Ad Age daily  today reports the move by several States to further scrutinize the Yahoo Google Ad serving deal.  You can read the full report here.  This is hot on the heels of the congressional hearing on the same subject today.  According to CNet’s Declan McCullagh its is probably not going to make a lot of difference to the internet public.  Microsoft’s argument is just an echo from the past and its pretty much the same arguement Google put forward against the Yahoo Microsoft deal. 

Whatever happens today I personally think that Google’s dominance is not a good thing for consumers.  I love Google I think they are a first class organization and a great search engine but you can have too much of a good thing.  At least lawmakers are giving this deal scrutiny, it has almost seemed in the past that Google can do what they like.  I was expecting this deal to come under closer scrutiny and its a good thing that it has.  We will have to wait and see what the outcome is I feel that a rejection of this deal would actually be a good thing for the industry and the consumers.  it will be interesting.

On the 2nd of July I was interviewd by RSS Ray on his radio show on the subject of online reputation management.

You can listen to the podcast here.

We moved the mobile version of the elixirinteractive.com site to elixirinteractive.mobi . Anyone accessing the main site with a mobile browser will be automatically redirected to the correct site. This was primarily to aid in correct indexing by search engine spiders.

Hard to believe that SES San Jose is just round the corner again.  Another great show is planned and you can see the full Agenda here. 

I will once again be speaking on the subject of viral marketing and will be sharing some great information on our current campaigns at the session called “Igniting your viral campaigns”.  This popular session will run at 11.15 on the 18th and I am thrilled to see that I will be speaking with Justillien Gaspard.  I have a lot of respect for Justillien at his young age he has truly made his mark on our industry.  Justillien is also a fellow search engine watch expert.   

I will also be speaking at the site clinic session on the 22nd at 10.15.  Although this is my first site clinic session at SES I have run many at other events and I love the interaction with the audience and always receive great feedback on the value of that real time interaction. 

As usual the week is full of great sessions and although the party schedule is not quite up to the heady level of SES New York it does lend itself to some late nights.  I look forward to the opportunity to network something  that SES is first class for, meeting old friends and hopefully making lots of new ones.

Spent some time this week making our new site mobile friendly (XHTML-MP or WAP2). Tested using emulators and by my own T-Mobile Shadow, it looks a lot cleaner now than when I started.

In addition this blog got a makeover and is also mobile friendly.

I’ll be detailing some of the behind the scenes work at our technical blog - http://www.topsemtips.com/.

Today at 3.00 (PST) I will take part in a live interview with RSS Ray on WS Radio on the subject of Online Reputation Management.

If you miss the show it will be available by podcast on my blog and on the WS Radio site within two days.

I read with interest Andrew Goodman’s synopsis of SES Toronto and Lisa Barone’s comments over on the Bruce Clay Blog.  If you refer to core SEO for what it is and always has been, a good quality site with great content, well indexed with good organic links which have not been bought, stolen or borrowed then yes Core SEO is more important than ever.  With more and more non web pages showing up in the results due to universal search good SEO will help you stay afloat amongst the noise.  If you are talking about the many types of ’so called SEO” we have touted as an industry then no its not valid now nor has it ever been except for a quick fix or short term gain. 

The good SEO’s who have never deviated from that core SEO as described above are now in a position of strength.  They know how to rank sites and web pages and keep them ranked.  That core strength can now be applied to the world of Web 2.0 and social media.  They can use their skill to optimize videos, podcasts, photos, articles, create RSS feeds and the list goes on.  The one thing that has never changed in this ever changing industry is that great content is king.  Good optimization specialists can apply their skills to the many types of content and apply their skills to positioning content in multiple channels.  Our own company recently underwent a re-branding to become a digital marketing agency.

We have found that the term search engine optimization is what is out of date.  With the multiple channels the web now offers and numerous opportunities to optimize content for these channels digital asset optimization is a more appropriate term for what we do until we think of something better or this one sticks.  Let’s face it as my friend Mike Grehan says (I think he is still my friend haven’t seen him for a while, and I am not on his buddy bloggerlist ) when did anybody ever optimize a search engine. 

While I was gone one of the most alarming plans to hit the industry in a long time was announced.  Yahoo annnonced that it will basically become a relseller of Google ads.  I like Google, I think they are a great search engine but its beginning to look like a one man shop again and its almost impossible to imagine Yahoo ever bridging the gap now.  Yahoo obviously realise it and have given up trying so they join Google instead.  This is very bad news for consumer choice. 

Kevin Ryan wrote a great commentary on the subject over at Search Engine Watch and since he put it so well and so eloquently you can read the full article here.

I just got back from a blissful two week vaction in the west of Ireland near Belmullet .  We had a much needed rest and I am now trying to catch up on the news while I was gone.  I had to travel 15 miles to an interent connection and after the first few days of fresh sea air I forgot to do that.  It was very strange to be so ‘disconnected’ so to speak.  My children looked shell shocked for the first few days and the Grandma had no cable either so my youngest daughter played football with the dog and my oldest discovered reading again. 

We all had a wonderful time and sadly US Airways runined our trip back with delayed flights and lost baggage.  I really will never fly with US airways again unless there is no other option.  Lost the bags on the way over also.  At least they are consistent.  We flew with Aer Lingus on the transatlantic legs and its refreshing to still fly with an airline that provides genuine good quality customer service.  The 6.5 hour flights flew (pardon the pun) by with wonderful friendly staff, good food and non stop entertainment on the indivudual entertainment system they provide to each traveller.  What has happened to US air travel and why has the travelling public put up with letting it get this bad. 

We are very pleased to announce the launch of our new brand- Elixir Interactive. After many months of planning today we launched our new name and brand. We are now a digital marketing agency and are very pleased to offer our expanded portfolio of services in response to the evolving interactive landscape.

Elixir, has operated for the past 5 years as a specialist in search engine optimization and paid search. We will now offer a full-suite of digital marketing services including social media optimization, reputation management, email, mobile and user-experience design. The company will target the mid-market, which I believe has been under served.

In order to extend the reach of one’s brand in the digital space content needs to be available across a variety of channels. By leveraging our experience in search we will help our clients create, optimize and distribute targeted content that reaches the right audience in the right place at the right time.

Search provides a rich source of information about how people think. By combining the intelligence gathered from search with the power of the social community Elixir Interactive can help its clients better understand their customers, extend the reach of their brand, manage their online reputation and create compelling user experiences that truly connect with the target audience.

Our clients expect an integrated approach to digital marketing. They realize that a balanced interactive program consists of search, email and, increasingly, social and mobile. Expanding our portfolio of services by leveraging our core competency in search will allow us to aptly serve our clients’ needs.

Search Engine Optimization once the core of our services is now a tactic which we deploy in our overall strategy. Our response to the changes in the web over the past two years is to create Elixir Interactive and offer client’s what they really need to compete in the space today.