BRAND INFECTION » google

Logo Remix: Subzero, Moogle, Shell…Ring A Bell?

Nader — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:35:29 +0000

Most of these logos, created by gamer Steve Napierski, are remixed in a way that you would immediately recognize the real brand behind it, others might take a second look. I didn’t get Belmont = Dupont and Tonberry = Burberry at first, but might vary according to your exposure to those brands each and every day.

The bigger problem, for me at least, is to recognize the actual computer game (for ex. Subzero being a character from Mortal Kombat) which shows how firmly established brand logos are in my brain, and, that I obviously didn’t play enough games in my childhood :-)

Google Now Analyzes Ad Placements – Improves Search Ranking Algorithm

Nader — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:07:02 +0000

Yesterday Google announced a major(!) upgrade to its search ranking algorithm which will drastically change the way designers and more importantly online marketeers will think about their website layouts. In Google’s ongoing effort to help users find more high-quality websites in search results, the company will introduce an improved algorithm. From then on Google will not only analyse content and keywords but also the page layout, more importantly the placements and usage of ads.

This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page.

In one way or the other Google will penalise websites that place too many advertisements above the fold. While this is good for user experience and actually finding relevant information, other websites such as niche websites, that are heavily marketed (“Adsense Websites”), will probably lose quite an important stream of revenue.

So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

Matt Cutts from Google says that only 1% of global search queries will be affected by this change but I kind of feel that this will have major implications and leave a sustainable scent mark in the world of online marketing.

By the way, Google itself is not really a good example. The search company has a page full of ads above the fold, as you can see in the picture below.

Google itself is full of ads above the fold

Personally I would like to know about what “above the fold” exactly means since so many different screen resolutions exist. Are we talking about 1024×768, 1280xXXX…? Another question remaining is what Google’s definition of “normal degree” is: two ads, three, four…? We’ll see in the future!

Top 15 Brands On Twitter 2011

Nader — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:04:00 +0000

Hootsuite, the social media management dashboard, released an infographic showing the top 15 trending brands on twitter from 2011. To round out the trendiest topics they also included Topics, Tags and in Memorium Trends.

Interesting to note MySpace is still at #7 ~~even though the network is pretty much dead~~ (Nielsen ranks them at #5 of social networks & blogs, before Google+ and tumblr) , and, RIM even makes it into the top 15. The data in this series was collected by WhatTheTrend from over 500,000 trends which appeared on twitter.com

The list was based on an algorithm that awarded points based on the rank and duration spent on the top 10. Similar to the first infographic, the data used in this series were compiled by What the Trend from over 500,000 trends which appeared on Twitter.com. In addition to the 15 brands, the top trending topics, hashtags, memorials, and holidays of 2011 were also included.

Let It Snow, Google

Nader — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:27:36 +0000

Google’s got a creative and tricky search result once again. After “tilt” or “do a barrel roll” it’s now “let it snow”. People who aren’t celebrating christmas can type in “hannukah”. Google started with those tricks some time ago but since new web technologies emerged and still continue to do so they not only pimp their doodles but also create better and better search results.

Google Let It Snow

Good Content Trumps SEO Says Matt Cutts

Nader — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:13:24 +0000

Matt Cutts from Google has been asked if Google would favor sites that are built following SEO Best Practice techniques, and, that there must be many technically poor sites that actually have fantastic content which shouldn’t be penalised. His answer:

Just because somebody dots every i and crosses every t and gets all their HTML structure right, doesn’t mean that it’s good content. Even if you do brain-dead stupid things and shoot yourself in the foot, but have good content, we still want to return it…

Get started doing good SEO with this guide (PDF) by Google.

Best Pivots in Business: Did you know Berkshire Hathaway was into Textiles?

Nader — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:19:42 +0000

There is an interesting discussion and outcome at Quora: users were asked what they find the best pivots in business.

Did you know that Berkshire Hathaway produced Textiles before getting into the private equity business? Or Sony producing Rice cookers before conquering and (at least partially) losing the electronics world? Check out the answers and Nokia shoes from 1936…

Berkshire Hathaway: Textiles > Private equity
BMW: Aircraft engines > Vehicles
Chegg: College classifieds > Textbook Rentals
EMC: Furniture > Enterprise Data Storage
Flickr: MMORPG > Web photo sharing
Google: Enterprise search > Web search
IBM: Punched card equipment > Computers ? IT Consulting
Mannesmann: Steel pipes > Cellular network carrier
Nintendo: Playing cards > Video games
Nokia: Rubber boots > Cell phones
Paypal: PDA payments > Email/web payments
Philips: Light bulbs > Various electronics
Pixar: Animation tools > Animated movies
Sony: Rice cookers > Various electronics
Suzuki: Looms > Vehicles
WPP Group: Wire shopping baskets > Communications services

Bonus: Nokia Shoes anno 1936

Nokia Shoes 1936

[More at Quora, Photo Credit: Venturebeat]

Online Checkout – In Real Life

Nader — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:42:53 +0000

Great Google Analytics commercial: Shopping online is meant to be easy. Find out where your customers are “checking out” with Google Analytics. Related posts:In-Game Advertising in Anarchy Online Europeans spend more and more time online Video: Life is more than … Read →

Google Super Bowl Ad: Parisian Love

Nader — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:03:35 +0000

For the first time ever Google showed an advertisement during the Super Bowl. As guessed correctly by John Battelle it was “Parisian Love”, a cute story around a guy searching for topics around Paris.
I like it. What do you think?

Here’s what Google CEO Eric Schmidt says:

If you watched the Super Bowl this evening you’ll have seen a video from Google called “Parisian Love”. In fact you might have watched it before, because it’s been on YouTube for over three months. We didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.
If you like it too, we hope you’ll watch the others. Enjoy.

Google Chrome Television Ad

Nader — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:10:51 +0000

Creative Google Chrome Advertisement on Japanese TV

Google Harms You

Nader — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:14:45 +0000

Check out the screenshot I just took:

“This site may harm your computer”

What is obviously a mistake is written underneath each title of a search result. Not only for the keyword “Google” but also for any other search query you throw at it. :-)

Update: Google is working properly again