Archive for June, 2009

Top 50 Riskiest Search Terms

June 10, 2009

Security firm McAfee has released its list of the top 50 riskiest search terms most likely to lead to searchers to malware or virus spawning websites.

Top 50 Riskiest Search Terms

Top 50 Riskiest Search Terms

How McAfee conducted its study:

McAfee analyzed the first five search results pages across 2,600 popular keywords across the most popular search engines. Both organic and paid listings were incorporated into the analysis, and more than 413,000 unique URLs were checked for potential risk.

According to McAfee:

Work from home searches can be as much as four time more risky than the average for all popular terms. And on average, these searches are 50% more risky than other popular terms.

Work From Home Search Terms and Risk

Work From Home Search Terms and Risk

With the current economic crisis affecting millions of people, work from home searches appear likely to produce more malware and virus problems for the people least equipped to deal with additional burdens – the unemployed.

Google (Adwords) Class Action Settlement -$20 Million Cash and Credits

June 9, 2009

I received the following notice this afternoon pertaining to Google’s pending settlement of a class action lawsuit regarding their daily budget billing practices within Google Adwords accounts.

I found the last sentence of the following paragraph summed up the merits of this particular lawsuit against Google:

Google has denied, and continues to deny, each and all claims of wrongdoing against it and continues to assert defenses thereto, and has expressly denied any wrongdoing or legal liability out of any of the conduct alleged in the Action.  Google denies that Representative Plaintiffs or the Class have suffered any damages or are entitled to any restitution.  Representative Plaintiffs considered that there was a substantial risk that they and the Class might not have prevailed on their claims and that there were risks that they and the Class could have recovered substantially less than the settlement amount, if the case had been litigated to judgment.

Google Class Action Settlement

Google Class Action Settlement

NOTICE OF PENDENCY AND PROPOSED
SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION AND SETTLEMENT HEARING

TO:
ALL PERSONS OR ENTITIES RESIDING IN THE UNITED STATES WHO HAVE PAID GOOGLE FOR ADVERTISING PURSUANT TO GOOGLE’S ADWORDS PROGRAM WHO (A) BECAME ADWORDS ADVERTISERS BETWEEN JUNE 1, 2005 AND FEBRUARY 28, 2009, INCLUSIVE, AND WHO WERE CHARGED MORE THAN THEIR PER DAY DAILY BUDGET ON ANY DAY DURING THAT TIME PERIOD; OR (B) PAUSED THEIR ADWORDS ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS ON ANY DAY DURING THE PERIOD FROM JANUARY 1, 2002 TO FEBRUARY 28, 2009, INCLUSIVE, AND DURING THE SAME BILLING PERIOD WHEN THEIR ADWORDS ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS WERE PAUSED, WERE CHARGED MORE THAN THE PRODUCT OF THEIR PER DAY DAILY BUDGET TIMES THE NUMBER OF DAYS THAT SUCH CLASS MEMBERS’ ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS WERE NOT PAUSED DURING THAT BILLING PERIOD

PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY AND IN ITS ENTIRETY.  YOUR RIGHTS MAY BE AFFECTED BY PROCEEDINGS IN THIS LITIGATION.  IF YOU ARE A CLASS MEMBER, YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO RECEIVE BENEFITS PURSUANT TO THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT DESCRIBED HEREIN.

EXCLUSION DEADLINE:  REQUESTS FOR EXCLUSION FROM THE CLASS MUST CONTAIN THE INFORMATION SET FORTH BELOW AND BE ACTUALLY RECEIVED BY THE CLAIMS ADMINISTRATOR ON OR BEFORE JULY 14, 2009.

I.  SUMMARY OF SETTLEMENT AND RELATED MATTERS

A.    Purpose of this Notice
This Notice is given pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and an Order of the Court, dated May 12, 2009.  The purpose of this Notice is to inform you that the above-entitled action (“the Action”) has been certified as a class action and of the terms of a proposed settlement of the Action.  This Notice describes rights you may have under the proposed settlement and what steps you may take in relation to this litigation.  This Notice is not an expression of any opinion by the Court as to the merits of any claims or any defenses asserted by any party in this litigation, or the fairness or adequacy of the proposed settlement.

B.
Statement of Recovery to the Class

Pursuant to the settlement described herein, $20,000,000, in a combination of cash and AdWords Credits, have been created for the benefit of the Class.  These funds have been placed in an interest-bearing escrow account.

A Class member’s distribution from the net Settlement Fund will be determined by a Plan of Allocation to be
approved by the Court.  An explanation of how each Class member’s distribution will be calculated for purposes of the settlement is set forth in the proposed Plan of Allocation which is summarized in Part VI of this Notice below.

C.    Statement of Potential Outcome of the Case
Google has denied, and continues to deny, each and all claims of wrongdoing against it and continues to assert defenses thereto, and has expressly denied any wrongdoing or legal liability out of any of the conduct alleged in the Action.  Google denies that Representative Plaintiffs or the Class have suffered any damages or are entitled to any restitution.  Representative Plaintiffs considered that there was a substantial risk that they and the Class might not have prevailed on their claims and that there were risks that they and the Class could have recovered substantially less than the settlement amount, if the case had been litigated to judgment.

The settlement was reached only after the parties conducted arduous arm’s-length negotiations over a period of two months.  Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel have determined that the settlement was fair, reasonable and adequate and in the best interest of the Class.

D.    Statement of Attorney’s Fees and Expenses and Representative Plaintiffs’ Incentive Compensation Awards Sought
Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel for the Class intend to apply for: attorneys’ fees of not more than $5,000,000, plus a proportionate share of the interest earned on the Settlement Proceeds, for reimbursement of expenses incurred in connection with the prosecution and settlement of this litigation, not to exceed $250,000; and for an incentive compensation award to the two Representative Plaintiffs, not to exceed $20,000 each.

E.    Further Information
Further information regarding the litigation and this Notice may be obtained by contacting Representative Counsel
for the Class:

LESTER L. LEVY
WOLF POPPER LLP
845 Third Avenue
New York, NY  10022

RACHEL S. BLACK
SUSMAN GODFREY L.L.P.
1201 Third Avenue, Suite 3800
Seattle, WA  98101

MARC M. SELTZER
SUSMAN GODFREY L.L.P.
1901 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 950
Los Angeles, CA  90067-6029

II.  NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT HEARING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and an Order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (the “Court”) dated May 12, 2009, that a hearing (“Settlement Hearing”) will be held by the Court on September 14 2009 at 9:00 a.m., at the United States Courthouse, 280 South 1st Street, San Jose, California, 95113.  The purpose of the Settlement Hearing will be, among other things: (1) to determine whether the proposed Settlement Agreement is fair, reasonable and adequate to the Class and should be approved by the Court and, therefore, whether the Action should be dismissed on the merits and with prejudice, and (2) to consider the reasonableness of an application by Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel for payment of attorney’s fees and reimbursement of costs and expenses incurred in connection with the Action and for incentive compensation award to the Representative Plaintiffs.

The Court has certified a Settlement Class defined as: all persons and entities residing in the United States who have paid Google for advertising pursuant to Google’s AdWords program who (a) became AdWords advertisers between June 1, 2005 and February 28, 2009, inclusive, and who were charged more than their per day Daily Budget on any day during that time period; or (b) paused their AdWords advertising campaigns on any day during the period from January 1, 2002 to February 28, 2009, inclusive, and during the same billing period when their AdWords advertising campaigns were paused, were charged more than the product of their per day Daily Budget times the number of days that such Class Members’ advertising campaigns were not paused during that billing period.  Excluded from the Class are Resellers, defined as persons or entities whose regular business activities include placing ads on Google’s AdWords program on behalf of otherwise unaffiliated persons or entities.

III.  BACKGROUND OF THE ACTION

AdWords is a global advertising program offered by Google.  This Action concerns Google’s billing practice for its AdWords program.

On May 4, 2006, Representative Plaintiffs filed their Second Amended Class Action Complaint, which is the operative complaint in the Action, which alleges five causes of action: (1) Breach of Contract; (2) Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing; (3) Violations of Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200, et seq. (“UCL”); (4) Violation of Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17500, et seq. (“FAL”); and (5) Unjust Enrichment.  In their Complaint, the Representative Plaintiffs sought damages, restitution, and injunctive relief to remedy Google’s practice of (1) charging its AdWords advertisers up to 120% of their per day daily budget on any given day (Plaintiffs’ “120% claims”); and (2) charging AdWords customers who paused their campaigns more than their per day Daily Budget times the number of days their campaigns were not paused during the billing period (Plaintiffs’ “pausing claims”).

Google filed four separate motions for partial summary judgment.  The Court dismissed the Representative Plaintiffs’ Second and Fifth Causes of action for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and unjust enrichment.  Google also successfully argued that its practice of charging AdWords Advertisers up to 120% of their daily budget on any given day does not, in and of itself, constitute breach of contract.  The Court held that triable issues of fact existed as to whether Google’s practice of charging up to 120% of an AdWords Advertiser’s per day Daily Budget violates the UCL and FAL and whether Google’s pre-September 2006 pausing practices constitute a breach of contract.

IV.  BACKGROUND OF THE SETTLEMENT

Google has denied all claim of wrongdoing or liability in the Action.  The Settlement Agreement is not and shall not be construed or deemed to be evidence or an admission or a concession on the part of Google of any fault or liability or damages whatsoever, and Google does not concede any infirmity in the defenses which it has asserted in the Action.

Counsel for the parties conducted extensive settlement negotiations to achieve the settlement described herein.  The settlement was reached only after the parties conducted arduous arm’s-length negotiations and after the parties conducted extensive pre-trial discovery.  During the course of this Action, Google produced hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, responded to multiple interrogatories, and Google employees testified at deposition.  In addition, Representative Plaintiffs produced documents to Google, responded to interrogatories, and testified at deposition.

In determining to settle the Action, Representative Plaintiffs and Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel have taken into account the substantial expense and length of time necessary to prosecute the litigation through complete pretrial discovery, trial, post-trial motions and likely appeals, taking into consideration the significant uncertainties in predicting the outcome of this complex litigation.  Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel believes that the settlement described herein provides substantial benefits to the Class.  Based on their consideration of all of these factors, Representative Plaintiffs and Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel have concluded that it is in the best interests of the Class to settle the Action on the terms described herein, subject to the approval of the Court.

Representative Plaintiffs recognized the uncertainty and risk of the outcome of any litigation, especially complex litigation such as this, and the difficulties and risks inherent in the trial of such an action.  Representative Plaintiffs desired to settle the claims of the Class against Google on the terms and conditions described herein which provide substantial and immediate benefits to the Class.  Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel deems such settlement to be fair, reasonable and adequate to, and in the best interests of, the members of the Class.

Google, while continuing to deny all allegations of wrongdoing or liability, desired to settle and terminate all existing or potential claims against it without in any way acknowledging fault or liability.  During the course of the litigation, Google, in addition to denying any liability, disputed that Representative Plaintiffs and the Class were damaged by any wrongful conduct on its part.  The settlement provides immediate and substantial benefits to the Class and avoids the risks that liability or damages might not be proven at trial.

THE COURT HAS NOT FINALLY DETERMINED THE MERITS OF REPRESENTATIVE PLAINTIFFS’ CLAIMS OR THE DEFENSES THERETO.  THIS NOTICE DOES NOT IMPLY THAT THERE HAS BEEN OR WOULD BE ANY FINDING OF VIOLATIONS OF LAW OR THAT RECOVERY COULD BE OBTAINED IN ANY AMOUNT IF THE ACTION WERE NOT SETTLED.

V.  TERMS OF THE SETTLEMENT

In full and complete satisfaction of the claims which have or could have been asserted in this Action, and subject to the terms and conditions of the Stipulation, Google has paid $20,000,000 into escrow on behalf of the Class (the “Settlement Proceeds”), which has been earning interest since on or about March 31, 2009.  The Settlement Proceeds, which are inclusive of any Fee and Expense Award and incentive compensation award to Representative Plaintiffs, shall be distributed by Google (with respect to AdWords Credits) and the Claims Administrator in accordance with the terms of the Plan of Allocation described below.

The settlement will release Representative Plaintiffs’ and Class Members’ Released Claims against the Google.  The Released Claims are defined as: any and all claims, demands, actions, causes of action, rights, offsets, suits, damages, lawsuits, liens, costs, losses, expenses or liabilities of any kind whatsoever, for any relief whatsoever, including monetary, injunctive or declaratory relief, or for reimbursement of attorneys’ fees, costs or expenses, which the Representative Plaintiffs or any Member of the Class which were or could have been asserted based on the allegations set forth in the complaints filed by the Representative Plaintiffs in the Action, specifically including any and all claims based on a Class Member being charged more than his, her, or its Daily Budget.

Upon the Effective Date of the settlement, the Representative Plaintiffs and Class Members on behalf of themselves, their heirs, executors, administrators, successors, assigns, employees, officers, directors, attorneys, representatives, affiliates, agents, and any persons or entities they represent, shall be deemed to release and forever discharge Google from all Released Claims, and shall forever be barred and enjoined from prosecuting, commencing, instituting or asserting all or any of the Released Claims in any action or other proceeding in any court of law asserting all or any of the Released Claims in any action or other proceeding in any court of law or equity, arbitrational tribunal, administrative or other forum, whether directly, representatively, derivatively, or in any other capacity against Google.

If the settlement is approved by the Court, all claims which have or could have been asserted in the Action will be dismissed on the merits and with prejudice as to all Class Members and all Class Members shall be forever barred from prosecuting a class action or any other action raising any Released Claims against Google.

The settlement will become effective at such time as Final Judgment entered by the Court approving the settlement shall become final and not subject to appeal (the “Effective Date”).

VI.  PLAN OF ALLOCATION OF SETTLEMENT FUND AMONG CLASS MEMBERS

1. The $20,000,000 settlement and the interest earned thereon are the “Settlement Proceeds.”

2. Upon final approval of the settlement by the Court and the satisfaction of the other conditions to the effectiveness of the Settlement, the Settlement Proceeds will be allocated under the Court’s direction and supervision, as follows:

a. To pay the fees, expenses and costs of Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel as and to the extent allowed by the Court;

b. To pay an incentive compensation award to each Representative Plaintiff to the extent allowed by the Court; and

c. To pay all costs and expenses reasonably incurred in connection with the preparation and filing of tax returns and          the payment of taxes on the interest earned on the Settlement Proceeds, including all taxes and tax expenses.

3. Subject to the approval by the Court of the Plan of Allocation described below, the balance of the Settlement Proceeds remaining after the payment of the foregoing fees, costs, expenses and taxes (the “Net Settlement Proceeds”) shall be distributed in the form of cash or AdWords Credits as set forth below, to Class members who have not requested exclusion from the class in accordance with the instructions contained in this Notice.  The following methodology shall be used to calculate the distribution to each Class member:

(Class Member’s Total Overcharges) x (Net Settlement Proceeds)
sum total of Estimate of all Class Members’ Total Overcharges

a. “Net Settlement Proceeds” means the remaining balance of the Settlement Proceeds, including all interest earned thereon, following payment of any Fee and Expense Award as allowed by the Court.

b. “17200 Overcharge” means the dollar amount that a Class Member, who signed up for AdWords between June 1, 2005 and February 28, 2009, was charged by Google in excess of his, her, or its per day Daily Budget, the first month such overcharge occurred.

c. “Overcharge” means to charge an AdWords Advertiser more than his, her, or its per day Daily Budget on any given day.

d. “Pausing Overcharge” means the dollar amount that Google charged a Class Member, who paused his, her, or its campaign for any amount of time in a billing period, in excess of the product of the Class Member’s per day Daily Budget times the number of days that the campaign was not paused during the same billing period, at any time during the period between January 1, 2002 and February 28, 2009, inclusive.

e. “Total Overcharges” means, for each Class Member, the sum of his, her, or its 17200 Overcharges and Pausing Overcharges, less any Overcharges that are duplicative of the Pausing Overcharges.

f. “Claims Administrator” means Gilardi & Co. LLC.

g. For each Class Member who has a balance due on his, her, or its AdWords account as of the Class Member Distribution Calculation Date that is equal to or greater than that Class Member’s Distribution (defined as “Active AdWords Advertisers”), Google will issue AdWords Credits in the amount of such Class Member’s Distribution within ten business days of the Class Member Distribution Calculation Date. At the time of distribution, Google will notify each Class Member who is an Active AdWords Advertiser who has a balance due on his, her, or its AdWords account as of the Class Member Distribution Calculation Date that is less than such Class Member’s Distribution that they may elect to receive cash in lieu of AdWords Credits by contacting Google via email. To make such an election, the Active AdWords Advertiser must notify the Claims Administrator within forty days of the Class Member Calculation Date via email or in writing, including the following information: (1) name of Class Member; (2) AdWords account(s) number; (3) email address associated with AdWords account; (4) mailing address. The request must be emailed to the Claims Administrator at the following email address: claims@adwordscustomersettlement.com , or sent to the Claims Administrator at the following address:

CLRB Hanson LLC et al. v. Google Class Action Settlement
c/o Gilardi & Co. LLC P.O. Box 808054
Petaluma, CA. 94975-8054

Each Active AdWords Advertiser who makes such an election before the designated deadline shall receive that portion of the Class Member’s Distribution that is in excess of the balance due on his, her, or its AdWords account in cash.

h. The Claims Administrator will issue checks to all Class Members who are not Active AdWords Advertisers, in the amount of each Class Member’s Distribution. To the extent, at the conclusion of efforts to make distributions to Class Members, there remains any undistributed portion of the Net Settlement Proceeds, it shall be disposed of pursuant to the instructions of Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel, with approval of the Court. Under no circumstances shall the Net Settlement Proceeds, or any portion thereof, be paid or otherwise revert to Google following the Effective Date of the Settlement.

i. The computation of each Class Member’s Distribution shall be made by Google or the Claims Administrator, and the data supporting such computation shall be supplied to the Claims Administrator. Payment pursuant to the Plan of Allocation set forth above shall be conclusive against all Class Members. No Person shall have any claim against Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel, the Claims Administrator or other agent designated by Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel, Google, or Google’s Counsel based on the distributions made substantially in accordance with the Settlement Agreement, the Plan of Allocation, or further orders of the Court.

4. If the proposed Settlement is approved by the Court, the Court will enter a final judgment (the “Judgment”) which will:

a. Dismiss the Litigation against Google with prejudice, and without costs;

b. Adjudge that Representative Plaintiffs and each Class Member, except those members of the Class who have previously timely and validly requested exclusion from the Class, shall be deemed conclusively to have released the Released Claims (as described above) against Google. Notwithstanding that Representative Plaintiffs or any Class Member may hereafter discover facts in addition to or different from those which Representative Plaintiffs and Class Members now know or believe to be true with respect to the Litigation and Released Claims or to the subject matter of the release, plaintiffs and each Class Member shall be deemed, upon the Effective Date of the Settlement, to fully, finally and forever settle and release any and all Released Claims as against Google;

c.    Bar and permanently enjoin Representative Plaintiffs and each Class Member, except those members of the Class who have timely and validly requested exclusion from the Class, from prose-cuting any Released Claims against Google; and

d.    Reserve jurisdiction, without affecting the finality of the Judgment entered, over:

(i)    Implementation of the Settlement and any award or distribution of the Settlement Proceeds, including interest thereon;
(ii)    Disposition of the Settlement Proceeds;
(iii)    Hearing and determining Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel’s appli-cations for attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, and expenses (including fees and costs of experts and consultants) and for an incentive compensation award for Representative Plaintiffs;
(iv)    Enforcing and administering the Settlement, including any releases given in connection therewith; and
(v)    Other matters related to the foregoing.

VII.  RIGHTS OF CLASS MEMBERS

The Court has certified this action to proceed as a class action pursuant to Rules 23(a) and 23(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. If you are not a Reseller, you are a member of the Class if: you reside in the United States, have paid Google for advertising pursuant to Google’s AdWords program and either (a) became an AdWords advertiser between June 1, 2005 and February 28, 2009, inclusive, and were charged more than your per day Daily Budget on any day during that time period; or (b) paused your AdWords advertising campaign on any day during the period from January 1, 2002 to February 28, 2009, inclusive, and during the same billing period when your AdWords advertising campaign was paused, were charged more than the product of your per day Daily Budget times the number of days that your AdWords advertising campaign was not paused during that billing period. Class members have the following options:

A.    If you wish to remain a member of the Class, you may share in the proceeds of the Settlement.  Class Members will be represented by Representative Plaintiffs and Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel, unless you enter an appearance through counsel of your own choice at your own expense.  You are not required to retain your own counsel, but if you choose to do so, such counsel must file an appearance on your behalf on or before July 14, 2009, and must serve copies of such appearance on the attorneys listed below.

B.    If you do not wish to remain a member of the Class, you may exclude yourself from the Class by following the instructions below.  Persons who exclude themselves from the Class will NOT receive any share of the Settlement Proceeds and will NOT be bound by the Settlement.

C.    If you object to the Settlement, the Plan of Allocation, or to Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel’s application for attorney’s fees and expenses and for an incentive compensation award for Representative Plaintiffs, and if you do not exclude yourself from the Class, you may present your objections by following the instructions below.

VIII.  EXCLUSION FROM THE CLASS AND SETTLEMENT

Each member of the class shall be bound by all determinations and judgments in this Action concerning the Settlement, whether favorable or unfavorable, unless such person files a written request for exclusion by first-class mail so that it is actually received by the Claims Administrator on or before July 14, 2009.  Your rights against Google will be affected by this Settlement.

To be effective, any request for exclusion from the Class must be in writing and must include the name, email address, AdWords account number, and mailing address of the person seeking to opt out, the dates that the person was an AdWords Advertiser, and a statement that the person wishes to be excluded from the Class, and must be signed by or on behalf of the person so requesting exclusion and sent via first-class mail to:

CLRB Hanson LLC et al. v. Google Class Action Settlement
c/o Gilardi & Co., LLC
P.O. Box 808054
Petaluma, CA 94975-8054

IX.  SETTLEMENT HEARING

At the Settlement Hearing, the Court will determine whether to finally approve this Settlement and dismiss the Action and the claims of Representative Plaintiffs and the Class.  The Settlement Hearing may be adjourned from time to time by the Court without further written notice to the Class.

At the Settlement Hearing, any Class member who has not filed a proper request for exclusion from the Class may appear in person or by counsel and be heard to the extent allowed by the Court in opposition to the fairness, reasonableness and adequacy of the Settlement, the Plan of Distribution, or the application of Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel for an award of attorney’s fees and expenses and for an incentive compensation award to Representative Plaintiffs, provided, however, that in no event shall any person or entity be heard in opposition to the Settlement, the Plan of Distribution, or Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel’s application for attorney’s fees and expenses and for an incentive compensation award to Representative Plaintiffs, and in no event shall any paper or brief submitted by any such person be accepted or considered by the Court, unless, the objection is filed with the Court and served on Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel and Google’s Counsel so that it is received no later than July 14, 2009.  Any such objection shall include all briefs or other papers to be considered by the Court, and must include the name and address of the person and the dates that the person was an AdWords Advertiser, and must be
served to Representative Plaintiffs Counsel at the following addresses:                                  and upon counsel for Google:

LESTER L. LEVY
WOLF POPPER LLP
845 Third Avenue
New York, NY  10022

RACHEL S. BLACK
SUSMAN GODFREY L.L.P.
1201 Third Avenue, Suite 3800
Seattle, WA  98101

Daralyn Durie
Durie Tangri Lemley Roberts & Kent
332 Pine Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94104

and said objections, papers and briefs must be filed with the Clerk of the Court, showing due proof of service upon Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel and counsel for Google.

X.  ATTORNEY’S FEES AND EXPENSES

At the Settlement Hearing, or at such other time as the Court may direct, Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel will apply to the Court for an award of attorney’s fees from the Settlement Proceeds in an amount not exceeding $5,000,000, plus a proportionate share of the interest earned on the Settlement Proceeds, and for reimbursement of their costs and expenses, not to exceed $250,000; and for a incentive compensation award to the two Representative Plaintiffs, not to exceed $20,000 each.  Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel, without further notice to the Class, may subsequently apply to the Court for fees and expenses incurred in connection with administering this Settlement and distributing the Settlement proceeds to the members of the Class.

XI.  FURTHER INFORMATION

For a more detailed statement of the matters involved in this Action, reference is made to the pleadings, to the Settlement Agreement, to the Orders entered by the Court and to the other papers filed in the Action, which may be inspected at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, United States Courthouse, 280 South 1st Street, San Jose, California, 95113, during regular business hours.

ALL INQUIRIES CONCERNING THIS NOTICE OR THE PROOF OF CLAIM FORM BY CLASS MEMBERS SHOULD BE MADE TO THE CLAIMS ADMINISTRATOR.  PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT OR THE CLERK’S OFFICE FOR INFORMATION.

Dated:  June 9th, 2009
____________________________________
James W. Ware
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Sam’s Club: Virtual Seminar University for Small Businesses

June 8, 2009

Sam’s Club is launching a new service for small businesses called Virtual Seminar University.

From VirtualSeminarUniversity.com:

At Virtual Seminar University, we bring master teachers and top business authors together to help small business owners and independent professionals, just like you!

Now you can learn to build your business… faster, better, smarter!

No cost. No Logins. No Passwords. Use your computer or phone. You have everything you need to profit from this training and it costs you nothing. That’s right. The cost is zero.

Virtual Seminar University

Virtual Seminar University

VirtualSeminarUniversity.com offers small business owners advice in six categories:

Marketing/Business Development
Copywriting/Sales Communications
Negotiation/Conflict Management
Finance/Cashflow Management
Time Management/Organizational Skills
Internet Marketing/Web Site Publishing

Virtual Seminar University Internet Marketing

Virtual Seminar University Internet Marketing

From the list of six advice categories, visitors to Virtual Seminar University are initially asked to choose the business subject they are most interested in.

Virtual Seminar University Internet Marketing Business Development

Virtual Seminar University Internet Marketing Business Development

Visitors are then asked to choose another subject they are interested in learning more about.

Sam’s Club then asks for names and email addresses of friends who may be interested in their new Virtual Seminar University.

Welcome to VSU

Welcome to VSU

Visitors then submit their preferences and receive a confirmation email from Virtual Seminar University.

VSU

VSU

Sam’s Club isn’t clear about when their Virtual Seminar University will officially launch their services.

The Marketing Cycle According to Google

June 7, 2009

From marketing strategy and creative execution to analytics and website optimization, Google advertising tools work together to build a truly effective, unified marketing campaign.

Google Marketing Cycle

Google Marketing Cycle

Google divides the marketing cycle into four parts for potential advertisers:

1. Defining your strategy

Your first job is to define your objectives, audience and message. We can help with insights into what users are searching for, what sites they visit and what they do on your sites.

2. Creating your ads

Check out our gallery of creative tools that can help you design smart, useful, innovative interactions: both paid ads with formats optimized for the environment in which they appear and free communication tools that reach users in delightful new ways.

3. Planning and buying your media

We’ve worked to innovate in every stage of media planning and buying – hyper-targeting within a specific media channel, buying that media, making sure your messages actually run, then constantly iterating to improve their performance – with specific tools tailored to each medium.

4. Optimizing your campaigns

Who saw your ads? Did they actually buy something? What did they do on your site? The breadth and depth of data-driven insights offered by our audience and advertising measurement tools enable you to perpetually tweak your marketing communications for maximum ROI.

Google’s new and more broadly defined Marketing Cycle clearly encompasses both media and advertising beyond their initial search advertising product – Google Adwords.

Whether advertisers will embrace or profit from Google’s broader approach to media and advertising remains to be seen.

My Toolkit for Google Advertisers

June 6, 2009

Google has begun promoting their advertising solutions in a more comprehensive manner through a fictional ad campaign for the Google Pet Stick.

Google Stick Campaign

Google Stick Campaign

On the Google for Advertisers site Google asks “How Can Google Accelerate Your Business?”

Google for Advertisers

Google for Advertisers

Google answers the question by providing potential advertisers with links to seven informational subcategories: Online, TV, Mobile, The Marketing Cycle, Get Started, Stay in Touch and My Toolkit.

This new Google advertising campaign clearly attempts to position Google as much more than just a search engine and search engine advertising agency.

Oops, Bing: Just One Thing

June 5, 2009

As we all know by now, Microsoft has launched its highly hyped new search engine called Bing.

Instead of gushing about Bing the product’s attributes or shortcomings, I instead will concentrate on its one glaring strategic flaw – market positioning.

According to Search Engine Land, in developing its marketing and advertising campaign to position Bing as a “decision engine” among other things, Microsoft relied on its own limited perception of what searchers wanted from a search engine ie., Microsoft’s own limited internal search data.

Having a myopic self view of a market may work in segments where your products enjoy an effective monopoly like say desktop software.

However, extrapolating a markets wants and needs from a subset of the search audience can ultimately only produce an incremental increase in search market share at best.

Experienced search marketers understand the differences between the Google, Yahoo, Bing (Live) and even AOL search audiences.

Apparently the same can’t be said for the search technology team at Microsoft, I guess that’s why they work at Microsoft.

Google Adwords Recommendations By Email

June 4, 2009

Today I receieved the first email from Google Adwords I can recall receiving suggesting keywords not already within my Adwords account I should consider using.

The email’s subject line captured my attention:

Google AdWords: Ten powerful new keywords for your marketingprinciples.com campaigns

Upon opening the email, I found the following message along with Google Adwords top ten keyword recommendations for my website marketingprinciples.com.

Google Adwords Recommendations

Google Adwords Recommendations

I wasn’t surprised with any of their keyword suggestions as much as I was with their having sent their search based keyword tool recommendations to me.

According to Adwords:

These are just the top 10 keywords. The Search-based Keyword Tool actually found 712 recently-searched keywords related to your site.

For each suggested keyword, the tool will also show you:

The average number of searches per month
The competitive bidding level for each term
The estimated bid to appear in the top three ad positions
The suggested landing page for each keyword

As suggested at the conclusion of their email, I logged into my Adwords account and ran the Search Based Keyword Tool to retrieve the “712 recently-searched keywords” related to my site.

However, the search-based keyword tool produced 73 keywords for marketingprinciples.com not 712.

Google Search Based Keyword Tool

Google Search Based Keyword Tool

Regardless, the search-based keyword list the tool provided for my site was relevant and specific to my business.

The recommended keyword list can be saved as a draft to an Adwords account or exported in a spreadsheet.

The tool’s most valuable feature is its matching of the new found keywords with their corresponding web page url.

For site’s with hundreds or thousands of pages, this feature can significantly reduce the amount of time needed to successfully program Adwords campaigns.

Google Local Business Center Dashboard Live

June 3, 2009

The Google Lat Long Blog has announced their roll out of the Local Business Center dashboard containing local listing and search data.

Initial data available in the Local Business Center:

Impressions: The number of times the business listing appeared as a result on a Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period.

Actions: The number of times people interacted with the listing; for example, the number of times they clicked through to the business’ website or requested driving directions to the business.

Top search queries: Which queries led customers to the business listing; for example, are they finding the listing for a cafe by searching for “tea” or “coffee”?

Zip codes where driving directions come from: Which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to your location.

Indeed, when I logged into my Google Local Business Center account I found a scaled down Google Analytics type Dashboard waiting for me.

Google Local Business Center

Google Local Business Center

The top field on the Dashboard shows how many times users saw my particular business listing, how many clicks were for more information from Google Maps, how many clicks were for driving directions and how many clicks were delivered to my website.

The middle field on the Dashboard provide a top search queries bar graph.

Top Local Business Center Search Queries

Top Local Business Center Search Queries

The last field shows where driving directions came from.

Where Driving Directions Came From

Where Driving Directions Came From

The right rail shows all of the data I have provided to the Google Local Business Center and includes a link for editing my data.

Your Local Business Center Listing

Your Local Business Center Listing

Providing search data to businesses listed in the Google Local Business Center gives business owners yet another level of insight into how their business are performing online.

A Novel Bing Marketing Tactic: Buy Ads On Google

June 2, 2009

While checking my email today in Gmail I was somewhat surprised to see the following ad dsiplayed above my inbox:

Microsoft Bing Google Adwords Ad

Microsoft Bing Google Adwords Ad

Microsoft is also buying Google Adwords to promote their new Bing “decision engine” brand in Google search results.

Google Search Bing Ad

Google Search Bing Ad

Bing the brand is also being advertised in Google search results under “decision engine” as well as –

Decision Engine Ad

Decision Engine Ad

“search engine”.

Search Engine Ad

Search Engine Ad

I know its hard to believe but people still search Google.com for “search engine” and “search engines”.

In fact, according to Google – over 5,000,000 people worldwide search for either the single or plural version of the phrase each month.

Search Engine Demand

Search Engine Demand

However, a considerably smaller number of people search for the single or plural version of decision engine.

Decision Engine Search Demand

Decision Engine Search Demand

Roughly 5,000 times fewer searches in fact.

Microsoft Bing Live

June 1, 2009

I noticed search referrals coming from Bing today in my WordPress logs.

At first glance, it seemed like Bing was sending an inordinate amount of referrals for a Beta product.

After further investigation, it appears Bing is now Live worldwide.

Microsoft Bing Live

Microsoft Bing Live

With Microsoft’s official launch of Bing, MSFT also began an attempt to reposition the search process as something more than search by calling Bing a “decision engine”. Microsoft then directed all initial interest in Bing to DecisionEngine.com.

DecisionEngine.com has a video demonstration of Bing features while Live.com now redirects to Bing.com.

MSN.com is also showing a Bing preview box on its home page.

Bing Preview

Bing Preview