Google - Google Fun Tools

Google addicts - here's some interesting Google tools:

• Check out the keywords, before you use them on Google's External Keyword Tool
• Google Government Requests Tool, displays all the censorship requests received by Google, grouped by country with the percentage of queries Google responded to.
• Check out keyword search trends on Google through Google Trends and Google Search Insights.
• Use Google Goggles on your smart phone to search for a picture (taken by your camera) on Google.
• Find related links for your website, from your website in Google Labs' related links tool to improve your visitors experience on your website.
• Through Google's Follow Finder, find people to follow on Twitter.
• Finally, a useless but cute tool, Google Sets automatically continues a set of terms based on those you enter.

Google - Google Addicts

Google search might be part of most internet users' life, but Google's impact on mine is not limited to Google search. Google is an intrinsic part of my life, my online life that is. I am addicted to a few Google websites and a few more Google tools.

My daily chores:

Let's start with the basics. iGoogle is step 1 of my computer visits.

Then comes Google News, an awesome personalized collection of my daily news interests *total addiction*. 

Of course, I have to pass by my Blogspot, and just recently been checking Blogspot Stats in my Draft Dashboard. Ok, so the info is very minimal there.

So, Google Analytics is my next destination, irrevocably the traffic analytical tool I trust the most on the web (well, you have to make a decision, when the statistics differ from one tool to the other). There's also the Google Webmaster Tool, but my visits there are more of a weekly habit.

Not to forget Google Reader, my RSS reader of choice, oh, and I use Google's Feedburner.

I get a few daily e-mails from Google Alerts, amazing for brand management.

I do resort to Google images from time to time, and who doesn't use Google Translate, Google Map or Google Earth? You will also find me on Gmail, on Google Talk, on Google Adwords and Adsense... 

...And after all, aren't we all Google addicts?

Diagnosis: Online Existencial Crisis

The digital world - I recall when we used to look up definitions and conduct research in big dusty encyclopedia's, scanning the letters, and trying to figure out the spelling. Not long afterward, we had the Encarta's CD encyclopedia, then came Wikipedia, the open-source encyclopedia. What's left for tomorrow?

Undergoing a course in customer behavior, the instructor asked us to look up a certain product. While, a few years ago, we would have used Google, the teacher was stunned as most students resorted to Youtube instead. I wonder what tools students are using today. Statistics show that Twitter has most recently become the top Search Engine in the world in terms of growth. What does that place all the SEO professionals who were used to channel all their efforts on Google?

The World Wide Web exonerates change, fast and irrevocable change.

No one can let his guards down. Everyone and anyone is "producing", "creating", "informing", can we keep up and "listen" to everything we HAVE to hear? I am loving Google Alerts at this point. However, how long can I keep this trend up? I am not sure.

I keep getting the feeling I am outdated, like a laggard. The reality of it all? Time, already a scarce resource, is becoming harder to find than ever. The real-time effect of technology is a killer, you get so many details in real-time feeds, that are bound to change tomorrow, it is overwhelming to track down all the progress, even of elements of interest. We are getting engulfed in minor details. We are looking at the world through a microscope and categorizing the findings in lists, favorites, bookmarks, as well as on pages like Stumbleupon and Delicious...

How many social profiles are you managing today? Personally, I can count at least 10. The day is already here when they are getting combined in one dashboard, thanks to social management tools made easier with API. What exactly does that mean? To me, it simply means that my privacy is dead, it was already in agony with watchers, followers and friends around on all those social websites.

Today, I, feel the need to take a break and set my eyes on the bigger picture, a vision of the lasting future... Forgive my agony.

Twitter: What If God Was One of Us?

Dearest tweeps (twitter people, yes, I am learning), thanks to Twitter, now everyone has "Followers".

You might think I am on to them... But...

I hate hate hate politics... seriously!
However, I can't help but mention this. Israel's use of digital media is becoming dangerously ridiculous! Have a look at what appeared on my Facebook page today (July 19, 2010).

I mean... Seriously?

Twilight - Eclipse: Is Twilight Harmful to Teens?

So far I had been a fanatic of the Twilight Saga. I love the romanticism and the whole idea of vampires fighting against their own nature to be good. Normally, Twilight exhibits the dreamy "soul mates" love belief. Normally, Twilight displays a world of idealism.

Needless to say, I was disappointed with Twilight Eclipse, the third of the Twilight movies:

1- Bella disregards marriage as an old outdated "constitution".

2- She also seems to be bothered by Edward's gentleman manners and labels them "old fashioned".

3- Bella being lost between two men, and sending out mixed confusing messages to both, not only wastes the beautiful "ideal" love image Twilight used to portray in the first two sequences, but makes her attitude almost bitchy.

All in all, she sets a bad example. I wouldn't want my kids being subjected to such values as though they were the standards of the modern world. Thus, it got me thinking of the effect of their lady hero acting/perceiving things as such on the teenage fans filling out the theater. I might be over doing it, looking beyond the story unto its effects on the human brains, but I kind of truely believe that movies end up affecting our perceptions of right and wrong at a young age... and it scares me.

Flattr - Flattr.com, My Review

Flattr - After reading Is Flattr the new Facebook Like, but this time with real money? on TechCrunch, I got excited about the concept and thought it was revolutionary. I @youmny tweeted about it. My tweet consisted of the following characters: "#Flattr a new social media that allows you to share funds, the same way you #digg... Interesting concept!" It took @flattr_e (yes, I liked the username too) less than 12 hours to respond with a Beta invite.

I was flattered by Flattr_e and happily accepted the invite to flattr.com Kudos for an amazingly well monitored environment, you might think. Those people impressed me too.

As I took a closer look at the offerings, I was repulsed by the Flattr terms of use, as they wer subject to change without notice. Was I to put money on a site with such terms?

Investigating a bit further, I found out Flattr was not much of a benevolent website. They took 10% of all transactions! Moreover, considering that revenues cannot be withdrawn unless they reach a certain threshold, the only real winners at the end of the day are Flattr.

I took a step back before posting this on my blog, as I thought how grateful I should be to have received a Beta invite. It did get me excited at first, but then again, looking at it objectively, every single additional user is equal to additional money for them, as each is required to pay a minimum of 2 euros per month. (yes, it's in Euros so far, I wonder how long that would last)

This got me thinking that the Beta invites might be just a smart way to make people feel special, give an exclusive feel. At the end of the day, you can even request an invite on the Flattr home page. Kind of smart, I agree. (Wasn't exclusivity at the beginning, reason behind Facebook's success?)

My last thought before leaving the site: This Flattr can turn out to be as profitable as a casino.

Paul the Psychic Octopus: Marketing Lessons

Germany - Paul the Psychic Octopus' first World Cup appearance I had witnessed was on EuroNews. It was on the 25th of June 2010, a 1 minute report, told the world that the best World Cup fortune teller was, so far, an octopus, in  the Sea Life Aquarium of Ovberhausen, Germany. Paul, the Octopus had apparently already predicted 4 German games correctly, (including Germany's loss to Serbia!) and was predicting Germany's win over England. 

Google News history shows an AOL article on Paul the Octopus dating back to the 22nd of June, predicting Ghana's defeat to Germany, saying "If Paul gets any better at this, he could have an incredible career as a telephone psychic -- able to handle eight lines at once."

...So what's in it for marketeers? Lessons on how to effectively benefit from the World Cup hype! Thanks to the World Cup's popularity, the free (and international) publicity Paul got to the Sea Life Aquarium is unmatched. Want to bet how much additional visits they got thanks to Paul and his World Cup induced fame? 

Then, you get to think of all the brands who paid huge amounts of money to associate their names to the World Cup. What a shame...