View Powerpoint and Tiffs in Gmail

April 24, 2009

The Google Apps blog has announced Flash plugins are no longer required to view .ppt or .tiff files in Gmail accounts.

From the Google Apps blog post:

Gmail Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail

How to access what’s new:
When you click ‘View’ for a .tiff or .ppt attachment in Gmail, it will open directly in your browser for easy viewing.

By making Powerpoint files and Tiff images viewable in Google Docs, fewer applications and keystrokes are needed to view desktop data.

Gmail Powerpoint View in Google Docs

Gmail Powerpoint View in Google Docs

Google Profile Promotion

April 23, 2009

Today while searching Google to see whether it has yet to correct my redirected WordPress domain (it hasn’t after 90+ days), I found Google promoting its new Google Profile service to me specifically based on my search for my own name.

I was somewhat surprised to see a Google search result page asking me “Are you Tim Cohn?”

Are You Tim Cohn?

Are You Tim Cohn?

I have been seeing the “Show Options” link for sometime but this Google Promotion link was different from the “All results”, “Any time”, “Standard results” and “Standard view” options I have become accustomed to seeing run down the left rail of my search results pages.

Google Profile Promotion

Google Profile Promotion

Clicking on the Google Promotion link took me to my Google account where I could then edit my profile details.

Google Account Profile

Google Account Profile

I haven’t yet had the time to further expand my Google profile.

For more information about how to create your Google Profile, see Danny Sullivan’s post about creating a Google Profile @SearchEngineLand.

Google Adwords Quality Score 10

April 22, 2009

Today I was studying one of my Google Adwords accounts and was somewhat surprised to discover I have several 10 Quality Scores.

Google Adwords Quality Score 10

Google Adwords Quality Score 10

Now if I could only increase the search volume to this particular keyword while lowering its average cost per click,  I might be satisfied.

Google News Timeline @ Google Labs

April 21, 2009

Google has introduced a new user interface for Google News called Google News Timeline which is pretty cool.

Google News Timeline Googlelabs

Google News Timeline Googlelabs

Like their recent Google Adwords beta, the new UI is written in Ajax.

Small, medium and large view options let users see more or less news.

Google News Timeline

Google News Timeline

Scrolling lets viewers travel back in time to view a particular day’s news events.

Google News Timeline is a great way to view the days news events in a single browser window.

WordPress Real Time Search

April 20, 2009

With all the buzz about Twitter’s ability to provide real time search results, its only natural other web platforms with large databases offer similar services.

Such is the case with WordPress.com now.

Wordpress Search

Wordpress Search

I have noticed over the last day or two an increase of referrals from WordPress.com.

Wordpress Search Stats

Wordpress Search Stats

Based on the current status of my WordPress domain redirection purchase and its subsequent failure to get indexed by Google,  I am not convinced WordPress search referrals will increase my site’s traffic over time anyway.

As Twitter Grows; A Lot More Noise Less Signal

April 19, 2009

As the Twitter audience grows, the ability to reach it or be reached by the segment of the Twitter audience interested in the same topics will become more valuable both to Twitter, its audience and its potential advertisers.

For the last sixty days I have been monitoring Tweets within a 100 mile radius of my city to get a better sense of what the average Twitter user Tweets about.

I haven’t spent any of my online time on social networks because the same amount of time invested in programming a Google Adwords campaign can reach an exclusive and active audience who by definition are already interested in my products and services vis-a-vis their search query.

The same can’t be said for social media and networks like Twitter or Facebook.

Twitter users can search for keywords they are interested to identify potential audience segments to reach but this process still doesn’t separate the good Tweets from the bad, the wheat from the chaff, the Twitter signal from the Twitter noise.

A sample Tweet stream from within 100 miles of my city over the last few minutes:

A Lot of Noise, Not Much Signal

A Lot of Noise, Not Much Signal

Extrapolate the same type of Tweets over millions of Twitter users and you can see how identifying the Twitter signal from the Twitter noise will only grow more challenging.

Free Google Adwords and Google Analytics Webinars

April 18, 2009

Google has several free webinars for search engine marketers coming up later this month through early June.

Conversion Optimiser
Learn how to get more conversions for Google AdWords campaigns at a lower cost using Google’s free CPA bidding tool.

29th April 3pm (GMT)

Google Analytics

Google Analytics I:

Getting started and tracking conversions.
An introduction into Google Analytics and how you can use it to help your online business.

6th May 3pm (GMT)

Google Analytics II

Managing your Google Analytics account set up for best results.
Advanced implementation issues for complex websites, such as third party shopping carts and sub-domains.

13th May 3pm (GMT)

Google Analytics III

Report navigation and analysis of Google AdWords data. Understanding reports and how to use them to identify areas of development for your AdWords account.

20th May 3pm (GMT)

Website Optimiser
An introduction to Google Website Optimiser and how to launch your first test to improve the performance of your website.

3rd June 3pm (GMT)

Sign for Google’s free webinars here.

Google Creative Sandbox 2009 New York

April 17, 2009

The Google channel on YouTube has added some new videos including this one from Google Creative Sandbox 2009 in New York.

I believe this was Google’s first “Creative Sandbox”.

Google Creative Sandbox is “an event designed to spark the imagination of agencies by showing the best uses of Google products and creative possibilities in a high energy environment.”

The screen shot of text messages peaking at Midnight New Years Eve illustrates one of many ways human behavior now manifests itself via recognizable patterns in Google data.

Google Q1 2009 Earnings

April 16, 2009

Techcrunch has notes live from Google’s Q1 2009 earnings call.

Comments about Google’s most recent quarter from CEO Eric Schmidt:

“We’re still basically in uncharted territory” (with regards to the economy).
No company is recession proof, Google is feeling the impact.
Our advertising method is working
“We think Google is well placed for the recovery as it occurs or when it occurs and the shift continues to the Web, continues to give us a great advantage”
The shift online continues to give us an advantage
Advertisers lowering bids
Omid Kordenstani is stepping down. It’s impossible to explain the impact he’s had.
No one is better placed to advise us (Kordenstani will remain an advisor).

Additional comments from CFO Patrick Pinchette:

Google.com up due to traffic growth.
AdSense was down, impacted by clean-up of network partners.
Our advertisers slowed their spend
Lower-labor costs and we reset our company bonus plan
Traffic acquisition costs were roughly flat from Q4
“We’re still hiring” — but only in certain areas.
As previously announced, we’re eliminating 200 positions in sales and marketing, but those weren’t included in the Q1 numbers
Our revenues are seasonally weaker in Q2, so be prepared.

Thanks TechCrunch.

Twitter.com Traffic Increases 131%

April 15, 2009

comScore has released its traffic figures for Twitter.com March 2009.

Twitter Traffic March 2009

Twitter Traffic March 2009

Twitter.com experienced a dramatic 131% increase in visitors to 9.3 million over February 2009  – an increase of over 5 million visitors.

The question now is how long can Twitter.com sustain its present level of visitor growth?