Archive for the ‘Google’ Category
Google Adwords Phone Number
April 16th, 2008
MatthewThe toll-free phone number for google Advertising is:
1-866-2-google
(466453)
Build critical mass on your website
February 27th, 2008
adminWith so many websites to join, users must decide where to invest significant time in adding their same connections over and over. For developers, this means it is difficult to build successful web applications that hinge upon a critical mass of users for content and interaction. With the Social Graph API, developers can now utilize public connections their users have already created in other web services. It makes information about public connections between people easily available and useful.
Only public data
The API returns web addresses of public pages and publicly declared connections between them. The API cannot access non-public information, such as private profile pages or websites accessible to a limited group of friends.
Based on open standards
We currently index the public Web for XHTML Friends Network (XFN), Friend of a Friend (FOAF) markup and other publicly declared connections. By supporting open Web standards for describing connections between people, web sites can add to the social infrastructure of the web.
Googles Headache
October 21st, 2007
MatthewGoogle Under Fire Over a Controversial Site from the Wall Street Journal has an outstanding summary of all the controversy, politics, legalities and moral issues Google has run into due to their Brazilian favored social networking site, Orkut.
The article covers how Google had to pull the ads on Orkut back in August due to them showing up next to “pictures of naked children and abused animals.” From the article:
The head of Google’s Brazilian operation is facing criminal contempt charges for refusing to turn Orkut users’ data over to police. And next month there is a hearing in a case brought by a São Paulo prosecutor threatening daily fines of $100,000 or the shuttering of Google’s Brazil office. “We have won,” says Thiago Tavares Nunes de Oliveira, a 28-year-old Brazilian law professor who wrote the graphic report and has crisscrossed Brazil making the case that Google allowed Orkut to become a redoubt of criminal activity, including child pornography and racist speech.
Free phone service from google
October 2nd, 2007
adminImagine your cell phone as a mini marketing machine. As you head into your car after dinner, a text alert pops onto the screen of your handset announcing the 9 p.m. lineup at a nearby cineplex. You choose the Jodi Foster flick “The Brave One,” and a promo video for the next Warner Bros. release, a George Clooney movie, starts running. Afterward, more text appears, prompting you to launch the phone’s Web browser so that you can click through to buy the movie’s ring tones and wallpaper.
That kind of 24/7 advertising engagement — on a phone, no less — may sound like a nightmare. But what if you could determine the kinds of products you get pitched? Or when your flight gets canceled in a faraway airport, text messages pop up for the best hotel deals in town? No random insurance ads or airline deals for trips to places you never visit.
Best of all: Watch or read the custom ads, and your phone minutes are free.
For big cell carriers, that’s the real nightmare. And it may be coming in the form of a Google phone.
Wireless-industry consultants and marketing executives with knowledge of Google’s plans say it has been showing prototypes of a new phone to handset manufacturers and network operators for a couple of months.
Its plans have been kept top-secret, but Google (GOOG, news, msgs) is expected to tap a company on the Pacific Rim that specializes in mobile design and manufacturing to build a handset to its specs. Google could then apply its expertise in operating software and user applications, says Paul Catalano, a partner at consultancy RelevantC Business.
Google officials won’t talk about phones, and industry sources don’t expect one before the second half of 2008.
Google & Microsoft Clash over Doubleclick
September 30th, 2007
MatthewLawyers from Google and Microsoft sparred in Congress today as the Senate Judiciary committee looked into antitrust concerns raised by Google’s proposed $3.1 billion DoubleClick acquisition.
Seeking to derail the purchase of the online ad firm, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said in prepared oral testimony that if the government allowed the "GoogleClick" merger, "It will be bad for publishers, bad for advertisers, and most importantly, bad for consumers."
Microsoft itself had been eying a DoubleClick acquisition in March, according to reports published in the Wall Street Journal. In May, the Redmond, Wash., software giant offered to buy online ad firm aQuantive, a DoubleClick rival, for $6 billion in cash. That deal closed last month.
Despite that acquisition, Smith testified today that Google remains poised to dominate the overall online search market.
He said Google is already the leading company in search advertising, with 70 percent of global spending on search-based advertising going through its AdWords unit. Allowing Google to buy online display advertising firm DoubleClick would give the company nearly 80 percent of all spending on non-search ads as well, his testimony read.
It would also make Google the "overwhelmingly dominant pipeline for all forms of online advertising," Smith said in his testimony.
He also sought to raise privacy concerns over giving a single company control over what he called "the largest database of user information the world has ever known." Specifically, that suggests Google will establish a database tracking not just searches, but movement across sites serving DoubleClick ads.
"With this merger, Google seeks to record almost everything you see and do on the Internet and use that information to target ads," Smith said. "This merger will create a whole new meaning to the term ‘being googled.’"
Microsoft’s lawyer concluded his testimony by reminding the committee that since the passing of the Sherman Antitrust Act, "no one is permitted to buy success by purchasing its largest competitors."
It’s this point that Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond primarily addressed in his prepared rebuttal testimony.
"Our purchase of DoubleClick does not raise antitrust issues because of one simple fact: Google and DoubleClick are complementary businesses and do not compete with each other," Drummond said. "DoubleClick does not buy ads, sell ads, or buy or sell advertising space. All it does is provide the technology to enable advertisers and publishers to deliver ads once they have come to terms, and provide advertisers and publishers statistics relating to the ads."
Microsoft first protested Google’s acquisition in April. Since then, both have been able to rally third-party support to their cause. For its part, Google cited analysts and columnists quoted in the media.
Additionally, Thomas Leonard, a Senior Fellow at the deregulation-friendly Progress and Freedom Foundation, argued today that online advertising remains in a nascent state, and that "government interference with this evolving market, which is still in its infancy, could be quite harmful to consumers."
On the other side, Microsoft helped sponsor an AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies research project to show how display and search advertising dollars come from the same pool, thus enabling Google to dominate the entire ad market.
Also in the anti-GoogleClick camp, Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), testified before the committee to present the deleterious effects a Google/DoubleClick merger would have on consumer privacy.
"We believe that the commission should act to block the deal or to impose substantial privacy safeguards as a condition of the deal’s approval," Rotenberg’s testimony read.
In addition to the Senate Judiciary committee, which has yet to weigh in on the proposed acquisition, the DoubleClick deal also remains under Federal Trade Commission regulatory review.
Earlier this year, EPIC, along with the Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), filed complaints with the FTC over privacy implications in the merger.
Google Adds Texting Tech
September 30th, 2007
MatthewText messages sponsored by Google ads? That scenario, and others like it, look increasingly likely after Google today announced it acquired Zingku’s mobile messaging and social networking service.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Zingku’s service enables mobile users to establish groups of contacts and share text and picture messages with them, as well as to store photos and schedule reminders on personalized sites. The company also offers marketing services, enabling online merchants to print codes in their real-world or online ads. When entered into a Zingku user’s phone, these codes download a coupon or advertising material, which can then be shared with other users.
Despite some of the obvious marketing implications for the service, the search advertising giant did not say how exactly how it aims to integrate Zingku’s technology into its own plans.
"We believe these assets can help build products and features that will benefit our users, advertisers and publishers," a Google spokesperson told InternetNews.com.
Google has become increasingly active in the mobile space during the past several years, evidently seeking to map out an advertising strategy for an increasingly hot platform.
At this year’s Search Engine Strategies (SES) convention in San Diego, Google’s Marissa Meyer characterized mobile as the next great application opportunity. Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at the company, noted that despite the summer slow-down, Google had seen an increase in the number mobile users getting online this season.
Google is even rumored to be building its own mobile device. At SES, Meyer played down the possibility of a "GooglePhone," but the topic remains popular speculation among Google-watchers.
Prior to the acquisition, Zingku’s operated in a private beta. Since then, the company has closed the gates to new members. A notice on the Zingku’s site indicates that user accounts will be transferred over to Google beginning in October.
Googles Free Ad Creation Tool
September 28th, 2007
MatthewIf you could use some help spreading the word about your small business, let Google lend a helping hand. Google’s now offering an ad creation tool to help advertisers develop newspaper ads using pre-designed templates. The tool itself is free, though it’s only available to AdWords advertisers. Marketers can also search through Google’s inventory of 450 newspapers and chat directly with Print Ads account representatives.
Google Sketch Up
September 18th, 2007
MatthewWhat is Google SketchUp 6?
Google SketchUp is a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, viewing, and modifying 3D ideas quickly and easily. Google SketchUp was developed to combine the elegance and spontaneity of pencil sketching with the speed and flexibility of today’s digital media.
Developed for the conceptual stages of design, this powerful yet easy-to-learn software allows for quick and easy 3D form creation, the result is an interface that supports a dynamic, creative exploration of 3D form, material and light.
Google SketchUp combines a compact yet robust tool-set with an intelligent guidance system that streamlines the 3D drawing process.
3D for Everyone
Design software has been around for decades and is clearly here to stay. But we think something has been missing—the freedom, flexibility and fun that should go hand-in-hand with the design process. It’s our view that while traditional CAD software is necessary for developing detailed drawings, it’s simply too complex for most conceptual design work.
Google SketchUp bridges the divide between design utility and fun. As designers ourselves, we created Google SketchUp as much to satisfy our own wishes as those of our users.
We know you’ve heard it all before: what company doesn’t claim that its software is ‘a piece of cake to use’ or ‘the best around?’ We’re guilty of saying this too. But you don’t have to take our word for it—you can try it yourself. Just download Google SketchUp 6 fire it up and give it a spin. Most people say they’re off and running in a few hours.
But nevermind what we think, here’s what customers have told us Google SketchUp is to them:
Google Wifi
September 11th, 2007
MatthewThe Mountain View WiFi network just celebrated its first anniversary, and they thought you’d appreciate a few data points. The network’s 400+ mesh routers cover about 12 square miles and 25,000 homes to serve approximately 15,000 unique users each week month. Since the beginning of 2007, traffic has grown almost 10 percent each month, and the network now handles over 300 gigabytes of data each day, sent to over 100 distinct types of WiFi devices. Virtually the entire city has been taking advantage of the network, with 95 percent of the mesh routers being used on any given day.
Around the globe and across the U. S., many people are still not able to access the online services that are increasingly helpful, if not essential, tools for our daily lives. This is why google is committed to promoting alternative platforms for people to access the web, no matter where you are, what you’re doing or what device you’re using.
For those who have been following the effort to create a free wireless network in San Francisco, we continue to hope that EarthLink and The City will find a way to enable all San Franciscans to enjoy the free WiFi network they deserve. On a broader scale, they hope that the success of the Mountain View model will encourage others to think creatively about how to address access issues in many other communities.
Google Mobile Search
September 11th, 2007
MatthewGoogle quietly launched a page explaining all of their mobile search features at mobile.google.com. Anyone who has gone to www.google.com on their cell phone or portable device in recent times might have noticed that you were being shown a different user-interface than when you were using a normal browser. That’s because google has been forwarding mobile devices to a WML gateway to make using Google on your phone/PDA a more pleasurable experience. From what I’ve seen of Google’s XHTML mobile search — available at http://www.google.com/xhtml if your phone’s browser won’t automatically redirect from Google.com — they’re using many of the same methods along with some upgrades to make phone-searching as easy as possible.