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Three new members are joining the Search Engine Strategies (SES) advisory board, joining 11 current members to guide the future direction of the search marketing conference series.

The new advisory board members are: Brett Crosby, group PPM at Google; Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing; and Stewart Quealy, VP of content development at Incisive Media.

Quealy, the senior person responsible for creating conference program content for the SES events, will also take over as co-chair of the board, along with Mike Grehan, global KDM officer at Acronym Media and SES London conference chairman.

“I’m proud to have been a primary speaker with SES for many years — and even prouder to be taking on this new role with the global advisory board,” Grehan said. “I’m working together with people in the industry I have great respect for. I’m confident we’ll continue to maintain Search Engine Strategies’ reputation as the leading global search marketing conference series well into the future.”

“As a longstanding and dedicated member of the SES content team, I’m happy to play an expanded role in the evolution and continued success of the event series. I look forward to working closely with Mike Grehan and the rest of the advisory board in shaping the future direction and ongoing growth of SES,” Quealy said.

The remaining advisory board members include:

“We want to thank three of our original advisory board members, who are now rotating out of the lineup, as well as welcome three new members who are joining the SES Advisory Board as we chart our way in this ever-changing industry,” said Matt McGowan, VP and publisher for Incisive Media.

The members of the SES Advisory Board who are rotating out are:

“I enjoyed the years spent with SES and SEW, yet the demands on my time are tremendous with WebVisible and the companies I advise,” said Ryan, the outgoing SES Advisory Board chairman. “I am so pleased to be passing on the baton to Mike Grehan. SES has a bright future.”

The long-awaited unveiling of Microsoft’s new search product finally came today at the D7 conference. Wall Street reacted positively with a 2.11% increase on MSFT, higher than the DJIA of 0.67%. Here’s how the media and blogosphere reacted:

First, here’s a summary of Steve Ballmer’s appearance at the D7 conference.
From the Live Search blog: The sound of found: Bing!
The Official Press Release

5 Things I Want to Know About Bing - PC World
Microsoft’s Bing: Powerset’s role, market share, brand (and other burning questions)
Microsoft Reveals Its New Search Engine [Video] – Mashable
To Bing or not to Bing? Hands on with Microsoft’s new search – Ars Technica
Hands On with Microsoft’s Bing Search – PC Mag
Microsoft’s Lu on Bing Search: ‘A First Step’ – Business Week
What Has to Happen for Bing to Win – AdAge
Bloodied By Google, Microsoft Tries Again on Search – NY Time
Confirmed: Microsoft’s New Search Engine is Called ‘Bing,’ Opens June 3rd – Gizmodo
Bing it on: Microsoft overhauls search, again

Interestingly enough, the best source for Bing news was searching Twitter.

CarMax is reporting that searches for sports cars is steadily on the rise this year. April’s sports car searches were up 6% over March and 8% over January.

The Ford Mustang took over the most searched car spot in April, something it hasn’t done in years. Three other sports cars appeared in the top 20. They are:

“Whether customers are searching for that ‘instant classic’ or just a fun ride for the summer, carmax.com is the best place to find a car of any vehicle type that matches their needs,” said Ann Yauger, director of carmax.com. “Within the CarMax inventory there are thousands of vehicles of all makes and models for customers to choose from.”

Related Reading:
Searches for Hybrids Up 43% from March to July 2008
Carmax.com Launches Miles Per Gallon Search Feature

SES Toronto 2009 is coming up June 8-10 and one of the event’s association sponsors is the Atlantic Canada Internet Marketing Association (ACIMA).

ACIMA is an industry association dedicated to unifying the Internet Marketing community in the Atlantic Provinces (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland), as well as to promoting and sharing Internet marketing knowledge and best practices. The association mandate is comprised of Education and Training, Networking, Information Sharing, Representation and Profile Raising.

To learn a little more about ACIMA, I interviewed the association’s President, Rob Swick. As founding President of ACIMA, Swick coordinates the overall association activities. He also leads the charge for the association’s promotion and growth.

Jarboe: ACIMA is a relatively new trade association, dedicated to unifying the Internet marketing community in the Atlantic Provinces (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland) and to promoting best practices in this growing field. What are Canadians in this region most excited about in this Web 2.0 world? Any particular tools or developments that stand out?

Swick: Not on thing in particular. But Atlantic Canadians are famous talkers. It’s a very social culture, so Web 2.0 in general has a high appeal. One thing I was surprised to see that even government seems to be shifting to Web 2.0 press releases. Usually government would be slow to adopt things like that but there’s a real sense of understanding of this particular sea change.

Jarboe: How would you characterize Canadian search habits or queries? Or for that matter, in the Atlantic Provinces? Do search trends hover more heavily around generic keywords?

Swick: It’s amazing how persistent broad search queries are, but the numbers show that search tail is producing better visitors, lower bounce rates, more time on the site, so we target those and we target more broadly and with more depth. I imagine it’s the same all around.

Jarboe: Canada’s population is about 1/10th of that of the United States. How underdeveloped is e-commerce in Canada and where do you see ACIMA’s role in expanding it?

Swick: Until a few years ago this was a real issue. People still talked about whether ecommerce was safe and reports kept showing that the smaller percentage of Canadians who DID want to shop online couldn’t find Canadian etailers to shop from. Things have changed a lot – and quickly. I think Canadians gravitated first to things like online banking and paying bills online. Maybe it’s the cold! Canadians love doing things from the comfort of their homes. And now that they’ve made the leap numbers for even big purchase items are showing that Canadians are catching up quickly and embracing the convenience and value you can get through ecommerce. Kijiji apparently is growing more rapidly here, and especially in Atlantic Canada, than in the US.

Jarboe: How important is the .CA domain when creating a Canadian website? Is .COM considered an affront?

Swick: Both are fine in Canada. They’re the most common extensions. Dot-ca is what a lot of companies have because it allows Canadian companies to actually get their name as a domain. Dotcom is just as acceptable if you happen to have it. Either – or. We’re practical people. I don’t think anyone sees dotcom as ‘American’. It’s just ‘Internet’. You even see some provincial extensions (for Nova Scotia for example it’s domain.ns.ca) though most people find those cumbersome and irritating. They’re more common in Quebec which has a more nationalistic leaning. You’ve probably heard a little about that – remember the time on the Simpson’s that Homer was reading the newspaper and said “hmmm…they’re holding a referendum in Canada”. Okay, probably not.

Jarboe: Social media tools are all the buzz right now. Twitter, in particular, is receiving lots of attention. What’s your take on Twitter? Do you see the Internet marketing community in the Atlantic Provinces using it effectively to market their business?

Swick: I think it’s still mostly for early adopters, though they’re a passionate, active, and involved group and I think it’s the actual personalities – I could name a handful of names – that are building networks of Tweeting friends and followers and they’re taking the message into their companies that this is a cool and efficient way to get the word around on what’s happening now. As a mainstream tool… Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, each one I think currently has a thin slice of influence. At our AIM conference we have three different talks on Social Media. The interest is there. The adoption…. just starting.

Jarboe: What do you look forward to most in attending SES Toronto? Any particular panels or sessions?

Swick: I always enjoy meeting and seeing the speakers I haven’t seen before. I’m also more interested in optimizing for different countries and languages so will be looking forward to hearing and talking about that. I first worked in Montreal so have done a lot of optimizing for French engines – but now many of our projects are truly global so there’s a lot to learn about specific engines in other countries, usage and behavioural patterns. Lots and lots to learn – it’s a big globe.

Recently, Visual Design Lead Doug Bowman left Google because he felt it was too constricting of an environment for a designer. I wasn’t surprised. Marissa Mayer holds a tight leash on all things Google design-wise. Managing a design effort that’s based on an old style serif font with primary colors and micromanaged by an executive with a programming background is probably not the dream of most cutting edge designers.

But don’t feel bad for Bowman. The hottest tech company out there right now has picked him up. Twitter has tapped Bowman to be their Creative Director.

When you think of Twitter and design, a few things come to mind:

It will be interesting to see where Bowman takes Twitter. There’s no doubt the company is evolving. With the inevitable monetization methods on the horizon, design will likely play a key role.

But design also has its role in simply updating Twitter as is. Twitter has tweaked the front page a lot since its inception, from testing a search box to a sidebar overhaul. The design efforts have been squarely under co-founder Biz Stone’s responsibilities.

Of course, Biz is a very busy dude right now, so hiring a Creative Director appears to be a wise delegation.