I am surprised by how useful I’m finding the Ojobuscador conference. Based on the reactions of the Spanish blogging community, I expected it to be interesting, but I am still pleasantly surprised. A lot of networking events have little content and present few real opportunities to do more than collect a few business cards. I don’t think that Ojobuscador’s primary draw is networking, at least for me or for migoa. There are a lot of SEOs here (no investors or traditional press from what I can tell). But Ojobuscador presents a unique opportunity to get a snapshot of what’s going on in the Spanish (European??) search market. In short, I’m not sure how much networking we’ve done, but I think that we’ve learned a lot and met some interesting people that might lead to interesting strategic alliances further down the road. Maybe we’ll even be able to announce something soon . . . .

In terms of the specific presentations, my impressions from the conference are the following:

• If, as Google says, the number of times that someone refers to you indicates your importance, then Google is the undisputed winner in the conference. Although the Google presentation itself was among my least favourite (I guess they have the least to prove and thus don’t need to work that hard to convince us to use their product), it was clear that all of the other presenters considered themselves also-rans.
  • Miguel Acosta of Ask.Com introduced some new features but in general I didn’t get the impression that they think of themselves as Google’s direct competition, and I was surprised when he noted that Ask doesn’t have an advertising platform in Europe because of an agreement with Google. In general, no one else in the conference referenced Ask in their comments. As the first presentation of the morning, I think everyone was pretty much still waking up, though there was a generally positive response to AskX, which hopefully will launch very soon in Spain. It’s tough taking Google on directly, but like the other major search engines Ask has a lot of $$ behind it (IAC). And Ask has its own billionaire CEO in the form of Barry Diller, a very experienced, very well-regarded and very well paid (the highest paid executive in the US of 2005) CEO. Diller bought Ask in 2005 for $1.85 billion (famously removing Jeeves, the butler that previously served as the search engine’s image), so there’s still time to see what Ask can accomplish as part of an important Internet conglomerate that includes Bloglines, Expedia.com and Match.com. Still it’s a tough task taking on Google. The message: We’re cool too, even though we’re been flying under the radar for a while. Give us a chance! We’re new, improved and under new management!
  • Steve Crossan of Google presented a few new features for webmasters (google.es/webmastertools and www.google.com/websiteoptimizer) to help users determine if their site is performing and generally to provide information that might help you optimise your site and to figure out which versions of your website might have more success (almost like de facto online focus groups). Google really didn’t reference any other search engines. It was a pretty straightforward presentation without any bells and whistles. The message: We’re the best, we know it and we don’t have anything to prove. If you want us to help you get even more traffic, here are a couple more tools that you might use.
  • Ismael El-Qudsi of Windows Live was the first speaker to try to get the audience involved and his presentation in itself was probably one of the most entertaining of the conference so far, in terms of audience interaction. (And having spoken with Ismael during the rest of the conference, I can tell you that he is a genuinely nice, approachable and fun guy.) He presented a list of new features that Microsoft has or will introduce to show that their technology is better than Google’s. There were constant references to Google, including the comment that Window’s Live is 50% faster than Google, because it’s easier to type 4 letters (l-i-v-e) than it is to type 6 letter (g-o-o-g-l-e). There was no real unifying theme to the presentation, other than that Microsoft has a lot of cool stuff that Microsoft claims works better than Google’s. (It seem to be working. Oscar Baeza of GenBeta calls Microsoft Live’s Photosynth “absolutely amazing”!) It’s clear that Microsoft is on the attack, even more than Yahoo. The presentation was aggressively pro-Microsoft (anti-Google??), including a banner on Ismael’s messenger stating “Don’t Be Evil! Be Live!” (a play on Google’s “Don’t Be Evil! slogan). The message: We know that Google is kicking our ass, but we have a lot of $$, we’re ready to fight and we are using our ample resources to develop technology that is better than Google’s in various areas (e.g., maps, user interface, gadgets, etc.). If you give us a shot, you won’t be disappointed. Remember: We’re Microsoft! You like us!
    
  • François Bourdoncle of Exalead (a French search start-up that launched in October 2006) was probably my favourite speaker of the event. He was an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur with a keen sense of his competition and typical French flair. He started out noting that everyone wants to be the Internet’s operating system but that there were two clear approaches: i) Google’s model, which is clean and simple; and ii) Microsoft’s model, which is based on its success as the operating system of the PC market, and which is more of a laundry list of features than a simple, clean model. He clearly identified with the Google model (I guess winners have a lot of friends) and noted that Exalead was betting on Google’s approach. He noted that Exalead was involved with Quareo (the French-German search engine) and that there was still a lot of room for improvement in search. François worked for Altavista in the 1990s and he remembered that everyone there thought that the search issue had been solved; they’d had no fear of Google or any other search competitor. If I understood him correctly, the former CEO of Altavista now works for Google. The message: We know we’re never going to beat Google. But there’s still a lot to improve in search. And in any case, we want to be the “Apple” of search engines with a clear niche and a loyal (though smaller) user base. Help us build our traffic!
  • Salim Mitha of Yahoo gave the final presentation of the big search engines. He seemed like a really nice guy and transmits earnestness and likability. He talked a lot about the limits of algorithmic search, about how the Internet foments the rise of self-made authors, photographers, deejays and directors–that is, of user-generated content and about the rise of social search. He noted that search engines probably only access currently 0.0057% of the possible information that could exist. He also suggested that the future of search is in “transactional” search, meaning the possibility to access subjective information like “what is the best restaurant in Barcelona?” or “what are the 10 coolest clubs in London”? The message: Social search is the future of the web, or at the very least a very big opportunity, and Yahoo is particularly well positioned to dominate here. Don’t count us out. Remember, we have 500 million daily users!

• One general theme was that everyone was focused on offering personalized search options, suggesting the move from the “personal computer” to the “personal Internet” and/or “personalised search” is a fait accompli.
• The main presentation after lunch was a round-table with the big search engines talking about the state of the current search market. Nothing really new was said here. The most interesting facts came from Gustavo Núñez from Nielsen//NetRatings, who presented a range of interesting facts about the search market in Europe and worldwide, including the fact that France and Spain are the quickest growing search markets. If we’re lucky, his presentation will be posted on OJObuscador’s website. It was also interesting to see Samuel Arenas of Ask and Ismael El-Qudsi of Windows Live attempting to convince the audience that the best way to improve their search experience was to try various search engines given that each search engine has its own algorithm and thus might generate results that other search engines might miss. (Google didn’t encourage anyone else to try various search engines to generate better results.) Both also noted that they are open to collaborations. Bernardo Hernández of Google didn’t really say much other than agreeing with Ismael that it’s the search engine’s responsibility to improve the user experience and figure out what the user wants and needs (and not the user’s responsibility to figure out how to search better). This tied in nicely with his earlier comment that Google’s dominance is tied to fact that its users are loyal and satisfied with its product, which means that they feel no need to try any other product.