Here are great blog posts reporting Search Engine Strategies 2005 conferences in New-York:

• Blogs, Boards, and Posts: Capturing Consumer Buzz Online by Steve Rubel
• Indexing Summit, by Nathan Weinberg
• Public Relations Via Search Engines: Converseon, by Nathan Weinberg
• Public Relations Via Search Engines: RedBoots Consulting, by Nathan Weinberg
• Public Relations Via Search Engines: SEO-PR, by Nathan Weinberg
• Blogs, Board and Posts, by Nathan Weinberg
• Searcher Behavior: Enquiro, by Nathan Weinberg
• Searcher Behavior: Keynote Systems, by Nathan Weinberg
• Search Forecast and Outlook: Profiting From Growth Through 2009, by Search Engine Roundtable
• The Search Landscape, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Searcher Behavior, by Search Engine Roundtable
• The Search Landscape, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Searcher Behavior, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Algorithm Research & Developments, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Algorithms and Research, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Keynote with Jerry Yang, by Search Engine Roundtable
• What is Spam?, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Perfecting Paid Listings, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Indexing Summit, by Search Engine Roundtable
• News & Webfeed Search, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Webfeeds, Blogs & Search, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Convergence (and the Future of Search), by Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Convergence, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Local Search Marketing Tactics, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Brand Summit: Life After Geico - Google, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Measuring Offline Sales & Conversions, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Local Search Marketing Tactics, by Search Engine Roundtable
• Reaching Out To Europe, by Search Engine Roundtable

Yes, this is a lot of articles to read, but I think they are must-do if you can't go to New York!

Google Maps are now available on Google Local on both the U.S. and Canadian sites. Before today, Google was using maps provided by a third party on Google Local.

After finding the desired entry on a Google Local results page and clicking, you'll now see a page with a variety of information about the business that Google has been compiled from various open web sites (example).

This page provides additional information (links to menus, hours of operation, payment info, etc.) automatically extracted from open web sources like Amazon.com, CitySearch.com, and Frommers.

Source: SEW Blog