NYC

Went into NYC yesterday to check out the Search Engine Strategies show at the Hilton. The show was a little over the top, kind of like the ad sales posse of Madison Ave. had discovered a new channel and wanted to show how hip they were. Tried in vain to find someone who could tell me the nuts and bolts of how paid search ad networks really worked but all I got was big blinking mascara eyes, “uh, that’s beyond my realm.” You betcha. I did learn a new term though – “organic listings” – that is the term given to the lists of results that come back from a search on a search engine and are opposed to the “paid listings” which are essentially paid advertisements. For a humorous look at how paid advertisements are clogging our search engine experience, have a look at the results for a search on cars on Yahoo! It’s a whole page of ads except for a listing for cars.com peeking out at the very bottom of my 1024 x 768 screen. The web is becoming more and more like the Yellow Pages.

Just outside of Penn Station – saw this huge poster of Muhammad Ali with this great quote. Seems fitting for a someone coming up out of the station from the suburbs.