Staying at home for SES NYC 2007

Hey everybody, I talked about my travel plans earlier this year and wanted to give you a quick update. I’m staying at home for SES NYC 2007, still planning on taking a fair chunk of May off, and planning to hit the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) conference in June.

Why am I skipping SES NYC? Well, the main reason is that my inlaws are visiting, but I also want to crunch on some stuff at work and make sure that things are in good shape for me to take time off in May. It doesn’t hurt that the conference will be very well-documented by Barry Schwartz and his crack team o’ conference bloggers.

The final reason to stay home this time is that one of my 2007 goals is to get more Googlers in the spotlight. Here, go read this article if you speak French. Now my high-school French is a little rusty, but I see the words “Matt Cutts” in that post a lot. For example, take this fragment:

Les algorithmes de Matt Cutts rentrent à l’intérieur de nos bibliothèques, peuvent même vous servir à indexer votre disque dur. Matt Cutts sait tout ça.

Automated translation tools render that as

The algorithms of Matt Cutts return inside our libraries, can to even be used you to index your hard disk. Matt Cutts knows all that.

The only “algorithms of Matt Cutts” that I’ve got tucked away is stuff like how I brush my teeth. 🙂 It’s not good to confuse “Matt Cutts” with all the amazing work that other Googlers do. Even in just webspam, I’m fortunate to work with a talented team of incredible individuals. For example:
– Brian White is spending six months in Dublin to work more closely on webspam in Europe, and he’s working with an amazing group of people in Dublin.
– Adam Lasnik spoke at a webmaster conference in Australia earlier this month. Barry Smyth, the show director, said “I think Adam was on stage for about 4 hours straight.” And Adam just got done talking to webmasters at SES Munich. He was joined in Munich by Stefanie, who has been crucial in introducing the Google German webmaster blog. (I’ll be talking more about international webmaster communication more soon. Consider this a teaser.)
– Aaron D’Souza just got back from speaking at a different webmaster conference in Australia and is speaking at ad:tech San Francisco soon.
– Evan Roseman will be on panels and gathering feedback at SES NYC 2007. Evan also represented Google at SES Chicago last year.

And that’s just a sample of publicly-known people from the quality group who are working to improve quality or improve communication offline and online — there are a lot more people behind the curtain. 🙂 That also doesn’t even begin to count the hard-working people of the webmaster console (Vanessa Fox, Amanda Camp, Peeyush Ranjan, and lots more), or the people who keep an eye on Google’s discussion groups, the folks that post on our official blogs, Shuman talking about invalid clicks, or the Google Reader team listening to feedback and responding.

There are so many more people behind the curtain at Google who live and breathe search or who want to help our users (or the world). If you get to know some more Googlers throughout 2007, that will make me happy. So if you go to SES NYC, find Evan Roseman from my team, tell him hello, and then tell him what you want to see Google working on. 🙂

P.S. I think the French article requested to hear more about my cats and the books I’ve been reading. I will try to oblige with some posts along those lines. 🙂

44 Responses to Staying at home for SES NYC 2007 (Leave a comment)

  1. Matt

    For sure the other Googlers have been doing a great job, especially on webmasters related forums.

    However, we really don’t know much about them as persons. Maybe the need blogs like yours where they publish other things than just talking about spam, duplicates, invalid clicks etc..

  2. Before I go to bed, I check my Google Reader. Ok you post again.
    You looks work so hard for Google.

  3. Bonjour de Paris ! ça va ?

    As many french readers comments on the Liberation newspaper website, the article about Matt and SEO is not very well documented. The author seems to be interested more in cats than SEO, hinting that he is not very confortable with search engines mecanisms. So at the end of the page, you feel like

    I mean, I am happy to discover Matt Cutts taste for Nine Inch Nails but I fancy more an aticle about NIN webmarketing than a review about Reznor next record (no offense Matt, you can do both and I hope you’ll do both but I read you mainly because I am looking for SEO informations).

  4. “Amanda Camp”, I recognize that name. She came and taught my software engineering class one day last quarter when the teacher was out. Hi Amanda!

  5. Harith, not a bad idea about getting some non-SEO info about folks out there (if they’re willing). Personally, I can never decide whether cat/book/gadget posts just annoy people who show up to hear about SEO. Maybe I’ll remind people about how to subscribe to just the SEO posts and then feel free to do some more non-SEO stuff. Here’s how to get just my SEO posts:
    http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ignoring-me/

    DavidYin, I enjoy it. 🙂

  6. I may answer to this blog that not everybody is reading here to know about your cat, your car or which burger you prefer most at which restaurant.

    I prefer that you talk about problems that may occur to webmasters, duplicate content, moving the homepage to another server etc.
    It’s not all about google algorithm.

    btw. If you wish some topic to talk about, I am still thinking of merging 2 sites for the sake of the name, where A has the best position in Google and B the name I would like to use. How can I merge both so that the content of A gets on B without loosing the place for A, where A has the most backlinks that I have no chance of controlling (like blogging links). How long do I have to set a redirect? Is 4 years enough?
    Such webmastering questions are why I am coming here and not because the brand of your car.

  7. Concerning the French article, I’ve read it and it’s not so interesting. The article can be seen as an introduction to the problem of finding informations. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough reflexion behind this text. A lot of facts, but no well-defined structure to serve author’s point of view.

  8. I can see Harith already said what I wanted to say 🙂
    It might help if the others have blogs like yours where they give straight (Google-related) talk with open comments. It’s also important IMO that the comments don’t end up as one-way street: you gotta get involved and reply to questions or criticism in the comments (like you do).

    As for the blog topics, I like the mixture of topics as well as the optional separation of feeds. Though I have to add I remember that once or twice you posted an “I’m away for some time” message into the non-search feed only, and I have to say it would be nice to have these kinds of messages in the search-feed as well, because it’s kind of relevant to know when you’re gone as people might email you with search-related questions.

    By the way, the blog bar at the bottom of your post feels kind of, uhm, unnecessary… I can’t find the use of stuff like this display that was showing just now:
    http://blog.outer-court.com/temp/matt-cutts-bar.png

  9. Personally I like cats, and gadgets and well there is all sorts I find interesting, so I am more than happy for Matt to continue posting about whatever he feels like, after all… its HIS blog lol 😉 The fact that we get good and useful info off him too is a bonus in my opinion…

    There are always the Google forums for those wanting a techie only approach, regardless of whether you feel their feedback is as useful 🙂

  10. Ahh but matt, you’re the friendly face of Google now, pretty soon it’ll be the Matt Cutts engine, and then the “cutts engine”. Pretty soon you’ll be living in a volcano fortress laughing manically at any available opportunity.

    I say good luck!

  11. German,

    Matt can post about whatever he wants. Why is he the most liked of all Googlers? because he is by far the coolest. Not only he has a blog where he shares bits of his life, tips, SEO stuff, but he also responds to questions from webmasters. Think about it: he is not paid to do that! – Matt great job. I hope more Googlers will not just get on the spotlight, but get THEMSELVES on the spotlight like you do.

    Thanks for your hard work.

    Mauricio

  12. Hi there,
    Just read the French article about you and google, they state that “Google gives more weight to a site in French if it has an IP address localised in France” can you confirm this as my site is hosted in New York on a dot.com and I would like to know if this is to my disadvantage? (I have a very friendly and efficient hosting company).
    Thank, Ian;
    P.S. I know that my site is a bit sloppy but it was my first attempt and dates a little!

  13. Matt,

    That little blog search thingy that you´re using has a problem. In internet explorer 7.0 it shows the scrollbar of the iframe. (in firefox it does not), and in both browsers clicking the link makes the page open inside the iframe. It looks a little dumb especially since it says its powered by Google.

    Just to let you know

    Peter

  14. Great to hear you are going to SMX, maybe I will meet you this time – you always have a big crowd around you.

    I can hear people signing up for SMX now because you made this announcement that you will be there. I am sure Danny is happy.

  15. Matt,

    I for one am very greatful to the team behind “the Matt”:) As for some of the team’s blogs, Adam has his own that I infrequently read, as he infrequently posts. I do believe he is starting to develop a pretty good following as well, better watch out Matt, instead of “Cuttlets” we’ll soon be seeing “Adamites”;) In fact, maybe you should bring Adam with you to SMX, I’ll even make up the t-shirts and hire some models to wear them.

    Also, I enjoy hearing about the personal side of you folks, it just makes me realize that not all big corporations are their logo, there is a human side and as such makes me feel a better affinity with the company.

  16. Matt, Webmaster and SEO aren’t interchangeable terms.

    Related, yes.

    But, a webmaster might not be an SEO and an SEO might not be a webmaster.

    Most of the time when you write ‘webmaster’ you really mean ‘SEO’.

  17. Maybe I should get a blog and lay claim to the Adamites first. They’re mine by divine birthright anyway, not Lasnik’s.

  18. Matt,

    I feel like SES NYC is like the diet tab of SES’s anyway, SES San Jose and Vegas PUBCON are the bomb and we all know it. Don’t get me wrong I’m going, but that has more to do with me living in Boston a three hour drive away than just about anything else. This year I know of a few people including myself who are going for the networking only, i.e free exhibit hall only passes and lots of party crashing.

    I love the cat postings and the personal stuff I feel like only new school SEO’s always have a boner for “new” info and expect it from you, so don’t change for them, keep it coming.

    That’s why people love the “Matt Cutts” so much, sure you work at Google and can not only banish dookie sites into never ending darkness, and fill us all in on the good stuff SEO’s need to know, but you also do one hell of a dinosaur impression, and have a swell t-shirt collection as far as I can tell.

    Ass kissing aside can you drop some science on these 950 and +30 penalty’s that are all the rage over at SEW, and Webmaster World?

    What the dilly yo?

    hugs and kisses
    Bob

  19. Hi matt. Im a daily reader of your blog and love your insight. Please tell me if you know why sites are taken out and put back in randomly it seems like. I do some work for some companies and I have a couple websites of my own and my personal website has been taken out for my main term which is tiffany lamps. It has been out for a while and comes and goes. I work with another company to and their website and a couple others in their main search term sign letters is also taken out randomly and put back in 3-6 days later. Its not across the board but jsut select terms randomly. It really affects business! Some insight would be great.

    Thanks
    Ben

  20. sherrillh

    “I do believe he is starting to develop a pretty good following as well, better watch out Matt, instead of “Cuttlets” we’ll soon be seeing “Adamites”;)”

    I’m sure Matt is both proud and happy for Adam’s success. Because it was Matt who invited Adam to join Google. Here is what Matt wrote at that time :

    “After that, I kept my eyes open for people that I’d seen around the web and respected. I wanted someone with knowledge of search and who was intelligent, nice, patient, and well-spoken. When I saw that Adam was available, I invited him down to lunch, and I liked him a lot.”

    Great choice, Matt!

  21. Hi Matt

    I noticed in your comment policy you mentioned a possible grab bag. Can you let us know when this will be happening as I have a question regarding regional domains and duplicate content that nobody can seem to answer except for a 301 redirect. This answer seems illogical if you are trying to target 2 different markets. Thanks for all your posts, its great to see the human side of google.

    Cheers

    Leo

  22. Peter (IMC) Cadastro de Sites, that’s my dumbness, not the blog-bar. If I get a chance, I’ll go patch it up. But it might take a little while.

  23. BTW, that’s a fair point, Peter Davis. I’m glad that several people still want the “normal blogger” stuff in addition to SEO-related info.

  24. We all know that Matt is skipping SES cuz all the cool spammers will be at SMX!

    Muhaha!!!

  25. If I may…
    First, I would be more than glad, if you want to, to make a translation of the article for you…But I am sure you have many persons around you who may do a better job than me 😉
    Second, I think what the article meant mosyly is that in the “scarry” age of “being spied”, of “being bought” for commercial purposes, in a world where automated machines bring you the information (and why this onformation more than this one ? Thus the feeling of being spied and being bought), it is reassuring to know that behind those machines (“your” algorithms) are some normal, sown to earth human beings who care about their cat and their inlaws (probably not in that order, lol)… And the fact that the article speaks about “your” work is because of this blog which let the readers know on “your” work (which influences many researches) as well as a “normal” life…

  26. Talk about 😮 Irong

    It was the likely three posts / complaints that SearchEnginesWeb made in this Blog that finally planted that idea for SESNYC to change from February to April.

    And considering the weather last month 😀 in New York City – that idea may generate millions of dollars in extra revenue for them.

    It would have been nice to get a Thank you, or fee conference pass…..

    but, such is life…………..

    …..Oh, SearchEnginesWeb!

  27. SEW: it’s a shame that your brain isn’t the size of your ego and its corresponding rhetoric, or the planet Earth would be a utopia by now.

    Matt, just a thought to extend on Harith’s idea (since it’s a good one…big up yaself, Harith): if you really want to get them into the spotlight, what about giving them contributor accounts on your blog and letting them do some guest posts the odd time?

  28. Mauricio

    I’m not saying that Matt is not doing a great job. He is doing a great job.
    I am just answering to this french blog saying Matt should leave the Google things alone to talk more about his car, his cats, his food etc.
    There is something superficial about newspapers. They all want the most intimate details of well known people and in the end these people have no personal life anymore.
    I have never been interested about who likes whom and what, who gets where on holiday, which car they buy and which clothes their like. I think they have a right to a non official life like everybody has and being well known does not mean that Newspaper should have the right to ask more intimate details so that they could make a more juicy article in their newspaper that other people could read thinking “if he bought that I have to buy that, I will go to this restaurant because I may find Matt”.
    Maybe if you could read the French article you will see that they are asking more than just Matt would talk about their cats. They are saying since he can’t give the secrets of Google he should give more informations about cats and there have been too much things about Biddady and infrastructure things lately.
    I think if they have the right to tell him to tell us more about his personal life, I have the right to tell him I prefer hearing about technical things.
    Please think, what would happen if Matt gave the brand of his car?
    Surely there would be some marketing activity from the car maker saying “Matt’s preferred car – if Matt loves it you have to buy it”. That will be the beginning of the end.

  29. Yeh Matt – Stop taking all the credit for Google – :p

  30. German’s got a point there. As fascinating as personal information on public figures can be (and let’s face it, Matt’s a public figure now), there are some things we just don’t need to know and that don’t do anything.

    If we start that, it’s only a matter of time until the paparazzi team up with blackhats to paw through Matt’s garbage and recycling bins.

    “Here’s a shredded-up document containing a crucial element of the Google algorithm!”
    “Okay, cool! I’ll trade you that for this discarded Meow Mix can! That’s crucial Emmy information!”

  31. I’m sure there will be plenty of Google people at SES, NYC, as there is a beautiful Google facility there. Last I stopped by, there were over 500 people at a NextNY event, comprised of both Engineers and Sales people. They’ve moved to a bigger facility since then and took over 2 floors of building that also hosts the biggest Level 3 collocation facility in NYC. Anyway, I’ll be there Thursday for anyone who wants to talk about HitTail or long tail marketing.

  32. Well Matt it would be really happening event! We are planning for similar buzz here in India for the SEO Meet in Delhi. I am privileged to be a speaker there.

    Hope to see you sometime in my life.

    Take care

    Manish Pandey

  33. Shameless plug:

    On the theme of smart Googlers speaking at upcoming conferences, let me point to the AMA’s Hot Topics in Search day, happening April 20th in San Fran. Amanda Camp, Software Engineer, Webmaster Tools, Google, will be speaking.
    If you’re free on April 20th and in SF, the day promises to be a great one. Check out the event here:

    http://www.marketingpower.com/aevent_event474904C240ACTWIMP.php

    Cheers

    Alan

  34. > It was the likely three posts / complaints that SearchEnginesWeb made in this Blog that finally planted that idea for SESNYC to change from February to April.

    It wasn’t.

    Cats, more of them, Matt. Maybe some more about your phone, too 🙂

  35. German Said :
    Maybe if you could read the French article you will see that they are asking more than just Matt would talk about their cats. They are saying since he can’t give the secrets of Google he should give more informations about cats and there have been too much things about Biddady and infrastructure things lately.
    I think if they have the right to tell him to tell us more about his personal life, I have the right to tell him I prefer hearing about technical things.

    I am sorry, but that is not the way I understood the newspaper article…?
    I think (but I may be mistaken) that the journalist meant that it was “reassuring” to know that someone who is behind an important part of how we do find and select informations today is “normal” enough (please, excuse my English if this sounds offending, it is not meant at all in a “bad” sense) to speak about his cats and his favorite Football or Baseball teams and be down to earth like Mr Cutts is. It has not much to do with wanting more “private details” really, but saying that giving such “news” as Birthdays or favorite places to eat makes someone who plays a part as important on something so crucial as information finding and selecting a little more closer to the everyday world we live in and gives a feeling of “reassurance” ?

  36. Christèle,

    Don’t you think there is a kind of voyeurism from the press in wanting details that are none of our business. Does it makes him naming the restaurant he likes or the brand of his car more human that he is already.

    Quote:
    Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé pour que Matt Cutts, depuis quelques mois, ait ainsi ralenti le blog personnel, au profit des questions techniques ? Des soucis ? Le mois prochain, il prend huit jours de vacances, ne relèvera même pas ses e-mails, dit-il et emporte quelques livres à lire, ce qui me fait plaisir : mais, il y a quelques mois, il nous aurait donné les titres.

    Unquote:
    What happened with Matt Cutt so that since a couple of month ago he slowed down his personal blog to the profit of technical questions? Worries? Next month he is going to take 8 days free, is not even going to check his e-mails, as he says and is going to take some books to read, what I appreciate: however a couple of month ago he would have named titles.

    Quote:
    Pourquoi Matt Cutts ne parle-t-il plus de ses chats sur son blog, et presque même plus de ses enfants ? Avant, on trouvait tout, sur le blog de Matt Cutts : le voyage pour l’enterrement de la grand-mère de son épouse, et comment il s’y est pris pour choisir son prochain téléphone portable.
    Unquote

    Why does not Matt talks about his cats on his blog anymore and hardly even from his children? Earlier, we did find about everything on Matt CuttS blog: the trip for the burial of his wife grandmother’s and how he did proceed to choose his mobile phone.

    Quote
    Pourtant, ça m’intéresse autant que les questions techniques. Ça m’intéresse même surtout. Parce que Matt Cutts n’est pas un Américain ordinaire.
    Unquote

    However it does interest me as much as the technical questions. It does interest me overall. Because Matt Cutts is not an ordinary American person.

    Don’t you think there is some kind of voyeurism. After all the one who wrote this article is not a normal person, it is a journalist and I’m afraid that if he start too much about himself, it is going to fill the newspaper about his personal details – because he is not a normal person and like any well known person with journalist stalking to the places he would love to go because of a chance of meeting him and the influence his life may have on other.

    I think it gets further than reassurance. It’s about media journalism and it gets on the wrong way, Matt knows it probably and as a consequence don’t give any specific details anymore.

    Matt, if I’m wrong, you are free to tell me.

  37. Danny Sullivan

    “Cats, more of them, Matt.”

    Well said, Danny. I second to that 🙂

  38. I only want to see cat posts if Matt ends up getting a Rottweiler that abuses the cats. Then again, I’m a dog man by nature.

  39. Adam

    Matt is a kind man. He will never dream about “subjecting” a poor Rottweiler to the power of “The Cutts Duplicates”; Emmy and Ozie 🙂

  40. I would have thought the prospect of visiting inlaws would make you want to go!!!! 😉

  41. Thought you will visit india mainly in Gulmarg great place to spent holidays for a vacation. anyways like you dedication towards Google.
    Great mate 🙂

  42. I see yahoo is doing some great things lately i hope yahoo will soon come with it pr also

  43. One of my friend is from France. I think SEO in France is becoming very popular. Just reminded me of that after reading this article.

  44. Here in Brazil there will be a web 2.0 conference and SE0-SEM will get 15 minutes of stage lol… We will get to 4 hour presentations sometime in the next 3-4 years.

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