Sara Holoubek

Forget the hustle and bustle of downtown New York; the endless blanket of buildings outside of the city center is what impresses me most. In most cities, a taxi ride to the airport or a train trip to its final destination reveals brick complexes that house thousands of tenants, as well as a billboard or two.

For the first time in years, I'm not heading to the Search Engine Strategies San Jose show — its 10th anniversary edition (Gasp). Yes, it feels wrong, but client and travel schedules did not align so well this year, and so I will have to live vicariously through blogs, videos and images posted by others this week.

Over the last few years, online video consumption has grown exponentially. However, video advertising has failed to meet the expectations of investors — even the most popular publishers struggle to sell sufficient inventory.

It must be fascinating to see the world through Google's eyes. At least, this is what I thought when Susan Humphries flew in from Mountain View, CA, to give a keynote at SMX Sao Paulo, the first major search engine marketing conference held in Brazil.

Our industry spends a lot of time talking about search. From newbies to experts, I have to think that we are cranking out content at unprecedented levels. There are no less than 50 sizable conferences, hundreds of columns, and thousands of blogs, newsletters, videos, Twitterfeeds and other means of communicating what folks want you to know about search engine marketing. So last week, it was refreshing to hit pause on the pundit button and actually see tools and technology in action at the July Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization New York local working group meeting.

Just when I thought it was safe to go outside, a new Google killer has been reported to be on the loose. Monday morning, start-up search engine cuil.com was launched, accompanied by a rapid fire of cheerleading, speculation and, ultimately, ridicule. Search experts around the globe threw five to 10 queries at the engine before declaring Cuil a failure.

For the average consumer, online product research is a double-edged sword. While Web 2.0 platforms have facilitated the creation and distribution of user-gener­ated reviews, sorting through these articles and comments can be a daunting task for the consumer. The very same technol­ogy built to improve the Web has actually made the Web a bit more unwieldy.

What exactly happens when one invites the cast of an Italian opera over for a soiree? Endless discussions of Wagner? A tribute to Pavarotti? Debate over Deborah Voigt's weight loss? Surprisingly, a baritone introduced Google to the conversation early in the evening. From hashing the ads that appear in Gmail to relaying how Google Maps on an iPhone saved the last performance, we spent a good hour discussing how search has transformed society.

Ignore the fact that we are in the thick of summer; the fall recruiting season has officially started. Just as sweaters and tweed skirts adorn department store windows, job requisitions are populating the inboxes coast-to-coast. Recruiters with a front-row seat to this fashion show are reporting a common trend: Search has returned as a must-have for Fall 2008.

Last week, a marketer asked me what her rights where when terminating a relationship with a search engine marketing agency. Her incumbent agency refused to pass over anything but ad copy. No keywords, no historical performance, nothing. I am sure there are other absolute horror stories out there, but my gut says that this is not typical of most SEM agency-client relationships.