What’s not to like about Google?

Posted on January 17, 2008 by marc meyer

You know there are always going to be people out there who will despise anything and everything that Google does and stands for. Of course we all know that they secretly use Google and if they were approached to work for Google, they would pause for about a split second before they accepted.

Further enhancing it’s reputation as a company concerned with more than just search, Google recently announced that they were going to to use their incredible power as it relates to information and technology to help people better their lives. Google is rolling out five core initiatives that will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years. Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, will collaborate with experienced partners working in each of these fields, investing its resources and tapping the strengths of Google’s employees and global operations to advance its core initiatives.

Today’s announcement includes more than $25 million in new grants and investments to initial partners. The resources come from a commitment by Google’s founders to devote approximately 1 percent of the company’s equity plus 1 percent of annual profits to philanthropy, as well as employee time. Below is a listing of how the money is going to be disbursed:

$5 million to InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters) to improve early detection, preparedness, and response capabilities for global health threats and humanitarian crises. InSTEDD will work with the community of relief and response organizations, governments, academia and top scientists around the world to address gaps in information flow with software and other technology-based tools and services.

$2.5 million to the Global Health and Security Initiative (GHSI), established by the Nuclear Threat Initiative to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats.

More than $600,000 to Clark University, with equal funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, for Clark Labs to develop a system to improve monitoring, analysis and prediction of the impacts of climate variability and change on ecosystems, food and health in Africa and the Amazon.

$2 million to Pratham, a non-governmental organization in India, to create an independent institute that will conduct the Nationwide Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) as well as large scale assessments in the education sector.

$765,000 to the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, a Bangalore-based analysis group, to create a Budget Information Service for local governments to facilitate better district- and municipal-level level planning in India

$660,000 to the Center for Policy Research, an action oriented think tank based in India, to increase the debate and discourse on issues of urban local governance and urban service delivery.

$4.7 million grant to TechnoServe to provide general support to expand Technoserve’s efforts to support enterprises, spur job creation, and strengthen poverty alleviation programs globally, and to develop and implement a business plan competition to support entrepreneurs in Ghana and Tanzania

$10 million to eSolar, a Pasadena, CA-based company specializing in solar thermal power which replaces the fuel in a traditional power plant with heat produced from solar energy

RechargeIT is a Google.org initiative that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology. Google.org launched a $10 million request for investment proposals this Fall, and will invest amounts ranging from $500,000 to $2 million in selected for-profit companies whose innovative approach, team and technologies will enable widespread commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles and/or vehicle-to-grid solutions.

Granted that $25 million is not a lot of money initially when looking at what Google makes every day, but is certainly a step in the right direction and sets an examples for other like minded tech companies to either fall in step or raise the bar in regards to philanthropic endeavors.

The Top 20 search terms for the week

Posted on January 16, 2008 by marc meyer

It’s a new year and thus the searches have a “turning over a new leaf” type of feel to them. But not for long, as our beloved searchers show their age when they give us WWE and Dragonball. But fear not, we are still a nation/ world obsessed with absolutely anything that Britney does as well as Jessica Simpson and Lindsey Lohan. mnay thanks to the Lycos 50.

1	Poker Full House, and you thought all that SPAM was worthless?

2	Golf Fore! and it’s still winter people!

3	Fashion 2008 trends.

4	Britney Spears Dating and running from the paparazzo

5	Disney “National Treasure 2” a must see.

6	Clay Aiken “Spamalot”, Who said AI Stars have no traction?

7	Paris Hilton Buddy Nicole gives birth. She’s slipping.

8	YouTube Videos, we are a nation obsessed with videos

9	South Beach Diet Low carb. Oh and we are obsessed with losing weight as well

10	Naruto Manga

11	Pamela Anderson Not pregnant and still looking, er uh.. like Pam Anderson

12	Kim Kardashian Socialite taking advantage of her 20 minutes

13	Apple Macworld, Check out the new Air Mac or mac Air

14	WWE SmackDown. Who said anything about roids?

15	Lindsay Lohan Dating Adrian Grenier? and still clean?

16	Pokemon Battle Revolution

17	Jessica Simpson Not at Cowboys game and they still lose.

18	Weight Watchers Weight loss. In 2008, I will lose…

19	MySpace Profiles

20	NFL Playoffs? Did someone say playoffs?

7 Social Media/Tech Trends to look for in 2008

Posted on January 9, 2008 by marc meyer

By now I’m sure everyone is accutely aware of the social networking/media phenomenon that has transformed everyone’s old school web experience into a transparent user generated virtual world. Look for that to evolve even more in the coming months and year(s) The more that social media works its way into the fabric of our everyday lives, look for more far reaching and useful applications that hopefully have more significant value and meaning then posting pics of the drunkfest you went to over the weekend

So having said that, the first term to wrap your arms around in the new year is:

User Generated Content– Look for this to be dumbed down(see simplified) even more, to the extent that eventually everyone will have a web bio/resume/personal page devoted to who they are, what they are about, and all the gritty little details of their life. Almost like a web based drivers license. Our lives will be even more transparent than they already are, thanks to the tools that social networks will be providing.

Quest for Cool-The demographic of 12-24 year olds will push itself into more social relevence than it has at any other time in the history of pop culture. Because of the ease in which content can be pushed out to the masses, this demo, which otherwise would normally go through these years unnoticed, now can grab the status, the fame, recognition, and justification for social relevence that now accompany social networks. The quest for Me branding has never been more prevalent.

Individualistic Saturation– One of the offshoots of this “20 megs of stardom” instead of 15 minutes of fame, will be that we as a digital society will grow weary of tired content, quickly. In other words, as quickly as someone can rocket to digital stardom, they can, equally as fast, fall back to earth and fade into “Bolivian”-to quote Mike Tyson. This can be attributed to our homgenization of all things related to media. We need our content quick and to the point; and the minute we think it’s bogging us down, has grown tiresome, or has ceased to be entertaining, we are off to find the next great big thing.–>See William Hung.

The Age of Reinvention and Redefinition-With so many ways in which one can create alt-personas, we will hurdle faster towards an age in which there is the digital persona, the off-line persona and the “real-you”. What social media has done has given us a completely new set of “friends” that one can hang with and thus, this is the pack that people will be running with when they are online. Because of the intense focus of all things media driven, this will lead to people who will extend and break the boundaries and barriers of social acceptance. This will ultimately cause us as a society to redefine the terms,”social acceptance, social values, social morals, and social ettiquite.

The EIAV Phenomenon– The Everyone is a Videographer phenomenon has changed the landscape of acceptable video content. What used to be taboo now has it’s own portal. What used to be objectionable is now made into a low budget high grossing movie released on 120 screens nationwide. Everyone is capable of filming anything and uploading it to social sites worldwide in a matter of minutes. This cottage industry will continue to boom as it is now easier for someone to film something and upload it versus writing about it. This has also led to the drive for fame through one doing something so mundane as filming oneself doing absolutely nothing.

MOSO- Mobile Social-Look for the boom of social networks tied to mobile networks. As it has slowly started to happen, watch for the big players to rapidly start to crank out more user friendly interfaces and applications on mobile devices that will converge with high speed networks, resulting in keeping social media freaks engaged with their social networks at all times. An advertisers dream, this will further solidify the mobile device as the most important devleopment since..well the internet!

Search Explodes– As Google continues to swallow up all aspects of what drives the user expereince online, look for search to become more integrated into how one conducts or initiates any type of online endeavor. What has happened and will continue to happen is that the re-emergance of the portal will become relevant again. As we get closer to the launch of the “G-phone”, be prepared for a massive push towards a mobile-social-search environment that will redefine portability and world wide exposure to all things global.

I said 7 but one more merits mentioning:

S-Commerce– As social networks continue to expand and grow at exponential rates, look for their to be more creative ways for users and advertisers to push products that are niche like in their importance and acceptance to the users. I have written about this before, so for reference, look to Lemonade.com

There is certainly more to discuss in the coming months but, for now lets work off of these 7 and see what else is under the hood. Is there a glaring omission here? Please feel free to contribute your thoughts. Certainly, we should not igonore how we as a digital culture need to address the oil shortage, creating a more eco-friendly environment, homelessness, world hunger, genocide, corrupt politicians and Britney Spears, but for now we will continue to focus on the biggest sea change in the online world since the advent of… well the internet.

Google Mobile- The Android Demo

Posted on December 14, 2007 by marc meyer

I’m back on the mobile kick as of late and thought everyone would like to see this video demo, for those who have not seen it. It is very very cool. Watch out iphone is all I can say! The maps feature is extraordinary.

Google stats for November, no surprise here.

Posted on December 11, 2007 by marc meyer

Google accounted for 65.1% of all US searches in the four weeks ending Dec. 1, while Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com received 21.2%, 7.1% and 4.6%, respectively, reported Hitwise. The remaining 46 search engines it tracks accounted for less than 2.0%. Thus if you’re an internet SEO/marketer and you’re strategy is to concentrate on the second tier SE’s, you might want to rethink that strategy. Furthermore, if you are tempted to pay money to be registered in “thousands” of search engines, our question to you would be, why?

Further enhancing marketers claims that niche based selling is the way to go, Google is also growing as a source of traffic to key industries, Hitwise said. Search engines remain the primary way internet users navigate to key industry categories, with Google leading the way.

Three categories – Travel, Entertainment, and Business and Finance – had double-digit increases (Nov. ‘06 to Nov. ‘07) in the share of traffic coming directly from search engines. These three categories revert back to a comment I made in an earlier post about the top 15 web searches: We as a society only care about being entertained and making money.

The Top 25 most visited websites in the world

Posted on December 4, 2007 by marc meyer

Now before you start disputing these, these figures are according to Alexa. But beyond that, what trend do you see here? 2 things are painfully obvious. Ok 3, now it’s your turn to tell me what they are. Tell me what jumps out at you?

Google Magazine; Another off-road attempt.

Posted on November 20, 2007 by marc meyer

Google filed a patent back in May of 2006. The patent essentially says that Google wants to give users the ability to search and browse their own content, and receive an electronic or hard copy version of the final product. And that final product will include advertisements highly relevant to the user.

…the customer interface documents may be provided via a kiosk. For example, kiosks containing the customer interface documents may be provided in stores (e.g., Target, supermarkets, retail stores, etc.) in a similar way as picture kiosks are currently provided in such stores.

So instead of buying your current niche based magazine, which I thought was fairly targeted. Google thinks that they can provide a publication that is so targeted that advertisers and readers will stumble over each other to advertise and buy it respectively.

So Mens Health, Cosmo, Road and Track, Playboy, etc etc. are essentially missing the boat according to Google. But what I am not sure of is, how does Google plan on carrying this out? Do I go to a Google Kiosk and instead of grabbing the magazine of choice, I go to a screen pick out the articles that interest me and print? And with that, I get a very targeted group of advertisers geared right towards my articles’ subject matter and my general interests? How long would this take? What if I have to grab a train?

In theory I can understand it, because in most magazines, very seldom does the publication meet the complete needs and the criteria of the reader. Now some may read it cover to cover, but for the most part we thumb through the ads (some of which may not be geared towards you) and we go to the articles that interest us. Can you imagine? Our own personal magazines with all the content developed for us and by us and packaged by Google; with advertisers using a Google interface selling the things that would totally interest us and us only? All I can think is a) freaky scarry and b) cool.

So it’s not too far off now in the sense that our social bookmarks are essentially the content that we like, or the sites that we like, ordered, and condensed and available to us 24/7/365. Taking this to the next level would be creating a hard-copy of your social bookmarks; that would NOT require a reader or a laptop or a PDA.

Amazingly enough, doesn’t this sort of fly in the face of technology in that we are reverting back to paper environment? In a time when newspapers are folding and consolidating, and magazines are relying more and more on advertisers to stay alive, perhaps this is the type of lifeline that they have needed all along. Though the final iteration will not be close to what we’re talking about here, it seems certain that something, to the extent that you will build your own “magazine”, seems right around the corner. Your content and your advertisers. And why not? If someone asked you to name the type of products you wanted to be pitched on, you could do it. It happens all the time now with cross promotional items and websites and double opt-ins and every other piece of online marketing out there. The more they know about you, the more targeted the offer!

Chew on that for a bit. Building you own magazine with your own preferred content and your own preferred advertisers. The only thing standing in the way is speed and ease of use. I sense another slipstream opportunity here for the remora like companies who build their products on the basis of other companies products. So let’s just see what happens. Either way, Google is certainly keeping it interesting.

Google will drive down cell phone costs

Posted on November 7, 2007 by marc meyer

Consider this: Google won’t be making your phone. Nor does it plan to plaster it’s brand on the devices. Instead, it will work with four cell phone manufacturers who have agreed to use Google’s programs in their handsets. You, the Consumer, will have to buy a new phone to get the Google software because the bundle wasn’t made for existing handsets. But that’s ok right? Most people buy a new phone every year or so anyway.

Given the rush to buy the iphone, and every other smart phone, what will it be like when the Gphone is released? Even with its market debut months away, Google’s software looms as a significant threat to other mobile operating systems made by Microsoft, Research In Motion, Palm and Symbian, which is owned by Nokia and several other major phone makers.

Because Google’s software will be free, it could undercut rivals who charge handset makers to install their operating systems. It also promises to make smart phones less expensive since manufacturers won’t have to pay for software. So having said that, the other Smart phone carriers and manufacturers. They can either hold on to an already ridiculously high price point and get eaten alive, or drop their pricing to be more in line with the new phone.

Google’s system will be based on computer code that can be openly distributed among programmers. That, Google hopes, will encourage developers to create new applications and other software improvements that could spawn new uses for smart phones. Think Open Social.

The fallout from all of this though, positive as it may be, is that we are going to see an all out war when it comes to owning eyeballs and their handsets. The biggest beneficiary? The consumer.

So far, Motorola, Samsung Electronics Co., HTC and LG Electronics Inc. have agreed to use Google’s software in some of their phones. Both Motorola and Samsung already buy Microsoft’s Windows Mobile in some of their phones so the question begs, will Google force Motorola and Samsung to choose sides or can they coexist?

The list of wireless carriers that have agreed to provide service for the Google-powered phone in the United States include Sprint Nextel and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile in the United States. China Mobile, Telefonica in Spain and Telecom Italia are among the carriers that have signed on to provide service outside the United States.

They are among a Google-led group of 34 companies that have formed the Open Handset Alliance. Other key players include major chip makers like Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Texas Instruments Inc., Broadcom Corp. and Nvidia Corp.

“This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive.

Together, these companies will use Google’s Android platform –( Steven Spielberg, where are you?) Google says it will be available under “one of the most progressive, developer-friendly, open source licenses” — to develop new services for mobile devices.

In closing, watch in the coming months as the carriers and handset makers decide how they are going to price not only the new G, but also their other smart phones. They cannot possibly price the device so high that consumers start looking at the iphone as an attractive alternative. Thus this means that other smart phones have to fall in line. But I don’t think Google wants to own just smart phones. They want all consumers to use their bundled offerings on all phones. Not just the high priced smart devices. Again, know who wins? You.

Google is everywhere, you just have to look!

Posted on November 2, 2007 by marc meyer

OK so when is Google NOT in the news? They seem to be everywhere these days. Such as the latest:

LOS ANGELES / MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—November 1, 2007—MySpace, the world’s largest social network, and Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that they are joining forces to launch OpenSocial— The partnership spearheads an initiative to standardize and simplify the development of social applications. Today’s announcement underscores MySpace’s commitment to supporting standards that foster innovation in an increasingly social Web.

But if we delve further, I think you’ll find that Google might be getting into business partnerships and alliances that we never thought possible.

Take for instance influencing children at an early age:

Behold Jimmy, a seemingly normal kid:

But If we look closer, we can see that, yes indeed their appears to be a tattoo of sorts on his upper arm. Holding his arms in the air victorious, jimmy celebrates knowing he got in on the IPO. He has already secured his first round of funding by the way.

Next we have Google heading in to the inner city. Sensing a huge push of viral marketing and word of mouth on the latest pair of Air Jordans. Google has hitched a ride, so to speak.

Knowing that we are a sports crazed nation, Google has decided to move into the NFL and bank on the New England Patriots and their stellar QB, Tom Brady. Everyone likes a winner. Can you say bandwagon?

Look Closely, Yep you guessed it, Google sweat towels for all of you QB wannabe’s out there. BTW, Tom Brady is endorsing Google Search for 6 years and $360 million. Let’s move on.

Of course Google realizes how important brand image is and thus knowing that Chicago is making a play for the summer olympics, they have decided to buy the Olympic brand.

Shrewd move if you ask me. Google really hasn’t gotten into the sports marketing arena as much as others, so this is certainly a way to get seen, what do you think?

Speaking of shrewd, there is no one more shrewd than Larry Ellison of Oracle, don’t you think? And he’s been quiet lately, too quiet.

Lastly, we were doing a tour in D.C. the other day, and we just love those White House tours, and they brought us by the oval office. Well I know you’ve heard about Lincoln slept here blah blah blah… But how bout Segei and Larry slept here….? I knew the government was hurtin for cash when I saw this:

Maybe you can’t see what we saw up close, so we took a quick pic.

You guessed it. At least we all know who we have to answer to from now on. As if you didn’t know that already! And you thought Al Gore invented the internet!

Mobile Marketing, Are you ready?

Posted on November 1, 2007 by marc meyer

The thing that you grab along with your keys, your purse or your wallet, what is it? It goes wherever you go. The quick and obvious answer: Your phone. Mobile marketers salivate at this Personal Digital Advertising Device or PDAD. You as a captive audience waiting to be pounced upon by advertisers and marketers is like a 12 ounce steak to a chained up Bull Dog. And why not, you are carrying around your constanly changing, always updating bulletin board/commercial/ad, right there in the palm of your hand.

Before I go any further, chew on this. 16 million children under the age of 17 have cell phones. Ever wonder why Google wants to be a player in the cell phone market? Why not? Every one has one. I will go on record to say that over 70% of the people in the US over the age of 17 have a cell phone. Given that challenge, wouldn’t it make sense for an advertiser to want to tap into that potential?

According to Accuracast a London based SEM company, “Mobile search engine marketing seems poised to be the next big thing in the world of search.” That would be a safe statement if there ever were one. Recently Google Mobile launched its first advertising program targeted at mobile phone Internet users in Japan. Given that Japan is one of the largest wifi/ internet users in the world, this seemed to be just a test market, and indeed it was. It no doubt, served notice to the world that a new era in search engine marketing was upon us.

As well, Microsoft has aggressively been developing and pushing their own mobile platform for the past few years now, and it is just a matter of time before they will announce their own mobile advertising service. Wasn’t it not too long ago when all we talked about was, What is Microsoft going to do next?

Furthermore, T-Mobile and Google formed a partnership last year, which ensured that Google would be the home page for all T-Mobile customers browsing the web on their mobile handsets.

Couple this with Google’s pending launch of their phone and you can see the writing on the wall. Mobile search and Mobile marketing will be huge. The question is, How do you, as a marketer tap into this, with the same relative ease that people have been accustomed to when using traditional online marketing methods and techniques?

Yes it’s true that mobile marketing is still in its infancy at present, but growing rapidly. It might not be the most effective medium for all businesses to market their products and services. But as a business owner, when exploring new ways to acquire customers, foolish is the one who ignores the pink elephant in the room. When evaluating a company’s future sales and marketing strategy you have to think about the audience, and when they might use their mobile phone or PDA, if at all, to search for products or services. The reason being is because of the latency with some mobile browsers, the patience of mobile users is not where it needs to be for effective mobile search.

But in other situations, mobile search is a perfect fit. The wait for the mobile internet market to mature and become a more established medium will not be as long as you think. cCouple this with the subsequent maturation of advertising and marketing on mobile search engines, and you will see a convergence rivaled only by the advent of online search as a knee jerk reaction to all things done as it pertains to a computer.

Google is pioneering the way to reach Wifi browsers through the technology it knows best – search. Mobile marketing through SMS is too restrictive to be a resounding home run. A lot of companies still use it very effectively, especially to promote mobile games, ring tones, and events such as American Idol voting . However, the reach and effectiveness of such advertising is limited by the same factors that limit bulk emails – lack of targeting. You just don’t know enough about the person behind that phone number.

Mobile search advertising on the other hand, allows businesses to reach potential consumers who are looking for their services, anywhere, even far away from a PC or a wired network connection.

Like all new channels, the mobile search advertising medium needs to be tested carefully, to avoid alienating users and continuing to provide useful data services on the go while maintaining profitability through delivery of relevant ads. Measuring the effectiveness of this medium will be the most crucial aspect.

Google Mobile Japan for instance, currently displays ads on the top and bottom of their search results. Only time will tell if this is the most effective placement strategy for them. Mobile search marketers need to realize that a) the real estate is not the same as 800×600 for instance and b) the message has to be entirely different. The call to action is framed differently on a mobile device. Because of this, traditional electronic means will need to be altered, tweaked, tested and evaluated before marketers flock to a platform that works. And they will. In the online world, imitation is the mantra of all that occurs on the Wild wild web.

So the question is are you willing to go along for the ride? or do you want to build your own vehicle? The potential is as ripe as ever for a market segment that has yet to reach anything close to critical mass.