Better to be safe than sorry! 
August, 2008
Missing Dixon Jones
My mate Dixon Jones won’t be at SES San Jose this year 
Dixon and I go way back to about 2002 when I was working at Looksmart. It was Dixon who got of the phone with my boss Rob Pearson and let the world know on WebmasterWorld that we were about to close.
When I surfaced at Microsoft in 2005, the SES London panel where I made my speaking debut on behalf of adCenter was where Dixon gifted me some comments during his opening address which enabled my presentation to begin with the immortal line:
“Microsoft…….Sexy……..I bet you’ve never heard those words uttered together in the same sentence before!”
Since then we’ve become great friends and always have a picture taken of the two of us where ever we are in the world!
I’ve got so many I thought I’d publish one a week until they run out!
First up is us at Kristjan’s Icelandic Internet Marketing Conference in November 2006
It was very dark in Reykjavik that week, which must explain why Dixon got dressed in that shirt!
Internet Advertising Is An Over-Rated Fad
Well that’s what Dan Sabbagh, the Media Analyst for the Times Business Section said yesterday!
In his article, largely about digital TV advertising he claims “it should be remembered that Internet advertising is, like all fads, over- rated!”
In more than eight years I’ve never heard it called a fad and certainly not over-rated.
In fact, those that try it for the first time can’t believe they’ve been wasting so much cash on traditional forms of media.
Going on to criticise Google is just silly and negative.
According to the IAB, Internet Advertising was responsible for 15% of the £18.4 billion advertising spend in the UK last year – 38% up on 2006. Of that 57% was on search ads – well over £1 billion!
You can’t ignore growth like that Dan!
A bit difficult to grasp if not properly informed maybe, but it’s no fad and if anything, far too under-rated!
SES San Jose 2008 – 10 More Reasons To Attend
Search Engine Strategies is next week! Back in February I wrote SES London 2008 – 10 Reasons To Attend and won Best Photo Of A Marketing Trend for the photo below which was part of a raft I took entitled A Few Pictures.
So now I’m making it to SES San Jose to support my Microsoft colleagues who are speaking at the conference here are 10 more reasons why you should attend:
- It’s the 10th Annual Event – 10 years is a long time in new media so there is bound to be some nostalgia and “the way we were” angles to a lot of the presentations
- I gather it’ll be the biggest ever held with over 4000 delegates to network with and learn from – Matt correct me if I’m wrong!
- Kevin Ryan has to be the wittiest moderator ever! Sure he’s not British and putting on that accent?
- The hotels are all pretty close together near the convention centre making easy access to all the bars for those late night secret strategy discussions
- The Google Dance – Always a hit and I do love the Googler’s faces after they ask me which company I work for!
- The Weather – It’s like October here in London – See what the BBC Weather has to say about San Jose!
- Black Hat White Hat session should be awesome, although I’ll probably only understand 25% of what they’re saying!
- The Keynotes Look Fab – Satya’s normally a hit so make sure you catch him!
- Dan Horton from Bronco tells me Dave Naylor is like a “caged tiger” right now so do catch him speaking where you can – it’ll be worth it I promise!
- I’ll be there and the first 10 people to mention the magic word “cricket” will get a beer and a T-Shirt from me!
Microsoft Office Ribbon Inspiring UI Design
Jakob Nielsen’s AlertBox just gave me the heads up on the 10 Best Application User Interfaces of 2008.
Nice to see Eyeblaster’s Campaign Monitor leading the charge for the Online Advertising Industry!
The article describes why and what makes a good design interface and what I found interesting was Jakob calls out Microsoft Office’s “Menu Ribbon” as a factor in these great design examples.
“Many winners employ dashboards to give users a single overview of complex information and use lightboxes to ensure that users notice dialogs. Also, the Office 2007 ribbon showed surprisingly strong early adoption.”
Although a caveat is, “Microsoft user interfaces have not always been shining examples of good usability; the company has embraced usability in a big way only in recent years. About 10 years ago, the main design criterion was to pass a Bill Gates review, and Billg’s definitely not an average user.”
I think we’ve all come along way in the last 10 years!
Don’t you?
adCenter Blog Added To Twitter
Just wrote a piece on the adCenter Blog about the adCenter Community Team updating Twitter followers about news, tips, tricks and online marketing best practices that we publish on the Advertiser Blog, API Blog and Web Analytics Blog
Follow adCenter at: http://twitter.com/adcenterblog
Follow me at: http://twitter.com/melcarson
Google Alerts – Gender Confusion
I often use Google Alerts to give me the heads up on what people are saying on blogs and forums about Microsoft adCenter, Live Search and Microsoft in general. It’s a great way to measure the buzz in the market place and judge the temperature of opinion.
My own name is on the list because I do a lot of speaking and while it’s good to get feedback, not everyone emails me and says they’ve written about the presentation or lecture.
This way you can measure your online reputation and get to know pretty much instantaneously when someone’s published some sentiment about you or your company.
However, as you can see from above, even Google throws up some spurious results!
I’ve been following online conversations about “Faile”, the New York street art collective, because I recently bought one of their pieces.
You’d be surprised how many people spell “failed” wrong when talking about dismal exam results on their blogs and in chat rooms!
Mama Mia Movie Gets Online Marketing
Was dragged kicking and screaming to see Mama Mia The Movie on Saturday after my cricket match was rained off.
It’s actually a really good movie!
The cast is just perfect and it’s nice that Pierce Brosnan can’t sing a note because the guy he’s playing probably couldn’t sing either.
Meryl Streep should get an Oscar and, as usual, Colin Firth stole the show with a perfect rendition of the bumbling English fellow who’s got more to reveal than he first looks like he possibly can.
Sadly for me, one of the highlights was when Streep’s son-in-law-to-be – Sky – says he wants to set up a web site for their Greek Villa Hotel to help get more paying guests.
He utters something like, “if I market it well, I’m sure we can do some really good business!”
Nice to see blockbusting scriptwriters understanding that it’s not just good enough to have a web site but that you need to market it as well!
Check out The Mama Mia Web Site for more fun and frolics 
New Live Search Home Page Image
Last week I talked about the new Live Search home page images. Some of the coverage from around the web asked if the pictures would change and the answer is yes they will!
The above is the latest pic. Very cool (literally) and inspirational if you ask me
One of the Hotspots leads to an aerial shot of Langjokull Glacier in Iceland.
Wonder if Kristjan’s been there?
