What they say is true. Search is such a highly granular, customized, long tail type industry, there’s an awful lot to talk about. I had about an hour to give a talk on Friday (interesting group – a college class learning about SEM – update shortly), and still felt myself running out of time. In a world where you now have whole college courses (the few, the proud) devoted to nothing but search marketing, it’s little wonder that I run out of time way before I run out of material.

From the makers of the “people’s car” (Volkswagen) to the manufacturers of the car-for-people-with-a-whole-lot-of-money (Ferrari), automakers are prepared to accommodate iPod users. The Americans have gotten in on the deal, too – Ford and GM made an arrangement with Apple that was announced yesterday.

The last installment of Online Marketing Blog coverage of the Chicago ad:tech 2006 conference gathered together a good number of Eisenberg fans as well as those interested in learning more about conversions.

ad:tech Chicago is coming along nicely. Coverage of the conference by Online Marketing Blog as well as DMNews and iMedia Connection is keeping those who were not able to attend well informed. Here’s the next installement of our coverage:

Day two of ad:tech Chicago rounded up with a sigh. With all the parties Monday night, I think some of the attendees were looking forward to the end of the day.

The first day here at ad:tech Chicago was pretty good. I covered 3 sessions over at Online Marketing Blog and at the ad:tech blog.

Next week is the next installment of the most popular event for interactive marketers, ad:tech. This year’s Chicago conference promises outstanding keynotes on multicultural marketing, creativity and new ways for marketers to reach customers.

Bob Reno is a good example of how passion for a topic and a little sensationalistic human appeal can be a solid recipe for building a website. As the founder of Badjocks.com, Reno dedicated the site to misbehaving athletes who don’t realize that posting raunchy party photos on the Internet isn’t much different than displaying them in Times Square.

Jeremy Mullman has images of Google “Adwords” running in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Update … As I suggested in my comment below the WebProNews team was stranded in Chicago last night. Over 7 inches of snow fell at O’Hare halting many flights. Unfortunately, by the time American Airlines canceled the flight late last night all area hotels were booked. After many calls,we found a few rooms at the hotel we have been at all week … the Hilton in downtown Chicago. We took the Blue Line train because cabs were virtually useless in the heavy snow. We ended up walking about 10 blocks in the snow from the station to the Hilton. All of this of course beats what many others went through.

“I’ve fought a holy war within myself,” said Clarence Briggs, CEO of web-hosting company AIT. He was referring to the soul-testing decision to join and take over the lead in a class action click fraud lawsuit against Google Inc. For Briggs, the head of a multi-million dollar and one of the oldest domain hosting services, it was a decision about whether to become a click-fraud tycoon himself or take measures to combat it.

Ecommerce on the Internet continues to expand exponentially. The big question is always how to mark your piece of that huge pie. As a marketer, the trick is finding things to set you apart and a large part of that is finding and developing a niche. WebProNews publisher Rich Ord listened to some masters impart their wisdom on just this very topic.

I had an interesting conversation with Marc Barach, Chief Marketing Officer of San Francisco based Ingenio. Ingenio’s business is pay per call: a subject I’d heard of, but not something I had any kind of real understanding of. I know a little more about it now though and it’s actually quite slick.

The last session I attended on day two of the SES Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference was RSS Blogs and Search Marketing moderated by Danny Sullivan.

This is the first SES conference I’ve been to where there were no large scale events sponsored by any of the major search engines.

WebProNews will be covering SES Chicago in force next week with myself, Mike McDonald, Chris Richardson and Jason Miller all sending in reports.

The search engine company has been rumored to be prepping a foray into advertising in a Chicago newspaper, and some job openings in Chicago could indicate Google’s focus there.

It hasn’t been confirmed which Chicago newspaper will be the one displaying Google print ads, but the company did confirm a test is being evaluated.

All of Cook County, Illinois public safety communications will be wireless when IBM places a system to move data between phones, laptops, cameras, and digital video recorders.

Since the introduction of satellite technology onto Google Maps, the service has been the recipient of a number of hacks that can improve the functionality of Google’s map service. Others have found methods in which to include Google Maps into the service they provide as well.

Adrian Holovaty has whipped up a Firefox hack for Google Maps that allows you to see Chicago’s public transportation system.