Some days, it seems like everyone wants to turn everything into TV. The latest from Singapore: soap operas on cell phones.

Can cell phones drive the next television phenomenon? Why not? The Crazy Frog ringtone is #1 on the U.K. music charts, so maybe we’re living in an age where everything really is converging with everything.

Before we rush to converge everything with everything else, though, shouldn’t we stop to undertand that thing for what it is in the first place? Shouldn’t we take a breath to try and understand crawling before we try running … or running a marathon?

For real understanding, look to the innovators who smartly use the particular medium’s singular qualities. Ernie Kovacs did it with TV. On the Web? They’re out there, and you know them in your gut when you see them, from monoliths like eBay to brilliant small sites like Postsecret to that niche online community you’re compelled to visit four, five, six times a day.

So: Is the frog a prince? Maybe, but my bet’s on him being not the leading edge of a trend, but simply just another weird anomaly … like the dancing internet baby, the lambada craze, and William Hung.

Oh, yeah, and that noisy newfangled rock ‘n’ roll music.

Day 2 of the Marketing Expo and Executive Conference 2005 was a little better, with Mark Hughes flirting a bit with becoming the Carrot Top of presenters and delivering a pretty entertaining account of how Half.com got Halfway, Oregon, to change it’s name to Half.com. His presentation suckered me into picking up his new book, which if it’s half(.com) as entertaining as his presentation, should be a pretty good read:

On the downside: Two presentations were canceled … the Expo hall was about 60% direct mail vendors (most of the vendors I spoke with, by the way, said that attending this conference was pretty much a waste of time) … and hey, conference organizers: How about including a list of attendees in the packet of materials handed out upon registration? And maybe making sure there’s wireless access in the meeting rooms? And please try not to have sessions overlap with each other. And please, for God’s sake, next year find someone to provide real food; those sandwiches were on the nasty side!

Day 1 of the Marketing Expo & Executive Conference 2005 in Philadelphia has come and gone.

The anticipated highlight of the day was a talk by Patrick Keane of Google, who spoke for about an hour to a packed room. Here’s the session description from the conference Web site:

We all know that online search has dramatically changed how businesses can connect with prospects and customers. But what are the best ways for businesses to take advantage of this sea change? What dynamics are driving this transformation? Patrick Keane, Google’s Head of Sales Strategy, will provide attendees with best practices, culled from Google’s industry-leading experience, for how to attract, convert, and retain customers with search advertising. He’ll focus especially on the new economy developing around search, how to leverage search into a company’s marketing mix, and provide insight into developing media trends. B2B and B2C businesses expect to get a keen insight into how quickly to leverage search to increase ROI and accountability of their marketing programs.

Uhhh, not quite. The hour boiled down to this: “Lots of people are using search. You can put ads on search results pages.”

Alrighty, then.

Patrick addressed a question about click fraud by saying, in effect, that click fraud is an overblown issue. He addressed my question about search algorithms and the importance of metatags vs. title tags vs. text links by saying, in effect, that there are a lot of companies out there that can help companies improve their placement, and some of them are frauds.

Alrighty, then.

There was a tantalizing moment when Patrick hinted that content network reporting on AdWords may be upgraded (it’s currently terrible when compared with the search network reporting), but specifics? Nah.

C’mon, seriously. I like the Google pen I got when I registered, but if you’re going to talk to a room full of marketers, let’s put a little bit of meat on them presentation bones, okay? Maybe a few AdWords tips? Some practical do’s and don’ts? At least Brad Aronson from Avenue A / Razorfish gave us a little something to chew on later in the day. Thanks, Brad.

Sure, why not. Another blog. Just what the world needs.

Right.

For my $.02, blogs are as overhyped as Y2K . Still, there are a lot of people blogging. A lot. Millions. And only a handful of them are worth reading. The rest? Belches in the breeze, a brobdingnagian collective effort consigned to perpetual anonymity. Sorta reminds me of all those novels on the remainder table at Barnes & Noble: Years of emotional sweat and struggle, yours for just $1.98.

Learn by doing, though, that’s what I say. So, with millions of people blogging, and online marketing being my profession for about a decade (yeah, I’m a crusty veteran in these online parts), here I venture into the blogosphere.

*burp*