Google Inside

SES NY 2008 has been a lot of fun. It’s been exciting to see old faces that only make it out to the conferences and it was good to get back into the party groove with everyone.

Tracing back to Monday night with the Live.com Webmaster Dinner, where Ani hosted the event, I was able to catch up with her again for another party. She decided to sport her Microsoft shirt.

Ani is still fairly new to the SEO industry itself, but she’s been involved in search for a number of years. We welcome her with open arms and a warm smile as she ventures out and becomes the new face of Live.com’s Webmaster Center. You can read her blog on msdn.com.

We took some time to talk about the future of Live.com’s Webmaster Central and the direction of it. The team realizes they are lacking features, lacking data, and a number of other things, but they are working on it and plan for an early Spring 2008 release of features.

Walking away from the events and discussions, I have a strong feeling that Live.com is ready to become a player in the industry. I may have thought otherwise before because of the lack of communication between Live.com and the webmasters, but the tides are turning.

Live.com is ready to participate and be interactive.

As a final note, it almost seems like because they’re still so young in the search industry, they’re more open to becoming friends with webmasters and simply trying to figure out what will work, for us. Google, I can’t say I have the same feeling. Google is extending their hand out and certainly making an effort, but it still seems they are a bit clammed up, sometimes lacking in e-mail communication.