How do you find or track websites, content and information?

For many people, it’s Google all the way. Some people even find typing in a website into Google easier than remembering an exact URL in the address bar. It’s certainly a testament to the simplicity and power of their user interface.

Having said that, people are going beyond Google.  Nearly 50% of my total blog traffic now comes from search engines. Here’s a list of search engines in order of traffic volume to this site:

1. Google
2. Google Images
3. Windows Live
4. Yahoo!
5. Digg
6. Alexa
7. del.icio.us
8. Stumbleupon
9. AOL
10. Ask
11. Earth Link
12. MSN Search
13. Comet toolbar search
14. Icerocket

Although Google still clearly rules my reference traffic – does it rule yours too?

More importantly for marketers, does your search engine marketing (SEM) and optimization (SEO) strategy include most or all of the above?

It should be noted that rates for SEM in Canada are still relatively cheap when compared to the U.S. and other mature search markets.

Combined with a good SEO strategy, you can virtually own a category in a very short period of time

The future of search? It’s social and it’s mobile. But I already referenced that here.

A few months ago I blogged about the impact of facebook on traditional print media. 

Many promoters had stopped printing flyers and started leveraging the power of the social graph available through facebook in order to reach and promote their events.

As reported by Yahoo last week, Yahoo is poised for hundreds of layoffs this week as advertising revenue has dropped significantly. 

Social Media sites have become everything Yahoo used to be – but simpler.  And easier. And more open.

Marketers have followed consumers to popular social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace. It would appear that facebook has moved on from eating the print shop’s lunch to eating the lunch of Web 1.0 sites.

Who’s next?

Over the past few weeks I’ve spent some time mapping out my conference schedule for the year. If you are interested in learning more about mobile marketing or the industry in general, I’ve listed my top 10 most important mobile conferences for 2008:

1.  Mobile Web USA. January 22-23, San Francisco. Although specific to the U.S. market, the speaker list is impressive with representation from facebook, yahoo, amazon, new york times, AOL and others. This is a great conference to go to if you want to get a jump on the mobile web.
2.  Mobile World Congress. February 11-14, Barecelona, Spain. The industry is shaped by players, if you’re not at the congress you are merely a spectator. This is the premier mobile event of the year featuring 690 GSM mobile operators across 214 territories and countries of the world.
3. Gartner Wireless & Mobile Summit. March 3-5, Chicago. Looking for the latest research, case studies and actionable recommendations? This is the conference for you.
4. CTIA Wireless. April 1-3, Las Vegas. CTIA’s spring trade show is the premier North American venue for all things wireless! This trade show has the distinction of being the largest and most comprehensive in the industry. 
5. Global Messaging Congress. May 8-9, Cannes, France. Everything mobile messaging including Ip-based, Mobile IM, SMS, and MMS and focus on advertising, enterprise messaging, conversion techniques and banking / m-payments.
6. MMA – June 10-12, New York. Agenda for this year’s event is to be posted – but it’s a great short event if you are interested in seeing what other agencies and brands are doing with Mobile Marketing. Case studies, best practices and often a platform for major announcements.
7. Canadian Telecom Summit, June 16-18, Toronto. The Canadian Telecom Summit is Canada’s pre-eminent gathering of the telecommunications industry and those with vested interests in its welfare.
8. CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment. Sept 10-12, location TBD. CTIA’s fall show is a follow-up to the spring show…but with an emphasis on content
9. Mobile Web USA, November. Location TBD. Follow-up to Winter event
10. Mobile Mondays - first monday of each month, Toronto. Small gathering of locals and out of town guests covering a variety of topics around Mobile. Not in Toronto? Check out their global site for a chapter near you.

You can easily make going to these events your full-time job – or at least you’ll need one to pay for them all! I’m hoping to get to the World Congress in February and a few others during the year. Last year I made it to the World Congress, CTIA and the MMA event in New York. I’ve also really enjoyed attending most Mobile Monday events in Toronto.

Am I missing a good one? Please comment, SMS, or email me your suggestions and I’ll add them to this list.

In the past few months we’ve been watching as Google, AOL, Yahoo, and Nokia have been making moves to extend or enter the mobile advertisting space.

Microsoft has decided to also join the party and has started placing ads on their U.S. MSN mobile page to follow efforts already made in Belgium, France, Spain, Japan, and the U.K.

The Bank of America will be one of the primary buyers of ad space – supporting their innovative mobile banking website and experience at bankofamerica.mobi. Paramount Pictures and Jaguar are the other two primary buyers.

Microsoft also plans to bring new features such as astrology, movie tickets through movietickes.com, ringtones, wallpaper, games and video clips on MSN Mobile via an agreement Microsoft has with Thumbplay.

Although Microsoft is late to the game, the mobile advertising space is still young and relatively small.  This is not like the nineties when Microsoft had to catch and kill Netscape who already dominated the browser market.