Last Tuesday we checked out the exhibitors at SES (Search Engine Strategies) 2006 Toronto. We made the decision early on to skip the conference and just check out the ‘expo’. Next year, however, I think we will attend the whole thing.

SES pits itself as the ‘premier event for search engine marketing and optimization’ and while that might be true it still doesnt mean that they attract alot of exhibitors (around 20 by our count). The exhibitors included heavyweights Google and MSN and then an assortment of sem related companies (both local and international).

We spent about an hour and half there on Tuesday morning (arriving during a conference session - so very few people were at the expo). We spent most of our time chatting it up with the Google and MSN people who all seemed very interested in our experiences as sem professional using their products. Unfortunately, half the time they had no idea what we were talking about with regards to Google Adwords and MSN Adcenter. Case in point was the fact that none of the Adwords Googlers knew anything about Google’s recent announcement to charge for the Adwords API (I had to use their laptop to show them the Google PR).

Well at least I got a Google yo-yo!

btw MSN had the weirdest giveaway - MSN Adcenter Napkins (no the napkins aren’t branded - only the package that they came in is)