curtmercadante.com

thoughts on content, communications and other random musings

On BP and Google Ads

So, BP has purchased the term "oil spill" to deliver ads via Google Keyword search.

One blogger labels this move as "shameful."  ABC News reports that BP is doing it to "redirect users to company Web site."

Try to forget for a moment any anger you currently have toward BP.  What is wrong with their purchase of Google keyword ads?

Some of the posts and tweets make it seem as if BP is surreptitiously manipulating Google search results.

Nope.  As you can see from the photo above, the ad is clearly marked as a "Sponsored Link" and clearly links to a BP page (I'm not sure if "redirect" is a good term to use -- since you go to a clearly marked BP-sponsored URL.)

BP isn't simply linking to the homepage of the company's Web site.  It isn't linking to some brand marketing advertisement.

If you choose to click on the ad, you will be taken to a page on the BP Web site that contains news and updates on the oil spill cleanup effort.

What, exactly, is wrong with this?  While you may be angry at BP for the actual spill, they are the ones who are working to clean it up.  This page on their Web site simply seeks to provide news and updates on that clean up effort.  This is crisis response and issue management 101.

Let's say BP held a press conference to discuss the cleanup effort.  Your local news station breaks away from regularly scheduled programming to cover that press conference, which features a BP spokesperson providing the company's updates on the oil spill.  Is that somehow shameful?  Are they surreptitiously "redirecting" your eyes to their content?

Of course not.  So why is a clearly-marked Google ad that links to a news page on the BP Web site a bad thing?

It isn't.  But people's anger (and I'm certainly not saying that anger is misplaced or wrong) toward BP is clouding the issue.  

I think certain people simply don't know how Google keywords ads work.  

There certainly parts of BP's communications effort that are lacking.  But skewering them for purchasing Google keywords is simply venting.

It's a good communications move.  Let's move on.

YouTube Launches Campaign Toolkit For Politicians

Going beyond the basic YouTube offerings, Google is now upping the ante for political campaigns, offering a "Campaign Toolkit." TechCrunch reports:

The toolkits aim to provide political candidates with the resources to successfully use both YouTube and other Google products to engage constituents and citizens. On YouTube, campaigns will have access to features like a Politician channel (which allows campaigns to brand their channel and upload longer videos), Google Moderator, and analytics tool YouTube Insight. The toolkit also includes paid advertising campaigns, such as in-stream ads and Promoted Video. The Google toolkit shows how products in the Google Apps family like Docs and Gmail, can keep staff and volunteers connected.

The offerings are sure to be particularly useful for politicians and candidates who are running for office in the coming year. Long-winded politicians should love the fact that video time limits are longer than normal, and they can run the same 15-second and 30-second TV ad spots in YouTube. President Obama notably used YouTube for both his campaign efforts and now within the White House. The White House also uses Google Moderator and App Engine.

via techcrunch.com

The economic impact of Google

Google is coming out today with a new report showing the company's economic impact.

You can download the report at google.com/economicimpact.

According to Google, since 2009 the company has generated a total of $54 billion of economic activity for American businesses, website publishers and non-profits.

Google is unveiling the report on Capitol Hill today — and here is a quick video with the company's chief economist, Hal Varian, that provides more detail on the new report:

via googleblog.blogspot.com

 

YouTube Turns Five

Google executives said in January that the site, which has perennially lost money, had increased its revenue, and that ad space on YouTube’s home pages for 20 countries was sold out every day toward the end of 2009. Many analysts say YouTube could break even this year for the first time, after five years of large losses generated by its high bandwidth and storage costs.
via nytimes.com

Blockshopper: From realty site to "juiced" local biz directory?

I must admit I've always been a fan of what the folks at Blockshopper.com have been doing with their site:  taking tired old real estate data and turning it into news.

That's right — they turn every real estate listing into a news story, and then provide gobs of data (from political districts to school information to house-by-house property tax data) to create what is not only a hyperlocal news site, but also an SEO machine.

After several years of building this machine (and inking deals with newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and St. Louis Post Dispatch), it now appears that Blockshopper might be quietly transforming their online publication into a powerful local business directory.

For example, if you look at http://Chicago.Blockshopper.com/notes, you'll see that local businesses (as well as realtors) can now attach positive customer comments and work case studies to specific addresses.

So, say you're a contractor who's worked on a number of homes in the Lakeview section of Chicago ... you can attach case study notes (which link back to your Web site) to the pages of each of the homes you've worked on.

Kind of like a "virtual yard sign", eh?  And it's a yard sign with some major "Google Juice" as evidenced by a few quick Google searches relevant to some of the businesses advertising on Blockshopper.

Stay tuned for more from this company.  I have a feeling they're just getting warmed up.

So, here's a new one from Gmail ...

How many times do you hit the send button on an email, only to realize you forgot to attach your file? 

Ever been embarrassed after receiving an email from your client that says, "Forgot to attach" or "Nothing attached"?

Well, as you can see from the graphic above, Gmail has a new tool to save you from your embarrassment.  Apparently, if you have the words "attached files" (or, I assume, something similar) in the body of your email and don't actually attach any files, the above message will appear.

I think it's pretty darn cool.  What do you think?

Google needs to bring it all together

I am a big user of Google products.  My business uses Google Apps for email, calendaring and Google Docs.  For this we pay a fee — a relatively small fee...but a fee, nonetheless.

I also use Gmail, have an addiction to Google Reader, have tinkered with Google Tasks and am one of the many new users of Google Buzz.

I also use YouTube for personal and business endeavors.

My simple request for Google:  please, please, please provide better (any?) integration of paid Google Apps with your free services.

For example, why can't Buzz, Reader and Taks be made available in Google Apps (for which I pay a fee?)  As it stands now, I have to keep both my Gmail and Apps accounts open and go back and forth between each to use these services.

It's worse on mobile where, if I wanted to make use of Google Tasks, I can only use through my free Gmail account — but would love to fully integrate into my Google Apps account, where my team does our business.

In addition, we can't se create a Google Profile through Google Apps?  Would be excellent if I could create a profile, for example, for my business through my Apps account.  

This post is somewhat of a rant, I know, and I'm told better integration is on the way.  But I feel Google has some great potential here to own the project management/task/team collaboration space currently owned by companies, such as 37 Signals.

Our company currently uses 37 Signals' wonderful Basecamp tool — but if Google fully integrated all of its tools into Google Apps as a one-stop shop for business owners, I'd drop Basecamp and go "full Google."

Just my two cents.  Google, are you listening?

January 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

From comScore:

In January 2010, Americans conducted 15.2 billion core searches, with Google Sites accounting for 65.4 percent search market share. Microsoft Sites grabbed 11.3 percent market share, up 0.6 percentage points versus December.

comScore Core Search Report*
January 2010 vs. December 2009
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity Share of Searches (%)
Dec-09 Jan-10 Point Change Jan-10 vs. Dec-09
Total Core Search 100.0% 100.% N/A
Google Sites 65.7% 65.4% -0.3
Yahoo! Sites 17.3% 17.0% -0.3
Microsoft Sites 10.7% 11.3% 0.6
Ask Network 3.7% 3.8% 0.1
AOL LLC Network 2.6% 2.5% -0.1

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

via comscore.com

Google: The Ultimate Election Prediction Tool?

Earlier tonight, I saw a tweet from @JakeParrillo that referenced a Google Insights result that showed a surge in Google searches for Bill Brady — the upset winner of the Illinois Republican Gubernatorial Primary. Click here to take a look at the chart of that Google Insights report.

But it doesn't end there.

Here is the chart of a Google Insights report on the dead heat matchup between incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn and challenger Dan Hynes.  While Quinn was the eventual winner — only a point separated them, which is basically reflected in that Google Insights report.

And take a look at this ...

In the hard-fought battle for the Democrat U.S. Senate nomination between Alexi Giannoulias and David Hoffman — eventual winner Giannoulias beats out Hoffman on Google search volume, and this Google Insights report reflects the close nature of the race.

And how about the Republican Lt. Governor race?

Upset winner Jason Plummer had a Google surge at the end of the race — forecasting his win last Tuesday.

Could Google Insights be the ultimate election prediction tool (for races in which there is enough search volume to register)?