not be used as a substitute. Longer-tail keywords from your site’s web analytics can be effectively integrated to your own site’s ad keywords.

Target sub-niches (long-tail keyword variations). See Wordstream’s Free Keyword Niche Finder. Avoid the “path to madness.” CI is an important component of keyword research for PPC or SEO, but pick keywords that are relevant to YOUR site first. Be bold. Act. Don’t be deterred. WordStream provides keyword management tools for PPC and SEO.

Technical SEO: It’s not just about being attractive . . . you (and your website) also need to be accessible – Todd Nemet (Nine By Blue) and Matthew Brown (The New York Times)
(10:40 am – 11:30 am)

Improving Search Coverage – @nemet

Improving search coverage with increased crawler efficiency and decreased page speed. Page speed will become a factor in ranking soon enough. Ignore page speed at your peril . . . Google delay.

Ten directives:

1. Avoid duplicate copies of your site (development versions, subdomains, https/http, www vs. non-www). Ues Robtex Tools (www.robtex.com/dns) and Google Webmaster Tools (define www vs. non). Stay out of duplicate content filters.
2. Make your site structure obvious.
3. Make redirects permanent and short. Use 301, not 302 or meta or JavaScript. Detect: Try LiveHTTPHeaders add-on in Firefox.
4. Don’t send crawlers on a good chase. Move paramters out of the URL. Use rel=nofollow for links.
5. Gather similar content under one URL. Use: <link rel=canonical href=”…”>.
6. Discourage/disallow crawling of unimportant pages. Robot out site search result pages. Require authentication for development/admin pages. Return 404s (avoid “soft 404s”).
7. Work with browsers, not against them. Network Round Trip Time (RTT). RTT time matters when you’re doing a DNS lookup, TCP handshake. Minimize the number of DNS lookups and file transfers. Combine .js and .css files. Use CSS sprites (one image that gets shifted) instead of a lot of icons. Order of .css, .js, inline <script> matters. Always put .css first for maximum page speed.
8. Served optimized files, including images. Accept-Encoding: gzip. “Minify” JS and CSS. Use Google’s Page Speed plugin.
9. Avoid serving files at all, if possible. Return 304s and check modified/cached. IMS preferred. Use cache-control header: max-age, with expiration.
10. Take advantage of available tools: Google Webmaster Tools. Google Page Speed, Yahoo! YSlow, Firefox Firebug, Web Inspector (Safari, Chrome), Firefox LiveHTTPHeaders, Redbot, Robtex DNS Tools.

Already in effect in Google AdWords: Your bid goes up if your page is slow (above four seconds of load time).

How to Make Awesome Technical SEO Mistakes – @matthewjbrown

Build the SEO into the work foundation of publishers. Technical/editorial SEO work together. Examples from nytimes.com: SEO horrors. SEO automation challenges: auto-gen content, automated tags, default CMS settings, etc. Avoid creating redirect loops and 302 and JavaScript redirects. Be careful with CMS autopopulation of title tages, URLs and meta tags. Take advantage of Image Search by using alt and title tags.

Technical Tools: Server header checker (URI Valet), SEOMoz.org, SeoBook.com, Xenu’s Link Sleuth, Chrome Toolbar, Google Insights. SearchCLU site analysis: Google Webmaster Tools on steroids. Notice and correct domain-wide errors and page/template errors. Make sure site architecture lines up with marketing goals.

The Blogosphere: Boosting Performance Through Connection – Matt Inman (The Oatmeal) and Rebecca Kelley (10e20)
(11:40 am – 12:30 am)

The Basics of Blogging – @rebeccakelley

Blogging is an easy way to create content, bring traffic to site, attract links, get your site ranked, manage reputation, engage users and build community. Blog blah blah. I am charging my laptop. Sorry, Rebecca, but I am mainly waiting to hear Matt talk about velociraptors and punching dolphins in the mouth.

The Oatmeal – @Oatmeal

(Since Wi-Fi was so poor at The Governor Hotel, I lost some of the notes I originally typed for this session when a WordPress save timed out, but this is what I remember.)

Matt started The Oatmeal humor blog about nine months ago. Before that, a couple of years prior, he founded Mingle2 while working a day job. Mingle2 is an online dating site that became hugely popular through Matt’s illustrated linkbait, fun quizzes and viral marketing.

After selling Mingle2, he shifted his focus to The Oatmeal, which is essentially linkbait and viral marketing for its own sake. Now Matt makes $11,000 a week and has recent book and TV deals, just for making funny Internet crap. He says the secret to his success is focusing on humorous, annoying topics that everyone can relate to. He mentioned the hilarious Zero Punctuation and used it as an example of effective video-based humor as well.

If businesses are looking to “go viral,” Matt says the best thing you can do is attach weird or geeky things to your commercial properties. He says that Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon are hugely important to his success. Here are his recommendations for having submission success with each:

• Digg: Just make good content and become an active member of the community.
• Reddit (social news site): Submit your work yourself and write it using a first-person perspective. Redditors want to promote individuals creating work as part of their community.
• StumbleUpon (install the toolbar): Make sure to have a giant graphical header on your pages. “The Vietnam of viral marketing.”

The main takeaway for in-house designers and marketers is that being creative, experimental and social in your efforts may serve you well. So, basically, you all need to go back to your offices and incorporate illustrations of vicious dinosaurs and bears into your marketing campaigns for maximum humor.

(For these last three sessions, I will paste in my notes from Word soon, since lack of Internet connection prevented me from live blogging.)

SEO Tools: Learn how to leverage advanced SEO tools to improve the performance of your site – Rand Fishkin (SEOmoz) and Richard Zwicky (Enquisite)
(1:30 pm – 2:20 pm)

10 SEO Problems & the Tools to Solve Them – @randfish

See complete presentation: http://www.seomoz.org/dp/10-seo-tools

Stuff You Possibly Might Not Already Know and Tools – @rzwicky

Notes coming soon.

Measuring Online Success: Top Down and Bottom Up: We’re not being anal-retentive . . . Analytics matter – Eric Peterson (Web Analytics Demystified) and Aaron Gray (Greater Returns)
(2:30 pm – 3:20 pm)

Notes coming soon.

Local Search: Up-to-date strategies for achieving prominence within Local Search listings – Mary Bowling (SEOverflow), Matt McGee (Small Business SEM) and Chris “Silver” Smith (KeyRelevance)
(3:30 pm – 4:20 pm)

Notes coming soon.

12 Memories: Futuristic Flow 2000
Twelve tracks including music by Del Tha Funky Homosapien, DJ Shadow and Mos Def. An alternative hip-hop mix with a sci-fi/samurai theme from my college days. Songs released 1995-2000.

1. GZA (Genius) – Liquid Swords
2. RZA – Samurai Showdown (Raise Your Sword)
3. UNKLE – Guns Blazing (Drums of Death, Pt. 1)
4. Dr. Octagon (Kool Keith) – 3000
5. Deltron 3030 – Things You Can Do
6. Del Tha Funky Homosapien – Offspring
7. Mos Def – Mathematics
8. Black Star (Mos Def & Talib Kweli) – Thieves In the Night
9. The Roots – Adrenaline! (Feat. Dice Raw & Beanie Sigel)
10. Handsome Boy Modeling School – Magnetizing
11. DJ Shadow – Midnight In A Perfect World
12. OutKast – Chonkyfire

12 Memories: Definitive Jux 2010
Twelve tracks including music by Aesop Rock, El-P and Cannibal Ox. El-Producto announced in early February that the Definitive Jux label is going on hiatus and he’s stepping down as artistic director. So, here’s a 2001-2009 retrospective of some favorites.

1. RJD2 – The Horror
2. Aesop Rock – Night Light
3. El-P – Delorean (Feat. Aesop Rock)
4. Cannibal Ox – Raspberry Fields
5. Cage – Blood Boy
6. Despot – Look Alive
7. RJD2 – Clean Living
8. El-P – Smithereens (Stop Cryin)
9. Despot – Get Rich or Try Dying
10. Cage – I Never Knew You
11. Aesop Rock – Frijoles
12. Cannibal Ox – Pigeon

Definitive Jux Records is definitely my favorite underground hip-hop label. El-P, founder of Def Jux, is a master of unique, complex beats with a futuristic and progressive feel. As a rapper, El-P has a very raw, personal lyrical flow. He is one of my favorites, along with Aesop Rock. Some refer to the kind of music on the Definitive Jux label as art-rap or prog-rap. Not sure how apt this description is, but I seem to enjoy many artists that get classified as such.

In addition to Def Jux and all of the artists above, I have also gotten into a number of Anticon artists, such as Doseone and Sole. I listened to a lot of cLOUDDEAD a few years ago. Was obsessed with Quannum Projects (DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Latyrx) for a couple of years. DJ Shadow is still one of my favorite artists. Just to mention a few more: Glue, Anti-Pop Consortium and Bliss N Eso have all put out excellent music. And so on and so forth. There are a lot of great artists out there, hiding outside the Top 100 charts.

With labels like Definitive Jux around, at least there’s an alternative to assembly-line hip-hop and exploitative, materialistic rap. Here’s hoping Def Jux and all worthwhile record labels figure out a way to reinvent themselves in this era of the dying music industry. (For more thoughts on the music industry, see this post from a couple of weeks ago: “Conan O’Brien and City Lights Records: A eulogy?“)

(That reminds me: Feeling nostalgic for the days of cassette tapes? Watch the award-winning short film Mixtape by Luke Snellin. I love the moment where the kid exits his house and the Heart song kicks in. Brilliant.)

This month I evaluated various free online services for streaming music and creating social playlists. I was looking for a simple, legal way to share and discover music through online mixes. Most sites I looked at were recommendation-based radio (like Pandora and Last.fm), which was not what I wanted.

(If you want to do your own research on mixtape sites, these two articles are good starting points for further exploration: “8 Best Ways to Share ‘Mix Tapes’” (October 26, 2009) and “Social Music: Top 5 Sites to Build a Playlist” (February 9, 2009). Also see: Quarkbase.)

Anyway, after all that searching, my favorite service for creating and sharing personal mixes is 8tracks. And this weekend I got a chance to upload some MP3s to my new 8tracks account. I created three mixes of 12 songs each. The track listings are below. Most songs were released in 2008 or 2009.

What I wrote in my 8tracks profile is true: “Music is how I remember time.” Have a listen.

12 Memories: Autumn 2009
Twelve tracks including music by Camera Obscura, The Twilight Sad and Zola Jesus. Some songs I’ve been listening to since the weather turned.

1. Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over
2. The Duke Spirit – This Ship Was Built to Last
3. Holopaw – Abraham Lincoln
4. Fruit Bats – When U Love Somebody
5. Ben Folds – You Don’t Know Me (Feat. Regina Spektor)
6. Meiko – Boys with Girlfriends
7. Camera Obscura – Away with Murder
8. Zola Jesus – Sink The Dynasty
9. Gina Young – The Boy on the Bus
10. Bye Bye Bicycle – Footsteps (Pt. II)
11. Noah and the Whale – The First Day of Spring
12. Twilight Sad – At the Burnside

12 Memories: Sasquatch 2009
Twelve tracks including music by Crystal Castles, The Decemberists and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Studio songs from my favorite artists that played on Saturday at Sasquatch 2009 in Washington.

1. The Decemberists – The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid (Feat. Shara Worden)
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Down Boy
3. Crystal Castles – Courtship Dating
4. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
5. Animal Collective – Fireworks
6. DeVotchKa – Head Honcho
7. Blind Pilot – Go On, Say It
8. Doves – Kingdom of Rust
9. M. Ward – Headed for a Fall
10. Crystal Castles – Untrust Us
11. The Decemberists – The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing (Feat. Shara Worden)
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Runaway

(Read my blog post about last year’s Sasquatch! Music Festival.)

12 Memories: Bumbershoot 2009
Twelve tracks including music by Metric, Mirah and Say Hi. Studio songs from my favorite artists that played on Monday at Bumbershoot 2009 in Seattle.

1. Metric – Empty
2. Anomie Belle – How Can I Be Sure
3. Say Hi – Northwestern Girls
4. Mirah – The Garden
5. The Cave Singers – Dancing On Our Graves
6. Soulsavers – Revival
7. Modest Mouse – Little Motel
8. Franz Ferdinand – Die On The Floor
9. Mirah – Cold Cold Water (Electrosexual & Abberline)
10. Anomie Belle – Down
11. Say Hi – November Was White, December Was Grey
12. Metric – Help I’m Alive

(Read my blog post about last year’s Bumbershoot: Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival.)

Yesterday I disabled Greasemonkey to unblock Facebook ads for a few minutes because I wanted to test something. Guess whose face I saw in the Sponsored area? You got it. This guy’s, all the time. I guess Caveman Jesus is cycling through Flickr’s homepage too. Bizarre.

Dear LowerMyBills.com and ClassesUSA, what are you doing? Are your target markets enthusiasts of GEICO caveman commercials?

I’m not going to click on your crazy crap, even if Caveman Jesus might be having a hard time paying his bills. Seriously. WTF.

I wonder how many banner ads there are of this guy. I found another one, with extra hairy chest pixels: Calculate New House Payment Caveman Ad. Also, a friend tells me that he’s seen a terrifying animated ad where the caveman’s hair grows.

I’ve seen enough. I hereby decree this an Internet meme. Long live Caveman Jesus!

(Screenshot of the Flickr ad via @chrismessina.)

I’m feeling sadness for Haiti (text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti) . . . and also for the following two “trivial” events because they represent and reflect larger cultural issues for me: City Lights Records closing and Conan O’Brien’s last show.

Conan O’Brien

Last night most of America tuned in to watch Conan O’Brien’s last show on NBC. Conan’s grateful closing monologue and “Free Bird” finale was a perfect ending to “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” He went off the air playing his guitar with a huge grin on his face. That guy’s a class act.

Too bad “The Tonight Show” is dead now. Feels like a nail in the coffin. Is anyone really going to watch Leno again? Really? When we have the Internet, Letterman and so many other TV channels?

I was inspired by this quote from Conan’s closing monologue:

“Please don’t be cynical. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

Dear Internet, Conan is today’s everyman. “I’m With Coco,” yes. (I’m also a little sad that the world is losing Conan’s Super Mario Bros. set backdrop.)

Where will Conan end up? On a late-night talk show on another network this September? On the Internet? For Conan O’Brien’s core audience (age 18-34), “the time slot is being replaced by a URL.” Read more: “Bye, NBC. Hello, Internet?”

City Lights Records

The end is near. I haven’t lived in Pennsylvania for over eight years now, but this is still important to me. My favorite independent record store, City Lights Records (off Penn State campus), is closing after 25 years. It’s sad, but not unexpected. City Lights is (was) State College’s last record store. I spent countless hours there. The closing of the store is the closing of happy memories that I won’t ever be able to revisit physically.

Read local coverage in The Daily Collegian and The Penn Stater (with video).

This comment by a user named Chuck really resonates with me: “I have mixed feelings towards the digital revolution. And it’s obviously here to stay. But there will always be a soft spot in my heart for those stores that influenced my listening habits.”

Late night comedy

Similarly, I have a soft spot for those creative comedians who were funny enough and cared deeply enough to influence my own sense of humor. “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” was a staple of my television consumption during high school and college. Though, during college, my TV watching started to approach zero. I also enjoyed David Letterman on both NBC and CBS for years, throughout my childhood and adolescence.

Even though I didn’t watch much of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” until January of this year, I am eager to know where Conan will land next and will probably tune in (if only on Hulu or similar). It’s strange how all this controversy between millionaire entertainers and network executives created such a genuine outpouring of support from the American public (working class). Strange that it even caused me to watch a network television show for the first time in a long while, if only for two weeks. But, I have to say, it was really fun, enjoyable television.

Michael Ian Black argues that Conan O’Brien has inexplicably become a modern representation of Norma Rae—someone who stands up and does the right thing in the face of corporate injustice. I think most of America feels that way. An unlikely hero, sure.

Digital revolution

As for independent music stores, if Penn State University and State College, PA can’t even manage to support one small basement record store anymore, then I can no longer deny that the halcyon days of rifling through stacks of obscure CDs (and vinyl, for some) and discovering new music via artwork and physical forms have ended. Those days ended years ago, of course. Plastic discs are a dying medium.

I can’t remember the last time I actually bought a music CD. I always hated how much physical space my huge music collection took up. But I also have such fondness for these days gone by. Each collected disc was potentially precious and meaningful. Albums mattered. Today I have more MP3s than I know what to do with. It’s hard to give any artist or album the proper amount of attention . . . and the gigabytes of MP3s continue to grow. The solution is to keep buying bigger hard drives on which to store all of this music and figure it out later.

I guess right now I’m feeling a little nostalgic for the illusion of simpler times. (And I’m starting to veer off topic.) I’m thinking of days before presidential administrations agreed with the RIAA and openly supported “file sharing damages of up to $150,000 per track.” The time we live in is certainly a transitional period for all media industries and entertainment products. But so long as independent artists are able to survive this cultural turmoil and continue to inspire our lives, we’ll come out all right. I could ramble some more about these issues, but instead maybe I’ll give one of these MP3 albums a second or third listen.

See you in September, Coco.

More ideas and inspiration to be creative: “Design Something Every Day!”

Interesting: “Eight cool social media infographics.”

These sites are fascinating: FFFFOUND! (image bookmarking), grain edit (modern graphic design inspiration blog) and Black and WTF (seriously, WTF).

Flight 1549 and marine animals

This animation (with audio) is based on all currently available data concerning the US Airways Flight 1549 crash: Flight 1549 3D Reconstruction, Hudson River Ditching Jan 15, 2009. Hard to believe it’s been almost a year now since that Hudson River landing. Even though you know the plane lands safely, it’s still a tense experience to hear the audio again, especially in the context of the flight animation. Worth watching.

Check this out: A pod of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Florida have developed a remarkable hunting strategy in order to catch fish: Life: Bottlenose dolphins mud-ring feeding.

This is amazing: “Solar-powered sea slug harnesses stolen plant genes.”

These photographs are stunning: “David Liittschwager – Marine Micro Fauna (8 pics).”

Holidays

More photography: “A Very Tesla Christmas.” Take a Tesla coil and a super-long camera exposure and you can have an “electrifying display of holiday cheer.”

From Stereogum: “New Indie Rock Christmas MP3s For 2009.”

I bought a pineapple to eat over Christmas break. I’m also thinking about trying to grow a new pineapple using the crown of the old one: “How to Grow a Pineapple at Home.”

Krampus

Speaking of holiday cheer, I really like this Shirt.Woot t-shirt designed by Missmonster: “Greetings from Krampus.” It celebrates the annual return of Santa’s old pal Krampus.

Happy New Year!

(In case you need it: press in dire situations.)