Exciting news today to learn that Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! has signed on as the keynoter for SES New York on March 1.

This is quite a change for a SES show. Usually Danny Sullivan presents the keynote (Danny will now give his talk on the morning of March 2).

I go way back with Jerry. At Fall Internet World 1994 in Washington, DC, Jerry and my then company (Mecklermedia) had a tentative agreement for our new Web site called MecklerWeb.com to host Yahoo!. As I remember it, Yahoo! had lost its home on the Stanford University servers and Jerry and his partner David Filo needed a new host. However, before the end of the show, the Yahoo! team decided to place their site on the new Netscape.com --- and the rest is history.

I might also add that 6 months later I would like to think I came close to almost buying Yahoo!, but alas Jerry and David decided to go the VC route that day.

The last time I spoke with Jerry was when he keynoted Internet World Los Angeles in the spring of 1998. Therefore I look forward to Jerry's March 1 appearance for both the excitement it brings to SES New York, but also to touch base with an "old" Internet colleague from the pioneer days.