(I’m traveling, but lots of good stuff from the recent SMX West search conference is now live — plus some new stuff — so I wanted to talk about it.)

At the SMX West search conference I did an Ignite talk about Google’s SEO audit that it did on itself. This was part of a global week of Ignite talks. An Ignite talk has 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, for a total of five minutes. Thanks to Aya Zook and Vanessa Fox for organizing, and Brady Forrest (the creator of Ignite) for being the emcee. To help you get the full experience, I’m embedding the video below, then the slides I used (complete with auto-advance every 15 seconds), so you can watch the slides while you listen to the audio:

Don’t miss the other Ignite talks from SMX! There’s some gems in there.

In the olden days, PR professionals might have gotten an hour or more of face time in which to sweet talk someone over a meal.  Now, they occasionally make pitches in 140 characters.  So you can imagine how the information shared during a conference session titled "Online PR: Where to Next?" could prove quite useful to a lot of people.

(Coverage of SES Chicago continues at WebProNews Videos.  Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)

Beth Harte, who wears a number of hats (including that of Community Manager) for MarketingProfs, started by stating that press releases and visibility are just part of the game.  Advertising, issues management, public affairs, lobbying, and investor relations all count, as well, and she stressed, "Real public relations is relationships."

Harte also said, "Social media tools will change.  People being social won't."  She recommended listening, communicating, partnering, telling your story, and getting people to talk as a result.

Next, Marty Weintraub, President of aimClear, talked about the intersection of PR and SEO.  Stay interested in links, and write SEO-savvy press releases.  Get social media profiles ranked, and do guest blogging stints if possible.  Finally, provide people a reason to rebroadcast your name (and do a little good) by helping charities.  Weintraub suggested, "Give and give and give some more."

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Fri Dec 11, 2009 07:35 am

AOL's MapQuest has introduced a new look and feel that goes beyond maps and driving directions and focuses more on local search.

Starting today users can opt in via a link to try out the new MapQuest. The new redesign will replace the old version of MapQuest in about a month.

New features include:

One-box search for finding directions, maps and businesses;

*Improved My Maps with a simplified login process using other services (AOL, OpenID, Yahoo, Google, Facebook and Twitter);

*The ability to save and customize information, including MyMaps trip itineraries, and share it with others via social networks, including Facebook and Twitter;

*Ways to plan and personalize travel with notes, landmarks and short cuts; and

*Integration of Patch's local directory information into MapQuest's search results

MapQuest has also introduced a new logo. The company says the goal of the new logo is to make it "simple, clean and modern while remaining vibrant and fun."

"We are committed to providing accurate maps and directions to millions of people every day," said Christian Dwyer, Senior Vice President and General Manager,MapQuest.

  "And under the new leadership at AOL, we have invested in creating a new user experience that helps users discover what is there, nearby and along the way, making it more than how to get from Point A to Point B. The MapQuest evolution is underway and aims to transcend how consumers engage with maps by adding seamless context and sharing capabilities."

MapQuest is the second most popular mapping service behind Google Maps with 49.1 mil/> [...]

Tue Jun 29, 2010 07:15 am

Google Wave may soon make some significant strides towards winning over people who don't see the need for a new form of communication.  This week, Google semi-officially endorsed an open source project that would see Wave imitate several aspects of traditional online forums.

David Crane, the founder of Debatewise, is the developer behind the push, and he was asked to write about it on the Google Wave Developer Blog.  Crane argued, "A forum could be a killer app for Wave.  It's a tool that people already use in huge numbers for specific purposes, are used to keeping separate to their email, and will dip in and out of as required."

Crane then continued, "Wave is similar enough for them to jump in quickly and different enough for them to get, and be hooked by, the benefits. . . .  Wave could enhance and improve upon some of the most important features of a forum and through acclimatisation, will encourage them to use it for a world of other purposes."

So Crane - and/or Google - is looking for developers to help realize three goals.  First, he'd like to see a way of grouping waves around subject matters.  The second objective is to encourage participation using things like karma levels and trophies.  Finally, he's interested in implementing trust mechanisms to distinguish between helpful and useless individuals.

It should be interesting to see how this project progresses.  Google Wave still doesn't seem to have found an audience in its original form, so perhaps Google will lend Crane some additional support in order to speed up the process.