The Inbal Hotel, January 15th, 2012. The SMX Israel agenda ran in English with one exception: a Hebrew-language panel on RTL search that I had the privilege of moderating, alongside Ori Golan, Oren Shatz and Uri Breitman.
We spent the session on what felt urgent then — distinguishing an algorithmic filter from a manual ban, reading the early tremors of Panda and Penguin, and the link-spam arms race spilling out of Russian forums. In hindsight, the through-line was already visible: the manipulable signals were dying, one by one.
I am reprinting these notes in the archive because the panel marks a beginning. The questions we asked in Hebrew that morning are the same questions, scaled and translated, that this volume asks of language models today.
Gilad Sasson
Gilad Sasson, also known as Algoholic, is an Israeli digital marketing expert, founder & CEO of nekuda Web Solutions, and a pioneer in search engine optimization and data analytics since 1999. Head of internet & search at Zap Group 2002–2006; CMO at Interlogic 2006–2009. Speaker at SMX Israel, TNW Amsterdam, Web Summit Dublin, DMIEXPO.