When Time is of the Essence, Go Google
Better Search = Better Information = Better Decisions Telling Tales of Google
Search Tip of the Month
Fun With Google
Dear Google Friends: It's been two months since our last newsletter, and our days have been filled with coding and conversations with customers. The results are detailed below, along with tips on new ways to save keystrokes when you're in a hurry to find the answers you need. We hope you'll find this information useful and encourage you to pass it on to those you know who would benefit from the gift of time. The Google Team
When Time is of the Essence, Go Google The new Google Deskbar - search anytime Hot on the heels of the recently released Google Toolbar 2.0, comes the Google Deskbar (Beta version). While the Google Toolbar saves time by putting a search box right in the browser, the Deskbar goes even further, putting a search box right on your Windows desktop. Downloading the free software gives you the ability to do a Google search without leaving the application you're in or even lifting your fingers from the keyboard - just hit Ctrl-Alt-G and the word or phrase you've selected will be entered automatically as a search term. The Google Deskbar has other time-saving features as well, such as a mini-viewer that shows search results in a small screen and built in searches for your favorite sites. Once you have it, you'll wonder how you lived without it. To download the Google Deskbar, visit: To download the Google Toolbar 2.0, visit: Faster than flipping pages - Google redefines dictionary Quick! What's the meaning of "serendipity"? With Google's new Define: command, you can look up words online and find meanings from many different sources across the Web. Because it's based on billions of web pages and not a static dictionary, the Define: command finds meanings for neologisms ("pop-up") and acronyms ("AFAIK"), as well as more established words. To try this feature, enter "Define:" (without the quotation marks) into the Google search box, then a space and the term you want defined. For example, "Define: serendipity" for the answer to the question asked above. This command saves even more time when used with the Google Deskbar, as you can find meanings by highlighting a word in any document, typing Ctrl-Alt-G to go the search box, then typing Ctrl-D to search for its definition. Now, aren't you glad you stumbled on this happy discovery? Jamming on deadline - Google coding contest results In September we announced the Google Code Jam, a programming contest to identify the world's most gifted bit flickers. The finals were held November 14th at the GooglePlex in Mountain View, California, with 25 finalists competing against the clock and each other for a $10,000 grand prize. And the winner is. Jimmy Mardell of Stockholm, Sweden, with 2nd place honors to Christopher Hendrie of Waterloo, ON, Canada and 3rd place to Eugene Vasilchenko of North Potomac, MD. The final round comprised three problems of increasing complexity, with the last problem requiring contestants to determine the optimal way to generate a certain number of keyboard characters using a set number of keys. And just fyi, the winner of last year's Google programming contest is now a software engineer for a leading search engine company headquartered in Mountain View, California.
Better Search = Better Information = Better Decisions A better way to see what works best - Ad conversion tracking The holy grail of marketing is a complete understanding of what part of the marketing mix is most effective for converting shoppers into buyers. Businesses large and small took a step closer to attaining that goal recently when Google introduced a new conversion tracking tool as part of the Google AdWords program. Advertisers can now determine which keywords they've targeted with their ads are leading to not only the most clicks, but the most actual sales. To learn more about the Google conversion tracking
tool, visit: AOL A-OK with Google - A partnership renewed AOL and Google are extending their partnership under a new multi-year agreement that brings increased access to Google search results and sponsored listings to AOL's tens of millions of users. According to AOL, more than 75% of their members use AOL Search each month and the response to Google's presence on their pages has been extremely positive. The agreement also puts Google power behind the search pages of AOL properties in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and several other countries. Details on the deal can be found in the press
release posted at: It's all about results - About.com selects Google Adsense Google and Primedia have agreed to a multi-year partnership that will put Google's AdSense ads on pages across the About.com website and on the websites of 127 specialty magazines published by Primedia, including McCall's Quick Quilts and Civil War Times. That's a lot of pages, considering About.com alone drew more than 25 million visitors in August according to Nielsen/NetRatings. To learn more about the AdSense program for site
publishers, visit: Acquiring minds want to know - Google buys Sprinks While negotiating to provide ads on the pages of Primedia properties, Google couldn't help but notice that Primedia's own Sprinks ad network was a close fit with Google's AdSense service. The result was an acquisition by Google of Sprinks, which currently includes MSNBC, MarketWatch.com, and Forbes among its thousands of distribution partners. Google has grown a fairly large network on its own, with more than 150,000 advertisers running ads that appear on thousands of sites across the Web.
Telling Tales of Google AdWords' impact? Six times the business for one advertiser Impact Engine, a San Diego-based creator of Flash-based online presentations, is a longtime advertiser with Google AdWords and has seen phenomenal growth as a result. Impact Engine relies on online demos to sell its services and on Google AdWords to get customers to those demos. CEO Neil Greer allocates eighty percent of his online advertising budget to Google AdWords, which generates 90 percent of the site's traffic. According to Greer, "Our business is up 600 percent this year, and Google gets the lion's share of credit for that." Read more about Impact Engine's experience with
AdWords at: Google gives user a lift during NYC blackout According to Rick, a New York Google fan, Google saved the day during the recent blackout when he found his car stranded on a hydraulic lift at an outdoor garage. Without electricity, the parking lot operator couldn't lower any of the lifts so cars could be driven off for their owners. Thinking quickly, Rick called his son in Dallas using a cell phone and had him search for the lift manufacturer in California. The manufacturer was able to walk him through the manual override and Rick's car (and 20 others) were soon back on terra firma and headed home. If you have a Google success story, please share
it with us at: Google on the move in Mountain View While the number googol is a constant (1 followed by 100 zeroes), Google the search engine company is in constant motion. From its earliest origins in a Stanford dorm room, to a garage workspace, to an upstairs office in Palo Alto to its most recent sprawl of buildings in Mountain View, California, the Googleplex headquarters is more an idea than a specific place. That idea is taking a new form as Google shifts its center two blocks south to a large office campus formerly occupied by Silicon Graphics. The facility will soon be swarming with Googlers on scooters zipping through cube farms and bouncing on exercise balls while munching cereal and gummi bears. If you do business with Google, please bear with us as we make this move to what should be our home for many years to come. And speaking of moves, Google has opened a new office in Madrid to better serve the legions of businesses in Spain seeking to improve their results with online marketing. For those wary of quixotic quests for effective Internet advertising, Google now offers a solution with proven results, and local representatives to explain exactly how it works. For a complete list of Google offices, visit:
Search Tip of the Month Froogle is a find for gift givers Intimidated by a long list of gifts to buy and not enough time to circle the mall in search of parking? Try Froogle as your first step to shopping online. Froogle product search is powered by Google technology and provides one-click access to thousands of stores online selling every imaginable product. Just enter what you want to buy and Froogle will return links to websites that sell it, along with images of the product and prices you can compare. Your gift found with Froogle will likely be far better received than anything you can purchase in a last-minute run to the convenience store. To try a Froogle product search, go to: Autofill to save time stuffing stockings So now you're shopping online, but your fingers are going numb from typing and retyping your mailing address and credit card information into online order forms. Try the autofiller function in the Google Toolbar. Simply store your personal information once and you can fill in forms with the click of a single button. The information is stored on your own computer and can even be password protected, so you know it's secure. Spare yourself finger fatigue. You're going to need your strength to wrap everything you're busy buying. The autofiller is a feature of the Google Toolbar.
Download it at:
Fun With Google A holiday flash of brilliance - the Google blinky pin What's colorful, festive and a testament to good taste? It's the Google blinky pin, an intensely bright flashing Google logo pin with a magnetic clip that works equally well on lapels and earlobes. If you're searching for a way to increase holiday spirit, this is it. Find the Google blinky pin in the Google Store:
We hope this edition of the Google Friends Newsletter finds you in a festive frame of mind. From all of us at the Googleplex, wherever that may be, best wishes for the season and a very happy holidays to you. The Google Team
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