I'm back - what did I miss the past 2 years?

[pmkpmk]

Oh my, that has been a rough ride. A medical condition in the family, reorganization in the company after we got taken over by a big fish, me first losing my position and being moved into the least desirable department, and finally me having lost my job completely...

Now I'm looking for a new one and hope to finally get my hands on some inhouse SEM/SEO/Web2.0/Web3.0 position again. However I am SO out of the loop due to those two years of hell. So what are in retrospect the highlights in our little world that I missed so much?

[jdMorgan]

It *has* been awhile, pmkpmk... Welcome back!

Most notable for me has been the emergence of Bing (a.k.a. MSN Search, MSN Live) as a usable search service.

Jim

[wheel]

Lots of noise about social media, (I'm still skeptical as to it's commercial usefulness though.).

Other than that, precious little has changed in the last two years.

[pmkpmk]

Oh hai, nice to see some familiar names. So Bing actually does work? I saw that "Wolfram Alpha" thing a while ago and thought it is interesting.

[jecasc]

The basics have remained the same. I haven't changed much on my websites in the last two years.

Actually the last minor changes I remember making to my websites was the introduction of quality score in Google Adwords - so I added some more text to picture laden landing pages and the other was more emphasis on page loading time so I added gzip compression and optimized code a little, but that was about all.

So far I have ignored all the social media stuff like faceblog, myspace, yourspace, herspace or whatever they are called.

The main change in the last years on the internet in my opinon: A lot more people talking to themselves on the internet... It seems like all those strange people I noticed on the street when I was a kid - those creepy guys and lonely old women mumbling to themselves - now have an internet connection and now no longer roam the streets but websites like twitter.

[piatkow]

those creepy guys and lonely old women mumbling to themselves

These days I can't tell who has Tourettes and who has Bluetooth!

[lawman]

Wow. Two years. Damn glad to have you back.

[mack]

Wow welcome back!

These days I can't tell who has Tourettes and who has Bluetooth!

That made me laugh!

In the past two years a lot of the fundamentals have remained unchanged. As has been mentioned the influx of social media has made a bit of a difference, but these aspects are easy enough to pick up, if you fee they would be on benefit.

It has to be said a lot of people question the benefits of social media from a marketing point of view. I guess it varies a lot depending on your niche.

Good to have you back.

Mack.

[pmkpmk]

How has regional search evolved? I recall it was THE hot topic back then, promising tremendous growth. One of the jobs I apply for is for a company with a very strong local focus.

[weeks]

First, you should know that Bing is taking over Yahoo search. But, you had to live in a cave to miss that. So,...

There is a lot going on in regional search. Google and Bing are both making major plays. The deal Yahoo had with newspaper publishers isn't working out as well as both parties had hoped.

From Google last month:

2/26/2010 09:09:00 AM
Location has become an important part of the way we search. If you're a foodie looking for restaurant details, food blogs or the closest farmer's market, location can be vital to helping you find the right information. Starting today, we've added the ability to refine your searches with the "Nearby" tool in the Search Options panel.

One of the really helpful things about this tool is that it works geographically — not just with keywords — so you don't have to worry about adding "Minneapolis" to your query and missing webpages that only say "St. Paul" or "Twin Cities." Check it out by doing a search, clicking on "show options" and selecting "Nearby."

[maximillianos]

A few changes I can think of:

1. Facebook has surpassed 400 million users. Is poised to surpass Google as the most visited web site.

2. Google now considers site speed a ranking factor.

3. Nofollow for pagerank sculpting is out

[xinjiang]

Wow.Two years.Welcome back;

[lawman]

Welcome to Foo xinjiang. :)

[pmkpmk]

OK, I thought I'd share the good news: I am starting a new job in May, and the whole SEM/SEO area will be part of it. Main focus however is classic marketing.

[tangor]

Biggest thing missed was Lawman in pants with his new Shelby. :)

Glad to have you active again!