For those of you circling your desktop this Halloween trying to sneak up and scare your pile of work away to another day, here is a map with a schedule of what your work day may end up looking like.
internet Flowchart
Thanks to Mark Dilley for Tweeting this Internet Flowchart and to ProjectSidewalk.com for investing the time necessary to create it.
To get the full scale version of the internet flow chart click here.
iGoogle has a large number of gadgets available for use within iGoogle accounts.
Google account holders can search for gadgets to add to their iGoogle home page from ten different categories.
Google gadget categories to select from:
* News
* Tools
* Communication
* Fun & Games
* Finance
* Sports
* Lifestyle
* Technology
* Politics
…and the newest Gadget category: * Editor’s picks.
I focus on several areas of interest while working online and I have used Google’s gadget search to locate gadgets for making my work easier.
A search for gadgets under Adwords produces four page of results.
I found an Adwords gadget I like and recommend called the Adwords Composer Tool.
Search For Gadgets Adwords
Once added to your iGoogle page, Google users can create and then test whether or not their Adwords ads meet Google text ads maximum characters per line criteria.
Adwords Widget
Each line of Google text ads allows the following maximum number of characters:
Ad Title: 25 characters
Ad Description Line 1: 35 characters
Ad Description Line 2: 35 characters
Ad Display URL: 35 characters
Ad Destination URL: 1,024 characters
With the Adwords Gadget, Adwords advertisers can compose mock ads without having to log in to their Google Adwords account.
It would be great if Google would add an ad composition tool to their set of Google Adwords Tools and then make it available externally like they when they created their “Adwords External Keyword Suggestion Tool“.
Until then, this Adwords ad composer gadget from Wisitech will do.
Adwords advertisers can also go to Wisitech’s web site to use the tool if they prefer.
Adwords Composer
Search Gadgets to add the Adwords Composer tool to your iGoogle account or visit Wisitech.com to find their Adword text ad composer tool along with the several other Adwords tools they offer.
Adwords Ad Composer Tool
Several years ago Christian Mayaud invited me to join Linkedin.
When I created my account, little did I know Linkedin.com would go on to become the defacto online business networking site – the Myspace and Facebook for working adults.
As with most new technology tools, I was slow to fully embrace Linkedin’s potential power simply because I wanted to make sure my use of Linkedin would produce results I couldn’t otherwise produce for myself.
With time as the ultimate proving ground, the Linkedin network has increasingly become worth further investment.
In a previous post, I wrote about how to join and initiate a Linkedin Groups discussion.
The Linkedin Groups tool has helped me reach and connect with Google Adwords Professionals worldwide – a group I wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.
The ability to have discussions about Google Adwords with other practitioners around the globe has more than justified the time required to learn and use Linkedin’s tools.
Today nearly a year after seeking collaboration with outside developers, Mountain View, CA based Linked has announced eight external applications have been integrated for use within Linkedin.com
From the new Linkedin Applications page:
“LinkedIn Applications enable you to enrich your profile, share and collaborate with your network, and get the key insights that help you be more effective. Applications are added to your homepage and profile enabling you to control who gets access to what information.”
The eight Linkedin Applications are: Reading List by Amazon, Box.net Files, Company Buzz, Google Presentation, Blog Link, SlideShare Presentations, My Travel and of course – WordPress, hence this blog post.
I have added my blog Cohn.Wordpress.com to my Linkedin.com profile.
Adding a WordPress blog to a Linkedin account is easy to do and can be done in just four simple steps:
1. Click on the Linkedin Applications page and click on the WordPress icon.
Linkedin WordPress
2. Click add application and check whether or not you would like your WordPress blog displayed on your profile page and homepage.
Linkedin Cohn.Wordpress.com
3. Enter your WordPress blog address. Check whether you want all of your recent posts displayed or just posts tagged with Linkedin.
Linkedin Cohn.Wordpress.com Blog Posts
4. Save your settings and you will see your WordPress.com blog feed displayed with your previous selections featured.
Linkedin Profile
Upon completion of these steps, visitors who view your Linkedin profile and home page (if selected) will see your WordPress blog posts.
Adding any one of these external applications to your Linkedin account can only help expand the network effects Linkedin delivers to its still growing community.
The Wall Street Journal reports online ad networks are experiencing contractions in advertiser spending amid this economic cycle’s deceleration.
The Journal also suggests the decade old online ad network industry and its 300+ web ad brokers are in the process of experiencing a contraction in their numbers as well.
The Top 10 Online Ad Networks by number of unique visitors according to comScore are:
Top 10 Online Ad Networks
1. AOL’s Platform A
2. Yahoo Network
3. Google Ad Network
4. Specific Media
5. ValueClick Networks
6. Tribal Fusion
7. Traffic Marketplace
8. 24/7 Real Media
9. Casale Media Network
10. Adconion Media Group
In this industry’s contraction, will the reduction in the 300+ online ad networks reduce the overall supply of online ad availability to ad buyers?
Or will the industry’s excess ad supply end up being provided for out of its surviving web ad brokers inventory?
My guess is no one but those who once worked for the soon to be shuttered web ad brokers will notice they have stop supplying ads.
For videos, presentations and webinars about Google’s business products and advertising solutions visit the Google Business Channel on YouTube.
Google Business Channel
There are presently 55 videos posted on the Google Business Channel.
Each video was created to address common questions marketers and advertisers have about Google’s marketing and advertising products.
Paid search ads with the search term in the ad have been proven to receive higher click through rates (CTR) over search engine ads without the searched for term embedded in them.
From the Microsoft Adcenter blog:
“With adCenter, the easiest way to include the search term is through {keyword} insertion. This function allows you to drop the term from the search box straight into your ad.”
If inserting the keyword will likely take an ad over its 25 character limit for titles or the 70 character limit for descriptions – use default text in the ad.
Default text is then used in advertiser’s ads whenever their ads would otherwise exceed character limits.
If an ad title is “30% off all {keyword} ” and one of the {keyword} variables is “Chrysanthemums,” the resulting ad title, “30% off all Chrysanthemums,” would exceed the character limit for ad titles and as a result, the ad would not be displayed.
However, by using default text in the ad title, advertisers can keep their ad text within the allowable character limit. If the ad title is “30% off all {keyword:Flowers} ” and someone searches by using the keyword “Chrysanthemums,” the ad title would be displayed as “30% off all Flowers”.
Adcenter Dynamic Keyword Insertion
Use dynamic keyword insertion in conjuction with default text to increase ad relevance and increase paid search advertising click through rates.
Yesterday I wrote about Google Maps providing maps for voters showing them where to vote along with location specific voter registration information.
Today Google is giving searchers even easier access to voter information via a Google Vote Search Box under voting related search queries.
Where To Vote
Voters can locate their polling place and find more information about voter registration via Google searches with these voting related phrases like these: “absentee voting”, “register to vote”, “register vote”, “vote location”, “vote locations”, “vote registration”, “voter registration” and “where do i vote”.
Americans who have internet access and can type a search into Google’s Vote Search Box should be able to find all the voting related information they need cast their vote on November 4th.
Today when I was logging into my Google Adwords account, I received the first non Google message I can ever remember receiving in My Client Center: “Vote On November 4th.”
Accompanying the reminder to vote message were two links: one to Google’s 2008 Voter Info Map and the other to: Find your local polling place.
Vote on November 4th
The first link took me to Google Maps and their 2008 US Voter Information search box. Here visitors can find their neighborhood voting location by entering their home address.
According to Google, their local polling place Maps were developed with help from state and local election officials and the Voting Information Project in conjunction with the League of Women Voters.
Where To Vote
I entered my address and sure enough I received the correct location for where to vote within my local precinct.
Locate Polling Place
Google Maps suggests searchers who have looked for and found their local polling place in Google Maps verify their voting location with local election officials to ensure that it is correct.
Google Maps also provides a link to absentee ballot and early voting information for how to “Vote by Mail” as well as how much time is left for voting by mail within a particular state.
Google’s 2008 Voter information Map is a great starting point for any voter who is looking for more information about where to cast their votes in the 2008 Presidential Election on November 4th, 2008.
If you haven’t visited Google’s Zeitgeist recently, it now invites visitors to “take a look inside the world of search” via one of Google’s four search tools: Google Trends, Trends for Websites, Insights for Search and Hot Trends.
According to Google, “Zeitgeist” means “the spirit of the times”.
Google’s search tools reveal “the spirit of the times” through the aggregation of millions of search queries Google receives every day.
Isn’t the data Google culls from millions of search queries and their resulting Zeitgeist’s “spirit of the times” in effect – Reverse Polling?
Granted; searches for presidential candidates aren’t necessarily purchase proxies like those inherent in transactional related searches – or are they?
Through our votes aren’t we buying one candidate instead of another and then paying for both the newly elected and their predecessors’ policies via local, state and federal tax code?
Maybe one day we can shop for and elect officials online, but until then – we will have to settle for searching a candidates’ “product” features and benefits via all the various media available online including news, blogs and candidate websites.
Thus and barring concerns about the US Economy, few other topics symbolize the spirit of the times more here in the US than the upcoming United States Presidential election.
In keeping with the spirit of the times, below are two Google graphs illustrating how often each presidential candidate’s name has been searched compared to the other candidate with the difference calculated in ratios.
Barack Obama Searches
According to this Google graph, John McCain receives .62 searches for every Barack Obama search.
John McCain Searches
The same search data explained another way shows Barack Obama receives 1.62 searches for every search John McCain receives in Google.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published their most recent presidential poll which has a graph that somewhat resembles Google search data for both candidates.
Wall Street Journal Poll
Further Google tool research for both candidates websites even more closely mirrors the recent Wall Street Journal presidential poll results.
BarackObama.com JohnMcCain.com
Google search data indicates BarackObama.com has received 1 search for every .32 JohnMcCain.com searches.
And again – the search data appears to closely mirror the Wall Street Journal presidential poll findings.
BarackObama.com Searches
The same search data presented for McCain searches shows JohnMcCain.com receives one search for every 3.2 BarackObama.com searches.
JohnMcCain.com Searches
Have not Voters’ presidential candidate preferences already manifested in Google search data?
If so, what search factors potentially skew the predictive qualities of Google data?
In my next “Google Presidential Poll” post, I will take a crack at answering the above questions while also delving more deeply into where and how voters’ presidential candidate preferences have already materialized in Google search data as well as provide additional reasons why I think Google data has reached parity with traditional pollster data – at least on the national level.
In a previous post, I requested Adwords provide Quality Score reporting options from within Adword reports.
Quality Score data are now available from Google Adwords reports.
Google Adwords Quality Score Reporting
By providing Quality Score report data to their advertisers, Google Adwords has taken the first step toward making Adwords Quality Score Management a reality.
Thanks Google Adwords!
Search Marketing Communications 
You must be logged in to post a comment.