Thursday, October 21, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Main Streets using Google SketchUp for Historic Preservation

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:01 PM PDT

Google LatLong: Main Streets using Google SketchUp for Historic Preservation


Earlier in the year, we were approached by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to discuss how their member communities might leverage Google's 3D modeling and visualization tools to support downtown revitalization programs. The concept for developing a digital model of a downtown area was conceptualized by the town of McMinnville, Tennessee, which was among the first small towns in the U.S. to organize a community modeling effort. With city budgets under pressure, the Trust was keen to explore how a community modeling approach could be expanded by downtowns across the nation.

The result was "Main Streets in 3D." The concept was simple; a contest would be held among local Main Street programs where they would outline a vision for how their downtown would leverage a digital model. Five towns would be selected to receive a full day of training to develop 3D models of their downtown using SketchUp and Google Earth. The winning communities were announced in July.

Contest submissions varied from using the digital model for tourism promotion, to city planning, to creating an urban forestry plan – all ideal use-cases for having a publicly available 3D model. Despite the different goals, all five shared a common vision to use their Main Streets in 3D projects to attract entrepreneurs, jobs, investors, and visitors to their towns.



Igloo Studios, an authorized training center for SketchUp, coordinated with leaders in each community to schedule the training sessions. In early October, the last of the five communities gathered its volunteers to learn how to put their downtown on the digital map. Alex Oliver, CEO of Igloo Studios recently blogged about the experience.

With volunteers now trained, the project transitions to the development phase. Models such as these from Oregon City are beginning to appear in Google Earth.



All five communities will deliver a report on their progress at the National Main Streets conference in May 2011.

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/10/main-streets-using-google-sketchup-for.html

[G] Think Holiday 2010 Webinar: Consumer Shopping Intentions

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 09:05 PM PDT

Official Google CPG Blog: Think Holiday 2010 Webinar: Consumer Shopping Intentions

Attention all CPG marketers with direct response initiatives for the holidays --> Attend this webinar today - you won't want to miss it!
-------------
Cross posted from the Google Retail Blog

As a continuation of Google Retail's ongoing series, we're excited to share insights from our latest research studies.

Join us on Wednesday, October 20th, at 2 PM EST as we share findings on consumer shopping trends for holiday and discuss strategies marketers can implement to increase holiday sales.

During this webinar we will discuss:
Consumers' holiday shopping plans: what, where and when will they purchase?
Key shopping dates you don't want to miss
New strategies for holiday 2010
Date
Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Time
11 AM PST / 1 PM CST / 2 PM EST

Register
To register for this webinar, please go here.


URL: http://google-cpg.blogspot.com/2010/10/think-holiday-2010-webinar-consumer.html

[G] Back from BlogWorld

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 08:43 PM PDT

Blogger Buzz: Back from BlogWorld

Sometimes returning to a nice, quiet office can be just what the doctor ordered after an exhausting trip away. And for the handful of us on the Blogger Team who just returned from BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, this was definitely the case.

For the first time since the convention's debut four years ago, we set up shop on the tradeshow floor with our very own Blogger-themed exhibit. Armed with demo stations, Blogger t-shirts and chip clips, and our very own bright red marshmallow couch, we spent our time showing off the latest features and talking to literally hundreds of folks about their experiences with Blogger. And we learned a lot.

shaun, vardhman, chang, antin, brett, and tina on the marshmallow couch.

The feedback that we got was both encouraging and enlightening, and we're still in the process of digesting everything. First, we want to thank everyone who came by the booth to say hello, test out the new features, spend a few minutes getting interviewed, or to tell us what we could be doing better. Having so many passionate bloggers in one place to interact with was an incredible resource, from the gentleman we spoke with who has been blogging since 1995 to the fitness blogger who set up her first Blogger blog right in front of us. So once again, thanks for sharing!


demoing with the guys from vanilla. photo credit: brendan sera-shriar
We're excited about what's in store for Blogger in the coming months, and after this trip we're even more committed to delivering the best blog service possible. In the spirit of keeping the conversations going, feel free to send us a tweet or post on our wall if something's on your mind. Or, if you want to give us some more detailed feedback, please let us know on our Product Ideas page.


Finally, we want to thank Rick Calvert for reaching out and encouraging us to be a part of BlogWorld Expo. We hope to see you all next year!


URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/10/back-from-blogworld.html

[G] This is Demo Slam

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 05:01 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: This is Demo Slam

If you're reading this, then you've probably watched your share of tech demos in your life, possibly on this very blog. Like broccoli, tech demos are good for you. But kids don't line up for broccoli—just like the majority of people don't line up for tech demos.

So how do we get more free, amazing tech goodness to more people? Well, as you'll see, there's nothing we won't try.

Introducing Demo Slam, a place where boring tech demos become (hopefully) gotta-show-my-friends awesome—thanks to the creativity of Google users like you. Here's a slam from the Paul brothers:



A big shout out to the Paul family for not just making us smile, but showing potentially millions of people the time they could save by speaking instead of typing to search.

Beginning today, you can watch Preseason Slams and declare a Champ of the week. Then each week, new featured slams will vie for your attention and a shot at demo glory. Think you can create a Slam-worthy demo? Choose a bit of tech you love and show the world what you can do.

Let's get the people who would never watch a tech demo—the people who ironically need them most (hi mom)—to not only watch them, but like them and share them with their friends.

Let the Slams begin.

Posted by Robert Wong, Creative Director, Creative Lab
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-is-demo-slam.html

[G] Avoiding accidental clicks Pt. 2: Use the right product

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 02:56 PM PDT

Inside AdSense: Avoiding accidental clicks Pt. 2: Use the right product

We hope you found our last post on invalid clicks useful. Today we wanted to give you more advice on this topic and talk about ads on pages containing interactive media, such as videos and games.

We understand that video content pages aren't as easy to monetize as regular text-based pages and that publishers are interested in experimenting with different ad placements, but we'd like to clarify some of our policies addressing AdSense for content ads in interactive media environments:
  • We don't allow publishers to overlay AdSense for content ads on video content.
  • We don't allow publishers to implement AdSense for content ads as in-stream video placements.
  • We don't allow publishers to implement AdSense for content ads on interstitial pages. So if a user has decided to watch a video, you may not implement ads on pages saying "your video will start in 15 seconds." We've also seen this placement on Flash gaming sites in the form of an ad being shown to the user while the game is loading in the background. However, even if you allow users to skip these ads or close them, this placement is not allowed.
Now for the good news: If you are interested in monetizing overlay or in-stream placements on your video content, please check out AdSense for video. Similarly, if you are interested in placing ads on interstitial pages on your Flash gaming sites, read about AdSense for games. The key difference between using these products and AdSense for content is that with AdSense for games and AdSense for video, we only show ads from a pool of advertisers who specifically target these kinds of placements and have optimized their campaigns and creatives towards them.

Think about your users and advertisers when implementing AdSense ads on your sites. Make sure that ads are separated enough from the content to prevent accidental clicks, and that ads are always recognizable as such. Remember that AdSense is an ecosystem that will continue to thrive as long as all parties remain happy within it. Users are happy to see relevant and useful ads that are not obtrusive or misleading, advertisers are happy to reach their target audience and get good returns on their investment, and you - the publisher - will be happy to have an AdSense account in good standing.

Posted by Dan Zilic - AdSense Policy team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/10/avoiding-accidental-clicks-pt-2-use.html

[G] Drag and drop images in documents

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 02:43 PM PDT

Official Google Docs Blog: Drag and drop images in documents

When writing a document, it often helps to augment text with images and diagrams. Google documents already has three ways to add images: you can choose them from your hard-drive, add them by URL, and you can find them using Google Image Search.

But sometimes the exact image you need is on your desktop and you just want to add it to your document quickly. Starting today, you can drag images from your desktop directly into your documents.



For now, you can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We'll enable it on other browsers as soon as they support the feature.

Posted by: Philipp Weis, Software Engineering Intern
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html

[G] The Bid Simulator reaches a new level

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 01:44 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: The Bid Simulator reaches a new level

A few weeks ago, we announced the launch of Estimated Top Impressions in the bid simulator. Today we're announcing another improvement: the ability to view bid simulations across keywords in an ad group at once. With this launch, we hope to give you a faster and more scalable way of making bidding decisions across keywords in aggregate.

The ad group level bid simulator provides simulations for two types of changes:
  1. Applying a single bid to all the keywords in the ad group.
  2. Updating the ad group default bid (this only impacts those keywords that do not have their own keyword-level CPC bid and use the ad group default bid).
If you're like many advertisers and manage your bids at the keyword-level, it may be worth taking a look at ad group level bid simulations: You could be surprised to find out that, in some cases, you could have achieved similar or better results had you managed your bids by using a single ad group default Max CPC bid.

Let's take a closer look at an ad group where this is the case:


The highlighted row shows that, for the past seven days, the ad group received 339 clicks, costing a total of $182.37. Beneath this row, you can see simulations for the potential clicks, cost, and impressions that the ad group could have received had the keywords all used a single Max CPC bid.

In this case, if all keywords in the ad group had used a Max. CPC bid of $0.53, the ad group could have received an additional 49 clicks (for a total of 398) for about the same cost ($182). Thus, if clicks from all keywords in the ad group are equally valuable to the advertiser, it would make sense to set a single bid of $0.53 to all the keywords.

Note: For this type of bid simulation, look to see if the yellow dot is above the green line in the chart to the right of the table. If it is, this indicates that you may be able to get more clicks for the same cost.

If a few keywords in an ad group are especially profitable to your business (i.e. they convert at higher conversion rates or at higher values) you may choose to manage them separately by assigning keyword-level Max CPC bids. If this is the case, the bid simulator will display simulations for the remaining keywords in the ad group that use the ad group default bid. If you select a new ad group default bid, this bid will apply to all keywords in the ad group for which you haven't specified a keyword-level Max CPC.




Here are two tips to help you get the most out of the bid simulator:
  1. Check out ad group level simulations to find out if using a single bid for all the keywords in the ad group could save you time and money.
  2. If you view a bid simulation for a specific keyword and do not see click cost estimates, this is likely because the keyword doesn't receive enough traffic. Consider managing low traffic keywords in aggregate by using the ad group default bid for them by deleting their keyword level bids.

To see ad group level bid simulations, go to the "Ad groups" tab and look at the "Default Max. CPC" column in our chart icon.

Post Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/10/bid-simulator-reaches-new-level.html

[G] Flumotion Wins Streaming Media Europe Awards for WebM Streaming

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:28 AM PDT

The WebM Open Media Project Blog: Flumotion Wins Streaming Media Europe Awards for WebM Streaming

Congratulations to our friends at Flumotion! They picked up two Reader's Choice Awards at the Streaming Media Europe 2010 conference in London. The company took prizes for Best Live Webcast of 2010 (for their streaming of GUADEC 2010 in WebM), and Best Webcast Platform. In addition, the Flumotion WebM Live Streaming solution was nominated for Best Streaming Innovation of 2010.

You can read more about the awards in the Streaming Media announcement.
URL: http://blog.webmproject.org/2010/10/flumotion-wins-streaming-media-europe_20.html

[G] Flumotion Wins Streaming Media Europe Awards for WebM Streaming

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:26 AM PDT

The WebM Open Media Project Blog: Flumotion Wins Streaming Media Europe Awards for WebM Streaming

Congratulations to our friends at Flumotion! They picked up two Reader's Choice Awards at the Streaming Media Europe 2010 conference in London. The company took prizes for Best Live Webcast of 2010 (for their streaming of GUADEC 2010 in WebM), and Best Webcast Platform. In addition, the Flumotion WebM Live Streaming solution was nominated for Best Streaming Innovation of 2010.

You can read more about the awards at the Streaming Media web site.
URL: http://blog.webmproject.org/2010/10/flumotion-wins-streaming-media-europe.html
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