Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

Where Google Is Headed

August 9, 2009

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was recently interviewed by BusinessWeek about the future of Google.

The following is an excerpt from the BusinessWeek interview:

Maria Bartiromo

Where is the growth coming from in the next 5 or 10 years for Google? Is it more search opportunities? Is it mobility?

Eric E. Schmidt

Probably a combination. It’s obvious that the highest growth is in our core business as we get better and better at targeted ads, and those ads become more valuable. Our whole theory about advertising is that an advertisement that’s not targeted—just a random ad that you just walk by—is a waste of somebody’s money because you’re not going to buy. It wasn’t relevant to you.

Aren’t there three times as many phones out there as there are PCs now?
More than that. The rough number of PCs is around 800 million; the rough number of mobile phones is on the order of 3 billion. Even more important, the growth rate of mobile phones is quite a bit higher than that of personal computers. There’s an estimate of about 600 million mobile phones that are data- and Internet-capable. And that is the group that we really care about because those are the ones that are able to run powerful browsers. This was all kicked off by the iPhone. The iPhone sort of showed what you can do with a very powerful browser. Now there are many new kinds of devices with powerful browsers where you can have very high-quality ads, new applications, and, of course, the phone.

So how do you get to the next step in the mobile business? Do you need to partner with other companies to make sure that the speed is there, that the connectivity is there?
We’re doing that with our telecommunications partners. We actually share in the revenue for the ads that show up on the phones. So the advertiser pays us, and then we share it, literally, with the handset and mobile operator. And often we divide between both. And that seems to be the only way to really get money into that system. It’s very, very important that the telecom operators have enough capital to continue the build-outs of the so-called 3G and 4G networks.

What are the biggest challenges the mobile Web presents?
Let’s start with the fact that the phones are not fast, the networks are not as capable, the ad formats are not standardized. But on the other hand it’s very, very important to solve those problems because a phone is very personal. And so if we know a fair amount about a person, with their permission we can target a useful ad—you know, “It’s Eric. You had a hamburger yesterday, do you want pizza today? There’s a pizza store on the right.” That kind of ad is likely worth a lot of money to an advertiser because it will generate a sale.

In other words, you send a message to the person’s cell phone, saying: “Look, we know you had a burger yesterday. If you want pizza today, just go around the block”?
Right. It may sound creepy, but it might also be quite valuable. People could use advice as to what to eat and where the food is—and of course you can turn it off. So the important thing here is advertising that has value to the person is advertising that is a valuable business. That’s the business we’re in.

Google Site Links Adds Images

August 7, 2009

Today while searching Google for pages indexed at one of my sites, I found images were included in Google’s results.

Google Site Search

Google Site Search

There were also play buttons with each image although they were no videos archived – just static screen shots.

Do you have any idea how long images have been included in the site search results at Google?

Google Adwords Online Marketing Challenge Metrics

July 24, 2009

Google has announced the winners of the 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge – a global university competition that gives undergraduate and post-graduate students hands-on exposure to online marketing.

The team from Deakin University, Australia was the winner of the global competition.

When asked how their team constructed the winning campaign, team spokesperson Andrew Kidd shared the following insight:

After discussions with the business owners, we decided we needed to conduct three separate campaigns. One would promote the play center to customers outside a 10 kilometre geographic radius, another would attract more mothers’ groups to the center, and the third one would attract more party and group event bookings. Visitors to their website more than doubled compared with the same period last year. We knew we had developed a strong campaign — but to win the global competition is outstanding.

Google judged competitors entries by the following metrics:

A proprietary Adwords algorithm examined over 30 different variables within an account to determine the top 50 teams in each of three regions (The Americas, EMEA and APAC).

Expert Googlers reviewed these 150 accounts to determine the top 5 in each of the three regions.

A Global Academic Panel selected winners from these 15 teams based solely on the quality of a team’s written reports.

The Google Adwords campaign statistics algorithm rated the teams with five key metrics:

Adwords Account Structure – Did the team set up their Adwords campaign in an efficient manner? Was it structured against product/service lines and themes? Did it contain Ad Groups with relevant Ad texts/variations and keywords?

Adwords Optimization Techniques – Did the team take advantage of tools and methods to get the most out of their campaign? Did the team follow the best practice encouraged in the Challenge guides and Adwords support materials?

Adwords Account Activity & Reporting – Did the team review and change their approach over time to get the most from campaigns? Was the account regularly monitored and did the team check and iterate to the Adwords reports available?

Adwords Performance & Budget – How effectively did the team use the available daily budget across keywords throughout the competition?

Adwords Relevance – How relevant were the team’s Adwords ads what click-through-rates (CTR) were achieved?

Congratulations to the winners.

How To Create and Search Your Own Twitter Followers List

July 22, 2009

Yesterday I wrote a post about how to create and search a list of Twitter updates in both WordPress and Google.

Today, I am going to tackle a similar problem: Searching Twitter Followers and Following lists.

Until Twitter makes searching Twitter account followers and following lists part of Twitter search, finding someone who follows you or who is following you isn’t very easy to do.

Creating a searchable list isn’t too dificult it just requires some time.

Go to your Twitter account and click on your followers link and select list view.

This will produce a list of 20 followers per page.

Twitter Followers List

Twitter Followers List

Copy the list of followers from each page.

Depending on how many followers you have will determine how many pages you will have to scroll through and scrape to create your own searchable list.

I have 873 followers at the moment so I had to visit 43 pages to create my list.

Paste the list of followers into a Word document or Excel if you extracted tables and save.

You can now sort either the Word or Excel documents alphabetically to create your first archived list of Followers in a searchable hierarchy.

To archive your Twitter followers list in the cloud, import it into a Google indexed WordPress blog and wallah! – you will have a instant browser searchable WordPress file with a list of all your followers.

After the Googlebot visits your site, your list of followers will also be archived in Google’s search engine results pages.

I have posted my current list of Twitter followers over on TimothyCohn.com

Making Twitter Updates Searchable

July 21, 2009

I have posted over 16,000 words 140 characters at a time to Twitter since I began Tweeting in May of 2008.

Recently I became concerned about the Twitter cloud’s ability to archive my Tweets for a prolonged period of time.

I don’t have the same concern about WordPress’ ability to archive my blog posts so I thought I would mash the two together to create a searchable archive of my Twitter updates both here in my WordPress blog and ultimately in Google’s search engine results pages via the Googlebot crawl.

To create a searchable archive of your Twitter updates, Go to your Twitter Updates link @Twitter.com to scroll, scrape and copy all of your Twitter Updates into a Word document or Text editor.

Then create a new blog post in your WordPress blog and paste all of your Tweets into a post with or without each Tweets hashtag (#).

Once you have published your Tweet post in WordPress, visit your blog and search for any of your Tweets by date or keyword in your WordPress search box.

Your Twitter updates are now archived within WordPress.

Provided your blog is already in the Google index, your Twitter updates will then soon be locatable within Google search engine results pages too.

I have posted an example of searchable Twitter Updates on my personal blog @TimothyCohn.com.

Bing: But It’s Not Google

July 9, 2009

David Pogue has written a piece in today’s New York Times comparing Microsoft’s new search engine with Google.

The article’s title: Bing, the Imitator, Often Goes Google One Better descsribes Microsoft’s long standing strategy of imitating successful products after other company’s have established and developed newer technologies and markets.

To find out whether Bing delivers better search results than Google, Pogue references a new website called Bing-vs-Google.com.

Bing vs Google

Bing vs Google

A search on Bing-vs-Google produces results pages that are hard to differentiate from one another.

Bing vs Google Search Results

Bing vs Google Search Results

Microsoft’s strategy of imitating innovators may have produced market footholds in other categories.

I will be surprised if imitating Google search results produces anything more than a few percentage points of search market share gain for Microsoft.

Google Page Creator Shutting Down Moving to Google Sites

June 14, 2009

While logged into my Google account today, I visited the Google Page Creator product where I found the following message:

Google Sites

Google Sites

After receiving the above message, I searched for more information about the impending closure of the Google Pages product and found it has apparently been in the works for some time.

Google Page Creator Migration

Google Page Creator Migration

Google Pages accounts will either be migrated automatically to a Google Sites URL with visits to googlepages.com redirected or page owners can download their content, opt out of the move and have their GooglePages address redirected to a new address of their choice.

More about the Page Creator shut from Google:

Google Page Creator will be shut down in June, 2009. To make the transition to Sites as smooth and easy as possible for Page Creator users, we will be doing an automatic import of Page Creator pages to Google Sites, which will include moving pages to Google Sites and redirecting visits to googlepages.com URLs to their new location on Google Sites. From now until this import begins June 1, Page Creator users who don’t want to be moved to Google Sites have the option to download their content, host it on another service, and redirect their existing URL. Please note that Google Sites does not support JavaScript, some forms of HTML, or web hosting.

What is Google Sites?

What is Google Sites?

What is Google Sites?

Google Sites is an online application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. With Google Sites, people can quickly gather a variety of information in one place — including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text — and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world.

* Customize your site’s interface to resemble your group or project’s look and feel
* Create a new sub-page with the click of a button
* Choose from a growing list of page types: webpage, announcements, file cabinet
* Centralize shared information: Embed rich content (video, Google Docs documents, spreadsheets, presentations, Picasa photo slide shows, iGoogle gadgets) into any page, and upload file attachments
* Manage permissions settings to keep your site as private or widely editable and viewable as you’d like
* Search across your Google Sites content with Google search technology

Quick question: What are the differences between Google Sites and the upcoming new Google Wave product?

Google Wave

Google Wave

Search Arbitrage: Bing Targeting Local Search… On Google

June 12, 2009

Last week, I wrote about how Microsoft’s was buying ads on Google to promote its new search engine Bing.

With Bing’s launch, Microsoft said it planned to target four distinct categories: shopping, local, travel and health.

Today while logged into my Gmail account, I noticed the following Google Adwords ad for Bing targeting local search.

Bing Local Search Decisions

Bing Local Search Decisions

The Official Bing site ad reads: Local decisions. Get Pricing, Maps and Reviews For Local Businesses.

Clicking the Bing ad takes visitors to Bing.com/Maps site where the Bing search box is prepopulated with the “Business, category and/or location” prompt.

Bing Business Category or Location

Bing Business Category or Location

Upon entering a business name, Bing presupposes my search is for a local business and provides a list of results from my city.

Bing Local Business Search

Bing Local Business Search

Entering a business category produces search results from the same locale as the business name search.

Bing Local Category Search

Bing Local Category Search

A Microsoft brand search produces a list of businesses that apparently carry Microsoft branded products within the same locality.

Bing Local Brand Search Microsoft

Bing Local Brand Search Microsoft

Any predictions on how this search / search arbitrage will pan out for Microsoft’s Bing?

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

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.