Klaus Patzwaldt interviewed Danny Sullivan, on the ocassion of Search Engine
Strategies 2002 in Munich.
This interview should show a (small) personally part of Danny Sullivan. He answered
10 questions about him and about search engines.
1. Danny, how do you arrange a normal working day?
I work at home and tend to begin around 9:30 or 10am. I go through all new
email and respond to as much as possible. I also check out any new developments
at search engine forums such as WebmasterWorld.com and review news articles about
search engines that have been posted in our own SearchDay newsletter and other
newsletters. That can easily occupy
my time until around lunch. My afternoon is then spend on research or writing.
I'll investigate new stories and update material such as ratings charts on the
site. I may also do some interviews. I usually stop work around 5pm, which is
when my family has dinner. However, I
often then have phone interviews between 6pm and 7pm, as many of the search engines
are based in California, and that's the morning time for them. I also may do interviews
after that time as necessary, as well as provide interviews to newspaper reporters
and others writing about
search engines and looking for an opinion.
That's a fairly "typical" day. However, during the last few days
of each month, I go into "newsletter mode," where I'm working on many
stories to go out in my monthly Search Engine Report newsletter. It's common that
I
might work late during this period to finish up articles that I want to include.
There's always more material than I can cover personally, but
that doesn't stop me from at least trying!
2. What make you usually sunday afternoon?
I play with my children or do all the small home repair things around the house
that my wife has been waiting for me to finish! If the weather
is good, we spend time out in the garden. I never work on the weekends.
I used to, but if you work from home, you have to make some firm rules so that
work does not rule your life. I finally decided in 1999 that I wouldn't work on
the weekends, and I've stuck to that. It actually helps make work better, because
having a break gives you a clear head when you get back into search engines issues.
3. Danny, you talk to me some german snippets, i was very impressed. What
has you inspired to learn a little bit german?
When I was 11, I went to Hawaii to visit my aunt, who lives in Maui. I went
on a boat to go snorkeling and met a German boy who was my age. We sent letters
to each other for a short time, though we fell out of touch. However, in high
school, we all had to study a language. German was offered, and because of my
prior connection, I took it. Unfortunately, our school dropped the German courses,
so I then had to take French for two years. When I went to college, I resumed
my study of German, as we needed to study another language as a requirement to
have a degree in English. I studied German for two years, with a further course
on German literature.
As you know from talking with me, sadly, my German is very poor (though far
better than my French!). However, I hope to improve it in the future. My sister-in-law
married a German in Munich, so I have both a neice and nephew who speak the language.
We want our children to be able to speak with their cousins in both English and
German, so I expect we'll all be taking courses in the coming years.
4. How are your impressions from germany as country, and the german SE-market?
As a country, I've always enjoyed Germany. The people have always been very
nice, and everything is very efficient and well-run. Most of our time has been
near Munich, and I always enjoy getting to the beer gardens in the summer to eat.
Sadly, while I know the beer is supposed to be good, I never liked the taste of
beer -- so I've missed out on that!
As for German SEO, it's difficult to say. I get the impression that things
are about 9-12 months behind the transition the US made, where the emergence of
paid listings has caused many SEO companies to review their business models and
consider new ways of offering services. Germany has really only have paid listings
to my knowledge for a few months, so it's understandable that this segment of
search engine marketing is only now beginnning to grow and have an impact. I also
think you'll see a far greater drives in SEO for ways to measure conversion, rather
than rankings. This happened in the US, because as getting visitors from search
engines has become more expensive, there's a greater awareness that it's important
to get only traffic with a high chance of converting.
5. What are your significantly projects, where you working for?
My associate editor Chris Sherman and I have just completed a relevancy test
of the major search engines, and you'll see us continue to budget time for further
tests. It's an area we and others have been neglecting. It's easy to get lost
in the theory and talk of search engines and much more interesting when you show
specific examples of how they work well -- and when they fail.
6. Can you imagine a live without search engines? ;-)
A live for everyone without search engines? Today, it is hard to imagine it,
because we are so used to having them. I can't see us going back -- but of course,
most of my life we did NOT have them, so I certainly can remember ways of getting
information without them. To me, that's a big challenge for many people. They
have become so search engine dependent that they forget there are other ways to
get data.
7. What is the biggest advantage which SE's bring to user ?
Easy, fast access to answers and information on millions of topics.
8. What is the biggest challenge for search engines, today?
Understanding when to provide the best answers. If you do a search for a product,
do you want to buy it or just want information about it? If you want to buy, a
shopping search engine list would be better for you. If you want information,
then a good database of product reviews might be helpful. The challenge is knowing
which source data to provide.
9. What dou you think, how works a search engine in 5 years?
I suspect they'll be similar, in that we'll search via a search box and still
get a list of results. However, they might ask us more questions to better decide
which results to get. And, we'll certainly see more specialized databases: legal
search, news search, product search, financial search, government search and so
on.
10. Could you give some advice for german search engines markters?
I think the best advice that might be overlooked to measure the success of
your campaigns by conversion, not by rankings. Examine what happens to people
after they arrive at your web site (or those of your clients). Are they failing
to do what you hope for them to do? If so, then you need to make further changes
to better capture those visitors. Otherwise, they'll go back to their original
search, find someone else who better delivers information and forget about you
from that point onward.
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