It’s obviously not the second day of SMX Advanced - events rolled over me before I could upload my thoughts on the second day. By the end I was pretty exhausted, what with jet lag & staying up late for the Yahoo and Google Dance NW evening receptions - happy it was only a two-day conference. At the end, Danny had everyone pose for a goodbye picture - I somehow ended up in the first row (third from right, in white hat & blue shirt)!

Others have posted much (including a helpful 12-point summary), so I’ll just mention my defining moment of the second day. It was when Danny was talking about the impact of Google’s new Universal Search (US). There had been announcements about US a couple of weeks before the conference, but I was so busy I just made a mental note to research it after SMX completed.

Danny saved me - and probably many others - the trouble. He was all set with examples and a viewpoint. As he showed us one Google search after another (such as one on “shakira” that displayed clickable video images together with text-based results), I sat in amazement with one word forming in my mind: “uh-oh.” As Danny explained, this Universal Search is going to change - if not everything, at least a lot - in SEO. (Here’s a good summary of his discussion.)

Mike Grehan, who was in attendance, wrote on this last week. His analysis:

What does it mean for SEO professionals moving forward? It means we’ve finally reached point where better marketing counts — and not H1 tags. I want my company’s site pages to be found with links to audio/visual presentations and images and blogs and…well, everything that can provide the best user experience, ever.

I’ve already shown US results to clients who have had difficulty understanding why we’ve been encouraging them to embrace blogs and social-network media (the corporate gears grind slowly). Seeing the Google results right in front of their faces has, I think, been an “uh-oh” moment for them as well.

Excerpt from a Sept 12, 2006 VAR Business article, “Microsoft To Launch Windows Live Search Engine” is below. MSN’s latest adCenter debut prooved disappointing, especially given the impressive-sounding features. But Microsoft usually comes through on the 2nd or 3rd try, so we’ll keep watching this as search continues to evolve….

“Microsoft plans to officially launch Tuesday its new Windows Live Search engine, a pillar in its strategy to topple market leader Google and wrestle away billions of dollars worth of online advertising.

Windows Live Search will replace MSN Search, Microsoft’s current search engine, in 47 markets worldwide and 23 languages after being available for months in a test version.

Microsoft’s market share in Web search is on the slide, ranking third behind Google and Yahoo with a 9.6 percent share in July, down from 11 percent in January, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. By comparison, Google and Yahoo picked up market share during that period.

“I feel confident that we can gain share,” said Derrick Connell, general manager of Microsoft’s Search Business Unit.

Microsoft said it aims to improve the search experience by allowing for refined queries and presenting results on a new user-friendly interface.

A few years ago, Microsoft had no search engine of its own and no clear strategy regarding Web advertising, while Google and Yahoo have made multibillion-dollar businesses of search-related advertising.

Since then, Microsoft has become serious about grabbing a larger piece of the $15 billion U.S. market for Internet advertising with an overhauled Web presence under its new Windows Live brand.

A main component of the Internet revamp is Windows Live Search with a new look and features such as easier browsing of searched images, suggestions of related links and a scratch pad to allow users to store pictures and information.

Microsoft also said it will launch its www.live.com site, a web page that users can customize with news from various sources, weather and links to e-mail.”