Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Doodle for Google Contest

February 14, 2009

For those of you who haven’t been using Google today, their home page features a Valentine’s Day themed logo.

Gxogle Valentine's Day 2009

Gxogle Valentine's Day 2009

Google is also using their artistic logo display as a method for announcing their Doodle 4 Google contest.

From Google:

Welcome to Doodle 4 Google, a competition where we invite K-12 students to play around with our homepage logo and see what new designs they come up with. This year we’re inviting U.S. kids to join in the doodling fun, around the intriguing theme “What I Wish for the World.”

Parents and teachers can register for the Doodle 4 Google contest here.

Google Print Ads Still Active on Google’s Site

February 6, 2009

Today I was surprised to see the page promoting Google Print Ads still active on Google’s site.

Google Print Ads?

Google Print Ads?

With Google’s newspaper advertising program coming to an end soon, you would think they would have some kind of “program closing” announcement in its place instead.

Not every one has got the memo…

Twitter Print Ads

Twitter Print Ads

New Year’s Resolutions

December 28, 2008

Its quickly becoming that time of year again – the time when people begin to reflect on their past year’s accomplishments while looking forward to and setting goals they want to achieve in the new year.

Google Trends Insight for Search illustrates just how predictable and recurring searches for “New Year’s Resolutions” are year after year.

New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions

Not surprisingly, searchers don’t appear to have any interest in New Year’s Resolutions at any other time of the year other than around the end and beginning of each year.

Based on the Google’s Search Volume Index, searchers from the state of Utah appear to have the highest degree of interest in New Year’s Resolutions followed by searchers from Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Minnesota and Missouri.

State Search Interest New Year's Resolutions

State Search Interest New Year's Resolutions

Conversely, relatively few if any searchers from Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine have expressed any interest in, ie. searched for the term – “New Year’s Resolutions”.

What if any conclusions can be drawn from regional search interest or a lack thereof  in any one particular word or phrase like “New Years Resolutions”?

Search before Google?

December 25, 2008
Santa Claus

Santa Claus

Merry Christmas!

Google Conversion Room Blog

December 20, 2008

Google has launched their newest blog: “Conversion Room – The place to visit for tips on tracking and improving conversions online”.

The Conversion Room blog was started on December 18, 2008 and prior to my subscription had 11 subscribers.

Google Conversion Room Blog

Google Conversion Room Blog

Search marketers interested in learning more about the terminology and process of tracking and improving online conversions should find Google’s Conversion Room blog helpful.

From the 2nd entry on the Google Conversion Room blog:

What is a goal/conversion?

In order to track your website ROI, it is important to define goals or conversions. A goal is an action you wish your visitors to complete when they visit your site. Examples of goals include: a completed purchase, the download of a document or a subscription to a newsletter.

How to set up goals?

You can easily set up goals within Google Analytics and measure how often visitors reach these goals (or convert on your site). What proportion of users who reach your home page, for example, then go on to buy from you? You can also specify steps that lead to a goal (e.g. purchase or lead) and measure how many visitors follow these steps, called a funnel. You can create up to 4 goals per profile in your Google Analytics account. Once you have activated your goal you will begin to see data appearing in your Google Analytics account under the ‘Goals’ report

Sign up for the Conversion Room blog to get regular tips for increasing your website’s conversions and return on investment.

October 2008: 12.6 Billion US Searches, Up 7%

November 29, 2008

comScore has released its October 2008 analysis of the US search marketplace.

Americans conducted 12.6 Billion searches during October 2008 – up 7% over September.

Comscore October 2008 Search Volume

Comscore October 2008 Search Volume

Google continued to dominate the search marketplace fielding nearly 8 billion searches or roughly 2/3 of all US searches.

Combined, Google sites including YouTube fielded 10.8 Billion searches.

Mamma.com and Mark Cuban Insider Trading

November 17, 2008

With today’s news about Mark Cuban being charged by the SEC with Insider Trading, I thought I would see just how relevant Mamma.com ( not Momma.com ) search results were for Mark Cuban search queries:

Mamma.com Mark Cuban

Mamma.com Mark Cuban

Mamma.com doesn’t integrate news or blogs into their search results like Google does and thus a search for Mark Cuban does not produce any algorithmic links to sites with news about the SEC or their Insider Trading charges.

Mark Cuban Google

Mark Cuban Google

However, an enterprising news aggregator and advertiser – “Newser.com” – is bidding on searches for Mark Cuban in both Momma.com and Google.com

I am sure Mamma.com, Momma.com and even Newser.com are experiencing spikes in their visitor traffic today as a result of Mark Cuban’s having been charged by the SEC for Insider Trading.

Radio: The Lowest Cost Audience of Any Major Media?

November 10, 2008

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

“While listening hours are declining, most people still listen to an average of 18.5 hours a week, according to Arbitron Inc. Based on the price of reaching each listener, radio generally offers its audience “at the lowest [cost] of any major media,” says David Field, chief executive of Entercom.”

Not sure about Radio reaching its listeners and audience at the lowest cost of any “major media” – Mr. Field.

Haven’t the internet and search advertising become “major media” yet?

I guess media isn’t major until those in the “major media” say it is.

There is a relatively new – possibly major media – called internet search offered by a company called Google which connects its audience with advertisers for as low as .05 a piece.

Radio may indeed reach its audience for less but by what standard does radio define and measure its connection with its audience?

In search advertising the audience isn’t counted and considered reached until the advertiser’s advertisement is clicked.

Radio advertising measures audience reach and then its connection of advertiser to listener how –  instead by listeners clicking their radios on?

Isn’t anything less than authenticated and measured advertisement – disconnected advertising?

Which radio station can I buy a radio ad on to reach a targeted audience of 10 listeners for $.50 or even 100 listeners for $5.00?

Depending on your definition, radio may indeed offer its audience at the lowest cost of any major media – but at what price?

Search: Not For Layman, Laggards or Luddites

November 8, 2008

Today’s Saturday Interview in the New Yorks Times was with Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

One of Schmidt’s answers was simple yet profound:

“We have a product that is more measurable, more targetable, and we are the innovator in the space. At some point, people need to sell products, and at some point they realize that the best advertising is measurable advertising, and they conclude that we do that.”

Businesses who haven’t yet concluded measurable advertising is better than unmeasured advertising fall into three categories.

They are:

1. Layman

2. Laggards

3. Luddites

In a future post, I will describe my experiences explaining search advertising to each type.

2008 Election Results from Google

November 4, 2008

Google is providing 2008 Election Results for the U.S. Presidential Election at both the national and state levels.

2008 Election Results

2008 Election Results

Coverage of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate election results are also available at the state level.

2008 State Election Results

2008 State Election Results

For Live Election results as the become available, visit Google’s 2008 U.S. Election Results page.