Random Culture

Yahoo Video Launches... Look Away!

Yahoo Video has launched! You can find it at: video.yahoo.com.

I think the execution is pretty disappointing. Yahoo has chosen not to actually host and play the videos on their site. Rather, when a visitor clicks on a video to play it, Yahoo launches a pop-up from the original site where the video is located. This provides a bad user experience and is inconsistent with the competitive set.

Just as depressing is the fact that most of the videos you see on the Yahoo Video site are from other video sites, like iFilm, Grouper, Break and others. What's great about YouTube and similar video sharing sites is that they host the videos. Which means they get more consumer generated content.

I'm not even going to get into the other issues Yahoo Video has, like not providing an easy way to link to individual videos, and the lack of a "put this on your site" feature.

Yahoo Video simply isn't a competitive product. It's far from it. Why don't they just buy YouTube already?

Update: There are a couple key updates to talk about as I've dug more into this new service.

1.) So apparently, Yahoo is allowing users to submit their own videos. I'm in the process of uploading one to see if it will play directly on the Yahoo Video site, and if maybe the user experience is different for these videos... I'll let you know as soon as my video is done "processing", whatever that means. YouTube is certainly quicker at getting these uploaded videos functioning right away. I wonder if Yahoo has some type of editorial approval or something.

2.) The pop-ups to play video have gotten even worse. It appears that a ton of the videos on the site are being scraped from the web. Maybe an extension to their video service. I did a search for "webcam", and of the videos I tried to "play", they prompted me to actually download the file rather than play in a pop-up... Yikes. Horribly inconsistent user experience.

X-Men + Google Maps Mashup

As a promotion for the upcoming X-Men movie, they've released a pretty cool Google Maps mashup. You can find it at: Xplanet.net. On the site, visitors can register themselves as mutants and create a profile based on their location. Other visitors can then browse these profiles using a Google Maps interface.

Google Launching Click to Play Video Ads

Google has announced that it's rolling out "click-to-play" video ads for AdWords. If you doubted it before, you can't question anymore that we're in a video boom right now. As with the other image and flash based ads, advertisers can pay on a CPC or CPM basis, and site targeting is available.

What Google's touting as an advantage is the "click-to-play" aspect of the user experience. These videos will not begin playing automatically, rather they will rely on users to initiate the video experience. After that initial click, any other click on the unit takes you to the advertiser website. Keep your eye on this one.

Read it all on the official Google "Inside AdWords" blog.

Another Google Movie Promotion

The recent Da Vinci Code Quest on Google marked one of the first times Google "teamed up" with an advertiser outside of search or contextual ads. Google also recently teamed up with Nike to create the Joga.com soccer community. I speculated about whether we'd see more of this in the future, and I was wrong. Google is definitely pursuing more of these relationships, and seems to be developing a "thing" for Hollywood.

In this latest promotion, Google has teamed up with The Breakup. On the Google Video site, you can upload your own "breakup" video and get it featured on Google Video, or on the Google Video Blog.

Link via Micropersuasion.

Google Trends Launches!

Google has launched a pretty cool new product called "Google Trends." The service allows you to compare multiple search terms against one another in terms of search volume.

Check out this sample trend search. In your face television advertising!

Link via TechCrunch.

Google Promoting DaVinci Code

In an unprecedented move, Google has teamed up with Sony Pictures to promote the upcoming DaVinci Code movie. The promotion involves adding a DaVinci Code widget to your personalized Google homepage, where players are prompted to solve a series of puzzles. Start playing the game here.

According to the official Google Blog, the puzzles will "be released over the next 24 days, in the form of six different challenges at four difficulty levels."

And there are some pretty good prizes as well, including a $100,000 grand prize package that includes a trip to Paris, Rome and London.

This is a really big deal... Google has traditionally shied away from giving advertisers any outlets beyond Adwords. So are we likely to see more promotions like this? I'm not sure that we will. This particular promotion seems to stem more out of a passion for the material than anything else. But who knows?

Nielsen Netratings Blunderfest 2006

I swung by iMedia Connection today, and saw a headline for a story that made my jaw drop. Underneath the headline "Yahoo! Outnumbers Google" was the statement "Despite Google's reputation, Yahoo! ranks as top search engine." Um... what is Nielsen Netratings smoking?

This statement is completely and utterly false. The numbers Nielsen is basing this statement on are numbers not just for search engines, but portals and communication destinations as well. Sure, Yahoo! may be the top portal, but that doesn't mean it's the top search engine.

This is a REALLY irresponsible statement for Nielsen to make, and I hope they correct it right away. The fact is, Google is by far the top search engine, and that's not up for debate. In fact, Nielsen's own search data from November of 2005 shows Google's search engine market share at 46.3%, and Yahoo! at only 23%. For Nielsen's statement to be true, Yahoo! would have had to steal half of Google's market share in a mere matter of months. Yeah, right.

How anyone at Nielsen or iMedia Connection could allow this slip-up is beyond me.

Reminder: Google Grants

If you're a non-profit, or have a non-profit as a client, you should remember that Google Grants is out there. Google Grants is a program that allows selected non-profits to get free Google AdWords. Check out more details about the program here, and apply. Just a helpful reminder that this is a great opportunity for any non-profit.

Google AdWords Demographic Targeting

Google has now launched the ability for advertisers to use demographic targeting. According to the AdWords Help Center, those demographics include factors such as income and gender. John Battelle says that Google is tapping into ComScore/Media Metrix to get this data. Surely we'll be hearing more about this in the coming weeks.

This is great news for Google, and even better news for advertisers.

Super Bowl Commercials & Search

One of the things I was most impressed about the Super Bowl this year is how many advertisers were including search engine advertising as a part of their Super Bowl promotions. We all know that after the Super Bowl, people go to search engines to try and find the ads they missed, or the ads their friends are talking about. Running search engine ads is essential to connect with these people.

Last year, we were applauding just a few advertisers for doing it, but this year, the search engine ads are running in full force to accompany Super Bowl commercials.

Here's a short list of the folks I noticed running Super Bowl specific search engine ads on Google:

• Honda
• Cadillac (they were doing it last year)
• Mission Impossible
• Career Builder (they were doing it last year)
• Prudential
• Nationwide
• Ameriquest
• Sprint

Now, I have to dog on Sprint just for a little bit. The weird thing about Sprint is that their search engine ads are directing people to SprintEnterprise.com. Say what? You can't access any of the commercials by visiting Sprint.com, but for some reason they're all on SprintEnterprise.com? Come on Sprint, get your act together.

I Like Wink

Wink is an interesting new search engine. It allows users to search across many "tagging" sites, such as Digg and Del.icio.us, and rate the results. However, it also searches Google, and allows users to "rate" those results. I wish Google had a feature like this. It allows something other than an algorithm to help me determine the most useful results for a search.

Do I think Wink has a bright future? Who knows... But the functionality certainly is interesting. The search engines could learn a thing or two from this idea. Could a "rating" system be another way to help fight search engine spam?

2005 Google Zeitgeist

The 2005 Google Zeitgeist has been released! In it, Google highlights some of the significant events, celebrities and technologies that shaped 2005, from the perspective of people's search behavior. Always an interesting read.

Google and AOL Sitting in a Tree

I'm pretty discouraged by the news that Google, as a part of their deal with AOL, is giving favored placement to AOL content. This runs pretty much counter to the brand promise of integrity that we've known for so long about Google. The NY Times has more on the subject, and so does John Battelle.

Everyone speculated that the IPO would change Google, and it looks like maybe it has.

Link via Threadwatch.

Yahoo! Buys Del.icio.us

That's right... Del.icio.us is now a part of the Yahoo! family. You can read more about it on the Del.icio.us blog, as well as on the Yahoo Search Blog. One of the first things happening seems to be work between Flickr and Del.icio.us. I can't wait to see the results!

Google, if you're listening, you'd better jump on the bandwagon. Flickr and Del.icio.us both belong to Yahoo now.

Google (Free)Base

The official announcement of Google Base wasn't anything new... there have been rumors going around for several weeks about the service. So Google has finally entered the classified space, and this will surely make waves. I'm sure there are already people hiding under their desks at newspapers across the US.

So what industry can Google scare next? How about the record industry... they need some payback.

And I can't wait to start seeing people spamming the Google Base index... we'll call this "freebasing."

Bad Business at Google

Apparently, not everyone was happy with the launch of Google Analytics. We know other analytic companies were pissed, but what about existing Urchin customers?

Ethan Stock, the chief executive for Zvents, a silicon valley startup and existing Urchin customer, shares his story. It's pretty clear to me that Google didn't handle these existing customers very well at all. I'd be hopping mad if I was an existing Urchin customer.

Link via Silicon Beat.

Google Song Beta

Just when you thought Google was cool... They release a song to announce the launch of Google Local Mobile. You can listen to the song on the official Google blog.

And oh yes... they aren't the first. You may remember these hits as well:

1.) Sun Microsystems: "The Power of Sun"
Close your ears... this is a Huey Lewis cover. I'm not kidding.

2.) Ericsson: "Wap Rap"
This was before Sony made them cooler. So forgive them.

3.) KPMG: "Power of One"
I hope they don't take themselves that seriously. But sadly, they do.

Now I understand that Google is probably trying to be funny with this song. But this is downright creepy. And frankly, it's dorky in the "bad" way.

Want more corporate aural abuse? Visit ZDNet's IT Anthems... It's where I discovered the gems above.

Review: MSN adCenter

MSN is launching their new PPC offering, adCenter. At the end of last week, Kevin Lee, from search engine marketing frim Dit-IT, wrote a great review on the new offering. It's worth checking out if you care at all about search engine marketing... which you should.

Yahoo! Blog Search?

There seems to be speculation that Yahoo! will be releasing their blog search this week. Threadwatch points out that Steve Rubel caught a glimpse of it back in July.

Google + UPN = LOVE

What the heck is this? UPN has teamed up with Google to stream online the entire first episode of "Everybody Hates Chris", a sitcom inspired by Chris Rock's childhood. Um... I guess Google is officially a media company now. Here's a Reuters story on it.

Link via BuzzMachine. I'm getting the same poor performance of the video that Jeff mentions.

AOL Podcasting

AOL has launched a podcasting section on their site. The section has a podcasting 101 for beginners, as well as letting users download or subscribe to some of the better podcasts out there, including content from KCRW, This Week in Tech and a few more. It seems like there aren't hundreds of podcasts available, though... just what's on this page, which is a grand total of like 15 podcasts. Am I missing something?

On interesting aspect is that AOL radio has created a podcasting station that streams these podcasts.

Google Scrooge Beta

Google's gonna lose some serious points with its users.

Clickz has an article about Google testing the integration of commercial results into its natural search listings. You can see the tests by doing a search for "on demand."

This is a pretty major shift for Google. Google's treatment of natural search results as "sacred ground" was one of the things that made them different, more honest than their competitors.

I guess that sweet sweet advertising revenue is enough to make a company do just about anything.

Can't Find on Google?

Having trouble finding something on Google? Well, you're not alone. Check out cantfindongoogle.com, a site dedicated to documenting failed searches on the world's most comprehensive search engine.

Predicting Google's Future

That's right... you can predict Google's future. Search Engine Watch has posted a list of domains registered by Google since June 1, 2005. As SEW points out, "In some cases, a company will register a domain(s) to simply keep it out of circulation. However, new domain registrations can sometimes provide early notice of new services and tools."

Sometimes... you don't need a crystal ball to see the future.

FT.com Link Trickery

It looks like the Financial Times has been caught using "hidden links" on their site. This is one of the oldest search engine tricks in the books, and has brought up some interesting questions. Is the Financial Times charging for these hidden links? Is this knowingly being done? For a more detailed look at the issue, check out this post on the Linking Matters Blog.

Link via Adrants.

Technorati Redesign

Visit beta.technorati.com to check out the Technorati redesign.

One of the biggest changes is the much more prominent placement of revenue generating ads. This should be a huge boost for Technorati. In addition, Technorati now is blogging! They have a main blog, as well as a developer blog.

Overall, it looks to me like a great redesign...

Link via Threadwatch.

Google's "Laser Beam"

SiliconValleyWatcher reports that Google is planning to trump the "truck created" photos on Amazon's A9 search. They'll be using trucks equipped with cameras, but Google is adding a 3D element to it. Starting with San Francisco, and eventually expanding to other major metro areas, the Google trucks will have lasers to measure dimensions and give them 3D maps of cities...

What is Start.com?

Start.com is Microsoft's "start page" site... well, it's supposed to be an aggregator of sorts as well. Don't bother visiting www.start.com, as there's nothing there. Several versions of the site have been tested out, and you can see the latest at: start.com/myw3b/. Click on the "show" link at the top left to see the aggregator functionality.

Link via Threadwatch.

Google Sitemaps Beta

Google has launched a new program called "Google Sitemaps." According to the site:

"Google Sitemaps is an experiment in web crawling. Using Sitemaps to inform and direct our crawlers, we hope to expand our coverage of the web and improve the time to inclusion in our index. By placing a Sitemap-formatted file on your webserver, you enable our crawlers to find out what pages are present and which have recently changed, and to crawl your site accordingly."

It looks fairly easy to do, and they include a sitemap generator to help you format the correct XML document. I'll be tinkering around with it this weekend... Hopefully this will solve some of the problems marketers and publishers have had with organic search, particularly with Google.

Link via Lifehacker

Google Portal Launching

John Battelle has the scoop that a "My Google" product is launching today. This will essentially be a portal similar to "My Yahoo", where users will have access to things like news, Gmail, etc...

I'll have more on this story as it develops.

Update: The personalized Google has launched. It allows a little customization, but not much. You're limited to a couple news sources like Wired, Slashdot, NY Times, etc... This seems like a baby step in customization. In addition, the layout of the information within the standard Google homepage feels a little weird to me.

Snap Beta: News Search

Snap has launched a beta of their take on news search, www.newsfilter.com.

It's definitely refreshing to see some experimentation with the interface, but I have my reservations. While there's something nice about having gigantic thumbnails, I question the purpose they serve. A small thumbnail would accomplish the same thing, and I don't like having to click on anything to see the preview images...

The jury's out on this one.

Link via SiliconBeat.

Google Search Results Redirection?

I just noticed this now, and I'm pretty sure this wasn't happening before but I might be mistaken.

It appears that Google search results are now being linked to an intermediate script that transparently redirects the user to the requested site.  What is happening in this script, who knows.  They're probably keeping track of clicks though.  I've noticed them using this technique in Blogger.

You can see this more apparently if you execute the Google search using Firefox.  Put your mouse over the links and see what appears in the browser's status bar.

Google: Search History

Yesterday, Google Labs launched "My Search History." It allows you to access your search history online, from any computer... Provided you have a Google account. Charlene Li's blog has a great overview of this new offering, as well as a comparison with Yahoo's search personalization efforts.

Also, check out the Google Group set up for it.

Podscope: Inside Audio

Podscope sounds pretty interesting. It actually searches for keywords within audio files. Right now, it's limited to searching podcasts, but they'll be adding other multimedia in the coming months.

Google Video Upload

Google is now accepting submissions to their "Google Video" program, and it looks to be much more than just a video search. According to the site, if your video is accepted, "users will be able to search, preview, purchase and play it." It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Link via AdInnovator.

Google TV Show?

Jupiter Research VP and Senior Analyst David Card says that Google is going cross-media, and will have a "Google-branded show" on Al Gore's new network, INdTV. According to David Card's blog:

"A segment called "Google Current" will report on what topics are generating the most interest on the Web, using Google as its source. Google doesn't do its own reporting, but will rank the topics, based on which subjects generate the most search queries. A Google spokesman confirmed it struck an agreement with Mr. Gore's group."

April Fools': Ask Jeeves

Are all the search engines this lame? Ask Jeeves' April Fools' Day joke is about as good as Google's. Introducing the Jeeves 9000.

Am I missing something? I thought the idea of an April Fools' prank was to trick someone into believing that what you are saying is TRUE...

April Fools': Google Gulp

"At Google our mission is to organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible to our users. But any piece of information's usefulness derives, to a depressing degree, from the cognitive ability of the user who's using it. That's why we're pleased to announce Google Gulp (BETA)™ with Auto-Drink™ (LIMITED RELEASE), a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty."

www.google.com/googlegulp

This is the kind of LAME April Fools' day joke we'd expect from a publicly traded company. Can't say anything outrageous or semi-believable because the stock price might tank.

Blingo: Incentives for Search

Blingo has launched. Blingo gives you an incentive to use them for your search needs. Not only are they using Google technology, but you can instantly win prizes just for using them as your search engine. If you happen to be searching at just the right time, you can win.

Link via John Battelle. For more information, you can visit the "About" page for Blingo, as well as read one of John Battelle's earlier posts about Blingo.

People Search: Zoom Info

Zoom Info is a promising addition to people search. The strength of it lies in the presentation. If you Google yourself, for example, you often have to dig through the results to find those that really are referencing you. But with Zoom Info, it seems to do much of digging beforehand.

John Battelle talks about it a bit on his site as well. He points out that what makes this one interesting is the ability to manage your own entry. I kept thinking of this in relation to services like bloglines that let you "claim" your own blog. Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned in the people search space about this kind of functionality.

Also check out this post on search engine watch. They point out that Zoom Info is actually an old company that's been re-branded and launched under this new name.

Link via Ad Innovator (In Japanese).

Yahoo! Creative Commons

Yahoo! seems to be improving their image among the search engine community, as well as the blogging community, and the web community in general. They've launched a new search site that only searches content under Creative Commons licensing.

For those of you who need a little primer on Creative Commons, the "alternative" licensing program created by Lawrence Lessig, here are a few resources to learn more.

Creative Commons Official Site
Wikipedia: Creative Commons

Link via SiliconBeat.

Eyetracking for Search

Seth Godin posts about the results of a new eyetracking study on Google search results from Enquiro. It basically reinforces what we've known, that top organic rankings are key. What's more, though, this study shows that being above the fold and in organic rankings is the absolute best scenario.

I wonder if being above the fold on the second page of search results (11-14) is better than being below the fold on the first (1-3)?

Original link via Search Engine Watch.

MSN Search Viral? Sort of.

MSN has launched a viral initiative called MSNfound. Oh boy... I don't want to come down too hard on MSN, but this is a pretty awful execution.

1.) Failure to create anything original: "Launched" is the most appropriate word because they haven't really "created" much of anything. They're using already successful viral campaigns created by others.

2.) Insulting the intelligence of young people: MSN has created these people like "Tad", who they say is a "killer surfer." What's bothersome is not that "Tad" and these other people aren't real, but that someone actually thought their concocted personalities would be "cool." This isn't just insulting to young people, it's insulting to culture in general.

This is almost as insulting as the McDonald's commercial that showed people in roller blades playing basketball... I mean, really... who plays basketball in roller blades? With helmets on?

Become.com Public Beta

Threadwatch points to Become.com starting their public beta. It's a new shopping search engine that is supposed to focus on things like consumer reviews instead of actual products. Anyone can sign up for the public beta, and it looks like it has potential... although it also looks like they have a long way to go.

As a side note, Become.com has the founders of MySimon and Wisenut at the helm.

Google Maps Beta

Google has released their online mapping beta.

This is an improvement over other online mapping tools by leaps and bounds.

Ask Buys Bloglines?

It's looking right now like Ask Jeeves has bought Bloglines and is planning to integrate it somehow into their search engine. Mary Hodder at Napsterization has the dirt. The speculation comes out of some interesting features that were noticed on the new Ask Jeeves Blog that launched last week.

Link via John Battelle.

Advertising on Demand?

The Googlefan site points out that Google  seems to be testing out a new technology which would allow consumers to change the topic of the ads they see on the page. You can see an example on this site.

Amazon and "The OC"

Apparently Amazon is dipping its toes into product placement... but in a very subtle way, for their search engine, A9. On the show, According to the folks at SiliconBeat,  "one of the show's high school characters uses A9.com as a verb..."

That's right, the show said something akin to "I A9.com'd him"....

I'm not exactly a fan of the show, and if the usage above is any indication of quality... I won't be watching it anytime soon.

Update!: CNET has an article up on this very subject, and says Amazon "did not pay to have its name mentioned." Wow... then it must mean that the writing staff is even MORE out of touch than we previously thought.