Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Trip report: Google and YouTube in Pakistan 2010

Posted: 22 Dec 2010 04:48 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Trip report: Google and YouTube in Pakistan 2010

Earlier this month, a team from Google and YouTube went to Pakistan to explore business and content opportunities, following up on Google's Clinton Global Initiative commitment to Pakistan and to sponsor and participate in Pakistan's first International Youth Conference and Festival. It's hard to imagine a country more at the nexus of geo-politics today than Pakistan, and our team learned a lot about the state of the Pakistani technology, media and non-profit sectors.



Internet connectivity in Pakistan is quite low—estimates put penetration at around 10%—but opportunities for growth are evident. For one thing, broadband costs are quite cheap compared to other parts of the world—around $13/month. Smartphone usage is also on the rise, and there are a growing number of Pakistani developers who are creating mobile applications for sale both in Pakistan and abroad. Around 60% of Pakistanis have a mobile phone, and their average bill is around $3/month. Not surprisingly, SMS is one of the primary means of communication in Pakistan.

One of the keys to bringing more Pakistanis online is the amount of local Pakistani content available on the Internet. There are some great examples so far: for instance, Coke Studio, a "fusion" music project sponsored by Coke that features popular Pakistani musicians, grew so popular on YouTube last summer that it was the 11th-most viewed channel on the site. Dozens of news organizations have begun to use YouTube as a global distribution platform as well, reaching not only Pakistanis online but the diaspora abroad. The Pakistani media is young and voracious—it was just eight years ago that the government opened up the airwaves to allow non-state media channels to exist, and in that short time the media has grown to become an important player in the public discourse in Pakistan, despite occasional crackdowns from authorities. Citizen media has also played an increasingly big role in Pakistan: for example many Pakistanis used cellphone cameras to document the devastation wrought by the floods in Pakistan last summer.

Google.org granted $1 million to Pakistani flood relief in September, localized crisis response tools, and launched a flood relief landing page. On our trip we met with several non-profits who are doing incredible work to help the affected citizens get back on their feet. Our products, in particular Google MapMaker, proved to be of use to flood relief agencies for tracking development in the wake of the tragedy. Over countless cups of hot chai and mixed grilled barbecues, we heard stories of ordinary Pakistanis using Google technology to document the flood and connect with one another during the crisis.

Pakistan's future no doubt lies with its youth—an incredible 62% of Pakistanis are under the age of 25. Perhaps the highlight of our trip was the International Youth Conference we participated in, which was run by an organization called Khudi. Khudi was founded by the dynamic Maajid Nawaz, a former extremist who changed his views towards moderate Islam and has since devoted his life to educating young people on freedom of expression and anti-extremism (Nawaz also spoke at Google Zeitgeist this year). It was inspiring to meet leaders like Nawaz who are committed to emboldening Pakistan's younger generations to use the web to bring Pakistan to the rest of the world, and to give the rest of the world a more complete picture of Pakistan. In this way we saw an opportunity for technology to not only foster economic development, but also to break down borders in the region. We asked a few of the Pakistani leaders we met with to talk about Pakistan's future, and here's what they had to say.



This was the largest delegation of Googlers ever to visit Pakistan, and we're looking forward to continued engagement in the region.

Posted by Steve Grove, Head of News & Politics, YouTube and John Lyman, Google.org
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/trip-report-google-and-youtube-in.html

[G] Broadway Malyan improves accessibility and lowers costs by going Google

Posted: 22 Dec 2010 12:15 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Broadway Malyan improves accessibility and lowers costs by going Google

Editor's note: Over 3 million businesses have adopted Google Apps. Today we'll hear from Ali Ball, CIO of Broadway Malyan. To learn more about other organizations that have gone Google and share your story, visit our community map or test drive life in the cloud with the Go Google cloud calculator.

Broadway Malyan is an award-winning international practice of architects, urbanists and designers with a highly dispersed workforce. Headquartered in the U.K, we have over 500 employees working across 13 offices throughout the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. The practice also has project offices in Baku and Edinburgh, and associated offices across Europe. In September 2010 we made the decision to switch to Google Apps with the support of Cloudreach, a UK-based Google Apps Authorized reseller and Cloud solutions system integrator. They have extensive experience in migrating businesses to Google Apps, and place a particular emphasis on managing business change and application development.

Our main motivation for moving to the cloud was to simplify our IT infrastructure and improve accessibility. After consultation from Cloudreach, we felt that Google Apps would provide exactly what we needed in terms of a greatly simplified service for our global user base and the accessibility that our mobile users require. We had recently upgraded to Microsoft Exchange 2010, however there were some major operational costs involved in running that platform. Despite those recent upgrade costs, there was still a significant financial advantage in moving directly to Google Apps.



From a day-to-day perspective, we were able to introduce our users to a new way of working through the real time collaboration in Google Docs. This method of working helps us significantly when building proposals or customer presentations. Giving users the ability to collaborate on documents and presentations online, and also use the chat and video features has not only increased our efficiency, but it has also saved us money by reducing the amount of travel required.

With Google Apps, the average user's inbox storage has increased significantly from 1Gb to 25Gb meaning they never have to delete an email again. Plus, with Gmail's built-in search feature they can find an email or chat message in an instant.

We have also implemented a mixture of Google Groups and Google Sites as a direct replacement for public folders, which will no longer be supported by Microsoft.

We've already saved a significant amount of money by moving to Google Apps, but I estimate savings will continue to increase in the future since we'll no longer have to carry out upgrades to server-based applications, or spend management time on it. For example we no longer have to buy care packs for all of our Microsoft Exchange servers, or worry about purchasing new disks for the storage arrays when we reach capacity. To accomplish what we have with Google Apps using traditional hosted solutions would be almost impossible, and certainly cost-prohibitive. We've also made ourselves less dependent on office infrastructure. Everything now runs smoothly, with no intervention from us.

Posted by Ali Ball, Broadway Malyan
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/12/broadway-malyan-improves-accessibility.html

[G] Holiday trees in 3D

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 08:03 PM PST

Google LatLong: Holiday trees in 3D


Can you imagine the holidays without fir, spruce and cedar trees decorated with colorful ornaments? Beyond tracking Santa, we're getting into the spirit of the season by placing 3D holiday trees in more than a dozen places on Google Earth 6.

Check out the Rockefeller Center in New York City. The only thing that would help make this scene even more festive would be crowds of people bearing shopping bags and a light dusting of winter snow! And don't you just love how the ornaments on the New Year Tree in Moscow's Red Square reflects the vibrant colors of Saint Basil's Cathedral?

Rockefeller Center


Red Square

One of the most interesting places where we've added holiday trees is Austin, Texas, along highway 360 near 2222. Every year when the holiday season starts, the cedar trees along this section of highway called Loop 360 are mysteriously dressed up in tinsel, ornaments and lights. Some say elves are responsible for spreading this holiday cheer, and we're excited to celebrate and tribute the fun local activity with digital replicas of the trees!

In all, there are fourteen places where you can find holiday trees in Google Earth 6. Can you find them all?


Posted by Kay Chen, 3D Data Specialist
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-trees-in-3d.html

[G] Tips for creating a free business listing in Google Places: business types

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 08:03 PM PST

Google LatLong: Tips for creating a free business listing in Google Places: business types


Are you curious about what kind of businesses are eligible to appear in the free listings that appear on Google and Google Maps? In this second post in our blog series about how to create a clear and effective business listing via Google Places, we'll help you to determine if Google Places is right for your business.

Business types and models that work with Google Places

Google Places is meant to facilitate customer interaction with brick-and-mortar businesses and service providers. Therefore, the business owner or employee who is officially authorized to represent their particular business location must have a physical address in order to comply with our quality guidelines.

Having a physical address means that your business has a specific location (typically including a street name and a street number), can be visited by potential customers or business partners, and has a specific phone number at that location where you can be reached during operating hours. Including your physical address in your free business listing helps customers figure out where they can find you.

Examples of business listings displayed on Google Maps


Businesses that aren't right for Google Places

Here are a few examples of business types that are not currently eligible to use Google Places:
  • Web shops that operate exclusively online and have no office for visitor traffic or direct client interaction
  • Businesses without actual physical locations (your living room, the airfield where you offer paragliding lessons, nor the river where your rafting tours start do not qualify as business locations)
  • Companies with non-permanent locations like a farmers market stall, a mobile hot dog vendor, or a one-time concert event at a local café
  • Real estate companies that don't have a central office and are trying to advertise individual apartments where no one can be reached in person or by phone
For operations like these, rather than appearing in Google and Google Maps search results associated with a physical location, other online tools might better fit your needs. One option is to advertise and generate awareness about your business activities through Google AdWords. This cost-effective program enables you to get the word out about your business, website or event via online ad campaigns, and does not require you to have a brick-and-mortar business address.

How to create a free listing if you're eligible

If you're a business with a physical office location that is open to customers and staffed both in person and via phone during regular business hours, we encourage you to create a free listing by signing in to Google Places here. For example, a real estate company with a corporate office can add the services it offers, the apartments it sells, and so on in the description field of the listing.


Be careful to create just one listing per physical location and to create listings only at places where your business is actually located. For example, if you run a DJ service and your office is at 41 Broadway in New York, you should only add that location in Google Places, even if you also DJ at 32 Main Street and at 14 Smith Street.

How to indicate service areas

For businesses that have one physical location but also offer their services elsewhere - such as the aforementioned businesses as well as locksmiths, translation services, delivery pizzerias, cleaning services and the like - you can use the Service Areas feature in your Google Places account. Marking a service area enables you to show your potential customers the range of places where you work.


Businesses that require travel to meet customers can define a radius around their main location or select specific areas they serve. If your main location is your home address and only used to receive business-related mail and phone calls, you can also hide that address and only show the service area in which you operate. This might be the case for babysitters, DJs, household services or IT repair services. Detailed instructions about how to set up this feature can be found in our help center.

Taxi and courier companies are particularly good examples for the use of the Service Areas feature. They offer a service that is location-independent and therefore shouldn't be associated with fixed locations on Google Maps. Even if you can find taxis often in front of train stations or airports, these are not locations owned by the business. The service area feature allows taxis to indicate the area in which they operate. If the taxis are coordinated over a dispatch centre, that can be listed as one physical location, otherwise the address should be hidden.

How to verify a listing

In order for your free business listing to appear on Google and Google Maps, you must verify your business via Google Places. This simple process includes providing a verification code by mail, automated call or text message. The phone number used for this process will be shown in your listing, so be sure that the number directs calls to your business.

We hope this information helps to explain our Google Places quality guidelines around setting up a free business listing. If you have any further questions about the types of businesses that are eligible for inclusion in Google Places, please visit our Google Places help forum.

Posted by Lina Paczensky, Local Search Quality
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/12/tips-for-creating-free-business-listing.html

[G] Lunar Eclipse Live

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 08:03 PM PST

Google LatLong: Lunar Eclipse Live


It'll be a dark and stormy night on the moon. Well, dark anyway, because tonight is the only total lunar eclipse of 2010.

Visible to people in North America starting at about 9pm Pacific this evening, the Earth will pass between the sun and moon, blocking the sun's light from reaching the moon's surface.

We've launched a live telescope feed in Google Sky, and we'll be broadcasting the whole event so that you can keep tabs on the event regardless of the local weather conditions.

To find the feed, which we created in partnership with slooh.com, fire up Google Earth and enter Sky Mode by clicking on the Planet Icon in the toolbar and selecting Sky.


Then, open up the Current Sky Events folder and click on the blue Slooh Space Camera link to open the feed balloon.

Be sure to check back after the eclipse too and follow along as we and Slooh broadcast more live images from their telescopes.

Posted by Noel Gorelick, Chief Extraterrestrial Observer
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/12/lunar-eclipse-live.html

[G] Guest post from the Demo Lab: Help us test the Cr-48

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 06:59 PM PST

Google Chrome Blog: Guest post from the Demo Lab: Help us test the Cr-48

Here at the Demo Lab we have only one mission: to protect your data no matter what happens to your computer. To serve this mission we have been evaluating our Cr-48 prototype notebooks in challenging, some might say extreme, conditions. We've been in the lab testing notebooks exhaustively (I'm talking 24 hours a day here). But, to try out as many notebooks as possible, we're opening up the lab to the public today.

Are you ready to help take the Cr-48 through its paces? If you are up to this challenge, take these mean machines through explosions, carbicide, and destruction by ravenous zombies at google.com/demolab. While you're at it, you can submit an application to the Chrome notebook Pilot program.

That's all from here. Good luck, remember to wear your safety goggles at all times, and see you in the lab.


Posted by Lab Tech, Demo Lab
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2010/12/guest-post-from-demo-lab-help-us-test.html

[G] Free calling in Gmail extended through 2011

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 02:37 PM PST

Google Talkabout: Free calling in Gmail extended through 2011

(Cross posted from the Gmail blog)

When we launched calling in Gmail back in August, we wanted it to be easy and affordable, so we made calls to the U.S. and Canada free for the rest of 2010. In the spirit of holiday giving and to help people keep in touch in the new year, we're extending free calling for all of 2011.

In case you haven't tried it yet, dialing a phone number works just like a regular phone. Look for "Call phone" at the top of your Gmail chat list and dial a number or enter a contact's name.


To learn more, visit gmail.com/call. Calling in Gmail is currently only available to U.S. based Gmail users.

Happy New Year and happy calling!

Posted by Robin Schriebman, Software Engineer
URL: http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-calling-in-gmail-extended-through.html

[G] More researchers dive into the digital humanities

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 01:32 PM PST

Official Google Research Blog: More researchers dive into the digital humanities

Posted by Jon Orwant, Engineering Manager for Google Books

When we started Google Book Search back in 2004, we were driven by the desire to make books searchable and discoverable online. But as that corpus grew -- we've now scanned approximately 10% of all books published in the modern era -- we began to realize how useful it would be for scholarly work. Humanities researchers have started to ask and answer questions about history, society, linguistics, and culture via quantitative techniques that complement traditional qualitative methods.

We've been gratified at the positive response to our initial forays into the digital humanities, from our Digital Humanities Research Awards earlier this year, to the Google Books Ngram Viewer and datasets made public just last week. Today we're pleased to announce a second set of awards focusing on European universities and research centers.

We've given awards to 12 projects led by 15 researchers at 13 institutions:
  • Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Annotated Corpora in Studying and Teaching Variation and Change in Academic German, Anke Lüdeling
  • LIMSI/CNRS, Université Paris Sud. Building Multi-Parallel Corpora of Classical Fiction, François Yvon
  • Radboud Universiteit. Extracting Factoids from Dutch Texts, Suzan Verberne
  • Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Jožef Stefan Institute. Language models for historical Slovenian, Matija Ogrin and Tomaž Erjavec
  • Université d'Avignon, Université de Provence. Robust and Language Independent Machine Learning Approaches for Automatic Annotation of Bibliographical References in DH Books, Articles and Blogs, Patrice Bellot and Marin Dacos
  • Université François Rabelais-Tours. Full-text retrieval and indexation for Early Modern French, Marie-Luce Demonet
  • Université François Rabelais-Tours. Using Pattern Redundancy for Text Transcription, Jean-Yves Ramel and Jean-Charles Billaut
  • Universität Frankfurt. Towards a "Corpus Caucasicum": Digitizing Pre-Soviet Cyrillic-Based Publications on the Languages of the Caucasus, Jost Gippert
  • Universität Hamburg. CLÉA: Literature Éxploration and Annotation Environment for Google Books Corpora, Jan-Christoph Meister
  • Universität zu Köln. Integrating Charter Research in Old and New Media, Manfred Thaller
  • Universität zu Köln. Validating Metadata-Patterns for Google Books' Ancient Places and Sites, Reinhard Foertsch
  • University of Zagreb. A Profile of Croatian neo-Latin, Neven Jovanović
Projects like these, blending empirical data and traditional scholarship, are springing up around the world. We're eager to see what results they yield and what broader impact their success will have on the humanities.

(Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog)
URL: http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-researchers-dive-into-digital.html

[G] Some cool Android tips and tricks

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:55 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Some cool Android tips and tricks

Last week, I sent a note to my team with some of my favorite tips and apps for Nexus S, which features Android 2.3, Gingerbread. A lot of Googlers liked it, so we thought some of you might enjoy it as well. (Note: Many of the tips are specific to Android 2.3.)

Tips
  • Visual cue for scrolling: When you are in a scrollable list (like your Gmail inbox) and you reach the end of the list it shows an orange hue—a visual cue that you can't scroll anymore.
  • Notification bar icons (Wi-Fi, network coverage bars, etc.): Turn green when you have an uninhibited connection to Google, white when you don't. Hint: if you're in a hotel or airport using Wi-Fi, the bars won't turn green until you launch the browser and get past the captive portal.
  • Voice actions: Tell your phone what to do by pressing the microphone icon next to the search box on the home screen, or long press the magnifying glass. You can tell it to send an email or text message ("send text to mom, see you for pizza at 7"), call someone ("call mom"), navigate somewhere ("navigate to pizza"), or listen to music ("listen to Mamma Mia").
  • Find things you've downloaded from your browser: Your downloads are now neatly collected in a Downloads manager, which you can find in the apps drawer.
  • Turn a Gallery stack into a slideshow: In Gallery, when you are looking at a stack of photos, put two fingers on the stack and spread them. The stack spreads out and the pictures flow from one finger to the other, a moving slideshow that lets you see all of the photos.
  • Walk, don't drive: Once you've gotten directions within Google Maps, click on the walking person icon to get walking directions.
  • Easy text copy/paste from a webpage: To copy/paste from a webpage, long press some text, drag the handles around to select the text you want to copy, and press somewhere in the highlighted region. To paste, simply long press a text entry box and select paste. Gmail is a bit different: you need to go to Menu > More > Select Text.
  • Turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot: Go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Tethering & Portable Hotspot. (You may have to pay extra for this feature.)
  • Look at Maps in 3D: With the latest release of Google Maps, you can now look at 3D maps. Tilt the map by sliding two fingers vertically up/down the screen, and rotate it by placing two fingers on the map and sliding in a circular motion, e.g., from 12 and 6 o'clock to 3 and 9.
  • Cool shutdown effect: When you put the phone to sleep, you'll see an animation that resembles an old cathode tube TV turning off.
Keyboard tricks
  • Shift+Key to capitalize a word: In Gingerbread (and supported hardware), you can Shift+Key to capitalize a letter instead of going to a separate all caps keyboard.
  • Auto-complete: The space bar lights up when auto-complete can finish a word.
  • Quick replace: Tap on any previously typed word, then tap on a suggestion to automatically replace it with the suggested word.
  • Easy access to special characters (like numbers, punctuation): Press and hold any key to go to the special character keyboard. You can also press and hold the "," key for an extensive punctuation keyboard.
Applications
  • Angry Birds: Popular game that lets you knock down blocks by slingshotting birds.
  • Astro: Awesome file explorer app. Browse and access the directories on your phone, and take full advantage of its capabilities. Great if you're a power user.
  • Chrome to Phone: This one is really useful for Chrome users. You can send anything you browse on your computer to your phone. So if you are heading out to a restaurant or party and look up directions on your computer, just click the "send to phone" button (requires Chrome to Phone extension) and that exact page will open on your phone. Same with virtually any webpage.
  • Flash: Install from Android Market to watch Flash videos embedded throughout the web. Runs even better on Gingerbread.
  • Fruit Ninja: A juicy action game that tests your ability to smash flying fruit. A fun time-killer on the bus or train.
  • FXCamera: Popular photo sharing app with slick effects and filters.
  • Google Maps: Use your device as a GPS navigation system with free turn-by-turn voice guidance, and take advantage of other Google Maps features like Street View, Latitude and Places.
  • Instant Heart Rate: Measure your heart rate using your camera.
  • Phoneanlyzr: Track your phone usage: who you text most, call most, average call length distribution, etc.
  • RemoteDroid: Control your computer from your phone. Gives you a mobile wireless mouse and keyboard. Great if you're using your computer for music or movies.
  • Shazam: Identifies virtually any song you are listening to.
  • SoundHound: Record a snippet of a song and get it identified instantly. You can even hum (if you can carry a tune!).
  • Tango: A free, high-quality video call app that works on both 3G and Wi-Fi. If your device has a front facing camera (e.g., Nexus S), you will love this app.
  • YouTube: New UI. Plus, portrait-mode player, and view comments and drop-down box video information
Posted by Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Product Management
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/some-cool-android-tips-and-tricks.html

[G] Latest from the Lab

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:55 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Latest from the Lab

Over the last couple of weeks, lots of apps have debuted on Google Labs, a laboratory where our more adventurous users can try our experimental products and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them. Teams at Google are gearing up to deliver more and more cool innovations to users, and this month alone, we've launched six new products on Google Labs. Here are the highlights of our recent releases.

App Inventor for Android
App Inventor for Android makes it easier for people to access the capabilities of their Android phones and create apps for their personal use. Until now, it was only available to a group of people who requested and received invitations. Last week, we announced that App Inventor (beta) is now available to anyone with a Google account. Visit the App Inventor homepage to get set up and start building your own Android app—and be sure to share your App Inventor story on the App Inventor user forum!



Body Browser
Body Browser is a demo app that allows you to visualize complex 3D graphics of the human body. It works in the latest beta version of Google Chrome and uses WebGL, a new standard that enables 3D experiences in the web browser without any plug-ins. Using Body Browser, you can explore different layers of human anatomy by moving the slider to rotate and zoom in on parts you are interested in. Not sure where something is? Try the search box. You can also share the exact scene you're viewing by copying and pasting the corresponding URL.


DataWiki
DataWiki is a wiki for structured data, extending the idea of a normal wiki to make it easy to create, edit, share and visualize structured data, and to interlink data formats to make them more understandable and useful. The project is inspired by the need to create customized data formats for crisis response, for example to quickly create a person-finder application after an earthquake, or share Internet and cellular phone connectivity maps from an affected area. DataWiki operates as a RESTful web-service, is built on AppEngine and is completely open source.


Google Books Ngram Viewer
Google Books Ngram Viewer graphs and compares the historical usage of phrases based on the datasets comprised of more than 500 billion words and their associated volumes over time in about 5.2 million books. Last week, we released this visualization tool along with freely-downloadable phrase frequency datasets to help humanities research. You can find interesting example queries (e.g., "tofu" vs. "hot dog") and more information about the effort in our blog post.


Google Earth Engine
Google Earth Engine, which we announced at the U.N. Climate Change Conference Cancun earlier this month, is a technology platform that enables scientists to do global-scale observation and measurement of changes in the earth's environment. It provides an unprecedented amount of satellite imagery and data online for the first time, as well as our extensive computing infrastructure—the Google "cloud"—to analyze the imagery. We're excited about the initial use of Google Earth Engine to support efforts to stop global deforestation, but the platform can be used for a wide range of applications, from mapping water resources to ecosystem services. It's part of our broader effort at Google to build a more sustainable future.



Google Shared Spaces
Google Shared Spaces is an easy way for you to share mini-collaborative applications, like scheduling tools or games, with your friends or colleagues. By creating a Shared Space, you can share a gadget with whomever you want by simply sending the URL. Once your friends join the Shared Space, you can collaborate with them in real-time on the gadget, and you can chat with them, too. This product is built on some of the technology used in Google Wave.


Those experimental products have been developed by many teams across Google. Some products were born in 20% time, and some were built by start-up-like teams inside the company. But all of these products were created by passionate, small teams just because they cared about them so much.

You can find more Labs products on googlelabs.com. Please play with them and give us feedback. And stay tuned for experiments coming in the future.

Posted by Riku Inoue, Product Manager, Google Labs
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/latest-from-lab.html

[G] What makes an ad worth spreading?

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 09:31 AM PST

YouTube Blog: What makes an ad worth spreading?

Today we bring you a guest post from Chris Anderson, Curator of TED, a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Anderson explains how TED and YouTube are teaming up to present a contest called 'Ads Worth Spreading'.



Video is a powerful medium for spreading ideas. Over the past four years, TED has posted over 800 TEDTalks on TED.com and on YouTube. We've been thrilled to see the world respond -- watching the videos more than 375 million times.



Our mission -- of spreading ideas around the world -- is supported in part by advertising. And we believe that advertising should evoke the same emotions a TEDTalk does -- it should make you think, make you respond, make you want to share -- a great idea, a product that makes the world better, an initiative that might change the world. Like YouTube, we want to see the same level of passion in online ads as we do in our TEDTalks. So, we've created a challenge called 'Ads Worth Spreading' to solicit the best ads that raise the bar, elevate the craft and invent new forms of online engagement.







We invite you to enter the competition. Entries can be hysterically funny, stunningly beautiful, or just intriguing, fascinating, ingenious and persuasive. For inspiration, check out examples of great creative on YouTube Show and Tell. The full contest rules are right here.



We're excited to see your ads worth spreading!



Chris Anderson, TED Curator, recently watched "Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/A-KF5TgjTwM/what-makes-ad-worth-spreading.html
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