Open Casting Call for Search Engine Idol!

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This could be you!

We are now casting for the first season of Search Engine Idol to be held on December 4th at the Search Insider Summit in Park City. We're looking for new and innovative search engines or search alternatives that would like the opportunity to demonstrate their wares to a panel of judges and audience of search experts.

To be considered, please comment here or tweet me with under 140 characters (make sure to include your URL) on why you deserve a slot. Selected contestants will appear on stage at SIS with the chance to do a live demo audition and convince the audience why they're the best thing since sliced Google.

Sorry, reps from Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask are not eligible.

Session Overview:

Join us for the first season of Search Engine Idol, a unique talent show focused on finding the next superstar search engine or search alternative. Each contestant will have 5 minutes to conduct a few live search queries and state their case for why they deserve Google-Killer status. Then the judges will weigh in before the audience votes for the winner.

Hosted by: Your Truly

Update 11/25: I'm excited to report that Charles Knight, editor of AltSearchEngines.com will be a guest judge for this event. Still a few slots left for contestants so, if you're interested, drop me a line.

Update 12/1: OK, the lineup is pretty much set. Here are the contestants...

1. Mark Watkins, CEO & Co-founder, Goby
2. David Fireman, Co-Founder & CEO, Search3
3. Paul Pederson, Founder and President, Factery Labs
4. Stephen Scarr, Co-Founder & CEO, Info.com

We may have last-minute entrants from Milo and Leapfish so you'll have to tune in to hashtag #MPSIS-UT09 to get the final lineup and follow the real-time buzz.

We'll also be inviting 2 guest judges from the crop of esteemed marketer VIP's to weigh in on all the action. They'll be focused on the advertising/monetization opportunities inherent within each contestant's platforms while Mr. Knight will cover the end-user utility and application of technology.

Should be a jolly good show!

Update 12/3: Ted Dziuba, Lead Engineer & Co-Founder at Milo.com, will be joining the field. And check out this fancy certificate that will be presented to the winner...



Update 12/3 #2: Happy to announce 2 more judges to round out our panel...
Mark Scholz, Senior Manager SEM & SEO, HP
Robert Pettee, Director, Search Marketing, LendingTree

Update 12/4: And the winner of the first season of Search Engine Idol is... Milo! Just posted a full recap. Looking forward to season two in April!