Searchers represent a valuable commodity to search engines, and the keen-minded technologists behind the algorithms want to make search sites as useful as possible, no matter what the query.

This week WebProNews is at SES Chicago covering the conference. Stay here for all your SES coverage.

In the session "Igniting Viral Campaigns" Bill Hanekamp, CEO of The Well got things started by saying, "I get really nervous in front of SEO people, because I’m a marketing guy."

He said the content you provide should be:
1. Entertaining
2. Relevant
3. Timely
4. Exclusive

Brrr!  I am off to Chicago in the morning to speak at SES. Temperatures below freezing and snow already on the ground.  For a little African lizard like me used to blazing heat it’s way too cold.  I bought myself some thermal underwear and pulled out my down parka and off I go.

What we have for you today is a double scoop, double feature and two times our regular interview spunk involving Kevin Ryan, Global Content Director for Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch and Kevin Heisler, Executive Editor of Search Engine Watch.

I’ll have to say, there are a few gems in this one, so read on:

Barry Schwartz reports that Yahoo plans to roll out a "structured search" functionality in the near future.

SES hosted a webcast with Seth Godin, marketing maverick, author of a new book Meatball Sundae.  In his words It’s about the internet and new marketing and the fourteen trends that change everything.

"Chinese Wall – The ethical (not physical) barrier between different divisions of a financial (or other) institution to avoid conflict of interest…"

Investopedia.com

"While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results."

Google’s Webmaster Help Center FAQ

Another SES San Jose is in the books, and what a doozy it was. I usually try to do a complete rundown of all the great folks I got to meet and friends I got to spend time with, but life has been a bit hectic, and the blog is the first to be sacrificed to the god of poor time management. As much as I enjoy writing – it just hasn’t been an option for a while now with too many other deadlines and obligations.