Five Questions with Sandeep Aggarawal

Next up in our series of Search Engine Strategies San Jose speaker interviews is Sandeep Aggarawal. Sandeep will be moderating the Search Industry Update panel on Day 1 in San Jose. He was kind enough to sit down with me for a moment to answer some questions and here’s what he had to say!

Sandeep, you come from an impressively strong finance background. Can you tell us a little about what you do at Collins-Stewart and how you made your way to search?

I’m a Senior Internet Equity Research Analyst. I cover the global Internet sector, focus on trends in the Internet industry and analyze publicly traded Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo! etc for investment research for institutional investors.

How do research and search complement one another? How has it helped you understand this industry and spot trends? ?

I focus on the global US Internet sector. The global Internet sector accounts for nearly $300bn in market cap and nearly 70% of the market cap is commanded by search companies such as Google, Yahoo!, Baidu, Ask.com etc. So it is very important for me to track the trends in search market so that we can develop investment recommendations for search and other Internet companies.

You’re moderating the kickoff Search Industry Update panel with a great group of speakers. What topics do you expect to be highlighted? What are the things your research teams have been looking at?

Search marketing is the largest online ad format. Paid search not only accounts for nearly 45% of the global online ad spend but also one of the fastest growing online ad formats. The panel will focus on the broad trends in search marketing such as growth drivers, core search vs. vertical search, search spending and CPC trends in general and by verticals, search penetration in the US vs. International, search adoption by brand advertisers, and search vs. other online ad formats.

Based on the research, where do you think search is going in the future? What are you most interested in watching?

We estimates that search will make up 47% of global online advertising in 2010 and will continue to remain one of the fastest online ad categories. We’re focused on search growth trends in mobile, local and International, trends in CPC and CTR, and the adoption of search by brand advertisers.

What sessions and speakers are you most looking forward to during the show? What session rooms will we find you sneaking into?

Sorry but I have not spent time yet planning my sessions during the SES.

Mayday, Mayday! SES San Jose is right around the corner, better get that schedule planned out quick. ;) Thanks for your time, Sandeep, and we look forward to seeing you in San Jose.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.