Michael Roebuck's Blog

Today began with a discussion between Danny Sullivan and Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; otherwise known as chief babysitter. I was waiting for great news or hints of upcoming features or at least a comment about the jet plane fiasco. I was disappointed. Eric touched on issues such as click fraud and how it was important as well as a new Google partnership with MTV and Myspace and how these new partnerships coupled with the Google personalized homepage allow users to customize search architecture.

Eric Schmidt did mention a bit about privacy and a bit about the AOL disaster. (AOL released search data but only replaced user names. This data was able to be studied and was actually tracked back to users) Eric Schmidt stated Google takes privacy very seriously and works hard to prevent such data from being stolen or released.

The discussion ended with a few questions about how many times Eric searched daily and what his favorite Google tool is.

While the discussion, I felt, was rather pre-scripted and noncommittal, it was nice to see Eric Schmidt and see how he spoke and held himself. Thepublics appearance was very nice and seeing the press coverage, or lack thereof, I guess others weren't as interested. Perhaps they already knew it was pre-written, pre-approved and not very exciting.

The day followed with two very exciting presentations. The first was a presentation on usability featuring Matt Bailey as a speaker. Matt was highly focused and truly passionate about the topic and it was excellent. I highly advise everyone to visit his web site: Matt Bailey

Matt mentioned calling items what they were. Don't call it a "service" or "product" as people don't search for services and products. He mentioned a product that he had heard about while doing a Direct Marketing seminar in Chicago. I presume he was talking about one of my clients because they too attended that show and advised me of his comments. The product is Boudreaux Butt Paste. Matt wants it called diaper rash cream and I agree with him but also feel the brand name needs to be promoted as well.

A few takeaways include: Try tabs instead of graphical links and the "Add To Cart" button can never be too big. Also, Shari Thurow stated her friend advised her that, "Most people are basically stupid." Ironically, in another session, Todd Friesen stated to expect your customers to be dumb as a rock.

The second very exciting presentation included Rob Snell pimping Jenni Li's Yahoo web site. As a Yahoo Store developer, I was especially excited to hear a few shout outs for Yahoo Store but mostly I was excited for Rob. Rob is a good friend and to see him slowly getting the recognition for his outstanding work and contributions is exciting. If you are looking for a conversion expert, look up Rob Snell.

Press Coverage










Kelly and Karl at Yahoo






Matt Bailey






Rob Snell