Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Music Tuesday: Lollapalooza, old-school hip-hop and supporting East Africa

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: Music Tuesday: Lollapalooza, old-school hip-hop and supporting East Africa

This week we're recovering from Lollapalooza after three days and in the sun and storms of Chicago, IL. We also travel back to the birth of a genre in honor of one of those that made it great. And finally, we showcase a Bob Marley & The Wailers classic, re-released today in support of Save the Children's East Africa campaign.



You'll find all this and more on youtube.com/music, where each day we serve you up the tastiest morsels from the world of music video.



Lollapalooza 2011

Twenty years ago Perry Farrell founded the traveling circus of a festival that was Lollapalooza. Now with its roots firmly planted in Chicago, the three day extravaganza continues to grow, mixing the biggest names in music with a dizzying array of bright young stars. This year YouTube brought the festival to the world, live streaming 39 great acts from across the weekend including headliners Coldplay, My Morning Jacket and the Foo Fighters. Check out some highlights in the playlist below.







Old-School Hip-Hop

In music, you gotta know your history and appreciate the artists who laid the foundation for today's tunes. Today is Kurtis Blow's birthday, which put us in mind of the golden age of hip-hop when rap battles on your front stoop, wheels of steel and gold chains were the rage. To celebrate an era whose influence is still resonating today, we put together a playlist of the best videos of the era from folks like the Fat Boys, RUN-DMC, Slick Rick and the Sugar Hill Gang. The music holds up, and trust us—so does the fashion.







High Tide or Low Tide

A devastating food crisis continues to impact millions of children and their families across East Africa. Today, Save the Children and the Marley family re-release the 1973 song 'High Tide or Low Tide' to raise funds for food, water and medicine. The project is supported by Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Justin Beiber and many others in the entertainment industry, and the video was crafted by Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald.







Tim Partridge, Music Marketing Manager, recently watched "LisaNova Does Royce da 5'9 Tinie Tempah Foster the People, Ellie Goulding & Mayer Hawthorne."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/psuT0Aa1JD8/music-tuesday-lollapalooza-old-school.html

[G] Making Google spreadsheet functions easier to discover and use

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

The Google Apps Blog: Making Google spreadsheet functions easier to discover and use

From the simple SUM function to GoogleLookup, Google spreadsheets continues to add features that help you power through data. But sometimes it can be a challenge to find the one you need to use or figure out the right way to use it. We've made the following improvements to help you quickly discover and understand all of the powerful functions that Google spreadsheets has to offer.



Help snippets directly in spreadsheets

You shouldn't have to interrupt your work to figure out how to build a particular formula, which is why we're bringing help documentation directly into Google spreadsheets.



As soon as you start typing a formula into a cell, you'll notice an auto-suggest box with the name and syntax of the function you might be looking for. Mouse over any of the suggested functions, and you'll see a description that explains the function, its syntax, and how it's used. You'll also see links to related content and a link to the complete list of functions.





Auto-suggest displays syntax and help documentation for all 300+ available functions and even recognizes nested functions, making it easier to build complex formulas.



Revamped help documentation in the Google Docs Help Center

We've also completely rebuilt our help documentation for Google spreadsheet functions with invaluable input from some of our most active forum users such as ahab, yogia1, Ted J, A.P.L, MarinusP, and other forum Top Contributors. Here's a look at what's new:

  • A completely new table for browsing help documentation for all 300+ Google spreadsheets functions. This table is easy to browse, sort or search. To view the table, you can visit the Google Docs Help Center, click the complete list of functions link in the auto-suggest help snippets, or select Help > Function list in any Google spreadsheet.
  • Help documentation for nearly 60 new functions and formulas.
  • More detailed help documentation, including better instructions for some of our most sophisticated and complex functions.
All of these improvements are now in English, and will be available in additional languages in the coming weeks. So take advantage of these new resources at your fingertips and you'll be a Google spreadsheets ninja in no time.



Posted by: Michael Schidlowsky, Software Engineer
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/9c-S4WAXkYQ/making-google-spreadsheet-functions.html

[G] YouTubers on America’s Got Talent revealed tonight

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTubers on America's Got Talent revealed tonight

We're fans of having you own the spotlight and we love helping you discover new talent, so tonight we're stoked to see these two things come together with the America's Got Talent YouTube Special airing on NBC at 9pm ET. Following the open YouTube auditions earlier this year, tonight at 9pm ET you can see the 12 YouTube finalists that were selected by you and the AGT/NBC producers.



You can also show your support for your favorite YouTubers by voting after tonight's episode. Tune back in tomorrow at 9pm ET to find out which four made it to the elimination round, and one step closer to the grand prize.



Congratulations to the twelve who made it onto America's Got Talent through your votes, and thanks to everyone who entered and made this contest so exciting. We've always known you had talent and can't wait to see you share it with the world.



Liuba Petkova, Marketing Programs Manager, recently watched "America's Got Talent - Season 6 - Zuma Zuma - Top 48."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/FTDQKlesfZA/youtubers-on-americas-got-talent.html

[G] Third Generation VP8 Hardware Encoder IP “Cloudberry” Released

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

The WebM Open Media Project Blog: Third Generation VP8 Hardware Encoder IP "Cloudberry" Released

Starting today, "Cloudberry", the third release of the Hantro H1 VP8 hardware encoder, is available at no cost through the WebM Project hardware page. Partners having already signed the online licensing agreement will receive an automatic update.



Moving along with our mission statement - creating the world's best real-time video encoder - we're again one step closer to our goal thanks to Cloudberry's substantial quality gains. In PSNR comparisons, Cloudberry performs on average 1.27 dB better than our initial Anthill release, which we launched less than five months ago. It also beats the previous Blueberry release by 0.45 dB, with comparable increases using the SSIM quality metric.



We've also bridged an important milestone: Cloudberry is able to encode high-quality 720p video (video teleconference use cases) at well under 1 Mbps, as shown in the following chart.






The optimized Cloudberry control software is backwards compatible and will also benefit chips with the Blueberry hardware inside them, providing 0.08 dB average PSNR increase without any hardware changes required.



In our next release, we are focusing on further software-based quality improvements especially related to multipass encoding and optimal usage of VP8 Golden frames - both of which will benefit SoCs that use either Blueberry or Cloudberry. On the hardware side, we also have numerous improvements in mind, such as further optimizing the macroblock mode selection. This fourth release is planned to be available at the end of Q3.



The VP8 H1 encoder IP has been licensed already to nearly 40 semiconductor companies through the WebM Project, and more requests are pouring in. For licensing details about the H1, see our hardware page. Our reseller partner Verisilicon also licenses Cloudberry as a part of the multiformat Hantro H1 encoder.





For more technical readers, here is the list of new features in Cloudberry:



- RD-optimized quantization

- Improved intra/inter macroblock mode selection

- Improved inter macroblock RD functions

- Improved intra macroblock mode selection

- More macroblock level coding information returned to software (enables effective multipass optimizations)



The following curves show PSNR quality metrics for a 720p video call, comparing the H1 Cloudberry release to previous H1 releases and to the libvpx Bali software SDK release. As a point of interest, the Cloudberry encoder performs similarly to libvpx's "-rt -cpu-used=-5" setting, which is equivalent to what a WebRTC based application can achieve on the fastest PCs.






Aki Kuusela is Engineering Manager of the WebM Project hardware team in Oulu, Finland.
URL: http://blog.webmproject.org/2011/08/third-generation-vp8-hardware-encoder.html

[G] Studies show search ads drive 89% incremental traffic

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: Studies show search ads drive 89% incremental traffic

Advertisers often wonder whether search ads cannibalize their organic traffic. If search ads were paused, would clicks on organic results increase and make up for the loss in paid traffic? Google statisticians recently ran over 400 studies on paused accounts to answer this question.



In what we call "Search Ads Pause Studies," our group of researchers observed organic click volume in the absence of search ads. Then they built a statistical model to predict click volume for given levels of ad spend. This model generates estimates for the incremental clicks attributable to search ads or, in other words, the percentage of paid clicks that are not made up for by organic clicks when search ads are paused.



On average, the incremental ad clicks (IAC) percentage across verticals is 89%. This means that a full 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused. This number was consistently high across verticals. You can find a video on the study here. The full study can be found on research.google.com.


Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew


Editor's note (Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 11:17 am): The analysis is based on studies conducted on 446 advertiser accounts between October 2010 and March 2011.
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/08/studies-show-search-ads-drive-89.html

[G] Policy Tips - Keeping the network family-safe

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

Inside AdSense: Policy Tips - Keeping the network family-safe

If you're an avid blog reader, you probably remember blog series like AdSense Facts & Fiction and Newbie Fridays. After much demand, we're excited to announce that we'll be delivering more frequent policy posts. Every month, we'll be taking a closer look at our policies to provide clarifications, best practices, and tips.


This week, we'd like to revisit one of our longest standing and most asked about policies: adult content. As every AdSense publisher should know, ads may only be placed on family-safe content. Because the label "family-safe" is a general term that differs among all countries and cultures, we often receive questions asking for clarification on what we consider adult content.


Prohibiting sexually explicit pornographic images is straightforward, but publishers often unknowingly overlook some of the more subtle content that can be intended for a mature audience. Examples can include adult toys or fetish sites, sheer/see-through clothing, and lewd or provocative poses (even if clothed) that have sexually gratifying overtones. This rule applies to links or ads that drive traffic to adult or mature content too.


Something else to keep in mind is that images are not the only elements that are considered adult. Text that is sexual in nature is considered adult content as well. Some examples include articles with sexual health tips (including medical-related advice), erotic stories, and comment spam with adult keywords (most commonly found on sites with user-generated-content).


When in doubt about whether an image or text might be construed as adult content, our rule of thumb is this: if you wouldn't want a child to see the content or if you would be embarrassed to view the page in front of colleagues, then it's probably not family-safe and you shouldn't place AdSense ad code on it. We appreciate your help in making the network a balanced ecosystem where users, publishers, and advertisers can grow and thrive together.


Cecelia Choi, AdSense Policy team


Did you find this policy blog post helpful? You can share your feedback or tell us about a specific policy topic you'd like to learn more about here.


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tuAm/~3/D4xHx3g8eHQ/policy-tips-keeping-network-family-safe.html

[G] Making Google spreadsheet functions easier to discover and use

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

Docs Blog: Making Google spreadsheet functions easier to discover and use

From the simple SUM function to GoogleLookup, Google spreadsheets continues to add features that help you power through data. But sometimes it can be a challenge to find the one you need to use or figure out the right way to use it. We've made the following improvements to help you quickly discover and understand all of the powerful functions that Google spreadsheets has to offer.



Help snippets directly in spreadsheets

You shouldn't have to interrupt your work to figure out how to build a particular formula, which is why we're bringing help documentation directly into Google spreadsheets.



As soon as you start typing a formula into a cell, you'll notice an auto-suggest box with the name and syntax of the function you might be looking for. Mouse over any of the suggested functions, and you'll see a description that explains the function, its syntax, and how it's used. You'll also see links to related content and a link to the complete list of functions.





Auto-suggest displays syntax and help documentation for all 300+ available functions and even recognizes nested functions, making it easier to build complex formulas.



Revamped help documentation in the Google Docs Help Center

We've also completely rebuilt our help documentation for Google spreadsheet functions with invaluable input from some of our most active forum users such as ahab, yogia1, Ted J, A.P.L, MarinusP, and other forum Top Contributors. Here's a look at what's new:

  • A completely new table for browsing help documentation for all 300+ Google spreadsheets functions. This table is easy to browse, sort or search. To view the table, you can visit the Google Docs Help Center, click the complete list of functions link in the auto-suggest help snippets, or select Help > Function list in any Google spreadsheet.
  • Help documentation for nearly 60 new functions and formulas.
  • More detailed help documentation, including better instructions for some of our most sophisticated and complex functions.
All of these improvements are now in English, and will be available in additional languages in the coming weeks. So take advantage of these new resources at your fingertips and you'll be a Google spreadsheets ninja in no time.



Posted by: Michael Schidlowsky, Software Engineer
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-google-spreadsheet-functions.html

[G] Studies Show Search Ads Drive 88% Incremental Traffic for CPG Brands

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

Official Google CPG Blog: Studies Show Search Ads Drive 88% Incremental Traffic for CPG Brands

Today's post is a guest post by Lizzy Van Allstine, Research Evangelist on Google's Quant Management Team


Advertisers often wonder whether search ads cannibalize their organic traffic. If search ads were paused, would clicks on organic results increase, and make up for the loss in paid traffic? Google statisticians recently ran over 400 studies on paused accounts to answer this question.



In what we call "Search Ads Pause Studies", our group of researchers observed organic click volume in the absence of search ads. Then they built a statistical model to predict click volume for given levels of ad spend. This model generates estimates for the incremental clicks attributable to search ads (IAC), or in other words, the percentage of paid clicks that are not made up for by organic clicks when search ads are paused.



On average, the incremental ad clicks percentage across verticals is 89%. This means that a full 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused. This number was consistently high across verticals. For the CPG vertical, the mean incremental ad clicks percentage was 88%. Check out the video below for an overview of the study's findings.







The full study can be found on research.google.com


URL: http://google-cpg.blogspot.com/2011/08/studies-show-search-ads-drive-88.html

[G] Webinar: Display targeting strategies for direct response

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:13 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: Webinar: Display targeting strategies for direct response

On Thursday, August 4, we held a webinar about how to use today's powerful targeting technologies to run effective display advertising campaigns for direct response goals. Specifically, we covered:

  • The "targeting toolbox" for direct response campaigns on the Google Display Network
  • Strategies for prioritizing and applying the available targeting options to maximize campaign performance and efficiency
  • Tools, tips and best practices for maximizing ROI

For those of you who missed the webinar, a recording is now available, which you can watch below. You can also download the materials we covered here.





After watching the webinar, share your thoughts and engage with us by following us at @GoogleDisplay. We'd love to hear from you!

Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/08/webinar-display-targeting-strategies.html

[G] YouTube’s Promoted Videos hits one billion video views

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:12 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: YouTube's Promoted Videos hits one billion video views

YouTube's Promoted Videos recently passed the one billion mark in the number of video views delivered to advertisers. Promoted Videos allow you to promote your video against search results on YouTube, against related videos on YouTube, or across the Google Display Network. Promoted Videos help you bring your business to life—letting your customers see you, hear you, and connect with you online.

You can set up Promoted Video campaigns using your Google AdWords account. Similar to pay-per-click search ads, with Promoted Videos you can specify how much you would be willing to pay for a video view and set a maximum budget. Thousands of advertisers have promoted their videos against branded keywords and against videos that their customers are watching to increase brand awareness and drive sales.

We would like to highlight a few changes to Promoted Videos:

Placement on Google Video search results. We're expanding Promoted Video ads to show up on the Google.com Video search results page in the US only. This change gives you more opportunity to connect with potential viewers when they're actively seeking out video content. If you also have search ads set up in your account, we'll serve either your Promoted Video ad or your Google AdWords search ad, not both, based on a range of factors including your bid and Quality Score. To make sure you can take advantage of this increase in your potential audience, please opt into "Search partners" in your campaign.


When users enter your search terms (A) on video.google.com (B), they could see your Promoted Video ad above or to the right (C) of the organic search results (D).

Introduction on YouTube Mobile. Soon, your Promoted Video ads will be able to show up on our mobile destination, m.youtube.com, which can be easily viewed on web browsers across any mobile and tablet devices. New Google AdWords campaigns are opted into "All devices" by default, but you can opt your ads out of showing on mobile devices by navigating to "Settings" on the Campaigns tab. For existing campaigns, you may wish to verify that your device settings include or exclude mobile.


The mobile Promoted Video ad on m.youtube.com will include your ad thumbnail, title, and channel name, similar to organic video results.

Inclusion in TrueView video ads. We recently moved Promoted Videos from a cost-per-click to cost-per-view pricing model, focusing on the value of video views. In the coming months, Promoted Videos will join our TrueView family of ad formats, which provide viewers with choice and advertisers with engaged, opted-in views. Stay tuned for more updates!

We hope these changes give you more and better resources to grow your business with online video ads.

Posted by Jonathan Goldman, YouTube Software Engineer

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/08/youtubes-promoted-videos-hits-one.html

[G] The King of Late Night officially launches on YouTube

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:12 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: The King of Late Night officially launches on YouTube

In the words of classic sidekick Ed McMahon, "Heeeeeeerrrre's Johnny!" The original king of late night has finally come to YouTube on the official "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" channel. Before Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien took over late night's most prestigious timeslot, Carson defined the genre—paving the way for future after-hours talkers.



As host of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" from 1962-1992, Carson gave millions of viewers a unique perspective into the lives and personalities of entertainers and newsmakers of the day. Johnny delivered hysterical monologues, welcomed megastars like Frank Sinatra and Betty White to his couch, and introduced the world to then newcomers like Jim Carrey, Madonna and Ellen DeGeneres.







"The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" YouTube channel has original Carson clips, preserved and presented in the highest quality available. New videos will be uploaded each week and Carson's channel will be taking your requests for which clips to upload. You can also submit a playlist of your favorite clips via Google Moderator to share your ultimate episode of "The Tonight Show Starting Johnny Carson."



Almost 20 years ago Johnny closed his final show saying, "I bid you a very heartfelt good night," and now with the official Carson channel, a new day has started.



Elizabeth Ferdon, YouTube Content Partnership recently watched "Ronald Reagan Talks About Balancing the Budget on "The Tonight Show" — 1975."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/py7NgkGP3U0/king-of-late-night-officially-launches.html

[G] Update on YouTube’s Promoted Videos

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:12 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: Update on YouTube's Promoted Videos

In November of 2008, we began to dabble with a feature that you and advertisers could use to make videos easier to find, since at the time you were uploading 13 hours of video every minute. The feature was Sponsored Videos, and we soon changed the name to what you know today as Promoted Videos. Flash forward to 2011—we're talking about 48 hours of video uploaded every minute, and Promoted Videos have now reached one billion views globally.



Whatever your search, companies and creators across all genres are using Promoted Videos to bring content to your attention. Maybe you're a little self-conscious about your breath and Orabrush can help you out using Promoted Videos to demonstrate their tongue cleaners. Perhaps you're a skater and Original Skateboards are bringing you the latest in longboarding technology. Or maybe you're seeking the infinite grilling wisdom of the BBQGuys, and their Promoted Videos around the Superbowl can bring you the perfect smoked brisket recipes.







If you're interested in learning more about Promoted Videos, we recently announced some updates so hop on over to the Inside AdWords blog for the full details.



Jonathan Goldman, YouTube Software Engineer, recently watched "The Grand Rapids Lip Dub (New World Record)."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/9zhu6whh5sE/update-on-youtubes-promoted-videos.html
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)