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SES San Jose 2008 was held just a couple of weeks back, but still gives us enough time to find out what topics the top 10 videos on YouTube from the event were about.

Okay, so I only looked at the YouTube videos posted on the SESConferenceExpo’s channel — but that provides an apples to apples comparison. Besides, this is more about the topics discussed at the show than the popularity of the one channel versus another.

So, what are the topics covered in the top 10 videos from SES San Jose 2008?

1. (with 251 views) Avinash’s Long Tail Terms, Bouncy Icebergs, and Analytics

Avinash Kaushik of Google and Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now, Inc., talk about goals, bounce rates, and all sorts of important topics for marketers interested in measuring their campaigns, especially with Google Analytics. Later on in the video, Avinash talks about new features in Google Analytics like the partner program and data visualizations to help marketers understand what works and what doesn’t. He moves on to testing at the end, and plugs Bryan’s new Google Website Optimizer book, Always Be Testing.

2. (with 128 views) Small Business Viral Marketing Tips, SES San Jose 2008

Jennifer Laycock of Search Engine Guide and Andrew Goodman of Page Zero Media follow up their SES San Jose 2008 “Igniting Viral Campaigns” session with a discussion of the best tips on viral campaigns and social media marketing, especially for small business who want to make the most of their business online without spending too much money. The two talk about using social media sites like Linkedin and Twitter to communicate one’s marketing message to a dedicated and enthusiastic audience.

3. (with 121 views in 1 week) Mobile Search Lazarus, Mobi Job with Rebecca Lieb

Rebecca Lieb of ClickZ opines that mobile search is back and in a strong way, of course as a result of better smart phones and with what she and others see as the death of mobi. I interview Rebecca on her Death of .mobi panel at SES San Jose 2008 to learn more about the changing mobile search landscape.

4. (with 121 views in 2 weeks) Social Responsibility & SEM for Nonprofits with Jamie Welsh

Jamie Welsh of 10 Percent Solution talks with Byron Gordon of SEO-PR about her organization’s work to certify companies with respect to three categories: philanthropy, as defined through the donation of five percent of pre-tax profits or one percent of sales; volunteerism through individual employees; and green sustainability.

5. (with 80 views) Measuring Web 2.0 with Star Trek & SiteLogic’s Matt Bailey

Matt Bailey of SiteLogic Marketing talks Trekkie lore and web analytics with Jamie O’Donnell of SEO-PR about his SES San Jose 2008 panel on Web 2.0 measurement. Matt’s famous Star Trek/Web Analytics mashup played well at the show as he explained the increasing likelihood of Enterprise ensigns’ chances of survival given various circumstance, including the color of their shirts, shuttlecraft landings, and the captain’s amorous liaisons.

6. (with 78 views) Johanna Wright of Google on Google Universal Search

Johanna Wright of Google talks with me about Google’s Universal Search platform, which integrates various online media in its search results page to offer searchers a wider selection of relevant results. Johanna gives some insight for SEO (search engine optimization) pro’s into how the vertical backends are put together and advocates a thoughtful approach to making information accessible to Google through use of sitemaps and detailed descriptions.

7. (with 76 views) Lee Siegel Punches the Internet

Lee Siegel, author of Against the Machine, talks with Kevin Ryan of Search Engine Strategies and me about why the internet is an abuse — and not a use of the internet for human life. Well, that’s the big-picture idea, at least. Mostly he just beats up on Gawker. No objections here…?

8. (with 63 views) A/B Test Experts Tim Ash and Bryan Eisenberg

Tim Ash of SiteTuners and Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now, two A/B testing gurus, talk landing page testing shop on the conference floor at SES San Jose 2008. Tim and Bryan discuss the crucial nature of testing for the bottom line with the triple threat of incrased online competition, rising PPC costs, and a recession economy. Tim also talks about SiteTuners’ new self-service portal which opens up, for the first time, some of SiteTuners’ large-scale multivariate testing tools to in-house SEM’s (search engine marketers).

9. (with 57 views) How Much Search is Enough - Kevin Ryan at SES San Jose 2008

Kevin Ryan of Search Engine Strategies (SES) talks with Byron Gordon of SEO-PR at SES San Jose 2008 about his panel on holistic approaches to online marketing, in which he and the other agency panelists investigated what the appropriate mix of search and other online mediums was in properly integrated campaigns. Kevin relays some tips from the speakers regarding how to experiment in order to make the most of your online presence.

10. (with 54 views) Soothware Online Advertising Platform Intro with Tim Ogilvie

Tim Ogilvy of Soothware chats with John Mulligan of SEO-PR about his company, Soothware. Soothware helps advertisers manage their search advertising and display advertising campaigns in one place, tapping into Google and the RightMedia ad Exchange.

There are more videos on the SESConferenceExpo’s channel — and another 20+ videos from SES San Jose 2008 over on the WebProNews Video Blog. And you’ll find even more videos from the event at SEOWebTraffic’s Channel, SocialJulio’s Channel, StepForth’s Channel, HHeitzman’s Channel, SageRock’s Channel, ChrisDaviesCa’s Channel, misiggaes’ Channel, and HudsonHorizon’s Channel.

While you really had to be there to catch all the action, at least now you can get some samples of the what turned out to be the best attended SES of all time. That’s right. There were more people at SES San Jose 2008 than attended SES New York 2008 or SES San Jose 2007 — the next two biggest shows.

Google AdWords will remove older reports from its Report Center beginning September 2. Reports that are 6 months old or older, or before March 2, 2008, will be removed.

The data will not be removed, just the reports.

Until September 2, you can export these reports to Google Spreadsheets or .CSV files, Excel, HTML or another format.

Expect the purging of 6 month old or older reports to happen periodically going forward.

via Inside AdWords

comScore has released display ad data for June 2008. Microsoft was the top display advertiser, while Fox Interactive Media, with its ownership of MySpace, was the top publisher.

180 million unique visitors were exposed to display ads in June. On the publisher side, Yahoo reached 130,680,000 and Fox reached 83,714,000. On the advertiser side, Microsoft reached 126,367,000 of them. Ask Networks advertised to 102,565,000, coming in as the 10th top display advertiser.

Here are the charts:

Related Reading:
Online Publishers Turning to Ad Networks to Sell Unused Inventory
Google, Microsoft and Facebook to Testify to U.S. Senate about Online Ad Privacy

Over the past few days, more and more articles and posts from SES San Jose 2008 have been written. I’m sure there will be more stories to come out of the event, but this seems like a good time to recap the conference.

A quick Google News search for “SES San Jose” finds 276 articles from the past month – 138 when the duplicates are removed. A search in Yahoo! News for “SES San Jose” finds 114 articles from the past month. A query in Google Blog Search for “SES San Jose” finds 5,554 blog posts that mention “SES San Jose” from the past month, 337 when the duplicates are removed.

A little content analysis reveals the top 10 stories from the past month that were triggered by a keynote, panel, session or workshop at the 10th annual SES confence. Seven of these stories were ones that I predicted in my post on the Search Engine Watch Blog entitled “SES San Jose tip sheet for bloggers and journalists.” But three of the top stories came as surprises — even to an SES veteran like myself. Here, in order, are the Big Ten.

Kevin Ryan, VP, Global Content Director, SES & Search Engine Watch. (Twenty-three articles and 72 unduplicated blog posts, including “SES San Jose Photos – Paparazzi Style” by Lee Odden of TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog.

Tuesday Morning Keynote by Satya Nadella, SVP, Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group, Microsoft. (Nineteen articles and 69 unduplicated blog posts, including “Is Microsoft’s Vision of Search Enough to Catch Google?” by Rob Hof of BusinessWeek. Rob wrote, “It would be dangerous for anyone to write off Microsoft. Its determination was on display today at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s senior VP of search, portal, and advertising platform group, told the crowd that he sees searchers moving from merely typing keywords into Google to getting tasks done.”

Matt Cutts, Software Engineer Guru of Google. (Ten articles, 74 blog posts and a YouTube video entitled “Matt Cutts on Big Brand BlackHat Sites” on the ChrisDaviesCa Channel. Chris happened to be sitting next to Matt, Google’s head of webspam, when Matt weighed in about big brand sites that have been banned for black hat seo practices during the Black Hat/White Hat session during SES San Jose 2008.

Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Land. (Eleven articles, 41 unduplicated blog posts and a video interview by Mike McDonald of the WebProNews Video Blog entitled, “SES: Staying Focused On Search.”) Danny said that social marketing and all sorts of other things can be useful, but it’s important to get back to the search marketing basics.

Universal & Blended Search. (Four articles, 42 unduplicated blog posts and a video interview for the SESConferenceExpo channel entitled, “Johanna Wright of Google on Google Universal Search.” Johanna gives some insight into how vertical search results are blended into universal search results and advocates a thoughtful approach to making information accessible to Google through use of sitemaps and detailed descriptions.

Keynote Roundtable: Why Does Search Get the Credit for Everything? (Four articles and 38 blog posts, including “SES roundtable: Search shouldn’t take all the credit” by Ellen Keohane of DM News. Ellen wrote, “Search marketing often gets credit for the final sale or conversion, even when it shouldn’t, according to a roundtable discussion today at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose.”

Opening Keynote Presentation by Lee Siegel, author of Against the Machine. (Two articles and 27 unduplicated blog posts, including “Trust: The Backbone of Consumer Satisfaction” by Kevin Lee of ClickZ.) Kevin wrote, “In an afternoon keynote, Lee Siegel, author of “Against the Machine,” predicted a backlash against the Internet as it has evolved. His book (which I’ve partially read) discusses how there are unforeseen consequences due to technology, and the Internet is responsible for largely unforeseen positive and negative effects on individuals and society.”

Thursday Morning Keynote: Dan Heath, author of Made to Stick. (One article and 27 unduplicated blog posts, including “Dan Heath 2008 SES San Jose Keynote” on WebmasterRadio.FM.) Listen to Dan explain Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die as he delivers his 2008 SES San Jose Keynote. Dan offers six key factors for sticky ideas, plus offers numerous supporting examples.

Orion Panel: How Much Search is Enough? (Three articles and 19 unduplicated blog posts, including “SES San Jose 2008 - Where’s Money For Search Going?” by Manoj Jasra of WebProNews. Manoj wrote, “How much Search is enough? Aaron Goldman of Resolution Media, Steven Kaufman of Digitas, Robert Murray of iProspect and Bob Tripathi of Discover Financial Services were posed that very question by SES’s own, Kevin Ryan.”

Orion Panel: Technical & Information Giants. (Six articles and 15 unduplicated blog posts, including “Technical & Information Giants Keynote - SES San Jose 2008” by Jason McElweenie of The SEM Blog. Jason wrote, “WOW. Let me repeat that. WOW….This was a great panel of some very huge icons on the web today. Bravo SES!”

In a battle for universal search engine foosball domination, Google and Yahoo are meeting in a clash of the titans at SES San Jose. Microsoft has also been invited, and is trying to put together a team. This could determine the future of the search industry (well foosball-wise at least).

So come to the Networking Cocktail Reception on Tuesday. Play will start as close to 5:15 PM as possible, so we can get the games done prior to the end of the reception. Bring your cameras, bring your loyalties, and cheer for your favorites!

We will also be holding our usual Beat the Pros Foosball Challenge. This will take place at the following times:

• Tuesday morning from 10 AM to 11 AM PT (in the Expo Hall)
• Wednesday afternoon 2:15 to 2:45 PM PT (in the Expo Hall)
• Wednesday afternoon 5:30 to 6:30 PM PT (in the registration area)

Of course, if you see us (John Biundo and Eric Enge) at the table any time prior to Wednesday afternoon, we will be glad to play you in a Beat the Pros challenge match right then and there. We will be there at lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday for example.

By 6:30 PM on Wednesday, we will announce which team has performed the best in playing against us (scored the most points), and that team will win a brand new pair of iPod Touch’s. Any ties will be resolved by a random drawing (or a head to head matchup if that is possible).

Hey Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft - think you can take us? You are eligible for the prize too, and we will be there and ready to play at any time, including right after the smackdown is complete …

Yahoo researcher Peter Mika has written up an extensive article on semantic search. First he talks about the limitations to syntax-based search:

• It is almost impossible to return search results that relate to the secondary sense of a term—especially if a dominant sense exists—for example, try searching for George Bush the beer brewer as compared to the President
• The capabilities of computational advertising, which is largely also an IR problem (for example, retrieving matching ads from a fixed inventory), are clearly impacted because of the sparsity of advertisements.
• When no clear key exists, search engines are unable to perform queries on descriptions of objects. For example, try searching for the author of this article with the keywords ‘semantic web researcher working for yahoo.’
• Current search technology is unable to satisfy any complex queries requiring information integration such as analysis, prediction, scheduling, etc. An example of such integration-based tasks is opinion mining regarding products or services. While there have been some successes in opinion mining with pure sentiment analysis, it is often the case that users like to know what specific aspects of a product or service are being described in positive or negative terms and to have the search results appear aggregated and organized. Information integration is not possible without structured representations of content.
• Multimedia queries are also difficult to answer, as multimedia objects are typically described with only a few keywords (tagging) or sentences. This is typically too little text for the statistical methods of IR to be effective.

Mika says there are two approaches to semantic search: Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the Semantic Web.

Natural Language Processing “builds on the automatic analysis of text.” Semantic search company hakia is an example of natural language processing. Interestingly, hakia uses Yahoo search technology, including the recently announced Yahoo’s BOSS (Build Your own Search Service). Powerset, which was recently acquired by Microsoft, is another example of NLP. These NLP semantic search providers “extract entities from text, disambiguate them against large-scale background knowledge sources (PowerSet uses Freebase, Hakia has its own ontology), and then record the relationships as found in the text.” Users can query by asking full questions, though many still use keywords.

Semantic Web “aims to make the web more easily searchable by allowing publishers to expose their metadata.” Mika says most publishers are willing to share their data if it results in increased traffic. Plus, semantic web allows publishers to avoid costs and quality issues associated with NLP. But last year, Yahoo researcher Mor Naaman declared the Semantic Web dead. Naaman’s reasoning was the limitation of microformats, but Mika says that the new RDFa standard would have greater capabilities.

What Mika wants to do is to integrate the best of NLP and semantic web. He says Yahoo’s SearchMonkey platform allows for this integration to occur.

To dig into all the technical nitty gritty, check out Mika’s full article, “Semantic Search Arrives at the Web.”

Yesterday, we looked at building the business case for going to SES San Jose. Today, let’s tackle optimizing your schedule for Search Engine Strategies San Jose.

For arguments sake, let’s say that you’ll be bringing four members of your team to the SES conference and SEM training. One is an SES newbie, another is an SEO specialist, a third is a PPC specialist, and the fourth is an SEM veteran.

Which Search Engine Strategies conference sessions and search engine marketing training workshops should each one attend – to ensure that your business gets the biggest bang for its bucks?

As I mentioned yesterday in yesterday’s post, “Building the business case for going to SES San Jose,” almost 88% of the content at Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2008 will be brand new! So, how can anyone presume to know which sessions to recommend to someone else?

That’s a fair point, so you may want to glance at the conference at a glance yourself before deciding which tracks are right for you.

But, I’ve attended 28 SES conferences since the spring of 2002. And I’ve learned that the key to getting the right member of your team into the right session is to see who is speaking as well as to read what the session is about.

For example, on Tuesday, Aug. 19, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., the Orion Keynote Panel, Technical & Information Giants, will be moderated by Kevin Ryan, Vice President, Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch, and Mike Grehan, Global KDM Officer, Acronym Media. The speakers include:
• Matt Cutts, Software Engineer Guru, Google;
• Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land;
• Tim Westergren, Founder, Pandora;
• Robert Scoble, Managing Director, FastCompany.TV; and
• Kirsten Mangers, Co-Founder & CEO, WebVisible.

According to the session description, these search engine marketing industry giants will “discuss how the past will shape our future and attempt to answer some of the biggest questions in search. What are the most important changes in the space that you should be aware of? How will the decisions made today affect our marketing and communication efforts in the future?”

While it’s never been held before, I strongly encourage you to attend this session. In fact, run, don’t walk, if you want to get a good seat.

In other cases, you’ll want your team to split up to cover as much of the four-day SEM conference as possible. To help you get started, here is an optimized schedule of Search Engine Strategies San Jose for an SES newbie, an SEO specialist, a PPC specialist, and an SEM veteran.

Day 1 - Monday, August 18, 2008

9:00am-9:30am
Whole Team: Conference Welcome & Orientation

9:45am-11:00am
SES Newbie: Search Industry Update
SEO Specialist: Universal & Blended Search
PPC Specialist: More Customers, Fewer Costs - Why Marketing to the ‘Long Tail’ Makes Sense
SEM Veteran: Mobile SEO: Death of the “.mobi”

11:15am-12:30pm
SES Newbie: The Next Wave for Online Video
SEO Specialist: Igniting Viral Campaigns
PPC Specialist: Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
SEM Veteran: Semantic Search: How Will It Change Our Lives?

1:30pm-2:30pm
Whole Team: Orion Keynote Panel: How Much Search is Enough?

2:45pm-4:00pm
SES Newbie: Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO)
SEO Specialist: Storyteller Marketing: How the Art of Storytelling Matches Up With the Business of Marketing
PPC Specialist: Everything But Google: Alternative Search Advertising Options
SEM Veteran: Enterprise Search: Running Your Own Search Engine

4:30pm-5:30pm
Whole Team: Opening Keynote Presentation
Lee Siegel, Author of “Against the Machine”

Day 2 - Tuesday, August 19, 2008

9:00am-10:00am
Whole Team: Morning Keynote
Satya Nadella, Senior VP, Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group, Microsoft

10:00am-11:00am
Whole Team: Expo Hall Grand Opening

11:00am-12:15pm
SES Newbie: Introduction to Search Engine Marketing
SEO Specialist: Measuring Success in a 2.0 World
PPC Specialist: Landing Page Testing & Tuning
SEM Veteran: Shopping Search Tactics

1:30pm-2:30pm
Whole Team: Orion Keynote Panel:: Technical & Information Giants

4:00pm-5:15pm
SES Newbie: Search Advertising 101
SEO Specialist: Identify, Analyze, Act: SEM by Numbers
PPC Specialist: Landing Page Utopia: Expert Roundtable
SEM Veteran: Research Online, Purchase Offline

5:15pm-6:30pm
Whole Team: Networking Cocktail Reception

7:00pm-11:00pm
Whole Team: Google Dance
Buses depart for the Google Campus from 6:30pm

Day 3 - Wednesday, August 20, 2008

9:00am-10:00am
Whole Team: Special Session

10:30am-11:45am
SES Newbie: Building a Search Friendly Site
SEO Specialist: SEO Through Blogs & Feeds
PPC Specialist: Ads in a Quality Score World
SEM Veteran: Getting Vertical Search Right

1:00pm-2:15pm
SES Newbie: Link Building Basics
SEO Specialist: News Search SEO
PPC Specialist: Auditing Paid Listings & Click Fraud Issues
SEM Veteran: Searcher Behavior Research Update

2:45pm-4:00pm
SES Newbie: Keywords & Content: Search Marketing Foundations
SEO Specialist: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues
PPC Specialist: War of the Search Worlds: Unifying Your Global Search Marketing Program
SEM Veteran: SEO Rehab & Intervention

4:15pm-5:30pm
SES Newbie: Maximizing SEO Returns With User Generated Content
SEO Specialist: Dealing With New Technologies
PPC Specialist: Advanced Paid Search Techniques
SEM Veteran: Black Hat, White Hat: Playing Dirty With SEO

5:30pm-7:00pm
Whole Team: Domain Auction

7:00pm-11:00pm
Whole Team: SearchBash
Just blocks from the Convention Center from 7:00pm till late!

Day 4 - Thursday, August 21, 2008

9:00am-10:00am
Whole Team: Morning Keynote
Chip Heath, Author of “Made to Stick”

10:15am-11:15am
SES Newbie: The Business Case for SEO Content Development: Turning Words Into Action!
SEO Specialist: How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department To Get Stuff Done
PPC Specialist: Effective Contextual Search Management
SEM Veteran: Site Clinic

11:30am-12:30pm
SES Newbie: Fast, Free & Easy Tools to Get You Going
SEO Specialist: Trademark Issues: What SEMs Should Know
PPC Specialist: Creating a Cohesive Search Strategy Across Multiple Business Units
SEM Veteran: Site Clinic

1:30pm-2:30pm
SES Newbie: How to Choose a Search Vendor
SEO Specialist: Best Kept Secrets to Search
PPC Specialist: Post Click Marketing - Converting Search Engine Traffic
SEM Veteran: Affiliate & Search Marketing Square Off

2:45pm-3:45pm
SES Newbie: Organic Listings Forum
SEO Specialist: In House SEO: Lessons Learned & Victories Won
PPC Specialist: Search Advertising Tools
SEM Veteran: Site Clinic

Yes, I know that I included special events like the Google Dance in the schedule above. But, trust me on this: You’ll learn as much talking to the Google guys and girls at the Google campus as you will by attending any of the conference sessions listed above.

Before you register, take a hard look at sending some of your people to the SEM and SEO training workshops on the day following the conference. They are designed to provide in-depth training in a small class setting.

You may want to send your SES newbie, SEO specialist, and PPC specialist to one or two of these half-day workshops.

Day 5 - Friday, August 22, 2008

8:00am-12:00pm
SES Newbie: Successful SEO: The Essential Elements - Part 1
SEO Specialist: Optimizing for Universal Search
PPC Specialist: Search & Analytics Workshop: Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness

12:00pm-1:00pm
Whole Team: Lunch Break

1:00pm-5:00pm
SES Newbie: Successful SEO: The Essential Elements - Part 2
SEO Specialist: Search Engine Marketing Metrics and Myths
PPC Specialist: Making Pay Per Click Pay - Best Practices in Pay Per Click Advertising

If you optimize your schedule for SES San Jose, then you will increase the likelihood that your team will return with more than enough new search engine marketing opportunities, better search engine optimization techniques, and different pay-per-click advertising options to provide your organization with a very healthy return on its investment.

See you there.

Search engine marketers in the US tend to look West when trying to spot new SEM trends. As Frederick Jackson Turner first observed back in 1893, the frontier has always had a significant influence on American perceptions.

But, if you stare into the sunset too long, you might not see the other “new frontier” North of the Canada-United States border that’s also shaping search engine marketing trends. While Search Engine Strategies Toronto ended last week, I’m still sorting through some of the new SEM trends that I spotted by looking in a different direction.

One of the more intriguing trends that I noticed was this one: More than 80 employees of the Yellow Pages Group (YPG), Canada’s largest directory publisher, attended SES Toronto. YPG also owns and manages Canada’s most visited online directories, YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca, so the company is no stranger to local search or Search Engine Strategies Toronto.

Now, I’ve often encouraged SES alumni as well as first time attendees of Search Engine Strategies to “bring a couple of colleagues along with you” to an upcoming SEM conference. And I’ve seen companies send teams of more than a dozen people to other SES conferences. But, I’ve never seen a group quite as large as the one I saw at SES Toronto last week.

So, I tracked down one of the key players behind this new trend. His name is Darby Sieben and he’s the Director of Online Services at the Yellow Pages Group. You can watch my interview with Darby on the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

Yellow Pages’ Darby Sieben at SES Toronto 2008

Or you can read my interview with Darby Sieben of the Yellow Pages Group below. He has some very interesting insights into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Q: The Yellow Pages directory story started 100 years ago by connecting Canadian buyers with sellers. YellowPages.ca went online in 1995. Has the Internet dramatically changed the way people approach the shopping experience?

A: Yes and No. By this I mean, the need of connecting buyers and sellers has not changed and never will. The way in which they go about doing it has changed and will continue to evolve and the Internet is only one way. Consumers are more complex today and depending on the need and particular circumstances will connect using a combination of ways including print, internet, voice, mobile, etc. The key piece of advice to a SME in this evolving world is to understand that this is about syndication of their information across multiple media platforms.

Q: According to comScore Media Metrix, the Yellow Pages Group reaches 41% of all online Canadians — and ranks #8 out of the top properties in Canada. In the United States, the SuperPages.com Network reaches about 16% of all online Americans and ranks about #21 out of the top properties in the United States. What’s going on in the Great White North?

A: The main difference between Canada and the US is the fact that the Yellow Pages brand in Canada is trademarked; we are the sole owners and users of the brand. In the US, the value and strength of the brand has been diluted as there is confusion. Second, I believe we are a very progressive directory player. We were the first to sign a deal to license data to Google, we work with all the major search players and we continue to push the envelope on technologies such as our 411 voice services, SMS, IM and our mobile platforms. Syndication of our advertiser’s information is very important. We believe in the anywhere, anytime and on any platform to get information.

Q: The content and keywords found in a print advertisement in the Yellow Pages Group and contained in a business profile on YellowPages.ca are fully searchable on the web and made available to your online partner network including Google, MSN and Yahoo! Isn’t that that a strange brew?

A: We don’t think so. If we examine a key barrier to search, that would be content. YP.ca and the search players are only as good as content that is digitized. The issue is that half of Canadian SME’s don’t have a website. We view print as the start of a very incredible journey for a SME because it contains very important pieces of content that consumers look for in the buying process. Those ads get digitized; keywords extracted, bucketized and distributed on YP.ca for our users as well as being pushed to search engines who index. It creates some incredible synergies and creates an ROI for our advertisers. To add one point here – a few years back we launched an initiative called the WebNumber. This is where we have mapped every phone number in our directory to a URL. For example – http://7804517857.yp.ca (this is the phone number for a Harley Davidson Dealership in Edmonton, Alberta). If you type that URL in – you land on their merchant page and can see their video and a host of rich content about that business. Many of our clients will register a domain name and simply point it to their page instead of investing in expensive design services.

Q: More than 80 people from the Yellow Pages Group attended Search Engine Strategies Toronto last week. Why did you bring everyone except the McKenzie brothers to the conference?

A: Well Bob and Doug are launching a cartoon version of their hit from SCTV to be aired this fall, so they were unavailable. On a serious note it is all about further learning’s and understanding. In 2007 we signed Canada’s first reseller agreement with Google and have bundled AdWords with our print and YellowPages.ca advertising. We also launched last year full customized search marketing solutions based on a budget spend and have been testing and continue to sell a guaranteed clicks product. To really become the CMO for small businesses you need to understand all sources of generating results for your customer.

Q: You mentioned that you are bundling Google with your print and YellowPages.ca advertising – isn’t Google considered a competitor?

A: We are definitely in a world of cooperative competition. You referenced ComScore earlier; here is a key fact that best explains the strategy. If we examine the unduplicated audience between Google Maps and our properties – what you realize is that there is a significant boost in audience reach. Both of us have around 31-32% reach and combined we reach over 50% - that is incredible for any SME who is looking to be placed in the path of consumers when they are making buying decisions. One thing I would like to add is that in terms of the purchase funnel – YellowPages.ca generates a very high ROI because by the time users come to us they tend to already know what they want to buy or are very close to a buying decision and need to do some comparisons. We tend to be further down the purchase funnel than search engines and the measurement for SME’s has to go beyond clicks to include phone calls and store visits. As we often say, nobody comes to YellowPages.ca to surf they come to buy and this remains a key focus for us.

Earlier today, we brought you news of Google’s new media measurement tool. The official announcement has been published on the Inside Adwords blog. The new tool will be called Ad Planner (yes, there is a space between the two words), and is in a private, invitation-only beta. You can request an invitation, if you’re interested.

Ad Planner was developed for media planners in the hopes of creating a better connection between advertisers and publishers. Here’s how it works: Media planners enter their target audience demographics as well as sites that their audience already visits. Ad Planner will use the data to determine what other sites the target audience is visiting. The list of sites will include those on and off the Google Content Network.

The data can then be used to create plans, which can be exported via CSV. You can also export data to DoubleClick’s MediaVisor, another media planning platform. Google completed its acquisition of DoubleClick earlier this year.

Here’s what the Ad Planner platform will look like:

What do you think of Ad Planner? Will you request an invitation? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Search Engine Strategies Toronto wrapped up yesterday. I’ll be analyzing some of the new trends that I spotted in Canada over the next couple of weeks. But I wanted to share the top stories and blog posts for SES Toronto Day 2 this morning, so you can get a sense of the highlights from the SEM conference.

Fredrick Marckini, the Founder of iProspect and Chief Global Search Officer of Isobar, gave the opening keynote. Mona Elesseily, the Director of Marketing Strategy of Page Zero Media, interviewed Marckini for the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo Channel on YouTube right after his keynote.

Fredrick Marckini of Isobar on Tracking Offline Conversions

Accordion Guy Joey deVilla provides a full set of notes from the keynote in a post entitled, “Fredrick Marckini’s Keynote at Search Engine Strategies 2008 Toronto.”

Bryan Eisenberg, the Co-Founder of Future Now Inc., gave the keynote presentation on Day 2 of SES Toronto. Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image, interviewed Eisenberg about the impact of the economy on search engine marketing.

Bryan Eisenberg on Site Metrics and Optimization

Jennifer Laycock of the Search Engine Guide Blog says, “If you only read one link from today’s Puppy’s Picks, you should check out Chris Winfield’s fantastically creative Twitter presentation from SES Toronto.” Winfield made his presentation at the “Twitter: Ultimate Time Waster or Great Tool?” session.

Rahaf Harfoush, aka The Foush, also weighs in on this session in a post entitled, “SES Toronto - Is Twitter A Time Waster?”

Chris Ragobeer of The Toronto Marketing and Technology Blog covered “SES Toronto 2008 Day 2 : Web 2.0 & Search Engines.”

Lisa Tarticchio of the aimClear Blog covered the “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing” session in a post entitled, “SES Toronto: Essential Return To Basics.”

Jim Crocker of the Boardroom Metrics CEO Blog “took a break from reality” to attend the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Toronto and reports his observations in a post entitled, “SES Toronto Day 2.”

Naoise of NVI’s Blog also provided some perspective on the conference in a post entitled, “SES Toronto - There’s something sticky going on here.”

Stephan Spencer shared some Social Media “Hacks” (at SES Toronto) in his presentation on the “Social Media Success” panel and commented on them in his Scatterings blog.

Meanwhile, south of the border, The Austin Business Journal reported that Austin-based Apogee will open an office in Toronto, Canada, in an article entitled, “Apogee Search sees big potential in Canadian office.”