Reaching the Internet Audience with Google Ad Planner

August 19, 2008

Google has begun inviting internet ad agencies into their display ad buying product called Google Ad Planner.

Google Ad Planner is still in Beta.

Google Ad Planner’s available US internet audience is 230 million visitors via 160 billion page views.

For brands looking to broaden their web reach and add lift to sales both online and off, Google’s Ad Planner product offers media buyers a simplified internet display advertising research and media buying tool.

The following audience segments are available for brands planning to target and increase their message touch points online.

Google Ad Planner

Google Ad Planner

You can request a Beta invite at Google Ad Planner.

Defined Internet Audience

Unique Visitors 230 M
Country Reach 100%
Page Views 160 Billion

Gender:

Male
Female

Age:

0 – 17
18 – 24
25 – 34
35 – 44
45 – 54
55 – 64
65 or more

Education:

Less than HS diploma
High school
Some college
Bachelors degree
Graduate degree

Household income:

$0 – $24,999
$25,000 – $49,999
$50,000 – $74,999
$75,000 – $99,999
$100,000 – $149,999
$150,000 or more

New Email Addresses from Yahoo: Ymail and Rocketmail

August 18, 2008

Although Yahoo announced new email address availability under their Ymail and Rocketmail domains in June, Yahoo just now appears to be actively promoting them.

Upon logging into my Yahoo email account, I received this banner ad.

Ymail Rocketmail

Ymail Rocketmail

I can only guess Yahoo is creating these additional email addresses to retain their existing customers by offering them more email address alternatives than Yahoo’s original email addresses provided previously.

I set up a new Ymail account in just a few minutes and can switch between my new email account and my original Yahoo email account easily

Searching For Bigfoot Pictures… Georgia Bigfoot Found?

August 16, 2008

Mathew Whitton, Tom Biscardi, and Rick Dyer claim to have bagged Bigfoot in Georgia.

They have posted a picture of their “dead bigfoot” on their website SearchingForBigfoot.com.

Big Foot Pictures

Big Foot Pictures

It will be interesting to see and then learn whether this trio of Big Foot hunters can produce an actual physical specimen of Bigfoot or not.

At this stage in their media campaign and still without a big foot body, it remains to be seen how they will monetize their notoriety should they fail to produce their dead big foot soon.

If I were less skeptical, I would have pinned this entire tail on the business with the most to gain from increasing Bigfoot’s media exposure.

The only company that comes to mind is Jack Link’s Beef Jerky. However, Jack Link’s brand is based on the Sasquatch, Big Foot’s cousin.

Messin With Sasquatch

Messin With Sasquatch

Regardless of who is really behind this media circus whether its the guys from Georgia or some company like Jack Link’s and their public relations firm, they are more than likely just messin’ with us.

Comedy Central Bob Saget Roast

August 15, 2008

Several years ago after watching Stephen Colbert interview Rev. Al Sharpton, I signed up for a Comedy Central “account” to post on their blog and view video highlights of The Daily Show and later The Colbert Report.

I provided my email address and “opted in” to receive email notifications about Comedy Central’s shows and specials.

Infrequently – possibly once a week – I get an email from Comedy Central about upcoming guests on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. More often than not I ignore their emails because I regularly watch both shows instead of the local news.

Today, however, I got an email from Comedy Central promoting their upcoming roast of Bob Saget hosted by roastmaster John Stamos.

Bob Saget Roast

Bob Saget Roast

I love Comedy Central roasts!

Because I love them and I am always in the market for them, their email grabbed my attention and made a sale so to speak ie., I clicked open their email where I then found an extended video trailer and details about the comedians who will be roasting Bob Saget Sunday night.

Their extended video trailer was entertaining – except for of course – the embedded pre-roll advertising.

Had I not been reached today by Comedy Central’s email marketing campaign, I could have easily forgotten about the Bob Saget roast and in turn missed some good Sunday night laughs.

Instead, it’s highly likely I will remember to watch the Bob Saget roast this weekend.

What is highly unlikely is my remembering which company’s ad I muted while waiting for their pre-roll ad to finishing rolling.

Watch 2008 Olympics Online: NBCOlympics.com

August 14, 2008

Google Trends search volume index tool shows how global interest in watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics has skyrocketed since early July.

2008 Olympics Beijing

2008 Olympics Beijing

Google Trends search volume index also illustrates worldwide regional interest in the 2008 Olympics.

New Zealanders appear to have the greatest internet search interest in the 2008 Olympic Games followed by Australia and Singapore.

2008 Olympics Search Volume Index

2008 Olympics Search Volume Index

You can watch free online videos of the 2008 Olympics Online @ NBCOlympics.com

Wordle.net: Tool for Visualizing Blog Themes

August 13, 2008

A rudimentary content analysis tool for blogs and other sites: Wordle

Too bad Wordle.net isn’t at Wordle.com. I would guess Wordle.com will soon be enjoying an increase in their type in traffic.

I don’t know what to make of Wordle’s take on this site cohn:wordpress.com. All of the lines run vertical. So far I haven’t seen another image rendered all of it lines vertical.

Wordle

Wordle

Every other site produces both vertical and horizontal word patterns like those found in the All Things Digital screen shot below.

All Things Digital

All Things Digital

I wonder if any sites will render all horizontal text patterns?

Share of Searches by Search Engine

August 11, 2008

Via Hitwise: Google’s share of US searches exceeeds 70% for the first time.

“Google’s share of searches increased 10% over the same month last year and 2% over the previous month. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search (including Live.com), and Ask followed with 18.65%, 5.36%, and 3.53% share of searches, respectively.”

Combined with last month’s milestone which saw Google field 7 billion searches within a single month according to ComScore and in the absence of any new disruptive and innovative search appliance, Google looks to continue its arithmetic assault on Yahoo, MSN / Live and Ask’s share of US search traffic.

Search Engine Market Share

Search Engine Market Share

Cuil.com… not so Cool

July 29, 2008

With much hype and fanfare the new “search engine” Cuil.com was launched yesterday.

Cuil.com

Cuil.com

A quick litmus test for any search engine is its ability to return relevant results to a wide variety of searcher queries.

Searches on Cuil.com for Cuil, Cuil.com and Cuil the search engine ironically failed to locate itself – Cuil.com.

Hopefully by the time Cuil.com comes out of Beta it will have found its own website and display it within its search results.

Cuil

Cuil

Can a Video Store Clerk Claim the Netflix Prize?

June 11, 2008

From Andrew Bergmann via Tom Foremski:

We’d like to let you know about our experiment in using a completely new strategy to tackle the NetflixPrize problem through the use of crowd wisdom.

Forty thousand people have been trying to solve the $1 million puzzle without success for almost two years, using lifeless statistical algorithms which often end up suggesting movies like “Speed Racer” to someone who loved “Taxi Driver.” We decided to try something different.

We’ve designed a game called Video Store Clerk in which you are the clerk and must recommend movies to your customers based on their past rentals. The rating info is based on real customers, which makes the game a lot of fun to try and get into the heads of actual movie enthusiasts. You choose the categories that you know best and the data actually gets more accurate as you play.

We believe that that there are certain tasks that humans can still do much better than computers. So far our findings have proven that point, but to complete the experiment we need a few million people to try out the game.

VideoStoreClerk.com Instructions:

The Game, The Customers

Video Store Clerk

Guess, Levels

Video Store Clerk

Ratings, The Experiment

Video Store Clerk

Netflix asks: “Can humans be better problem solvers than computers?’

My answer: “Depends on the human and the computer.”

DVD and American Flag Land On Mars

June 1, 2008

From NASA Memorial Day, May 26, 2008:

This picture shows the American flag and a mini-DVD from NASA’s Phoenix’s deck – 3 feet above the Martian surface. The mini-DVD from the Planetary Society contains a message to future Martian explorers and includes science fiction stories and art inspired by the Red Planet.

Mars DVD

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Mars is a cold desert planet with no liquid water on its surface, has water ice that lurks just below ground level in its arctic region. Discoveries made by the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 2002 show large amounts of subsurface water ice in the northern arctic plain. NASA’s Phoenix will use its robotic arm to dig through the protective top soil layer to the water ice below and ultimately, to bring both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis.