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In just a few weeks I'm leading a 3-hour session about Google at the iDate conference in Miami. I'll be accompanied by a few other Googlers, including Wendy Hoeveler, Kate Keene, Christina Aguiar and Fred Perrotta who are all focused on the online dating space. Together we'll cover online trends in the dating space, tips and tricks for making your AdWords ads more effective and tools for webmasters who are looking for ways to improve their sites.

I often describe AdWords as a matchmaking service between consumers and marketers... We help consumers find what they are looking for and we help marketers connect with consumers looking for their products or services. Because the search query indicates the intent, we're able to create a moment of relevance for both users and advertisers. I'm excited to share our matchmaking techniques with the other type of matchmakers, the ones running dating sites.

With tools like the Conversion Optimizer for managing bids and the Website Optimizer for building the best-performing landing pages, advertisers can really boost their search marketing results. For those looking to increase traffic, we'll cover the Google Content Network which has come a long way in terms of reporting and controls since it was launched in 2003. With more and more consumers carrying smart phones, mobile is another area that marketers should start to explore and we'll give you a primer on Google's offerings in this space. With thousands of dating sites competing for a limited number of customers, branding is a critical component for getting people to search for your site and to attract clicks from those whose queries are more general. YouTube and Google TV Ads provide easy ways to get started with measurable brand advertising and we'll cover both of these topics. Finally, we'll also have some pointers for webmasters who want to be findable in Google's organic (unpaid) listings.

Let us know in the comments section if there are any topics you want us to address.

See you in Miami!

Last Friday I finally made the switch from an iPhone to an Android phone. I'd taken a lot of flack from people over the past year for representing Google AdWords at industry conferences while brandishing a shiny iPhone instead of the G1 we all got for the holidays last year. My iPhone had gotten really slow though (isn't Apple's controlled app market place supposed to prevent this from happening) and there are a lot of very cool Android phones on the market so I was ready for the switch.

One of the key differentiators is the size of the app marketplaces. True, Apple's App Store may have more apps than the Android Marketplace but ultimately what matters is that you can find the apps you need and I certainly have no need for all 100,000 iPhone apps. I found everything I needed for my new Android and then some. Here's my list of must-have apps for an Android phone:

Locale
This app changes the phone's behavior based on triggers like date, time, location, battery level and more. For example, I can teach my phone to silence my ringer when I am in the office or to lower the ringer volume between 11 pm and 7 am.

Barcode Scanner by Zxing
This one lets you scan 2-D and 3-D barcodes. With regular 2-D barcodes, you can quickly do comparison shopping for an item you found in a brick-and-mortar store. With 3-D barcodes, you can get to websites without typing in the URL, add events to your calendar, receive business card data and much more. Anything that saves me from typing is a win.

Amazon
In addition to giving you a way to browse and shop Amazon on a small screen, it also has a barcode scanner. The coolest thing about it is that if the barcode doesn't work, you can take a picture of the item and within a few minutes they'll analyze it and tell you what similar items are available from Amazon. It worked great for finding a multi-prong power cord while I was shopping at the Home Depot.

Tripit
I travel a lot and this app reminds me when I'm flying and where my hotel is. If flights are delayed, it'll even notify me about that too. The best part is that adding my trips to this app is as simple as forwarding confirmations from airlines, hotels and car rental companies to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and a few seconds later, they've analyzed the email and added it all to my travel schedule.

Google Sky Map
I know how to find Orion in the night sky and that's about it. With this app, simply point your phone up to the sky and as you change the direction and angle, it shows you all the constellations in front of the phone. Amazing!

I presented the following deck at Ad:Tech today. It includes tips on finding new keywords with the Search Based Keyword Tool, bidding smarter with Conversion Optimizer and the Bid Simulator and getting more leads with the Google Content Network. I also included some of my favorite resources for keeping up-to-date with AdWords.

• Inside AdWords blog
• Google Business Channel on YouTube
• Upcoming AdWords Webinars 
• Google Twitter Accounts

Have you ever wondered how your ad performs in different positions on the Google search results page and whether your results would be better if you were above the search results instead of on the right hand side? Hal Varian, Google's Chief Economist recently released his findings about the conversion rate in different ad positions. The bottom line is that conversion rates don't vary much by ad position. If you're interested in finding out how your own ads perform in different positions, you can use the Keyword Positions report in Google Analytics to get data about your linked AdWords account.

 Here's a video showing you where to find the conversion data by ad position for your account: