July 21, 2006
July 21, 2006
TurnHere Tricks Out Google Terra
Local short film production firm TurnHere has a new integration with Google Earth that's kinda neat. When users map a city or neighborhood that TurnHere has a short film about, an icon tags it as such. Clicking the icon launches a pop-up window displaying a still from the film and brief description. There are a whole bunch of them up there -- from Punxsutawney to Seoul. If you've got Google Earth, you can download the app.
At the moment, all the films are of the "neighborhood" variety, as opposed to the advertorial films TurnHere creates for paying advertisers (lots of restaurants and shops). According to the company's director of business development, Keith Louie, getting the ad films into Google Earth is something he'll "definitely have some conversations" with Google about. However, he's not so sure that will fly with the Web behemoth because "the thing about Google Earth is it's very editorial driven."
Still, Google makes its money through advertising; I'd bet it's only a matter of time before the company integrates Google Local, Google Base and ads into its Earth app.
I spoke with TurnHere's CEO Brad Inman the other day about the project, and he told me, "We worked hard to do it…. These things seem so simple and they're not."
Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Independent Report: Google Click Fraud Detection Practices Are "Reasonable"
The Google Blog just posted the independent study on their click fraud detection practices that shows Google makes reasonable efforts to detect click fraud. The report was part of an agreement of the Lane's Gifts v. Google settlement and was performed by Dr. Alexander Tuzhilin, Professor of Information Systems at NYU. Obviously Google is pretty happy about this report and I didn't have time to go through the full 47 page report, but if you have time, I bet you as Search Engine Marketer can learn a ton about the AdWords system. Possibly, Danny will dig into this deeper next week.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 2:34 PM | Permalink
Search Forums Roundup: July 21, 2006
Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: Google Maps + Reviews In Main Search Results - Yahoo Panama Release Delayed - Microsoft: MSN - Strider Search Defender - Buying Brand Name Keywords On Adwords, and more.
Posted by Chris Sherman at 1:25 PM | Permalink
More 3D Maps, an iTunes Video Podcast Directory, .CA Goes Mobile & Wildfires Database: Specialty Search Wrap Up
This weeks specialty search wrap up from Resource Shelf includes more 3D mapping tools, a iTunes video podcast directory, the Canadian government mobile edition, a resource for locating primary sources with international news and a wildfires and forest fire real time database.
- Loving 3D satellite mapping tools? Want to spot more North Korean Missiles & Chinese Helicopters? Gary posted a roundup of free open source 3D satellite and aerial imagery. You can even check out images of places outside of this world, seriously! More details at Resource Shelf.
- Like to watch videos on your iPod or on iTunes? Well, Gary has the details on Search For Video adding a method of searching for videos that can be downloaded directly to your iPod and iTunes. To view the directory listing of these videos go to Podcast Video portion of the directory. More details here.
- Oh Canada on your mobile phone! Do you have a love for the Canadian government? Are you on the road a lot? If so, you can now get your fix at the Mobile Canada Site. You can learn more at http://canada.gc.ca/mobile/wireless_e.html or at Resource Shelf.
- Do you hate getting your international news via second hand sources? Gary writes about Diplomacy Monitor, a site that gives you access to "primary documents and news releases from various governments and government agencies."
- Is your house burning down? I hope not! This is the season for wildfires and forest fire and Gary has compiled a listings of database that offer real time information and reports. Check them out at Resource Shelf.
That is our specialty search roundup for this week.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:12 AM | Permalink
Microsoft's MSN Revenue Declined 3% Year Over Year
ClickZ reports that MSN's revenue declined 3 percent year-over-year. CFO Chris Liddell covers transition of search to Microsoft adCenter, saying "it's not far off that we're going to have 100 percent of our business on adCenter."
Microsoft plans on spending $500 million on adCenter, Windows Live, MSN Search and other online services this year. Next quarter results should be interesting.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:12 AM | Permalink
Google Finance Leaks Version Two Information
Garett Rogers stumbled upon a link in Google Finance at the top right corner that said "v2 (test)" in red font. The link points to http://0.frontend-live.sfe.scrooge.hs.borg.google.com/finance, which seems to not be accessible from my location, or outside of Google's network. Notice the sign of the borg again? borg.google.com from before. So, now we have rumors that Google is going to be launching a version two of Google Finance soon. Maybe it includes stock indices from other worlds? :)
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:43 AM | Permalink
Site Diagnostics Tab Added to Google AdSense Console
Google has added a new tab, a tab they have been beta testing for a couple months, named Site Diagnostics. What this tool does is show you which pages the AdSense crawler is having problems getting to. Why would they crawler have a problem getting to those pages? The several possible reasons include a robots.txt file blocking then, password protected pages, server down or slow and other reasons explained in the AdSense help pages.
I have posted screen captures at the Search Engine Roundtable.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:37 AM | Permalink
Google Adds RSS To Google Base Results
I wrote about Google adding drop down menus to some search results at the Search Engine Roundtable last night and then discovered something new. At least I think it is new. If you go to a Google Base landing page, like this one for Clinical trials results, you may notice a new button at the top right of the page. The button is an RSS feed icon, that links to RSS results for that query refinement in Google Base. I personally have never seen that feature there before, I asked a few people and they haven't either - so I assume it is fairly new. So if you are an RSS junky, then you can subscribe to result sets that interest you in Google Base.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:28 AM | Permalink
