3 Takeaways from SMX West 2010

SMX West was a rollercoaster of highs, lows, twists and turns. The highs of adrenaline-fueled excitement, the lows of getting the lowdown from the search reps, and the twists and turns of going with the flow during such an activity-filled week.

Liveblogger clearly gone mad…

I was on that ripping ride of a rollercoaster for three days, and while it was a blast and a half, I’m glad to be back on the ground where I can process everything that just happened. While reviewing my liveblog coverage of SMX West I was struck by three major points worth highlighting.

Search Community Still on the Fence about Microhoo

An opening keynote by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer assured that discussions of Microhoo were everywhere all conference long. Ballmer didn’t give away much info himself in regards to the partnership, other than some high-level speculation:

I see the opportunity for a number of game changers. It’s really important to have momentum and progress with a differentiated point of view. Total game changer? We’ll get there. But the world is so dynamic we’ll find opportunities for game changers. The business model of search, we haven’t figured out how to remake it. But we think there’s lots of opportunity for growth on the business side as well as the technology side.

During the session Microsoft + Yahoo: What’s It All Mean?, we learned more about the details of the deal, some possible outcomes of looming questions, and the upsides and downsides for marketers regarding many of the changes.

And at The State of the Search Union keynote, this conversation seemed to cover all the bases:

Chris Sherman: What’s the reaction of clients across the spectrum?

Misty Locke: They’re excited, not only clients but also the search managers at her agency. It allows her to shift strategy, so instead of 70/20/10 it’ll be 60/40. The opportunity is big around reach and the additional volume this will bring. One question will be will Microsoft still bring us some of the highest conversion rates once Yahoo! comes in. Bing Cashback has been a big opportunity for her clients.

Avinash Kaushik: Competition is a good thing. It gets people to innovate and do better and not get stale. The way each engine works and the kind of people that use each engine is very different. You should have a strategy for SEO for each engine, a portfolio strategy because you will find more customers and find your dollars more effectively.

Vanessa Fox: She’s waiting to see how the partnership shakes out. She doesn’t know how Searchmonkey and BOSS will work when Yahoo! doesn’t have its own index. Yahoo! did have a play for innovation and for startups, so she’s reserving judgment until the partnership settles in.

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