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Recent Google Logos a Nod to H.G. Wells
Since the beginning of September, three mysterious designs have graced Google logos. While Google is usually good at giving clear indication as to why any artistic logo has been chosen, this time they kept the mystery alive. Until this week.
The three logos have been an homage to the late science fiction writer H.G. Wells, who would have been 143 today if scientists had only unlocked immortality earlier. Never fear, there’s always the possibility that in the future when immortality and time travel are discovered, they can return and grant Wells many more years of writing.
In the meantime, we can only hope that his spirit lives on in the multiverse (or the afterlife, depending on what you believe, or both if you’re truly imaginative), while his work lives on in limited preview at Google Books.
Josh Groban Fans & Grobanites Finding Clay Shirky Video Interview at SES San Jose
Truth is stranger than fiction. Yesterday, Clay Shirky gave the keynote speech at SES San Jose 2009. In his keynote, he discussed the Grobanites for Charity, which works with Josh Groban fans and the Josh Groban Foundation to raise money and support underfunded charities.
If you don’t know who Josh Groban is, ask your daughter or mother. He is a Grammy-nominated U.S. singer-songwriter.
The video interview with Shirky was uploaded to YouTube yesterday.
The Deon Designs blog embedded the video in a post entitled, “Clay Shirky discusses the shift in user behavior in a Web 2.0 World at SES San Jose 2009.”
This triggered a large number of tweets — and 28% of the views the video has received so far have come from Twitter.
Another one of the external links to the video is from the Josh Groban Official Message Board.
Oh, and the first comment on the video came from freim93, who said, “Very cool shout out to the Grobanites!!!!” The second comment came from Rocker742, who says, “Yeah!!! Grobanites for Charity rocks!”
And 16% of the views of the video can from YouTube Search. And the top search term is “Josh Groban.” The second term is “SES San Jose.”
So, Shirky is an adjunct professor at New York University in the graduate interactive telecommunications program, where he teaches courses on the interrelationships of social and technological networks, particularly how they shape culture and vice versa.
But, this video interview with him could be just another example for his course. Check it out. This is the link between search and social that everyone has been talking about.
Clay Shirky discusses the shift in user behavior in a Web 2.0 World at SES San Jose 2009
Top Stories from SES Toronto: Day 1
It wasn’t hard to find the top stories from the first day of SES Toronto. All you had to do was conduct a search in YouTube, Google News, and Google Blog Search.
On YouTube, you could find a video interview by Byron Gordon of SEO-PR with the keynote speaker entitled, “Tara Hunt on ‘green’ shampoo and whuffie!” Hunt, the author of The Whuffie Factor, discusses the key principles of Whuffie, or how you go about generating brand for yourself by citing a fictional example of a “green” shampoo.
In Google News, I found “Signals: What Relevancy Indicators are Search Engineers Watching for Today? SES Toronto Day 1.” According to Paul Teitelman of Search Engine People, “Seems befitting that one of the first sessions here at SES Toronto will focus on the future of search, and more specifically, what relevancy factors search engineers will need to look out for as the ever changing Google & other search engine algorithms continue to shape our industry.”
I also found “Submit Your Entries for the 2009 Search Engine Watch Awards” on Search Engine Watch. According to Kevin Newcomb of Search Engine Watch, there are 14 categories for the 2009 SEW Awards. Submissions will be accepted through July 17, 2009. Winners will be announced at SES San Jose in August.
Gordon also uploaded “Nick Cox, Senior Product Manager, SearchMonkey on univeral/blended search” to YouTube. According to Cox, SearchMonkey is currently live in 23 markets; it’s a free platform and publishers are getting much better clickthrough rates.
Using Google Blog Search, I found “SES Toronto 09: SEO Then & Now.” According to Eric Amzallag of NVI, “Here is the what has changed and stayed the same in the SEO world.”
According to “Notes From SES Toronto 2009” on Toronto Mike’s Blog, “I still think they should rename this show the Google Strategies. Yahoo! Canada is exhibiting, as is Microsoft Bing, but it’s all about The Google. Over 80% of all Canadian searches now happen in Google.”
Garry Przyklenk at PPC-Advice.com wrote, “SES Toronto: Day 1 Recap.” He said, “You know: given the current economic crisis, turn out for SES Toronto is actually better than I suspected, and so is the production value.”
Manny Rivas at the aimClear Search Marketing Blog wrote, “Evolution of SEO: A Decade of Perspective At SES.” He said, “The same tactics that worked in 1999 simply won’t cut it anymore.”
Meanwhile, Dev Basu of Search Marketing Insights wrote “SES Toronto 2009 Day 1 Recap.” According to Basu, “My first day at SES Toronto was info packed, networking wild, and quite interesting to say the least.”
And Francis Vallières of Go-Referencement.org wrote, “Résumé SES Toronto 2009 : jour 1 partie 1.” He wrote, “Comme à chaque mois de Juin, NVI visite Toronto pour l’évenement SES Toronto, une conférence réunissant la plupart des acteurs importants dans le domaine du référencement et du marketing de recherche au Canada. Plusieurs conférences ont été donné aujourd’hui sur plusieurs sujets et je vasi tenter de vous en faire un résumé.”
Last but not least, you’ll also find “Jeff Quipp, SearchEnginePeople, on the past, present and future of SEO” on YouTube. Quipp discusses Google’s dominance in Canada, and references a surprising statistic about Google’s monthly keyword search.
Ask.com Adopts Live Search’s Hot Spot Photos, With Ad Twist
Last year, Microsoft’s Live Search began adding large images to the homepage with various “hotspots” that, when clicked on, directed visitors to various searches. Now, Ask.com seems to be taking that approach, with a twist.
An advertising twist.
Today, at Ask.com is a large promotional image of the upcoming film, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. If you mouseover each character or actor, a name will pop up and you can click on it and be taken to a search.
For example, mouse over Amy Adams and her character “Amelia Earhart” will pop up. Click on it and be taken to the Ask.com results for “Amelia Earhart.”
Ben Stiller is the star of the movie but his character is a fictional security guard. So, his pop up shows his character’s name, “Larry Daley” but the search is for “Ben Stiller” instead.
One weird thing is that a couple of the names actually pop up out of the image frame. For such an advertising effort, that should be unacceptable.
Of course, cynics will criticize this move by Ask.com, deeming it cheesy or desperate. But it really isn’t all that different from ads seen on non-search engines. Additionally, it’s very similar to more traditional ad methods such as billboards (hello, Times Square!) or large ads in newspapers. We only have to look at the criticized yet successful Cashback program, again by Microsoft’s Live Search, to know that the cynics aren’t always right.
Instead, I think Ask.com might be on to something here. I often see Ask.com advertising on cable television’s Discovery Channel, for example. It would be smart of them to engage in some sort of ad exchange where people driven to search Ask via a cable ad are then greeted with this new type of imaging featuring Discovery channel shows.
Search is overdue for some true innovation in advertising and it’s good to see Ask (and Microsoft) attempting it.
That’s my take. What’s yours? Comments below.
Google Launches New Information Site for Advertisers
“Google for Advertisers” is a brand new site from the search engine giant, and as the title suggests, it’s all about information for advertisers. Specifically, there are four primary things advertisers can do and learn on the site, per the Inside AdWords blog:
- Read up on our various media platforms. Get descriptions of Google’s ad platforms and all of the supporting tools.
- Take a ride on ‘The Marketing Cycle.’ Learn how Google’s solutions can be applied across the stages of an advertising campaign, including strategy, creative, media deployment, measurement and optimization.
- Stick it to a marketing objective. Google created a fictional marketing example (Pet Stick) to demonstrate how their tools work to solve specific goals.
- Build your personal ‘toolkit.’ When browsing the site, save Google tools that interest you by adding them to an online toolkit. It makes it easy to go back to them and share them with your colleagues.
What do you think about the new Google for Advertisers? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Related Reading:
Google AdWords to Update Conversion Metrics in New Interface
Google AdWords Brings Rich Media and Video Templates to Display Ad Builder
Google AdWords Offers New Postpay Payment Method
Google Launches Two New TV Ads Reporting Features
Think Microblogging is Hip? Try Nanoblogging!
With all the hype surrounding Twitter these days, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to outdo them and come out with an even faster and more efficient method of communciation.
Enter Flutter. Flutter claims to be a nanoblogging service. Like all good Web 2.0 companies, they launched out of a Stanford dorm room.
Ok, ok this is all a joke. But at the same time, it is a bit of commentary on the current state of social media. Even ABC News was asking last week if anyone is sick of social networking yet?
My personal answer is that people aren’t necessarily sick of social networking as they are of all the “gaming” of social media systems. Who’s the most popular Twitterer? How many friends do you have on Facebook? Those vain social status games are what I find tiring. What’s not tiring is simply connecting and networking. After all, networking is as old as man. It simply adapts to the technology at hand.
What’s your answer to ABC’s question? Does social media warrant the hype? Leave your response in the comment section below.
In the meantime, enjoy this mockumentary about the fictional Flutter.
Related Reading:
“Twouble with Twitter” – No, This Isn’t an April Fools’ Day Prank
The Issue of Food in Fiction Writing
Food and the idea of cooking can capture the imagination for some original, dramatic writing. Since everyone loves and needs food, readers warm up to stories that mention food or build thems…
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the issue of food in fiction writing
Take the Challenge: Write Nonfiction in November
My email box has been filling up with notices about the annual start of National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org). However, in general, I write nonfiction. If you, like me, consider yourself a…
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take the challenge write nonfiction in november
The People In My Story
The People in My Story{/center}
I love writing. I especially love writing in the month of November. Eleven months out of the year, I’m a non-fiction writer. But, for 30 days in the 11th mo…
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the people in my story
Twitter Updates for 2008-10-21
Links for 2008-10-21 [del.icio.us]:
links for 2008-10-20 http://tinyurl.com/6ruteb #
New Article – Make Money in Internet Marketing with SEO Keywords Posted By : upinder s.. http://tinyurl.com/5cnkn2 #
New Blog Post – Google Learns to Navigate Washington the Hard Way: Google is finally.. http://tinyurl.com/63mqp3 #
New Blog Post – Professor Lawrence Lessig to Keynote at SES Chicago: Lawrence Lessig.. http://tinyurl.com/6l6tqt [...]
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