A fixture on the Bell Harbor waterfront for the past six years, the Search Marketing Expo Advanced conference, (or “SMX Advanced”), led by officiating Master of Ceremonies Mr. Danny Sullivan has built a reputation as the “Pro Bowl” of Search Strategy.
The standing-room-only, multi-tracked marathon of expert panel discussions, specialty seminars, well-stocked receptions and creative networking functions, is part graduate course, part marketing laboratory for Search Engine Land (Danny’s search think tank and publishing domain), and the new Marketing Land, which represents the evolution of Search, writ large.
The annual Seattle event bars no holds in its examination of the year’s top trends, techniques and technologies in the Search eco-system and attracts those with the most K+ or Klout.
For instance, Matt Cutts, the widely known “Google Guy,” a Google “Distinguished Engineer” and the most visible spokesperson of the Google Webmaster community, has never missed presenting a keynote session every single year the show has been in existence. Former Googler, Vanessa Fox, the developer and spokesperson of Google Webmaster Central, and author of Marketing in the Age of Google, moderates several of the conference panels.
Other pundits in the Search and Social Media spheres, including Rand Fishkin of Seattle’s native SEOmoz on the SEO agency and in-house marketing support side, are also very well accounted for. Who could forget the year Microsoft used the event’s timing and significance to launch its new Bing search engine during the proceedings, lighting up the Space Needle in Bing corporate colors.
Given the loyalty of Search engine industry sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and product marketing officers, what is equally remarkable is how Danny manages to maintain the highest standard of industry impartiality and journalistic objectivity in “calling out” the engines when he observes they have strayed from the straight and narrow path of “truthiness.”
Just two days after wrapping up this year’s SMX success in unseasonably rainy Seattle, Danny was back on the beat, penning a letter to none other than the FTC Commission in the “other Washington” D.C. The letter’s purpose? To the keenest of observers, a trusted industry analyst like Sullivan, the FTC has developed a deficiency in pattern recognition, at best, and a case of regulatory amnesia at worst.
The rules the FTC put in place requiring search engines to disclose when their result listings appeared for a fee, just like “paid advertising,” instead of based solely on merit, or the most “trustworthy” organic results, were being ignored by the regulators and re-interpreted by the engines themselves. If consumers had the impression that the deck was no longer stacked by “pay-for-play” and thought what they were seeing was pure and natural, why, they were being duped.
Danny wrote to the US Federal Trade Commission, Attn: Chairman Jon Leibowitz; Bureau of Consumer Protection, Division of Advertising Practices; Office of Public Affairs: “In 2002, the US Federal Trade Commission created guidelines for search engines regarding disclosure of paid placement and paid inclusion listings. As a journalist who has covered the search engine space since 1996, I’m finding that the agency seems to be failing to properly enforce these guidelines. I’m asking for the FTC to conduct a review of the current state of compliance, so that I might report on your official findings. I’d also like to understand if the agency, after conducting such a review, feels that the guidelines need to be updated, expanded or amended in any way.”
The rest of the letter can be viewed at 
SearchEngineLand.com . So Danny has turned “state’s evidence” on the all-and-powerful search juggernaurs. Imagine the organizer of an industry-leading auto show sending a similar letter to the FTC about Ford or General Motors. The uncommon integrity of one Danny Sullivan is commendable, and you can’t help but respecting him for it. Note: SMX will host its annual Social Media Conference this year in Las Vegas (instead of Phoenix) during the first week of December. [24×7]
