In case you missed this little gem when it ran on the Yahoo! homepage last week, here's a very compressed look at some of the many technologies--from frontend (YUI 3) to back (Hadoop)--that go into producing the Yahoo.com homepage. This video nano-story is told by the developers who built the new homepage, and the engineers who make sure it's readily available (and personally relevant) to the millions of people around the world who think of it as home. Enjoy!
The sun hid from view for much of Asia, a pop king's memorial brought out mourners, and a misdemeanor ended with a White House beer bash. Below, a look at July's searches and buzzy stories.
Spaced Out Darkness descended for about six minutes across much of Asia, as a rare solar eclipse brought out revelers and drove the superstitious indoors. The U.S. missed out on the fun, but celebrated the moon walk's 40th anniversary instead.
Dearly Departed All things Michael Jackson continued to reverberate through the Web, from the memorial to the will, to the latest raid on the attending physician. Mourners also honored Walter Cronkite, whose death recalled a media heyday, and two sports figures—footballer Steve McNair and boxer Arturo Gatti—who died too soon.
Crime Watch Sonia Sotomayor applied for her Supreme Court Justice robes this month, but violations of rights occupied the Search docket. Henry Louis Gates became known beyond academic circles after a Cambridge police office arrested the Harvard scholar at his home. The local issue turned national after Obama weighed in, but a peace of sorts was brokered with a White House beer bash. No suds for Erin Andrews: A video shot through a peephole of the ESPN broadcaster, taped unawares, went viral. News outlets who posted screen grabs of the illegal video spurred accusations of hypocrisy all around. There was some justice: People who tried to download the video may have got a virus.
We're happy to announce the launch of the Google Checkout store gadget in Google Labs. In a matter of minutes, you can create an online store that's powered by Google Checkout and has inventory managed in a Google Docs spreadsheet. Selling online has never been easier -- no complicated coding or technical tasks are required, just three easy steps:
1. Sign up for a Google Checkout seller account. Checkout will process your orders and help you attract new leads, convert more sales, and enjoy advanced fraud protection.
2. List the products you want to sell in a Google Docs spreadsheet. You'll just need to create a copy of our template spreadsheet, and then replace the sample inventory with your own.
3. Place the Google Checkout store gadget on your website. You can embed your online store anywhere you'd like -- on Google Sites, Blogger, or your personal website.
Ready to start selling? Create your online store quickly and easily using the Google Checkout store gadget today.
Posted by Anjali Vaidya, Associate Product Marketing Manager
Google offers a bunch of free information tools that marketers can use to grow their business. They're especially useful and relevant now as budgets are tighter, while at the same time the need to grow your business has never been greater. The latest episode of Data Driven Discussions focuses on two of Avinash's favorite tools in addition to Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer: Insights for Search and Ad Planner.
Both can be hugely informative and useful for any marketer. In this video, after typically making sure Nick, our Google Analytics Developer Relations Manager, is on his toes, Avinash, the Analytics Evangelist here at Google, gives real world use cases from his own experience using each of these products.
He uses Insights For Search to find out the actual demand around a keyword, product, trend or even industry, broken down by geography and clearly showing whether "interest over time" is growing or waning. Below, you can see a screen shot of an Insights For Search comparison between the terms "AdWords" and "Google Analytics."
Take a look at this great article on more ways to use Insights For Search, including choosing advertising messages, examining seasonality, creating brand associations, and entering new markets.
Next, Avinash discusses Ad Planner which is even more useful for a marketer. It tells marketers what websites their target customers are likely to visit so that they can make more informed advertising decisions. Avinash takes us through the Ad Planner process, where you type in an example website, keyword or demographic information which reflects the audience you're looking for, and out pops a list of sites related to those conditions, as well as traffic and demographic estimates about that site. It's incredibly easy and is a wealth of information! If you've ever wondered what sites to target - now you know. And you can even go one step further and create and save a media plan right within the tool.
And here's a video on using Ad Planner:
And at the end of the Data Driven Discussions episode, Avinash goes so far as to basically call me a dork. Though, an insult from our Analytics Evangelist is somehow like a slap on the back from a buddy who wants you to succeed.
We want to get you paid by the fastest means possible. As many of you know, we offer Western Union in 23 countries and courier service in many other countries.
We'd like to take a minute to remind our North American publishers that the fastest way for you to receive your payments is via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). EFT is quick and easy to set up. When payments are issued, there's no need to wait for the delivery in the mail -- the funds appear in your bank account shortly after they're issued. That means if we processed a payment for you this month, your earnings would be in your bank account already.
Also, EFT is good for the environment, since a check doesn't need to take a ride by sea, plane, or land to reach you. In available locations, it's the Google-recommended form of payment, so we hope you won't hesitate to sign up. You can learn more in our Help Center.
To our publishers in regions where we don't offer EFT yet, please know that we're always working towards expand our payment options, so stay tuned to Inside AdSense to learn when new forms of payments launch in your location.
Posted by Elizabeth Ferdon - AdSense Payments Team
Thursday’s much-anticipated "beer summit" started rocking the Search box as soon as President Obama unveiled his plans to knock back a cold one (or two) with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police officer James Crowley. People are especially interested in which brews the trio will imbibe.
For those wondering why two regular joes get to hang with President Obama, a bit of history: Two weeks ago, Gates and Crowley were embroiled in a controversy when Gates was arrested outside his own home. Gates alleged that the arrest was racially motivated, a charge that Crowley denied. President Obama jumped into the discussion, saying the police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates.
President Obama has since apologized for his remarks and wants to turn the incident into a "teachable moment." What better way to learn than by drinking during class? The three participants won't be boozing up with the same brand, however. Gates will enjoy Red Stripe, a Jamaican brew. Crowley will reportedly drink Blue Moon. And the president? A man with simple tastes, he's scheduled to drink Bud Light. (What, Schlitz is too fancy?)
The threesome's beer choices has been dissected by experts, and sought out in Search. Queries on "blue moon beer" experienced the biggest spike, but "red stripe" also enjoyed a nice bump. Even Bud Light let out a belch in the Buzz, thanks to Obama's unofficial endorsement. What are the odds we'll see a Bud Light commercial featuring an Obama look-alike at next year's Super Bowl? Better than average, we'd say.
A little while back, our friends over at NewsGator told us that lots of people who use their client RSS readers like FeedDemon and NetNewsWire had been asking for the ability to synchronize with Google Reader, since maintaining two separate subscription lists was a hassle. Today, we're happy to report that we've worked with NewsGator to make this possible, and new versions of their client readers released today will use Google Reader as the synchronization backend. If you use one of these applications, check out NewsGator's instructions and FAQ on transitioning your subscriptions.
Now that Google Reader can be used as the online companion to NewsGator's client applications, they've decided to discontinue consumer use of NewsGator Online, their free web-based RSS reader, at the end of August. If you've been using this service, you'll need to transition your subscriptions to Google Reader. To do this, all you need to is a Google account (you already have one if you use Gmail), and here's a video to help you get started. To those of you who have been waiting for this integration and to those of you who are using Reader for the first time, welcome!
When we started building the new AdWords interface we asked ourselves two questions. First, how can we help you get your work done faster? Second, how can we help you find the right tools at the right time to drive the best possible performance for your AdWords campaigns? We believe we've made great progress towards these goals, and today, the new interface is coming out of beta.
We've heard from many of you that the new interface has made a material difference for your business. Advertisers have saved time with quicker editing, reporting, and account navigation, and they've improved campaign performance by using better integrated tools to refine their targeting.
For example, search marketing agency ROI Revolution has used the new interface to reduce the average time they spend optimizing a given campaign for the Google Content Network from a few hours to just 20 minutes. Team lead Justin D'Angelo explains: “We’ve spotted things that used to take much longer, require running reports and require much more data analysis. With the new interface, we can spot it in a second and cut costs for our clients."
B2B software company ClickTime has also seen measurable business impact from using the new interface. They've used the search terms report to increase their CTR by 31% while reducing cost per lead and improving overall lead quality. On the whole, they estimate their AdWords productivity has increased by 100% with the new interface. You can read more about these success stories on our case studies page.
Let's look at the continuous improvements we've made and new features we've rolled out to the new AdWords interface in response to advertiser feedback. In the past month alone we've released spreadsheet editing to support bulk changes to keyword lists, and location extensions to simplify the local advertising process, among other additions. And we're not done yet -- the new AdWords interface is built on an infrastructure that lets us develop features more quickly than in the past, so you'll continue to see new features released regularly in the coming months.
Now that the new interface is out of beta, we're upgrading a larger number of advertiser accounts to the new interface exclusively. If you have questions about the interface, please consult the new interface microsite or attend an upcoming free webinar.
Finally, we'd like to say thank you to all of you who helped us test the new AdWords interface over the past nine months. Your feedback has been invaluable in making AdWords what it is today. And as always, if you have any comments or requests, please let us know.
