Seems like soon it’s all going to be very-very social on Google. Google+ Search results are officially rolled over across.
Right now, “Search, plus Your World” is gradually rolled out over the next few days, but it only be available when you use Google.com in English and you sign in.
While Google+ data can certainly improve search results, we feel like there’s too much information that’s not really useful and too much Google+ bias. When Google developed the OneBoxes for maps and stocks, it linked to its own services, but also to competing services. Today Google no longer tries to be fair. Showing the number of people that added the author of a news articles to their circles is not more useful than showing the PageRank of the page or the number of Twitter followers. Showing the latest Google+ posts below the homepage of a business is not more useful than showing the latest Twitter posts. Google profiles are not necessarily better than Facebook profiles and the number of +1′s is not more useful than the number of likes. To make Google+ more powerful, to attract more celebrities and businesses, Google might end up making Google results less useful. It’s a tricky balancing act to use Google search’s popularity to increase Google+ adoption, while also improving Google results using Google+ data and there are many mistakes to be made along the way.
Did you know one out of three mobile searches is for local information? Customers want to find the nearest store, how to get there and a number to call. Make it easy for your customers to find you when they’re searching on the go by adding your business location information to your mobile ads. Benefits of Location Extensions
Drive traffic to your business: Providing a map, address and access to directions in your ad helps customers easily get to your store.
Let customers know how close they are: Hyperlocal distance information automatically displays with a blue pin when customers search nearby your business.
Offer more ways to reach you: Including your local business number lets customers easily connect with a click to call..
Reach customers at the right time: Mobile local information seekers are ready to take action. Research shows that 59% visit a business and more than 40% purchase after looking for local information on their smartphones (US Smartphone Consumer Behavior, Google & Ipsos, 2010)
Easy setup: Simply enter your business address or link your Google Places account to your campaign as a location extension.
Whether you have multiple storefronts you’d like to promote locally, or a single storefront you’d like to attract a user’s attention to, location extensions can help grow your business by bringing more customers through your doors.
Ready to Mobilize? Start now and speak to Digdugmedia today!
Are you capturing the growing mobile opportunity? Mobile searches have grown by more than 4x over the past year and by 2012 more people will connect to the Internet via a mobile device than through a computer (Google Internal Data; Top 10 Mobile Internet Trends, Mary Meeker – Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers). This shift in consumer behavior means that increasingly your customers will be looking for you on mobile. Be there when they’re searching for your product or business with Google Mobile Ads.
Benefits of Google Mobile Ads
Reach customers on the go: Today consumers are using their smartphones to search, shop, and look for local information with their always on, always with them mobile devices. Mobile ads enable you to reach the constantly connected consumer.
Connect with mobile savvy shoppers: From finding a store to comparing prices to reading product reviews, smartphones are used throughout the shopping process. Research shows 74% of US smartphone shoppers have made a purchase with the help of their smartphones (US Smartphone Consumer Behavior, Google & Ipsos, 2010). Mobile ads form a critical component of any mobile commerce strategy.
Reach and target consumers at scale: Google Mobile Ads reach millions of customers around the world across devices such as iPhone and Android powered phones. And with AdWords’ device and carrier level targeting, you can specify and reach the precise mobile audience you desire.
Don’t miss the mobile movement. Mobilize your AdWords campaigns with Google Mobile Ads to reach the new mobile consumer.
Ready to get Mobilized? Start now and speak to Digdugmedia today!
Business owners can invite Google photographers into their establishments to take high-quality images of their businesses. Users can view the photos and learn more by visiting the Place pages of those restaurants, hotels, and more. Please visit http://maps.google.com/businessphotos to apply or learn more.
Volkswagen put its ads on YouTube this week prior to SuperBowl and has already received a significant buzz!
The 60-second ad features a pint-sized Darth Vader (a kid in a Vader costume, actually) using The Force (actually a key fob secretly used by his dad) to start up a 2012 Passat. So far, it has netted 1.5 million views on YouTube, and was also a trending topic on Twitter earlier today.
A rep for Deutsch, the ad agency that created the spot, says although advertisers sometimes release their Super Bowl ads the Friday before the game to get network TV coverage, it’s unusual to air the ad a few days prior to that.
In addition to the Darth Vader ad, VW also has a 30-second Super Bowl ad on YouTube called “Black Beetle” that shows a CGI-created beetle racing around as the song “Black Betty” plays. That ad has gotten about 162,000 views since it went up yesterday.
“The Force” as the initial ad is known, is set to run in the second quarter. “Black Beetle” will run in the fourth quarter.
What do you think guys? Would VW have gotten more buzz if it had waited to show the ad during the big game? Let us know. But on thing for sure – we LOVE the ad
LONDON — Art lovers will be able to stroll through some of the world’s most famous galleries at the click of a mouse after Google put the venues online Tuesday using Street View technology.
In a collaboration with 17 leading galleries in nine countries, the US Internet giant has taken equipment from the cars it used to map cities and recorded the galleries so they can be enjoyed by anyone with web access.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York, London’s National Gallery and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid are three of the galleries that art aficionados will be able to explore by logging on to www.googleartproject.com.
Art by Vincent van Gogh, James McNeill Whistler and Sandro Botticelli are among more than 1,000 works that have been photographed and “hung” in the virtual galleries.
Visitors will be able to look around more than 350 gallery rooms containing work by more than 450 artists.
While many big galleries have already put their work online, Google claims its Art Project takes the experience to a new level.
As well as the Street View-style tours, the site offers an application to build up a virtual private art collection, and super high-resolution pictures which allow enthusiasts to look at works in minute detail.
The project represents “a major step forward in how a lot of people are going to interact with these beautiful treasures,” said Nelson Mattos, vice president of engineering at Google.
“We hope it will inspire ever more people, wherever they live, to access and explore art,” he told journalists at a launch event in the Tate Britain gallery in London, one of the venues involved in the project.
For the website, Google used cameras from their Street View cars and took them inside for the first time, filming with specially designed trolleys in the galleries to create the 360-degree virtual tours.
Each of the 17 galleries photographed one super high-resolution image — each image contains around seven billion pixels and took between four and eight hours to capture.
This means visitors can see details in pictures that were previously impossible to view with the naked eye, such as the tiny Latin Couplet in “The Merchant Georg Gisze” by Hans Holbein the Younger, in the Gemaeldegalerie, Berlin.
Other works to get the super high-resolution treatment include Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”, which is in the Museum of Modern Art, and “In the Conservatory” by Edouard Manet from the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
The project organisers played down concerns that putting art works online would slash the number of visitors to the museums, and instead said they expected the site to boost attendance.
“In our experience, people — once they get a glimpse — want to see the real thing,” said Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate.
He also laughed off a suggestion that putting detailed pictures of the galleries online could provide information for potential art thieves.
“If you’re really thinking of stealing a painting, coming to the museum is probably the best way to check the security system,” he said.
On the Net:
Coming off a phenomenal year, Facebook is close to narrowing the gap with Google when it comes to public sentiment, but is not quite there yet, according to research from YouGov’s BrandIndex.
The company, which polls 5,000 people per day online, found that Facebook currently has a “Buzz Score” of 31.3 vs. 39 for Google. Those figures are based on averaging positive scores (+100) with negative ones (-100). In other words, if you polled three people and two had a positive view of Google and the third didn’t, the buzz score would be calculated by dividing 200 by three to get a score of 66.7.
The final numbers only tell part of the story, though. Google started the year with a 45.1 Buzz Score, so 39 is down by 6.1 points. Facebook, meanwhile, only edged up slightly for all of 2010, but the brand’s Buzz Score see-sawed throughout the year. Privacy concerns over the summer sent Facebook’s score into the single digits, while the opening of the movie The Social Network in October prompted another drop. Since then, though, Facebook’s Buzz Score has been steadily climbing.
“You are talking about more recognition than ever, booming business, talk of IPO, Time magazine cover, etc. that has helped them,” says Drew Kerr, a rep for BrandIndex.
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