I’m a little late jumping on the “Matt Cutts and I are best friends forever!” bandwagon, but I just got a hold of these pictures taken at the Google Dance and SES San Jose. (Thanks Joe!)
(Disclaimer: I do not personally know Matt Cutts.)
Anywho, yes, as you can see, I was one of the “Cuttlettes” running around the conference. It was a ton of a fun, and at least that night I *knew* why people were pointing and laughing at me! 
This morning Danny Sullivan posted on his blog, daggle.com, that he will be leaving Search Engine Watch.
Danny explained that in the past year since Jupiter Media sold SEW to Incisive Media, things were not progressing in a way that he was comfortable contributing to. And so, his contract with Incisive Media will not be renewed.
Danny will chair SES Chicago in December, but he says it is unlikely that he will be a part of any further Search Engine Strategies conferences.
I was very excited to receive my copy of the third edition of Google Hacks this morning. Just in time! I am driving to Ontario tomorrow and will need something to read to pass the time during stop overs.
(Why am I driving to Ontario? To see if I can sell my 2000 Ford Mustang there. Click the link for more info!)
Anywho, I see that the new addiction of Google Hacks includes information on Google Maps, which should make for an interesting read.
I’ll be sure to post a review when I get back.
The Google Analytics blog announced today that you no longer have to wait to start up an Analytics account.
Brett Crosby talks about the ways to set up your Google Analytics, formerly Urchin, account – either by going to Google Analytics’ home page or by using the Analytics tab in your AdWords account.
I’ve been using Google Analytics for close to a year now, and it has been great in offering all the stats I want to see. I’ve used it for e-commerce sites, call-to-action sites, blogs, and informational sites. I love being able to cross reference data, and the referral data is very specific.
Well, first of all, getting up at 5:30 a.m. is a big change from getting up at 8:00, or 10:00 as my body thought it was, last week in San Jose. But that’s alright, I’ll be okay in a few days.
Just prior to me leaving for my trip, our IT department managed to crash the server that held everyone’s files. Beautiful. I never did get it straightened around before I left. I was gone for a full week, though, certainly it would be fixed by time I get back to work today, right?
Not really knowing what to expect, I planned to arrive at the airport for my flight home to Winnipeg nice and early.
As the taxi rounded the airport and we passed Terminal 1, the line for Southwest was outrageously long. I’m thinking to myself, WOW am I ever glad I’m three hours early.
But then we got to the United area of Terminal 3 and no one is waiting. Well that’s good anyway.
I cleared security at about 8:30, but the flight doesn’t leave until 10:55. Looooooooong wait. But thankfully I found a seat next to a plug and forked over $10 for Internet access until we depart.
The conference itself ended yesterday at around 2:00. I ran into Jessica and Sally and we decided to do dinner later.
After a nice afternoon of lounging and trying to hook up with Joe to hang out, Jessica, Sally, and I went to some place that the name escapes me right now, I’ll think of it later I’m sure. We had dinner and hung out at the Mariott for a while. It was nice and we’re all going to try and meet up again in Vegas at PubCon.
This morning I went to the Meet the Crawlers sessions – representatives were there from Google, Yahoo and MSN – I think. I walked in a few minutes late and missed the introductions. It was really hard to hear and a lot of the questions weren’t really related to what I am interested in. The entire thing was Q&A.
Only two more sessions to go, and it seems like they might all be Q&A type sessions. I’ve sent text messages to some of the people I met Tuesday night to see what they’re up to today. In hind sight, I could have flown home today instead of tomorrow, but I’m hoping to make the most of the time I have left.
I didn’t have even one drop of alcohol the night before, but I woke up exhausted and hurting. After a very disappointing breakfast, I wondered down to the talk with Eric Schmidt. It was very hard to hear, but what I did hear was very interesting. Eric talked about privacy, and how Google wants to be trusted and will never willingly or happily hand over search data the way AOL did. Eric talked about the federal subpoena Google fought and eventually won – the federal government had asked for search data and they didn’t get it.
I admit, I was pretty nervous about having to go all the way to Mountain View solo, without knowing anyone. I had posted as such on the SEW forums. When I got back to my room after another good hour of wondering around the Exhibit Hall, I had a private message from Joe Morin – offering to introduce me to some other people.