The Internet Bureau Presents

I traveled up to Auckland yesterday for The Internet Bureau Presents: New Generation Search seminar.

The presentation had switched venue to The Richmond Yacht Club in Westhaven because of expected numbers. That itself was a good sign. Interest in online advertising in New Zealand is on the up.

Y!SM's Australasian Managing Director Craig Wax introduced Yahoo!Search Marketing's new advertising engine. I think, having viewed it, that Yahoo! faces an uphill challenge in its quest to topple Google from its number one perch in NZ. The new engine did not appear to add a lot to what Google already offered and it was hard to see 'the value add'. Time will tell however and perhaps Yahoo's tie up with Xtra will make a difference longer term.

Also on show was the new redesigned Yellow Pages (sorry - make that Yellow) portal. This certainly appeared to be an improvement on the existing site and demonstrated the difference between the needs of web search (as in Google / Yahoo) and local directory search. Expect this to be launched in the next few weeks.

Dinner in Auckland delayed the return to Tauranga. It provided a good opportunity however to discuss what had been said. There is another major Internet Bureau Presents conference on 18th July which promises to bring a wider group of search industry leaders together. That's definitely one for the diary, methinks.