We’re now in the mobile, post-PC era and with mobile, we’re never really offline, we’re just asleep. In just two years, more people will use their mobile phones than PCs to go online. By 2015, there will be one mobile device for every person on earth.  Eleven years ago, forward-thinking folks in Helsinki, Finland, organized themselves into an open community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and thinkers with the purpose to foster brand neutral cooperation and cross-border business opportunities. Mobile Monday chapters now exist in 130 cities worldwide.  The local events provide a platform to demo emerging mobile products, discuss trends and brainstorm ideas. Having a global connection also allows local and regional products to benefit from an international reach, making product launches, user acquisition, crowdsourcing and funding easier to accomplish on a broader scale.

In #VegasTech, there an increasing number of startups focused on mobile or with a strong mobile component. Co-founder of the Las Vegas chapter, Dave C. Williams of Explorateur Ventures, has worked to bring Mobile Monday to Las Vegas (MoMoLV) in order to support the mobile community here. MoMo LV’s inaugural event was held on Monday, December 5^th at the Lee Business School at UNLV. A healthy turnout of mobile enthusiasts, developers, investors and entrepreneurs gathered for an evening rich with presentations, live demos and audience participation segments.

I had the opportunity to be a co-moderator for the evening, along with my husband and business partner, David Gosse.  We had the pleasure of introducing the night’s speakers and company demos. What a line-up! The evening started with Dr. Andrew Hardin, Associate Professor of the Lee Business School at UNLV, who let us in on recent initiatives to bring more tech-focused entrepreneurial education to UNLV. That’s fantastic news for a city that talks a lot about diversifying the economy beyond hospitality but has been slow to really provide outlets to make it happen. Then, Dave Williams spoke about Mobile Monday as a global organization, its success stories and how the local chapter intends to help foster innovation.

Next up was a novel feature for a Vegas tech event: demoing a local app and getting audience participation. We held a live real-time auction to raise a little money for future Mobile Monday events with Rumgr’s local garage sale app! Donated items were auctioned off using Rumgr’s iPhone application, including some serious bottles of wine (graciously donated by local tech supporters Dennis Bonilla and Michael Terpin), two Zappos $100 gift certificates (thank you, Zappos!) and a Booq laptop bag. Dylan Bathurst and Ray Morgan of Rumgr demoed how easy it is to list an item: 1) Snap a photo with your phone using the app, then 2) Post it for sale. Done! Your item is viewable by other “rummagers” who can comment and bid on the item. Banter between crowd bidders made for many LOL moments. Thanks to all the donators and winners for supporting MoMo!

Next up were mobile guest presenters Sunny Tara and Felix Danciu. Sunny demoed the just-released docBeat, a mobile app that changes how physicians connect with each other so that they can coordinate better care and spend less time trying to connect. Felix wowed our brains with a convincing mobile trends video, then shared his background in mergers and acquisitions and how his local firm, Elmcore Group will help the economy with strategic investments into mobile technologies.

Rallying the crowd again, Jimmy Jacobson of Wedgies lived demoed his simple social survey (and mobile-friendly) application. With typical humor and developer agility, Jimmy drew us into replying on our mobile devices about smartphone usage, iOS platforms, and well, things of less intelligent relevance. But that’s what keeps us loving Wedgies.

Next up, Michael Terpin, CEO of Social Radius told us about his move to Las Vegas several years’ ago and how its unique business and cultural environment provides a great launching pad for many types of businesses.

To wrap up the evening, Kevin Fong of GSR Ventures, brought his sage advice about mobile growth, China and advice for sharing within the Vegas tech community and growing our share of the market. Vegas’ tech future. In China, the mobile phone is the internet; there are 600 million subscribers to China Mobile. Kevin was responsible for starting the first international fund in China via GSR Ventures. The firm is now on its third fund, with over $1 billion in capital, focused on early-stage tech investing in China.

Oh, and I won the Wedgies audience participation prize: a bottle of Chilean Carmenere, donated by the Las Vegas Chilean Consulate! Survey says: Chile and Wedgies rock! Thank you!

Despite ending an hour late, the attendees were still jazzed, which is amazing for a 2 ½ hour event on a cold Monday night. It really put the focus on what’s so special about Vegas tech: passion, collaboration and enduring supportiveness of its people, initiatives and startups. #VegasTech and #MoMoLV FTW.

If you’re a digital marketer, you know that technology rules. And while you might be a Twitter-Mashable-TechCrunch-SearchEngineWatch-AdWeek-junkie, you realize that reading isn’t the same as doing. Or testing, or analyzing, or tweaking, or engaging, or converting, or ROI.  And when technology breaks faster than most people can constructively learn and apply, having a subject expert give you the Cliff’s Notes version of “how to” can be priceless.

That’s what Shawn Rorick set out to do when he imagined the cutting-edge digital marketing forum of Digital World Expo. He and his stellar team made it a reality last week from September 26-27 at the Mirage Events Center in Las Vegas.  Attended by about 700 digital marketers and corporate decision makers, DWE made a very distinguished debut in the marketing conference world.

Along with attracting newsworthy keynote speakers and class instructors, Shawn and the DWE team created an environment that expands beyond the typical marketing conference box. While you’re learning about yesterday’s latest tech advancement, why not also hear from some folks who are building what might be “the next big thing?” And what if those companies were actually mostly Las Vegas-based and you gave them the opportunity to talk about their innovations for free? That would make for a dynamic setting to inspire, educate and help produce meaningful connections between marketers and entrepreneurs. Such was the premise of the Digital Startup Speakers Series (DSSS) segment that was a notable part of the exhibit floor at DWE.

I was given the fantastic opportunity to help organize the startup segment along with John Hawkins of 9seeds, a fellow Las Vegas entrepreneur who runs a WordPress development and training firm. We’re both very engaged in the burgeoning Vegas tech community and we realized that this was a really generous concept by Shawn that had serious potential.

Over the course of a few weeks, we peppered out the startup stage opportunity to local startups via Twitter, the Vegas Jelly, blogs, newsletters and personal referrals. In the end, 22 startups were selected to present over the course of two afternoons, in a uniquely engaging setting. Picture a typical stage and screen setup flanked by dozens of plush leather chairs and loveseats. Oh, and an adjacent bar and pub table setup. Let’s just say that the marketers who listened into the open mic sessions were well provided for.

The 10-minute open mic segments showcased a wide array of solutions constructed by mostly local startups. Most entrepreneurs aren’t seasoned public speakers; typically, early-stage presentations are conducted in a relatively intimate environment to potential clients and investors. But the DSSS stage at the back of the exhibit hall and the quality of the audience made this venue a distinctly productive platform for startups. The presenters were asked to focus on why their technology mattered to digital marketers, not just what they had built.

Startups included: TripDibs, uStarPoker, Proximity Team, Ayloo, Rumgr, Originate, Insure Monkey, Coupons for Humanity, VoteGiant, MeFundee, BloomWorlds, VideoReceptionist, Stikki.me, Wedgi.es, 9seeds, Influential Networks, Blvd Media Group, Ticketometer and my company, Tracky.

The audience was quite engaged both afternoons. After most of the presentations, I observed presenters being approached by audience members and friendly, animated conversations ensuing on the exhibit floor. Many business cards were exchanged, tweets were sent and meetings set up from this event. I’ve talked with many of the startups in the last week and most have been introduced to viable new contacts including potential users and/or investors, coworking outlets and services share opportunities. One founder booked two weeks of business meetings out of his one 10-minute presentation! Some are following up on potential funding options. Others got commitments from well-known local and national brands to use their services.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The Digital Startup Speaker Series provided an intelligently designed setting to present emerging technology, an innovation-enthusiastic  audience, a collaborative environment and resulted in many meaningful connections.

I’ve got to say: I’m truly grateful for the chance to help facilitate the DSSS and I’m thrilled with the positive outcome. And, I’m very proud of the great representation by #VegasTech! Congratulations to DWE on such a successful event and to the entrepreneurs whose passion fuels innovation.

There is a plethora of activity in the Vegas Tech scene. Just last week, Paul Carr, formerly of TechCrunch, announced his move to Las Vegas to start a company with funding from Tony Hseieh (CEO of Zappos) and Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund. To learn more, follow #vegastech and #DWExpo on Twitter.

In September, an innovative and influential digital media conference is debuting here in Las Vegas: Digital World Expo. And, it’s giving a nod to startups with its Digital Startup Speaker Series “Open Mic” opportunity during the event.

Digital World Expo is graciously offering this fantastic (and free) platform for startups to present their products and services to the interactive marketers attendees. Presenters will get 10 minutes on stage at the front of the exhibit hall, with multimedia support and the potential for interaction with the decision makers crowd afterwards. Presentations will take place on Monday, Sept. 26th from 2 – 5pm and Tuesday, Sept. 27th from 1 – 4pm.

If you’re a startup under three years old and you have a viable product, service or organization that would be of interest to these trendsetters, early adopters, digital media junkies, corporate decision makers and senior execs of well-known brands, this could be a great platform for you! Only 24 slots are available so apply at DWE’s website as soon as you can.

If you’re not presenting, you might consider registering for an exhibit hall pass. You’ll get to scope the interactive media and entertainment exhibits and support the startup open mic presenters as well.

This is the first annual Digital World Expo conference, focused on real-world expert education in interactive marketing, media, communications and advertising. Classes will help the 500-700 attendees learn, train and build awareness in media technology application and how to prepare for what’s ahead in tech.

Tracky and 9seeds are assisting with the open mic event. We hope to see you there. Startups, go forth and apply now!

Change is in the dry desert air here in Las Vegas: change that could be very good for diversifying the Valley’s economy, especially considering the recession that has hit the city since the economic downturn.

From June 24-26th, the first ever Startup Weekend was hosted in downtown Las Vegas.  Startup Weekends take place around the world and aim to build communities and start companies. The super-packed 54 hour event focuses on building web or mobile applications that could be viable businesses.

It was my first Startup Weekend and I apparently hit the jackpot: seasoned attendees and sponsors gushed that it was one of the best they’ve attended. The judges panel was a veritable internet who’s who and included: Tony Hseih (CEO of Zappos), Kevin Rose (founder of Digg.com and CEO/Founder of Milk, among others and former Las Vegan), Tom Anderson (Co-Founder of MySpace), Ryan Carson (Founder of ThinkVitamin and Carsonified Events) and Josh Reich (CEO of Bank Simple).

The event sponsor was Zappos, Las Vegas’ e-tailer darling and good-hearted contributor to the community. Other Vegas businesses mentored and provided professional services to support the teams.

Fourteen teams labored for two days in pursuit of startup-dom: brainstorming, planning, coding, branding, market researching and PowerPointing their five-minute final presentations for judges. I was reticent about how much could really be accomplished in a weekend but as enthused teams shared their brainchilds with the audience, I became a Startup Weekend believer.   Sure, teams were competing but what really became apparent was the power of passion, collaboration and a supportive community. Not every team was comprised of Vegas locals but it was the local community itself that produced and supported the event, giving every attendee and sponsor the platform to collaborate on something with long-term viability.

A few highlights from the presentations include second place finisher IOTW (I Am On the Way), a mobile app for volunteer firefighters, claiming to reduce response times by minutes and ultimately, save lives. ClippPR, the first place team, produced a PR clippings organizer that is already in beta. Rumgr is a virtual garage sale app built by Zappos employees (including event organizer Dylan Bathurst) and heralded with the crowd favorite and “most likely to continue” designation. Sojo, an online journal, lets you gather your life experiences into stories with the help of others with whom you’ve shared experiences.

During the weekend and in the spirit of startups, my company alpha released a software project to a very receptive welcome. With the majority of attendees signing up, we’re getting productive feedback from the crowd and keeping in touch with this freshly invigorated group.

All this innovation reminds me of the energy I witnessed in Vegas over a decade ago when the dot-com boom had infiltrated the Valley. Myriad startups were enjoying the cash conveyor from Silicon Valley into Vegas, a.k.a. Silicon Oasis at the time. Our company, Vortaloptics, was a startup in 2000, but we were here for the connectivity. Our vertical search solutions needed reliability, speed and cost-effective data hosting and fledgling Switch Communications fit the bill. Switch (SuperNAP) is now one of the premier tier-4 data center facilities in the world.

While the vast majority of the dot-com boom startups went bust, companies Switch and 2004 transplant Zappos, are thriving. There is a viable foundation in Vegas for new ventures. The city needs more economic diversification apart from entertainment and tech provides real promise. We recently learned of a couple of business incubators that are in the works for the near-term. This and other developments could provide a platform for local entrepreneurs to build upon existing infrastructure, established corporate support and an eager talent base to become a true Tech Oasis.

So while Vegas was built on the competitive notion of gaming, Startup Weekend demonstrated that collaboration and community can produce a diffusely productive result that can diversify the Valley’s economy. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come for a #winning Vegas tech community.  Like anything worth pursuing, we’ll have to work diligently and as we learned from Startup Weekend, we’ll need to work as a team.

Thanks to the event organizers for making this inaugural event a launching pad for #VegasTech!

Life will be diverse for the next generation of kids as they grow up in our connected, global society – that is, if a balance between technology agility and life skills can be achieved. After all, what will life be like for a generation where more children know how to play a computer game rather than know how to ride a bike?

A recent study uncovers some disturbing trends about increasing tech competencies compared to the simplicities and perhaps necessities, of certain life skills. For instance,  58% of 2 – 5 year olds can play a basic computer game while 52% can ride a bike. The Digital Diaries study from AVG surveyed 2,200 online moms of kids aged two – five years in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the EU nations of U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Riding a bike is a seriously fun life skill. My twin brothers were all of 3 1/2 when I decided it was time to get rid of their speed-inhibiting training wheels. I was so over their slowness and needed them to become real competitors in the daily race down the long driveway! So one day, my 7-year-old self gathered up the little tikes into the garage while I snagged a screwdriver from my dad’s wall-of-tools. I proceeded to unscrew those kill-joy training wheels once and for all. I helped them on their bikes and one at a time, gave them a good push from behind while they deftly exited the garage into the light of day, wobbling into the big world at first, then confidently balancing themselves down the driveway. Neither of them suffered harm during this experiment, mind you: they were biking naturals! Their toddler mindset removed any fear and gave them the I-can-be-big-too confidence they needed to master the balancing act of bikedom. I couldn’t be more proud of them in that moment. Soon after, my parents emerged from the house with collective gasps as they witnessed my toddler brothers riding on two wheels, but they quickly recovered when they saw their sons’ enthusiasm and newfound skill.

Now back to the numbers. Only 20% of the children in this study can swim without help, 11% can tie their shoelaces unaided and 20% know how to make an emergency phone call. Yet, 63% know how to power up a computer and turn it off and 69% can use a mouse. More computer skills stats include the fact that 19% can operate a smartphone or tablet, 25% know how to operate a web browser, 16% can browse between web sites and 15% know at least one web address.

Thankfully, 37% can write their first and last names. But isn’t that a little telling? Twice as many children can operate a mouse than can write their names? What’s happening at home that brings these statistics to life? Children merely imitate the behavior they see. The connected lives of parents – mostly Gen X  and Y parents in this study – are having an impact on the skill sets that children will develop.

85% of a child’s core brain structure is formed by age three so what happens in the earliest years of life form a person’s belief structure, habits, relational capabilities for the rest of their life. While this is just one study and we have yet to see how quickly these children will catch up the analog skills of life, it does illuminate trends that we all should be aware of when dealing with children.

Teaching children life-hacking skills are times that can be savored for decades to come. There is plenty of time to teach tech-savviness but the skills learned in the early years about life and human relationships will become programmed into their psyches the rest of their lives.

I remember taking a word processing class in high school. It was nearly useless but it was a step up from the typing class that had us practicing our keystrokes on typewriters. The computer lab didn’t get much love outside of the handful of students geeky enough to take “computers.” At home though, my dad was an early adopter of the PC. That inelegant tower and clunky monitor saw lots of action, particularly by my middle school age brothers who assimilated the world of computer gaming like I took to typing onscreen. They were on the cusp of two generations: one that had to adapt to changes in technology (Gen X) and one were technology has always existed (Gen Y/Millenials).

While Baby Boomers and Gen Xer’s tend to be somewhat confined by brand loyalty, Gen Yers have grown up in a marketing-saturated, information-overloaded, technology-ubiquitous world. Since Millenials are now said to be the dominant generation, surpassing Boomers, understanding the world-as-they-know-it will help you reach them in a relevant way.

1. Mobile phones have always existed. Texting is king with teens. Thus, choosing the right phone is more about enabling a better texting experience rather than selecting one with the most bells and whistles.

2. Unified brand experiences across devices matter. Music and computers have always been portable for Millenials. Rather than the cumbersome PC towers I started out with, the first computer for teens was probably a laptop. Portable music has always been accessible through MP3 devices like the iPod. As such, teens have no reference point for why there should be different brand experiences for various devices – they want and expect seamless interaction no matter what device they’re using.

3. It’s the benefits, not the brand. Teens expect your brand to be online and to be everywhere they are. Maybe it’s novel to you that your brand has just launched a Facebook fan page but don’t tout the medium, proclaim the benefits. That’s what teens are looking for – and count the rest of us in for benefit-driven marketing too.

4. Empowered consumerism is the norm. Millenials are savvy researchers, prolific sharers and have high standards in customer service. Millenials research their tech purchases; 86% look in multiple online stores before selecting a product or service (“8095” survey, October 2010, Edelman).  But 8 in 10 will also take action on behalf of brands they trust, such as joining communities, posting reviews and sharing brand experiences with others.

5. Connecting online with social good causes is a form of self-expression. Millenials have witnessed 9/11, the Great Recession and a general decline in corporate moral standards. They want change and they want to know that the brands they patronize care about social initiatives. How you do what you do may be as important as what you produce.  To stay relevant, think about the value that your brand offers the world and express your contribution to the greater good within your online social communities.

6. Technology is ever-evolving but it still needs to serve them not their egos. While they’ll adapt to new technology faster than any other generation, they’re not as brand or feature-hungry as other age groups. They’ll upgrade if the experience is significantly improved, but won’t shell out just because everyone’s tweet-bragging about their new tech acquisition.

In spite of global recessions and a rapidly growing middle class in China, our consumer nation is still the world’s largest advertising market for U.S. and international companies. Yet as advanced as we are, the U.S. is not the most connected.

In Ciaran Norris’ article, “A Letter to Facebook From the Rest of the World,” he notes that while the U.S. is often the test market for new technologies such as Facebook’s geolocation service, Places, there are other countries whose connectedness would make them ideal beta testing grounds.

For instance, Facebook is now the most popular media brand in the U.K. and Sweden has a 92% internet penetration rate compared with the U.S. at 77%. Indonesia is the fourth largest market for Facebook, yet only 12% of its population is online.

As stated in Morgan Stanley’s “Mobile Internet Report,” 96% 0f Japan’s residents will have 3G mobile access this year. It is estimated that there will be more users connected to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within the next five years. China and India lead the world in terms of users, with over 600 million mobile subscribers in China over 300 million in India with major growth rates expected by 2014.

So while U.S. consumers purchase more than other nations and marketers will continue to test and launch products and services, it is not the only market that should be considered for product feedback. Other nations have higher mobile and internet penetrate rates and house highly active users with unique perspectives on the social media services rooted here in the U.S.

Getting users to your website is a fairly complex issue. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the most heavily researched, contested and coveted marketing disciplines because search is still where it’s at for attracting engaged users to your website.

Yet, search engines don’t offer us marketers a how-to guide on how to rank well in their engines. That’s why it is essential to glean your knowledge of SEO best practices from plenty of trusted blogs, forums and articles online as well as from consultants and employees who have experience and success in page one search rankings.

A recent SEOmoz post by Rand Fishkin disclosed an interesting forum thread between himself and eight other SEO sages on the subject of whether great content equals great rankings. Herein, I’ll attempt to sum up the expert’s thoughts on what relevance great content has in organic search rankings.

So, does great content equate into great search rankings? Great content is important because people generally want to read well-written, engaging content. But just having great content on your site doesn’t mean that you will rank well. Other factors like site architecture and inbound links are major contributors to rankings. Now, if all things are equal (site architecture, inbound link quality/number) and your competitors are content with stale or inaccurate content, your great content will motivate people to link to your site and share your information with others which will in effect, produce better rankings.

As Matt Cutts of Google is known to state: Google strives to provide the most relevant search experience. He repeatedly encourages marketers to produce great content. But for the time, great content isn’t a ranking factor!  So while it’s only logical to provide the best content you can for your users, it won’t automatically earn you a top spot.

Google and Bing are always aiming at improving relevancy,  so it is possible that over time, the better your content, the more useful your site will be for their searchers and thus, the better quality score you’ll  get from those engines as part of the total ranking equation.  Social media is one such trend that will likely affect ranking factors in the near-term: real-time tweets and updates may affect a site’s relevancy.

However, as it stands now, it gets down to a less noble conclusion: the content that is marketed the best is the content that ranks the best. Those who have the best quality and sometimes highest number of inbound links generally rank the best.

Personal branding is a very hot topic these days. The Fortune 1000s still own the term “branding” in  general but due to the internet, smartphones and social media, individuals can develop their own personal brands.

Personal branding as defined at Wikipedia states:

Personal branding is the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands (Lair, Sullivan & Cheney 2005). It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging (Lair, Sullivan & Cheney 2005).

I posted a blog today at Vortaloptics about the subject of developing your personal brand. I’ll cover some of the highlights in this post, or read the full article at my company’s blog.

The recession has seriously eroded job security, worker benefits, and jobs in general. We’ve lost 5% of jobs so far due to the recession, offshoring and automation. Even more disheartening is that most of those lost jobs might not return to our shores for 5-10 years. Perhaps worse than that is that globalization might make upwards of 30% of our current positions offshorable within 20 years.

These trends though dismal, are no excuse for seeking refuge in a cave. With 45% of HR professionals utilizing social media to screen potential employees and 18% actually hiring someone based on a positive social media profile (Harris Interactive study), now is the time to package and promote yourself with purpose, thereby investing in your long-term employment and brand reputation.

To do this, your “best self”- your personal brand – needs to become visible in social media.

There is a plethora of great personal branding strategies out there, but I’m going to concentrate on four steps that will help you brand yourself and stay relevant.

1. Define your best attributes.

Find your niche and stick with it.  Being great at something is more likely to make you stand out than being mediocre at dozens of things.

To start the attribute definition exercise, jot down a “features and benefits” chart to articulate things like: your best traits (your thoughts on the matter and what others consistently say about you), the principles that you stand for and how these attributes can benefit the world via your workplace, personal relationships and outreach efforts.

2. Network: social media is where you’ll need to build the foundation of your brand.

Your social network is an investment in your future. Social media accounts are easy to come by but each network’s benefits can be lost on those who don’t delve into the finer details. Branch out and engage with people that you aspire to be like, work for, or receive mentorship from.

For instance, if you’re on Twitter, aspire up with regard to who you follow. Follow your industry’s big shots as well as the lesser-known people that post valuable insights into career and life. Look at the “following” list of people you respect and follow those same people. Learn from those who have more experience than you, a more distinct niche or habits that you’d like to imitate.

No matter which networks you choose to market yourself, take time to express yourself creatively in ways that will distinguish you from plain vanilla. This is where expressing your best self and your niche comes into play.

3. Maintain your personal brand.

Consistency and authenticity can make or break you over the long haul. Your attitude, relationships, habits, work ethic and contributions to the community can all influence what traits are expressed in your personal social profile over time.

When you post updates, ask yourself if the content you’re about to publish is congruent with who you are/want to be viewed as. Even when you’ve been wronged, it’s best to pause before you rant against an individual or a company. An impulsive post can remain in Google’s cache long after your whim expires.

4. Evolve your personal brand.

As your knowledge, experience and talents advance, make sure that your social media profile expresses the positive evolution of your brand. You don’t have to frenetically keep up with every last innovation but do commit to harmonizing your skill set with your industry’s development and always be  fostering efficiencies in your personal life.

Once you’ve built your personal brand on social media, persevere. This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it exercise: this is a evolving expression of who you are throughout the course of your life.

Personal branding is here to stay

There is no replacement for personal face-to-face encounters with live human beings. But don’t be lulled into thinking that social media and the transparency it brings is just a trend. We will increasingly utilize the Internet, search and social media in its emergent forms to check in with and check up on the people we encounter.

If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to define, network, maintain and evolve your personal brand – your “best self” – with social networking.

For more a more detailed look at personal branding, download or buy Dan Schawbel’s popular book on the subject: Me 2.0.

This is the second patent for Vortaloptics’ vertical search software, the company that I work for, and the first patent that I’ve been awarded as a co-inventor, along with my husband, David Gosse and other members of our team. It’s exciting to be part of a team that is working hard to build better on-site search applications and to see the hard work and dedication rewarded with an official U.S. patent!

This patent describes part of our proprietary software that gives Vortaloptics clients more control over their search databases and how the search results are displayed for the end user.

Most search platforms consolidate multiple databases into one single end-user results format, but the level of control over how and where results are displayed can be sparse for many applications. This software provides granular control over which datasets are shown, what types of results are displayed and the exact prioritization of the results (if desired). Algorithms do the grunt work while humans are allowed to perfectly refine the end results to best fit the business model of a website and the needs of its end users.

The software is deployed in various vertical channels such as education websites, the multifamily industry, radio and TV sites and local search destinations.

The Vortaloptics team is looking forward to a productive and inventive year ahead.