WebProNews

Four days of the search industry's biggest gathering starts in San Jose, where attendees can learn the finer points about marketing effectively and ranking well with the drivers of search-related traffic.

SES San Jose Opens Today

We would be remiss if we didn't mention the WebProNews contingent making the rounds of the convention. Our video staff has their cameras and mikes at the ready. As long as no one messes with managing editor Mike McDonald's coffee, he'll be there too.

The run-up to this edition of SES San Jose proved less dramatic than last year. Ahead of the conference, AOL Research placed thousands of search records online, creating a field day for all kinds of interested observers and lots to talk about through and beyond the conference.

The pre-conference issues this year are a little more understated, but just as interesting. Last week, Dan Thies published an overview of hacking Google by proxy. Such an attack could knock one's site right out of the search rankings, which would be devastating to a site's traffic.

Click fraud discussions at SES San Jose previously put search engine representatives on the dais with third-party click analysis companies for some interesting and sometimes combative dialogue.

Those two sides have been separated into a pair of consecutive sessions this year, taking place on day two. We have to hope the third-party folks will stop by the search engine's click fraud session and lob some verbal brickbats from the audience.

Co-chairs Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman have put together a compelling slate of presentations for SES San Jose 2007, and we're looking forward to covering them. Stop by WebProNews through the week to catch some exclusive videos and other reports from the conference.