While playing around with Google Places, I have discovered several types of search queries produce 0 results.
Like this search in Google Places for Google Adwords:
Google Places Results
I realize Google Adwords isn’t particularly associated with a “Place” per se, but I’m sure delivering a blank search results page is in Google’s or its users best interest.
Today Google announced yet another new Experiment – Google Instant Previews.
Google Instant Previews
With Google Instant Previews searchers can see a preview from within any search result without having to leave Google.com
Clicking the magnifying glass produces a screen shot of the search results page.
Instant Previews
To try the latest Google Experiment – Google Instant Previews you will have to start your search from the Google Experiments domain – http://www.google.com/webhp?esrch=instantpreviews
Will Google AdWords experiment with Instant Preview “Ads” anytime soon?
I don’t think so..
From Google:
Holiday researching is starting earlier and earlier. We’ve been surveying shoppers every 2 weeks to track progress of their holiday shopping and as of October 19:
Holiday Shopping Research
Source: Google/Ipsos OTX Consumer Pulse Check
The biggest takeway is that researching/shopping started even earlier than last year. By October 19, 73% of consumers had started researching/shopping vs. 59% in 2009. Purchasing remains more consistent: 51% in 2010 vs. 46% in 2009. Although retailers will see a bulk of their sales in December, consumers are beginning to make decisions about what they are going to buy, and half have already bought a holiday gift.
Why do shoppers begin researching and buying early?
Early Shopper Motives
Getting ahead of the rush tops the list why shoppers research and buy early according to Google.
Makes sense – what better way for consumers to save time than to research and buy products at the time most convenient to them?
On November 8, 2010 Google released a new doodle in celebration of the 115th anniversary of X-rays.
The discovery was made by German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, in 1895. X-rays are a form of radiation composed of rays and the most common use is in diagnostic radiography.
Google X-Ray Doodle
Google has transformed its logo into an animation of an x-ray film, which shows Google’s “bones”.
See if you can use your X-ray vision to spot a key, rubber duck and marbles in Google’s X-ray doodle.
The following video contains highlights from the “Innovation + Democracy” Google & Politico Event at the Newseum in Washington DC.
From the Google Research blog:
The four steps of computational thinking are:
1. Problem decomposition: the ability to break down a problem into sub-problems
2. Pattern recognition: the ability to notice similarities, differences, properties, or trends in data
3. Pattern generalization: the ability to extract out unnecessary details and generalize those that are necessary in order to define a concept or idea in general terms
4. Algorithm design: the ability to build a repeatable, step-by-step process to solve a particular problem
Understanding and mastering the four steps of computational thinking ought to be a requisite for graduation for every single high school student in America.
Unlike almost every other person in the tech business, I don’t think Facebook’s local products will transform commerce.
Facebook Local
Optimizing a business plan has been simplified by Adeo Ressi.
How?
Reduce what your business does to just five sentences that you can answer the following questions in less than a minute.
1. My company (your company name)
2. is developing (a defined offering)
3. to help (a target audience)
4. (solve a problem)
5. (with secret sauce)
Business Plan Optimization
While Mr. Ressi has indeed reduced and simplified the formula for communicating a successful business plan down to a soundbite, actually being able to do it – often proves to be anything but simple.
From eMarketer:
According to some predictions in 2009, mobile couponing was ripe for takeoff. While relatively few mobile users had redeemed a coupon through their phone, many were interested, and Yankee Group predicted an increase in the number of mobile coupons redeemed in North America in 2010 from 200,000 to 2.3 million.
But consumers have been slow to climb on board. According to a September 2010 survey conducted by OnePoll for mobile transaction network mBlox, fewer than 15% of US mobile subscribers have redeemed a mobile coupon. This is about twice the penetration Yankee Group found in 2009.
Mobile Coupon Usage
I don’t ever expect mobile couponing to scale alongside mobile phone penetration.
Mobile Phone Analysts who think the numbers alone drive the story will continue to be proven wrong.
I noticed for the first time today the Google Hot Trends USA Google Gadget has placed a PDT time stamp on some search query when they have reached their peak.
Google Hot Trends Time Stamp
Prior to seeing the PDT time stamp, I can only recall seeing a query’s peak time stamped with 1-8 hours ago.
Google Hot Trends Peak
Is this new or am I just late in noticing?
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