Search Summit and Web Standards

February 28, 2007 · Filed under Articles, Blog, Search Engine Optimisation

I am speaking at Search Summit tomorrow (March 1-2, 2007) and I think it will be an interesting couple of days.

Barry Smyth, the organiser of the conference, has reached out to myself and Russ Weakley in an effort to educate and perhaps introduce the Search Engine Optimisation world to the Web Standards bunch in an attempt to fill the void between our often separate worlds.

Consider it a bit like Meet the Fockers, only more suits have shown up for dinner and everyone is a bit like that Uncle Bob guy that you only see once or twice a year.

I am not really sure how many Web Standards Group members will actually show up as I still think that developers have some trust issues when it comes to SEO’s and the whole Wide World of Search. I can personally understand this point of view as I have had my share of frustration with the industry, but I really do think some of the contribution Russ and I have fed into this conference might make it fairly engaging, for both sides of the family.

My first panel will be on Thursday afternoon:

In-house or Out Source?

What are the advantages/disadvantages of having an in house team or using a specialist Search Agency?

Out Source Team: Detlev Johnson, VP Search Services - PositionTech; Robbie Hills, Managing Director - 24/7 Real Media; Fionn Hyndman, Managing Director - DGM

Comments

halans says: March 1, 2007 @ 8:28 am: Say hi to my wife…
And congratulate her on her new job…
(We’re both WSG)

Cheryl says: March 1, 2007 @ 10:02 am: I think the inhouse vs outsource one will be really interesting as I can see both sides of the argument. Post back and let us know how it goes…

Standardzilla says: March 1, 2007 @ 9:52 pm

Inhouse vs Outsource ended up being quite fun for me I figure. We all walked in, took our seats and being it the last panel of the day there was a beer waiting for each of us :-)

Each had their own arguments, it was playful and I can see both sides of the equations at the end of it all.

Although we did win 2/3 1 on 1 debates, so I am curious how we lost overall. Bit fishy, eh? hmmmmm :-)

Web 2.0 and Search tomorrow… should be cool and lots of people seem excited about it. Re-doing my presso now after some of the stuff I saw today, just to make it fit a bit better.

Barry Smyth says: March 4, 2007 @ 2:41 pm

Fishy? the voting was based on the results posted by the interactive handsets, I have not seen the final numbers (yet) but I would assume that not everyone was voting 100% of the time, it’s a little flawed but fun anyway.

Apart from which, the view held by many in the industry is that a hybrid of in-house/outsource will be the way of the future with big corporations.

I’ll post the actual numbers & a link to the audio of it some time soon.

shor says: March 5, 2007 @ 9:59 am

As always, it wasn’t about the argument but who made the most compelling case (whether it was related to the argument or not).

Well done Scott, that was a fun session. Also great to finally meet the enemy and learn we share a similar perspective of where SEO sits in terms of accessibility/usability.

How about you throw a few News Interactive IA templates over here :P

Barry Smyth says: March 5, 2007 @ 5:10 pm

Here are the results:

Outsource Team 52% In-House Team 48%
Round 1 - Detlev Johnson 76% Aidan Beanland 24%
Round 2 - Robbie Hills 39% Scott Gledhill 61%
Round 3 - Fionn Hyndman 42% Mike Motherwell 58%

Audio feed to come later in the week..

Standardzilla says: March 5, 2007 @ 5:22 pm

cool. I must admit Detlev and Mike both killed it with their arguments…

looking forward to hearing the audio.