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Chris “Silver” Smith Lead GravityStream Strategist email: |
Biographical Statement
Chris serves as Lead GravityStream Strategist at Netconcepts, providing thought leadership, support and strategic direction for the GravityStream product, coupled with expertly-targeted custom consulting on natural search optimization for Netconcepts clients.
Chris previously worked for Verizon (now spun off as Idearc Media) Superpages.com where he served as Head of the Advanced Technology & Development Department. While at Verizon, Chris directly contributed to and oversaw development for diverse applications including: natural search optimization, advertising forecast systems, weather data delivery, city guides, campus area yellow pages, internet analytics, map-based search, e-cards, XML, RSS, wireless applications, and private-label yellow pages or PPC ad distribution provided to AOL, MSN, InfoSpace, Lycos, Google, Local.com, and many others.
While at Superpages, he was awarded a number of individual and team awards by the corporation including the coveted Verizon Individual Excellence Award, and his work was cited for increasing the overall revenue of Superpages by many millions of dollars per year. Chris was an early researcher in organic search engine optimization as far back as 1997, and his work was deployed to form the foundation of SEO initiatives for the Superpages sites. Chris was founder and Chair of the Idearc SEO Council, pulling together individuals from across the organization who worked on elements of natural search optimization for the various other company websites and for external client sites.
Chris has five patents pending for his work on local search and presentation technologies.
Prior to working for Superpages, Chris worked for Texas A&M University where he served as Manager of Administration of the Cartographic Service Unit, providing mapping, scientific illustration, and service bureau work out to the university community and to the public. During his work for A&M, Chris authored the Texas A&M University map which was published by the TAMU Press, and he created and successfully marketed the TAMU Clip Art Disk, one of the first ever electronic versions of a university’s official trademarks. Chris also assisted with portions of the university’s earliest website presence, and his works from this period have been published in many technical journals and books.
Chris occasionally speaks at professional conferences such as Search Engine Strategies and American Marketing Association seminars, and his articles on technology and search engine optimization appear at Search Engine Land, WebProNews, and Natural Search Blog.
