Well, it happened again.

I have a whole database of new friends from SMX Seattle and SMX Denver, yet have not done a good job of following up, reviewing their stuff and generally making friends. I’ve been utterly slammed with the disappearance (figuratively) of a programmer resource, I’ve needed to make up slack on several fronts.

So don’t take it the wrong way. To those of you who’ve followed up without a reply, I have every one of those messages here and will do my best to contact you… if not today, soon.

I’m replying to Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking pings pretty much realtime, btw.

Oh yeah… does anyone know what happened to the SMX Local Mobile group photo?

A terrific brain trust of folks answered great questions that I’ve tried to aggregate into an organized list you may find very helpful. Enjoy! The Q/A was especially helpful and added a lot to the session.

Moderators:
Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land
Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

TIP: See the end of this post for other coverage on the conference too.

 

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Mobile Search: Beyond 10 Blue Links

Fascinating presentation at SMX Local Mobile.

Mobile searchers don’t want lists of web pages - they want answers or fast ways to take action. Mobile search providers are increasingly experimenting with alternative interfaces, such as location-aware browsing, voice recognition, text messaging and other innovative approaches. Learn about these new efforts and how they potentially impact mobile search marketing efforts.

(room sparse, but excellent presentation!)

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Show Me the Money!

So there are Billions out there. But who’s making money now. How will SEMs place bets now to ensure their success? Show me the money!

Moderator:
Greg Sterling

Speakers:

• Ian White, CEO, Urban Mapping
• Shawn Riegsecker, Chairman & CEO, Centro
• Justin Sanger, CEO, LocalLaunch
• Alfred Chow, Head, Yellowbook

 

Lots of energy in the room for this one. Big variety on the panel. PACKED ROOM.

 

Live Blogging after the jump

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Moderator:
Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

Marc Barach, CMO, Ingenio joined for the Q&A

Throughout this writup: PPC = pay per click.� Don’t confuse it with PPcall
Lots more after the jump… (more…)

This is a liveblogging entry from SMX Local/Mobile - a conference I’m attending in Denver, CO.

This was the best session I’ve attended yet at the conference. Lots of great information and engaging speakers. Good questions from the room and highly relevant content. Bravo!

Moderator:
Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

Speakers:

Alex Porter, Vice President, Location3 Media

Alan Beiagi, Director and GM, Mapquest

Michael Jones Google - replaced Microsoft who didn’t show

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Well, I’m not much of a liveblogger, but since I want to take notes anyhow, I might as well type into wordpress and share the goodness. I am sure I’ll get better at this and hope that everyone gets benefits from the notes. I’ll do cleanup on them after the show is over, too, as well as link to anything that makes sense.

Moderator:
Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

Speakers:

Chris Silver Smith, Lead Strategist, Netconcepts

Jenny Halasz, SEO Manager, Acronym Media

Paul Bruemmer, Director Search Marketing, Red Door Interactive

(more…)

Well, getting ready to head out tommorrow for SMX Local/Mobile conference in Denver, and looking forward to seeing friends in the search marketing world again I’ve not seen since SMX Advanced in Seattle.

I’m very excited about the Local/Mobile marketplace, especially with my developing expertise in working with franchises in internet marketing, and hope to shore that up even more in 2008 with some specific offerings under the PrecisionLocal brand. This is a tough, tough marketplace for consulting as the resources for local search are still quite fragmented and difficult to understand for clients.

Flickr Sets for SMX Local/Mobile

So if you’re going, Twitter me (id: scottclark) to catch up or meet.

Here’s the thing. I’ve seen people run into objects trying to dial their mobile phone. So it’s hard for me to imagine millions of people suddenly typing in query after query into mobiles in a crowded airport trying to find the lowest price on rental cars. Now I admit that I’m in the United States, not Europe, where texting has become a high art. I’ve watched accomplished “texters” use their phone keyboards with awe, and feel pretty good that they could type queries while ducking ’round luggage carts and toddlers.

But what I would predict might be better is a bit of live, geographically aware feedreading. Probably through a combination of a smart feedreading app and a deployment of GeoRSS, one could obtain real-time RSS data relevant to where they are in space. As one moved from point to point, pre-set queries would search for tags of interest and attach themselves to keys on the front of the users mobile device. The searches could happen over the web, whereby query engines would flush out geographic references in the web data, or with pure XML and deliberate geoRSS encodings. Example:

This set-up-before-you-go element of mobile search is going to be critical to success. When you’re on-the-go, you need the device to do most of the work for you.

while moving
sushi.feed = discover feeds where distance < 500m
button.attach sushi (”nearby sushi”)
if (sushi.feed == null)
button.attach.sushi(”no sushi nearby”)

Methods of feed discovery:

Bluetooth
Wifi
Mobile networks

Types of feed discovery:

Mobile to Mobile - user profile, social networking, friend nearby, roaming consultant
Advertising - offer feeds, coupons, spacially aware marketing, proximity
Physical Resource Location - nearby resources, closest open facility, etc.
News - relevant news delivery, based on feedreader setup.
User defined - email/CRM/office-specific.

As you walk or drive through space, the mobile device needs to discover feeds that meet your specific needs that are specifically and geographically relevant to you, and then, provide them through a set of user interface reductions that you can easily manage while on-the-go.

Added thought: Provide simple interfaces to change the RSS feed output depending on business conditions - when it’s slow, publish a new feed with more coupons. When it’s busy, reel ‘em in. See my post on this “Senseweb for business”

The “Deli” button on the front of my phone could be attached to (map for illustration only)

Sam’s Deli 200m 10-10pm M-S menu Champion’s Deli 240m 10-9pm 7 days 20% off coupon today menu reviews (Y!) Stickhouse Deli Shop 420m 10-10pm M-F menu