Thursday, December 1, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Google Affiliate Network Exclusive Opportunities Are Back

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 02:36 AM PST

Google Affiliate Network: Google Affiliate Network Exclusive Opportunities Are Back

Do you have a blog, website and an AdSense account? If you aren't already a Google Affiliate Network publisher, now is a great time to join and monetize your website by giving your audience access to exclusive opportunities. Over 25 great deals will be available exclusively to Google Affiliate Network publishers for one weekend only, Friday, 12/9 through Monday, 12/12.



As a reminder, this limited time opportunity enables you to add a variety of great consumer opportunities to your site and earn a performance fee from orders that originate from your links.

How do I promote these opportunities on my site?
To promote any of these exclusive opportunities, you need to be an approved publisher in Google Affiliate Network.
  1. Apply for Google Affiliate Network with your AdSense Publisher ID (or sign in if you're already a Google Affiliate Network publisher).
  2. Once approved, review the opportunities available and click the "Apply Now" link for each one that you wish to promote.
  3. Tracking links will be available in your Google Affiliate Network account by viewing the Home tab on December 5th.  You can also search for "December Exclusive Opportunities" links in the Links section on December 9th.
Need help applying or want more information? Review the Publisher Beginner's guide today.

When can I post these opportunities on my site?
All opportunities will be available on December 9, and all will expire at midnight on December 12. Please remember that you may not post any of these exclusives until December 9th.

Further questions? Check out our Help Center for answers to frequently asked questions or feel free to contact us with any questions.

Posted by Jamie Ross, Affiliate Network Strategist
URL: http://googleaffiliatenetwork-blog.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-affiliate-network-exclusive.html

[G] Celebrating the life of Mark Twain with a Google Doodle and Google Books

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 02:36 AM PST

Inside Google Books: Celebrating the life of Mark Twain with a Google Doodle and Google Books

Posted by Oliver Chiang, Google eBooks Strategist


Please note some images may not be available in full view to readers outside the United States

In honor of Samuel Langhorne Clemens' – better known to the world as Mark Twain – 176th birthday today, Google has prepared a special doodle evoking one the most famous scenes from one of Twain's most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. We at Google Books invite you to take a trip through this American author and humorist's life via our body of digitized works, and maybe even convince you to read a free ebook copy of one of Twain's classics.

As a child, Twain lived in Hannibal, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi River, in the early to mid-1800s. Twain describes one of his first jobs as a "printer's 'devil'" – an apprentice at his uncle's newspaper, the Weekly Hannibal Journal. "500 subscribers, and they paid in cord-wood, cabbages, and unmarketable turnips," he recalls of the experience later in his short-lived column "Memoranda" (circa 1871) for The Galaxy magazine.


From the cover of Life on the Mississippi

Twain was a man of many jobs and experiences. In Life on the Mississippi, Twain writes about his early twenties as a steamboat pilot on the river: "I believe there has been nothing like it elsewhere in the world." Soon after, as described in "The Private History of a Campaign that Failed," Twain talks about his very brief stint in a volunteer militia group for the Confederacy at the start of the U.S. Civil War.

Embarking on his career as a writer and a journalist in the mid-1860s, Twain wrote about his travels in the the U.S. and Europe in Roughing It and The Innocents Abroad, respectively.

Illustration from The Innocents Abroad

By midlife, the prolific Twain was publishing some of his best-known works, for instance –

1906 photo from a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Twain was born during Halley's Comet's passing by Earth, and famously predicted he would "go out with it" too. Just a day after the comet's subsequent return in 1910, Twain indeed passed away. If the writer ever felt any grievance toward the harbinger-comet, he would be happy to know that he is much more popular, at least in literature, than the comet. Mentions of his pen name far surpass mentions of "Halley's Comet" in our extensive corpus of scanned Google Books, as seen in the Ngram chart below:

The blue line represents mentions of "Mark Twain", the red, "Halley's comet"

Twain also arranged for his whimsical autobiography, Autobiography of Mark Twain, to be published 100 years after his death. The book was published in 2010 by the University of California Press, and is available for purchase as a Google eBook. Its success makes Twain one of the few to become a posthumous best-selling author, a full century later.

Find more digitized ebooks by Mark Twain in our Google eBookstore or our Best of the free shelf.
URL: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2011/11/celebrating-life-of-mark-twain-with.html

[G] Collaboration at work: Global pharmaceutical company IPSEN is going Google

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 02:36 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Collaboration at work: Global pharmaceutical company IPSEN is going Google

Posted by Franck Hémont, IPSEN

Editors note: Today's guest blogger is Franck Hémont, Group Informatics Engineering & Development Director at Ipsen, who is leading the company's project to deploy Google Apps. Ipsen (Euronext: IPN, ADR: IPSEY), is a global specialty-driven pharmaceutical company.
See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

IPSEN is a truly global company, with over 4,500 employees spread across almost 50 countries. We work collaboratively across borders and teams, and with a recently implemented restructure it has become even more important to allow the organisation to work together seamlessly.

It was these challenges we had in mind when we evaluated our messaging and collaboration tools earlier this year. When we met with Google, we were looking for a secure, efficient and innovative solution that would allow the IT organization to focus primarily on value creation and the business to more effectively work together.

We've been gradually migrating to Google Apps for Business since September this year, after a successful six-month pilot phase. It involved 180 users spread across divisions such as R&D, Purchasing, HR, Manufacturing and across numerous locations in Spain, China, France, United States and United Kingdom. The pilot has allowed us to evaluate how the solution will work in our organization, and how it will bring value to the company.

Revevol, a Google Apps implementation partner, assisted us for the deployment, both for the technical integration and change management.

We've been impressed by the sophistication of cloud computing and by the additional functionality Google Apps will bring to our business. The ability to collaborate within a 100% web environment will be invaluable, especially for our researchers spread over distant sites in France and the U.S.

With Google Apps, our employees will be able to access their working environment from anywhere, at any time and from any device, bringing major organizational benefits and allowing our teams to work more effectively together.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/11/collaboration-at-work-global.html

[G] Collaboration at work: Global pharmaceutical company IPSEN is going Google

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

The Google Apps Blog: Collaboration at work: Global pharmaceutical company IPSEN is going Google

Posted by Franck Hémont, IPSEN

Editors note: Today's guest blogger is Franck Hémont, Group Informatics Engineering & Development Director at Ipsen, who is leading the company's project to deploy Google Apps. Ipsen (Euronext: IPN, ADR: IPSEY), is a global specialty-driven pharmaceutical company.
See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

IPSEN is a truly global company, with over 4,500 employees spread across almost 50 countries. We work collaboratively across borders and teams, and with a recently implemented restructure it has become even more important to allow the organisation to work together seamlessly.

It was these challenges we had in mind when we evaluated our messaging and collaboration tools earlier this year. When we met with Google, we were looking for a secure, efficient and innovative solution that would allow the IT organization to focus primarily on value creation and the business to more effectively work together.

We've been gradually migrating to Google Apps for Business since September this year, after a successful six-month pilot phase. It involved 180 users spread across divisions such as R&D, Purchasing, HR, Manufacturing and across numerous locations in Spain, China, France, United States and United Kingdom. The pilot has allowed us to evaluate how the solution will work in our organization, and how it will bring value to the company.

Revevol, a Google Apps implementation partner, assisted us for the deployment, both for the technical integration and change management.

We've been impressed by the sophistication of cloud computing and by the additional functionality Google Apps will bring to our business. The ability to collaborate within a 100% web environment will be invaluable, especially for our researchers spread over distant sites in France and the U.S.

With Google Apps, our employees will be able to access their working environment from anywhere, at any time and from any device, bringing major organizational benefits and allowing our teams to work more effectively together.
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/1qS5C6vDGZI/collaboration-at-work-global.html

[G] YouTube comes to Colombia

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

YouTube Blog: YouTube comes to Colombia

Starting today, Colombians will have a localized YouTube to show the world their creativity, talent, and ingenuity. Colombia follows Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico as the fourth Latin American country to launch a YouTube domain (youtube.com.co). With a local version of YouTube, Colombians will now be able to more easily discover content and share local talent from within their country.





The advent of YouTube Colombia also has economic implications, especially for users who create videos that people share frequently. Users with the most watched or popular videos may apply to be part of YouTube's partner program, which already provides economic benefits to more than 20,000 members worldwide.



We hope that YouTube will allow Colombians to see and share their world through video. There have already been many shining examples, such as Esteman, who found YouTube a great worldwide place to have his musical hit, or math teacher "JulioProfe" who holds more than 17 million views of his math classes around the globe.



See you, and Colombia, on the web!



Susana Pabon, Communication Manager for Google in Colombia, recently watched "Fonseca - Te Mando Flores."









URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/ZGF5lxN80mQ/youtube-comes-to-colombia.html

[G] Making the operations match the strategy with DFP Mobile

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

DoubleClick Publisher Blog: Making the operations match the strategy with DFP Mobile

Yesterday, we announced DFP Mobile, our new mobile module for the DFP ad serving platform. DFP Mobile gives publishers access to an expanded set of mobile features including extended mobile rich media capabilities, advanced targeting options, better support for feature phones, and tighter integrations with Google AdSense, AdMob, the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and mobile ad networks.

To learn more about DFP Mobile, join us at OPS Mobile, AdMonsters' mobile advertising conference, which will be held December 7, 2011 in New York. Register today to hear Marcel Gordon, DFP Mobile Product Manager, and Chris LaSala, Director of Mobile Partnerships, speak about how you can capture opportunities beyond the desktop with DFP Mobile.

You can also view Marcel's recent Q&A with AdMonsters about DFP Mobile here.

Posted by Stephen Kliff, Product Marketing Manager
URL: http://doubleclickpublishers.blogspot.com/2011/11/making-operations-match-strategy-with.html

[G] Tune in tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET for World AIDS Day with President Obama, Presidents Bush and Clinton, Bono, Alicia Keys and more.

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Tune in tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET for World AIDS Day with President Obama, Presidents Bush and Clinton, Bono, Alicia Keys and more.

Tomorrow, at 10 a.m. EST, President Obama, past Presidents Clinton and Bush, Bono, Alicia Keys and others will speak at a special World AIDS Day event, hosted by the ONE Campaign and (RED) - and they'll be answering the questions you submitted on YouTube.



The full event will be live-streamed on the ONE Campaign YouTube channel, giving you access to a conversation with some of the most influential leaders in the world about the beginning of the end of AIDS. Since we announced the event last week, several other distinguished guests have confirmed their participation, including:





Tune in tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET to see how global AIDS advocates are tackling this difficult subject, and how they'll tackle the questions you asked.







Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched, "Fighting for an AIDS Free Generation by 2015".


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/d-HdrwR6myw/tune-in-tomorrow-at-10-am-et-for-world.html

[G] The evolution of search in six minutes

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

Google Public Policy Blog: The evolution of search in six minutes

Posted by Ben Gomes, Google Fellow

(Cross-posted on from the Official Google Blog)

This summer we posted a video that takes a peek under the hood of search, sharing the methodology behind search ranking and evaluation. Through this methodology, we make roughly 500 improvements to search in a typical year. As we often discuss, that's a lot of change, and it can be hard to make sense of it all.

Following up on our last video, we wanted to share with you a short history of the evolution of search, highlighting some of the most important milestones from the past decade—and a taste of what's coming next.


Our goal is to get you to the answer you're looking for faster and faster, creating a nearly seamless connection between your questions and the information you seek. That means you don't generally need to know about the latest search feature in order to take advantage of it— simply type into the box as usual and find the answers you're looking for.

However, for those of you looking to deepen your understanding of how search has evolved, the video highlights some important trends:

  • Universal Results: With Universal Search—which returns results like images, videos, and news, in addition to webpages—we're helping you find all different kinds of information in the same place. We've continued to make search more comprehensive, enabling you to find products, places, patents, books, maps and more.
  • Quick Answers: Today on Google you'll find more than just a list of links to websites. You'll find Quick Answers at the top of the page for a wide variety of topics, including flight times, sports scores, weather and dozens more. As our technology gets better, we're beginning to answer harder questions for you, right on the search results page.
  • The Future of Search: We've also been focused on developing faster ways to search and save time, whether we're shaving seconds off searches with Google Instant or helping you search from your phone with Voice Search. Searching should be as easy as thinking, and the future looks bright!

As part of making the video we also created a timeline of search features. It's not the first timeline we've done, but I think this one does a nice job of categorizing the different kinds of Universal Results and Quick Answers we've added over the years:
The timeline depicts the approximate dates when we launched particular search feature enhancements. You can also download a larger image by following this link.
It's been exciting to be part of the evolution of search over the past decade, and we're thrilled about what's in store next. If the past is any indication, we don't know what search will look like in 2020, but we wouldn't be surprised if it looks nothing like it does today.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/11/evolution-of-search-in-six-minutes.html

[G] Here's a great new video on the evolution of Google search.

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

[G] Holiday Insights and Tips from Google

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

Official Google CPG Blog: Holiday Insights and Tips from Google

Think it's too late for holiday marketing initiatives? Think again!

Today the Think with Google team is launching December Adventure, where every weekday between now and December 23, they'll share useful, surprising and delightful insights and opportunities for sparking your online holiday sales via search ads, mobile and more. It's prime time for online shopping, so follow Think with Google on Google+ for daily tips! You can also add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Our December Adventure is just beginning - so bundle up, log on, and get ready to grow your holiday business day by day.Click here to visit Think with Google on Google+. To share the glow of these holiday insights, use #decemberadventure.

URL: http://google-cpg.blogspot.com/2011/11/holiday-insights-and-tips-from-google.html

[G] Five Truths of the Digital African American Consumer

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

Official Google CPG Blog: Five Truths of the Digital African American Consumer

If African American consumers aren't a part of your brand's digital strategy, they should be. African Americans are one of the most engaged, influential, and responsive online audience segments.

Last month, Google and GlobalHue teamed up with OTX to understand what role search and other digital advertising technologies play in African Americans' purchasing decisions. The team, which included Google CPG's own Jason Crain, uncovered five key truths that every CPG marketer needs to consider:
  1. African Americans are early adopters, and are more likely to watch video online and to access online content via smartphones and other alternative platforms.
  2. Digital technologies provide an important "microphone" to African American consumers, who are significantly more likely to use Twitter and to recommend online brands and products to acquaintances.
  3. They are avid searchers, more likely to use search daily, and to click through on search ads.
  4. This audience is nearly 50% more likely than others to begin their "path to purchase" with search.
  5. African American consumers are substantially more responsive than the general population to digital video ads and smartphone ads.
Here's a cool infographic with even more study findings:


In addition to the graphic, the team also put together a 43-slide deck that you can steal from with pride for use in your own presentations.

For more thoughts on the research, check out the excellent coverage in AdWeek.

URL: http://google-cpg.blogspot.com/2011/11/five-truths-of-digital-african-american.html

[G] CPG Thought Leader Video Series Episode 6 - Ford's Matt Van Dyke

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

Official Google CPG Blog: CPG Thought Leader Video Series Episode 6 - Ford's Matt Van Dyke

Today's video features Ford's Director of Marketing Communications Matt Van Dyke. He spoke to our 200+ attendees at Think Branding NYC about Ford's social media strategy, with a focus on Ford's use of Google+. In this episode, Matt discusses the importance of listening to consumers when planning social media strategies.

URL: http://google-cpg.blogspot.com/2011/11/cpg-thought-leader-video-series-episode_28.html

[G] Top 5 things you should know about invalid clicks

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:49 PM PST

Inside AdSense: Top 5 things you should know about invalid clicks


During the AdSense team's recent policy webinars, a number of publishers posted questions on our Google Moderator page about invalid click activity and the resources available to help them protect their accounts. We've brought in experts from the Ad Traffic Quality team to address your top questions about invalid clicks here in this post today.



As a quick introduction, our responsibility on the Ad Traffic Quality team is to monitor traffic across Google's ad network and prevent advertisers from paying for invalid traffic. We've recently launched an in-depth Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center, a site designed for both advertisers and publishers to learn more about invalid clicks. This site also aggregates various resources that help you learn about invalid clicks and maintain a successful AdWords or AdSense account. Please note that the resource center is currently only in English, but will be available in all languages shortly.



Now, onto the top 5 topics that publishers most frequently ask about, and some guidance from our team:  


1. Monitoring your ad traffic 

There's a lot that you can and should do to monitor your site's traffic and prevent it from receiving invalid activity. You can find all of our suggestions and best practices listed in our Help Center. If at any time you'd like to report something suspicious, feel free to contact us using this form.



2. Returning earnings to our advertisers

Protecting our advertisers' interests by monitoring invalid click activity is one of the key ways we strive to keep the network a balanced ecosystem where users, publishers, and advertisers can all grow and thrive together. To protect the integrity of our advertising environment, we return earnings from disabled AdSense accounts to affected advertisers, as stated in our Disabled Account FAQ.


3. Our mechanisms catch on to trends

Google uses real-time detection and filtering systems to examine each click on an AdWords ad. We look at numerous data points for each click, including the time of the click, any duplicate clicks, and various other click patterns. Our system then analyzes these factors to isolate and filter out potentially invalid clicks before they ever reach your account reports. Our engineers are constantly improving our monitoring technology, enhancing filters, and examining a growing set of signals.



In addition to our automated click protection techniques, we have a team that uses specialized tools and techniques to examine individual instances of invalid clicks. When our system detects potentially invalid clicks, a member of this team examines the affected account to glean important information about the source of the potentially invalid clicks.


4. How we determine sabotage

Sabotage, which some publishers refer to as 'click bombing', is an act committed by a third party to generate invalid activity on a publisher's ads without their knowledge or permission. Although this topic often comes up on our forums and in the questions we've received, we've found that click bombing represents only a small fraction of invalid activity. As mentioned in point #3, we're constantly improving our detection systems to identify these patterns of sabotage and filter them as invalid. We're committed to protecting our publishers as well as our advertisers, as our goal is to grow the network while continuing to ensure that it is safe and enjoyable for all.


5. You can contact us if you feel your account was wrongfully disabled

We want to work with you and provide you as many resources as we can to resolve issues you may have. If your account has been disabled and you feel that the decision was made in error, we have a process for appealing the decision in your account. For more information, see our Help Center.



Posted by the Ad Traffic Quality Team



URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tuAm/~3/zMujnNf49D8/top-5-things-you-should-know-about.html

[G] A new frontier for Google Maps: mapping the indoors

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:29 AM PST

Google LatLong: A new frontier for Google Maps: mapping the indoors

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

"Where am I?" and "What's around me?" are two questions that cartographers, and Google Maps, strive to answer. With Google Maps' "My Location" feature, which shows your location as a blue dot, you can see where you are on the map to avoid walking the wrong direction on city streets, or to get your bearings if you're hiking an unfamiliar trail. Google Maps also displays additional details, such as places, landmarks and geographical features, to give you context about what's nearby. And now, Google Maps for Android enables you to figure out where you are and see where you might want to go when you're indoors.


When you're inside an airport, shopping mall or retail store, a common way to figure out where you are is to look for a freestanding map directory or ask an employee for help. Starting today, with the release of Google Maps 6.0 for Android, that directory is brought to the palm of your hands, helping you determine where you are, what floor you're on, and where to go indoors.


Detailed floor plans automatically appear when you're viewing the map and zoomed in on a building where indoor map data is available. The familiar "blue dot" icon indicates your location within several meters, and when you move up or down a level in a building with multiple floors, the interface will automatically update to display which floor you're on. All this is achieved by using an approach similar to that of 'My Location' for outdoor spaces, but fine tuned for indoors.

Mall of America in Minneapolis before and after, with a floor selector

San Francisco International Airport before and after, with 3D tilt

We've initially partnered with some of the largest retailers, airports and transit stations in the U.S. and Japan, including:
  • Mall of America, IKEA, The Home Depot, select Macy's and Bloomingdale's, Daimaru, Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi locations and more. Watch an IKEA demo here.
  • Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Chicago O'Hare (ORD), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Narita International (NRT), among others.
  • JR and Tokyu Corporation
For a detailed list of participating locations, please visit our help center. And this is just the start--we'll continually add new indoor maps to public buildings across the world. If you're a business owner interested in getting your location's floor plan included in Google Maps, visit maps.google.com/floorplans.

We're thrilled Google Maps continues to provide you with new and helpful perspectives—whether you're rushing through the airport or finding your way around a mall. To visit our website and learn more about indoor Google Maps and other features, start here.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-frontier-for-google-maps-mapping.html

[G] Announcing YouTube Analytics - the next generation in Insight

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 10:29 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Announcing YouTube Analytics - the next generation in Insight

Video can transcend language and cultural barriers. It can showcase real human moments all across the globe, even the silly ones. Take the video of the talking twin babies. That video was shot in Brooklyn, and has been viewed more than 10M times in the US and 30M times outside the U.S. 5% of its views came from Brazil, another 5% from Russia. Turns out, 1 out of 100 people in the Philippines watched these two babies from New York. One of the great joys of a global platform is finding out that people from afar can relate, connect, and appreciate your videos.



You've been able to discover who is watching your videos and where they're coming from for awhile now on YouTube, through Insight. Now we want to make it even easier to learn about your audience, so we've replaced Insight with YouTube Analytics. Analytics will be released to everyone on a modern browser over the course of the day.



Check out some of the latest features in Analytics:

  • A Quick Overview: A new overview provides all of the information that you care about quickly, while also enabling you to easily access more detailed information.

  • More Detailed Reports: Analytics now includes more detailed statistics so that you can have a more precise understanding of your content and audiences.

  • Audience Builders: Discover which videos are driving the most views and subscriptions.

  • Audience Retention: See how far viewers are watching through your video in the new audience retention report.

The Creator Playbook has also been updated to show you how to use your new Analytics to build and engage with bigger audiences, earn more money, and make better videos.





In the meantime, visit the Help Center for more information on Analytics.



Ted Hamilton, Product Manager, recently watched, "British Animal Voiceovers."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/Pg-jzYLUG2E/announcing-youtube-analytics-next.html
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