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Google me this - SES adventures with Jaymac

Google Sign
Originally uploaded by deneyterrio

The fearless Jaymac is growing his Search Engine Marketing brain at Search Engine Strategies Conference 2008 and, like a good little Social Media nerd, is live blogging like cah-razy!

Great posts and photos up thus far, can't wait to see what happens next.  Last night was apparently the world's most awesome party at Google - where I was told they had gummy bears, break dancing AND cupcakes!!!!  So pretty much exactly what heaven looks like.

Be sure to keep an eye on the Schipul SEM Blog as Jason continues to do his thang, SES-style.  Other SES nerds to keep an eye on:

• Jennifer Laycock
• The SES blog - which surprisingly doesn't actually have any conference posts, maybe they've got something awesome in the works... hopefully involving ponies and Google gummy bears
• Search Engine Land
• The Aim Clear Bloggers
• Or just be geeky and follow the Technorati SES2008 trail

Hakia search engine finds meaning to rock out to

I hung out with Hakia search engine nerds today at Blogher and was most impressed with their chilled discussion of ontological semantics and love of all that is user search.  The fact that I could have a conversation in passing like that obviously tickled me beyond belief.

In a nutshell, Hakia is a new beta search engine that looks for meaning-based query results.  The kind of algorithms this involves moves far beyond typical search engine indexing and reacts more cognitively.  So yeah, I don't completely get it either but I do know that I like it.

An example they used - say you want to search the word 'kill'.  To an English speaking human this could mean:

• Murder (I'm going to kill that dude)
• Do really well at something (You totally killed that guitar solo)
• Shut off (Can you kill the lights?)
• Veto or cancel (The president killed that bill)

Most search engines would simply take you at your search and bring you results that matched the exact wording of your query.  The beauty behind Hakia is that it can tell what you mean by reading the rest of your search query.  Pretty snazzy huh?

Blingo - Big money, search happy

What do you get when you cross Google-mania and Publisher's Clearing House gigantor check excitement?  Blingo the magic winning search engine machine.

You search as usual and, if you're incredibly lucky and are the first search after random times throughout the day, can win prizes like movie tickets, cars or $10 million.  I am personally in it for the latter.