Here's a look at what could come out of Googles' stable in '08.
Here are 2 really nice articles on Eye Tracking studies...
- The Best of Eyetrack III: What We Saw When We Looked Through Their Eye
- Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies
This post is going to be a hack of some Google Maps and SIMILE tools. Thru this post, I will be documenting my Treks and Drives in and around Mumbai (and refer to some useful resources for the same). So, if you are looking for information on Treks around Mumbai, this is probably not the right place.
Currently, this is a basic map and I will try and add images and time lines into this. The post will be refreshed as and when a new trek is added (for that please check the post time and date created of this page).
First Created: 9/6/07, 08:27 PM (Basic Map)
Latest Edit :9/6/07, 12:17 PM (call - Babel translator)
Update (19th Nov): Sometime after I published this post, the Cricket scores results have stopped coming on Google Search results.
Sometime back during the Cricket World Cup, Google Engineers in India came up with a nice gadget on Google Desktop to get Cricket Scores right on ones desktop. Live.
Now, Google has gone one step ahead and integrated cricket scores into Search. Brilliant! Ever since this got done, I have simply gone to Google and typed 'cricket' to check the score on the first result. I am sure its pretty popular and catching up (check Google trends and peaking of searches around September - most probably because of this integration)
One of the biggest reasons I do it, is speed. It means a lot, especially in the parts I come from, where many users still reach the Web via a dial-up line. Most often, I just want a broad update than ball-by-ball coverage. For that, its very annoying to load a full page (70+ Kb in size) with lots of text and even more ads (check this).
So, why wait for 1+ seconds when you can get it in less than a second (time taken on my comp to load a standard score page on a Cricket website and Google). And, the score update, taken from about 2-3 cricketing websites (ws-3.willow.tv, www.cricinfo.com, www.cricbuzz.com), is almost instantaneous. Either Google is crawling these sites really regularly or it has some sort of an understanding to share data and has a mechanism of regular updates with them. Now, if its the later, these websites better charge Google for the content they are providing.
There was one flaw in the reporting of scores on Google though. Nothing some additional programming could solve. Sometimes, the score shown is lower in a subsequent search. This was because Google was loading it from a different website (time stamp??) .
Logged into GMail in the morning and found out a strange message staring into my face.
It came as a total surprise that GMail was checking the Firefox extensions I was using.
I always noticed Firebug tracking errors on GMail but never new that it could make GMail slow as I thought that the errors were tracked on page load. Then realized that it was the new GMail 2.0 interface I was using.
There was talk all around that GMail would be rolling out the new interface. But I always thought that this would be tested first in the typical Google way, with a 'New feature' etc., link on top. Not rolled out in a blanket manner.
The Official GMail blog says, "One side effect of this change is that if you're using third-party Gmail extensions, they're likely to stop working. We've contacted a number of the developers behind some popular extensions and provided them with an opportunity to create fixes, so check back with them for updates. We're sorry that it may be a bit of a inconvenience, but we're trying to make this change as smooth as possible."
Cricket watching on TV in India is a big annoyance now-a-days. With commercial interests reigning supreme on the Cricket Board as well as the Broadcasters mind, its no more cricket watching with ads in between the overs; its advertising watching with cricket in between! Live!!
Every possible inch of the screen is being used to generate revenues or tell us something.
Sample the number of thing on screen nowadays (atleast in the recent T20 and India-Australia series).
a. The big and ugly channel logo.
b. The BCCI logo.
c. The horizontal advertising banner.
d. The advertising banner during slow motion
e. Don't know what they call it - But the ugly banner on 2 sides of the screen. 3 sides sometimes.
f. The sponsors logo on the various scorecards / statistics banners. Sometime its just the sponsors Ad/message and no statistics.
If you are watching the match on TataSky then there is more...
g. VC# right in the center of the screen.
h. Scroller urging you to dial in and report piracy to 'TataSky' or Scroller advertising a new sports package.
i. 'Active Sports' logo urging you to click a button and go to the Active sports section
j. Yellow envelope icon on top telling you there is a message for you (mostly advertising a special package or movie).
and God forbid if it happens...
k. The 'Search and Scan' banner flashing incessantly. It happened in the T20 semis (probably due to some 'active' button programming error at TataSky's end. The damn thing kept flashing every second, over and above the ads and annoyed me to no extent!
l. TataSky logo - a partnership with the channel.
Now, that's more than 10 things on my screen!
The image is composed with all elements I have noticed on screen, but you get the idea.
Slashdot has a series of articles documenting its history as part of its 10 year anniversary celebration.
A Brief History of Slashdot Part 1, Chips & Dips
A Brief History of Slashdot Part 2, Explosions
History of Slashdot Part 3, Going Corporate
The History of Slashdot Part 4, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Last year, when the /. CSS design contest was on, I had downloaded Slash with an intention of re-teaching my self Perl. High hopes !! :).
The latest posts in the history series describe the back end of it.
Slashdot's Setup, Part 1- Hardware
Slashdot's Setup, Part 2- Software
There were a few updates on the Official Orkut Blog about the new layout (redesign preview 1; redesign preview 2, a new look) in the past few days. These changes were affected sometime between 1:30PM to 1:50PM IST, in India (I don't think I am one of that "small group of users randomly selected" to test the layout)
The connection is pretty slow at my end today for some reason. And while the site was loading, it looked very similar to Facebook!!
Orkut blog has a post on Orkut being voted the new youth icon by MTV in India.
As soon as I saw the title of this post and the accompanying Doodle, the first fear I had, even before reading the post, was that this would be splashed on Orkut's login page.
And yes, as soon as I saw the login page of Orkut, my fears were proven right. Now, how can someone at Google be stupid enough to do it?
The Marketing folks at MTV would be delighted by the free mileage they must be getting. Orkut attracts huge traffic in India (check this trends comparison on the traffic. Esp. in India) and having your icon flashed free of cost on the homepage is something. I consider it the second biggest and costliest mistake this month by Orkut folks in India, the first was of course the Independence day stunt with really badly created polls (see the choices given in the polls, if you still don't get it read the comments. "I am shocked", " Shame on u" are but a few).
Facebook, here I come!
One of the first issues I faced with AdWords conversion tracking was really ridiculous. I thought we had inserted the conversion code in the right page at the right place. Still conversions didn't show up.
What had happened was that we were using an interface to change the code and all line feeds in the Google Conversion tracking script were converted to break tags (BTW, try entering the correct break tag in Compose mode in Blogger and see if it posts right). The technical guys noticed this immediately but kept saying, "Google cannot track the conversion if the codes have any extra character... " and a Google Engineer said, "the conversion code wont work with the < b.r/> tag." I wonder if they knew the real reason?
A little knowledge of JavaScript cleared the whole issue immediately. The reason, simply put, is that the < b.r/> tags inserted cause the JavaScript interpreter to fail in the user's browser and hence tracking fails. The solution is to make sure that there are no line feeds in any javascript in between your script tags. And make sure all those semicolons are in place too for the tracking to work...
Some over enthused software engineers at Google India pre-announced gifts on the eve of India's 60th Independence day. Turns out its a facility to search the web in some Indian languages and an online transliteration tool. Big deal! The transliteration facility was enabled in Blogger way back.
Plus, I already know a few others who have worked on it way longer and have already released full fledged products. For example, Professor Kalyana Krishnan from IITM has been working on this problem (medium of interaction) for ages. You can read more about the various software he developed on his website. Quill pad made by two of his students (KS and Rampi) has been available for quite some time now and is already integrated with Rediff mail and Bol.
While I was busy figuring out how to embed Google Maps into this blog and changing my templates (previous post), Google announced an easy way out! From yesterday, users can add a map to their website or blog as an iframe into their page code.
Though the press release doesn't list availability in India yet(!), you could zoom into a city map of India at a 15+ level (enough to see all those by lanes) . An option also enables you to easily customize the maps while previewing. A little more understanding of the parameters that are passed and I am sure you can disable the options like zooming in and map type (if you want).
Here are a few methods of including Google Maps into your webpages. So, coming soon my treks, drives and photos of the same on this Blog.
Google has this knack of slipping in improvements from time to time. The only way I notice changes sometimes is thru the font format changes.
Now, in the AdWords Campaign Summary page, there is so much information that it is sometimes hard to notice a changes even if they are staring in your face. No wonder they have a Account Snapshot page as the first thing you see when you log in as an option.
For instance, the new CPC site targeting option is now available in India for testing. I completely missed it till I got a mail from the Google Account Manager (it might be invitation only at this point of time).
Changing your existing Site Targeted CPM campaigns into CPC based ones is a little tricky and read the instructions before you blindly change as your CPM bids (optimized over time?) are deleted.
Among other things Adwords...
- exporting to Google Docs option now available
- forcing users to shift to AdWords editor, a few days after announcing AdWords Editor 4.0. Wonder why? Some issues here, if you are upgrading from earlier versions, you might have to manually uninstall and delete previous version before installing this version. Really wonder why?
- changes to Top Ad Placement Formula
Note: All links in the posts from now on will open in a new window.
Google adds StarOffice to its pack, its collection of free software. Though Star office costs quite a bit ($69.95), its free with the Google Pack.
Just beware while downloading as it has a huge installer (~140 MB), and it can be a bit slow during use. Comparison of features between various office apps here.
What I am interested though is, Google's version of why it didn't choose OpenOffice, the slightly stripped down LGPL version of StarOffice.
Note (17th Aug): The comparison page link given above compares various office productivity apps. Its pretty old (created in May 2005) and the versions reviewed in there are as of that date. Thanks to the reader for pointing it out.
Red Cross image courtesy WikipediaMay 8th 2002, the International Red Cross Society themed its World Red Cross Day as “Stop Misuse of the Red Cross Emblem” (the Geneva Convention of 1960 restricts the use of the emblem).
From then on, only personnel of the Red Cross Movement, the Army Medical Corps, the Red Crescent Societies and a few other bodies were allowed to use "its emblem" in India. With this, all Chemist and Clinical establishments in India moved over to a Green Cross.
Turns out that Johnson & Johnson has been using the red cross since 1887. This was "much before" the chartering of the American Red Cross, (found in 1881 by Clara Barton ?), which it is suing now because they have licensed the trademark to several business for commercial purposes.
There is a nice PR battle going on between the two organizations. Most important is the Red cross' allegations that, "J&J demands that the Red Cross, stop the Red Cross and its licensing partners from using the Red Cross emblem permanently on first aid, preparedness and related products sold to the public". While J&J maintains, "The goal of this civil complaint is to restore the long-held legal boundaries surrounding the use of the Red Cross trademark" which has been established between both organizations during the century old strong cooperation.
I think, currently, it is J&J - 1 and Red Cross - 0. Thanks to Mark Everson, the Red Cross' president loosely stating, "For a multi billion-dollar drug company to claim that the Red Cross violated a criminal statute, . . . simply so that J&J can make more money, is obscene." So much for the nuances in languages in Red Cross' press releases
Update (13th Aug '07): Kilmer House (one of the many blogs of J&J) has an update on the who issue with some background.
I work for J&J currently. These are my personal opinions and don't have anything to do with the company stand.
Today, collections of data are distributed across individuals and communities. Semantic Interoperability of Metadata and Information in unLike Environments, an MIT project aims to develop tools (open source under BSD-style license) based on Semantic Web technologies for improving access, management and reuse among such distributed digital assets.
The project also aims to implement a digital asset dissemination architecture based upon web standards. The dissemination architecture will provide a mechanism to add useful "views" to a particular digital artifact (i.e. asset, schema, or metadata instance), and bind those views to consuming services.Here is a great example of one of the SIMILE project put to work. All M&A by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon to date.
Searching for some information on baby care on Google, I noticed a malware message below a search result. Now, its a serious blot to the image of a baby care manufacturer that proclaims its products to be safe :).
Pun apart, its the fist time I noticed such a message in Google search result. Started around August 2006, they now show a malware warning below the title of the search result which the Google blog says is for, "protecting Google users by showing warnings before they visit dangerous sites."
In this matter too, Google seems to have taken an attitude akin to its YouTube policy of appeal and we will review your request. In this case a third organization called StopBadware.org. Searching for this particular site in their database reveals that the site has note been evaluated yet nor appealed.
I wonder why Google doesn't directly report a site to StopBadware if its spiders detect something malicious?
As an aside, there is a plug-in for IE and Firefox called SiteAdvisor, that provide safety ratings for sites (has a compiled list of sites) by displaying different colors (green, yellow, red) next to the search results.
I smell some thing fishy reading Wojcicki's interview on Reuters.
" What we are very careful about is traditional behavioral targeting," Wojcicki said. "Nothing is stored, nothing is remembered. It all happens within that session."How long is a Google Search session? I have heard various numbers ranging from 8 minutes to 15 minutes on an average depending on the country. Now thats a lot of time and a person can be doing tens (if not hundreds) of queries in that time. I personally think there is something profound hidden there. Correct me if I am wrong.
I haven't given many interviews in my life, but the few I have given were really agonizing. After going thru the entire interview process, there are just a couple of companies that I have felt bad about not being able to make into. For all others, I praised my stars for not 'making it' and joining those 'great' people(who interviewed me) in their work.
The first thing that you notice is the arrogance of people, especially Indians. However lousy the job, you see, you have made the mistake by applying and showing your interest. The fact that you are at their 'mercy' will be rubbed in at every given opportunity in the process. The first manifestation is the adherence to time. 80% of the interviews I gave, have started late. Late by a few minutes to half an hour. Worst still, a couple didn't start at all. I of course, was on time for 99% of them and had to while away (even as I write this, I am waiting for a call, its already 30 mins late and I guess it will never happen). 100% of all Indians who I met/talked to subsequently, after the delay, didn't apologize. And 100% of the Foreigners who I met/talked to subsequently apologized for the delay, some profusely. And mind you, the lowest rank any of these Foreigners was holding was that of a Country Director! I wonder when we Indians will start appreciating the value of time of others!
Then what hits you is the non existent HR. I think that HR in every company in India is populated with the most idiotic and lazy people on earth (sorry if you belong to that breed. I will hold my opinions till I find enough good HR people). The fact that the recruiting company itself doesn't trust them comes out clearly, when the only HR person person you hear from is on the phone scheduling interviews. I have had an experience when the HR person contacted me and sent me a case almost 8 months after I applied. Prompt action, I must say. Sample this gem, "Just Suppose, Clouds had strings attached to them which hang down to earth. What would happen?" Shows how much work they have been doing of late to dream up that question. Then there are the standard questions you would have tired of. (Business Week summarizes these questions and my attitude to these in a good way). Lastly, they have the liberty to come up with the most ridiculous statement to reject a candidate. Something like, "on the personal side... well... the bonding... it didn't click." What better do you expect from them - they are HR people after all.
There of course is the famed process of selection. If you are an MBA, take it that there is no process. Case studies, role plays, problems, psychometric tests, everything and anything can be thrown at you depending on the whim of the person interviewing you. The best thing to do would be, expect the unexpected - don't prepare. For a start, the processes I have given start from one interview to thirteen interviews (this could have been more). Totally personal to totally technical and in some random order. And every time, I have been told that this is a 'structured' process and has been carefully made for the company to screen and select the right candidates. Right then, the only question I have when I hear this is, why are there so many stupid people in your organization inspite of this process?
The last thing is the closure of the entire interview process. The thumb rule in India is that you will never be notified that the position has been filled. While I can understand that communicating the bad news that you haven't made can be tough. But, as I said earlier, its really insulting to leave people in the lurch after the entire process. Worst still, giving ridiculous reasons like, "Sorry about the delay in the process. We do keep the candidate posted about his/ her candidature. Unfortunately with this position, we seem to be stuck, since there is an organisational restructuring that is taking place. As of now, we are unsure about how long this will take. Everyday we are awaiting some news about the position. It is unfortunate that we are unable to do speed up the process. Please bear with us." Yeah, we will grin and bear it.
I don't think that most companies in India realize that this kind of behavior leaves really bad taste in one's mouth for a long time and they can loose some really good talent for a long time. Joel Spolsky summarizes it in a nice way in his article, "I always leave about five minutes at the end of the interview to sell the candidate on the company and the job. This is actually important even if you are not going to hire them. If you’ve been lucky enough to find a really good candidate, you want to do everything you can at this point to make sure that they want to come work for you. Even if they are a bad candidate, you want them to like your company and go away with a positive impression."
BTW, all things quoted in this article are my real experiences from a handful of interviews I have given to date. Watch this space for more on interviews.
Kernal trap has this nice node recalling the origin of linux.
I am sure every Linux enthusiast has chanced upon the "Hello netlanders, Due to a project I'm working on (in minix), I'm interested in the posix standard definition" mail. Nonetheless, its nice to go thru those early emails on Linux again.
Plus bonus at the end of the article, the version 0.01 of Linux.
Another productivity tool for small budget advertisers was released by Google today. The Campaign optimizer for AdWords.
It basically analyzes your campaign settings to check what worked or haven't worked well in your campaigns. Then throws up a few tweaks in terms of budget, keywords, keyword matches, bids and ad text. Add a regrouping strategy to the analysis/results and its ready to seriously affect the business of SEM firms.
Its not yet active for India though.
If you are a GMail fan (and use Firefox), this productivity list is a must read to update yourself of the possibilities with GMail.
Seth Godin in his blog note on Empathy says, blogs are boring because "they are about the writer, not the reader."
If you think this is the case here, read the header and blog description, go away, do whatever, this is my blog!
Last week I discovered that YouTube uses Tacoda to do behavioral targeting of ads and made a note somewhere to read up a bit on the company.
It did occur to me that it was prime target for a take over by Google. And today, I found out Tocada is being bought over by AOL!
The other day I overheard a few people, working in the technology domain, talking about a new Wiki in their workplace. Good initiative, but I don't think its going to work in the corporate environments of today.
HBS has this nice interview between Professors Karim R. Lakhani and Andrew McAfee at the end of an article on how Wikipedia works. I have just taken a few snippets that are pretty much my arguments on why Wiki's wouldn't work in corporates.
- Value: "How valuable is the corporate encyclopedia" or collaboration or open discussions for the managers and top bosses? In corporates, decision making is usually top down.
- Incentive: "How much enthusiasm or incentive do we have to contribute to the corporate encyclopedia." By the way, how many senior people do you think are technology enthusiast or early adopters and willing to contribute to a Wiki?
- Openness: In corporates, knowledge and information is power and is the one thing that counts in keeping you where you are. You open up information and people a little more smarter can critique you and worst still, upstage you. Its "a technology that enables self-selection, transparency, openness—how does a manager or management deal with that?"
- Peer Wisdom: In corporates superior and boss wisdom is what counts! In Wiki's "peer review is critical. A challenge for firms that are used to managing employees and allocating the resources in a very top-down kind of way."Can the boss take a subordinate editing and correcting his comments?
- Freedom: "Wikis rely on the foundation of free expression. But can employees feel free to express their opinions to everyone in the company as Wikipedians do in their world? The CEO might be reading it, after all."
- Boundaries: "There's lots of knowledge in the outside world". Will the corporate "enable the outside world (suppliers, consumers) to interact with them?"
A colleague forwarded a wonderful Nike ad that featured two celebrities and after going home I happened to see some ads featuring Indian Sports and Movie stars, in total contrast to the international ad. This set me thinking on celebrity endorsements and advertisements in India.
We see more and more Indian companies falling into the trap of using a celebrity to get their message across. The culprit in my opinion is the creative agency's' ineptitude. But the client is also to blame for this.
Usually the agency lacks ideas and what is best way to cover it up? A celebrity. I have a personal experience, in the company I work, of the agency proactively coming up with a celebrity creative (with the name of the celebrity of course) way off the marketing task.
Then there is the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) on using a celebrity (he either knows or has already signed one). Most likely this person had fallen into the trap of using a well-known face to stand out when the agency comes with mediocre ideas. Or when attacked by competition with a celebrity, he decides to retaliate with another one.
I have compiled a few ads (thanks to YouTube and the choice of a custom embed player) I have lined up starting with good (first 6) to mediocre (next 3) to bad (last 4).
No doubt a celebrity can get you saliency, make the new brand stand for something and influence purchase intention. But, they don't come cheap and can have a a polarizing effect on peoples opinion. Plus, the brand can sink with the celebrity's reputation.
Here a few pointers on how to make and evaluate good celebrity ad.
- Don't take the fish out of a pond, don't make a cricketer an actor and vice versa (Adidas-Prayers is a good example).
- Don't use a celebrity if he is not adding any value to the brand. (The Acer office ad is something I fail to understand. Hritik is an actor, a damn good one at that. What is he doing in the office?)
- Weave interesting stories around around a celebrity and if possible his star value (Coke-Thanda, Toyota Innova are good examples)
- Have a long term strategy of using the celebrity. You have already fallen into the trap of using the celebrity once. If the celebrity ad was great, rest assured the next ad you make is never going to match up.
The Business section of a paper had an article on Lenovo moving its entire Creative development to India.
"This could very well be Indian advertising's moment of reckoning.Big mistake. Whoever thought India was 'the' place to move high end creative work to. It is cheap, no doubt. But its cheap in every sense, cost and creativity too. India is the place to find good Engineers and Doctors. You get it - technical talent. At this point of time, good creative talent in India is not only rare but has completely deserted the media field.
Lenovo, the world's third largest personal computer maker, has decided to outsource all - repeat all - its international marketing-campaign activities to India, the first time a global corporation has done so. "
I might be wrong here because there are some Highest Paid Person's Opinion's (HiPPO) which are contrary due to which Lenovo decided on this move. The WSJ says, "Mr. Deepak Advani got the idea for the hub because he was impressed by the slick Lenovo ads that Ogilvy's India team had created for the Indian domestic market".
I wonder, how can he refer to these ads for Lenovo as slick (just ignore the first 20 secs of the VO at the beginning).
All I have to say to marketers is that India's time will come in the creative fields. Till then, don't be penny wise and pound foolish. You are going to spend millions in making these sick ads and then airing them.
Google recently announced the launch of Adwords Print Ads as beta in US (long time in the making). It calls this system a dynamic offer-based marketplace – not an auction.
The system works in a fairly simple way. Advertisers propose the price they’re willing to pay for an advertisement, and publishers accept or decline those bids based on factors like day-of-week, desired newspaper section, pre-established rates for the advertiser’s industry and available inventory.
With a note at the end that Google will help a person connect with professionals who can help create and manage their ads, its a clear pitch to the small budget advertisers, who can't afford big publications and have so far been happy advertising using Google adwords, to leverage Newspapers - an important component in any advertiser’s media mix.
There is a big problem though, its not going to work for Google! I say this because I fail to understand what value Google is adding in the whole process. While the goal is to extend its position as the nexus between advertisers, publishers, and customers beyond the Internet, its off strategy of 'organizing the worlds information' and some one at Google is going to wake up soon enough to realize it.
The second issue, the target for this service - small advertisers (big advertisers will continue using media houses to provide the service for them). Small advertisers flock Adwords because it works! The beauty of Google's Adwords are its algorithms that link the appropriate ads with each search query or page of online content. What's more, there is immense value in its reports that a small advertiser can unlock, real time, understand what's working and better target his campaigns. In print ads, Google is at the mercy of publications who will sift thru bids, ok them and place it where ever they want on the page. What's Google going to do - show circulation figures, offer help in creating print ads, be the feedback loop, confirm if the ad was shown and...?
Its early days in the experiment. While the game plays out, expect thousands of small Grayscale ads on news papers (definitely not full paged ones).
Google seems to be optimizing its GMail login page. This morning when I visited Gmail, the new user signup button was different.
A little research and I came up with a number of variations on the button including a whole new page.
This post might not be relevant to a number of visitors on this site. None the less, keeping in my Google tracking spirit, here are new features in Google Adwords. I saw them opening up when we started using contextual advertising.
I have been waiting for such reports for over an year now and remember discussing atleast two of the following in my interview with Google!
- Pay Per Action: Comes to India (and available globally), 3 months after it started in US. Allows the advertiser to pay only for completed actions that one defines (lead, a sale, pageview etc.,). Limited to the content network as of now. If it moves into Search, I know of a few SEO /Search marketing companies whose Business Models will come under serious threat because of this.
- Share of Voice reporting: A little different from the conventional SOVs. Tells the advertiser, the percentage of times the ads were actually shown in relation to the total number of chances the ads could have been shown. What's more find out the percentage SOV lost due to your Ad Rank and Budget constraints.
- Reach-Frequency reporting: Available in Site Targeting campaigns, tells how many users saw an ad and how frequently they viewed it over a period of time.
- Placement Performance report: Tells you where your ad featured in the Content Network - increased transparency into their performance according to Google!
Notice the new search box above the blog archive in this page? It allows you to not just search posts on this site but also articles I have linked to and all the link lists on this site. Go ahead, try it. The results are shown at the top of the page (and not in a new search result page) so that you can continue reading the post you want to.
To add the element into your blog, go to Blogger in draft and choose the element from the layout. There is also a poll element you can add to the site. I wish they had that poll element included in the create post pages, so that I can have a small poll running below each of my post asking the readers to rate my posts (on a 5 point scale) with a nice small graph display.
Its built using the AJAX Search API (main page), and is powered by a Linked Custom Search Engine (CSE).
Another WIP, experiment with CSE when I have time!
I think I should start a separate Google blog and also read their privacy policy more closely! Well, big brother is watching you more than you think or would want it to.
You log in and use the Google search, it tells you the number of times you clicked on the same link and the last time you clicked on it! Do what you want - logout, close session its still there, well the Web History is obviously not for fun or discovery!
Have you ever noticed the 'Note this' button on the Google search results? I don't know when the integration into search happened, but I just notice it.
I did hear about Google Notebook long back but dismissed it off as an attempt at adapting another Windows app for the Web. Now that I have played with it and understood it a little better, I think its a nice little app.
Google Notebook (and the link in the search results) allows you to clip parts (text,images, links, whatever) of a webpage or search result and take notes while searching or browsing. You can then organize your research, add personal notes and share it with others.
There is a probable hidden agenda for Google here! Pages being noted are in all likely hood most meaningful and also related to each other for that query or note. I am sure the engineers at Google have a nice little hack tracking what pages are being noted together. At a later stage they can easily integrate it into their search results. Now this is making others organize the worlds information! :)
I don't know if Google Coop took off, but this seems to be a much better way of achieving the same objectives...
- show results that reflect your knowledge and interests and
- help improve Google web search for specific subjects by noting/labeling the best sites
- add custom search results to Google search for users who trust you
HBS working knowledge has an insightful interview with Professor Mark Bradshaw who discusses his findings from his research 'Playing Favorites: Financing Options Sway Analysts' Thinking'.
What I like about Google is its quest to be a little better every day(even though its a market leader and believe me all market leaders are complacent). The small little things you notice from time to time on their products in bold or red or with a New! superscript are fun to test and play with.
Better still is their labs showcasing products that aren't quite ready for prime time.
A few days back, noticing the spike in news articles on iPhone (thanks to all their PR), I had an idea of writing a small hack in Python to download all news on iPhone that I can then sort and graphically plot (this hack is still WIP and I will eventually do it once I get enough time on hand). The idea came as Google trends reports the events a little dated.
Here is Google experimental, that has solved my problem to some extent.
Go Play!
Edit: Chanced upon this article on iPhone lust with a few interesting statistics.
As soon as Terry Semel (timeline) quit as CEO of Yahoo!, the financial world is abuzz with what's wrong with Yahoo. Where were they when the tech world was screaming on how Yahoo is blowing it?
There is still a huge void when it comes to the financial world interpreting all things tech...
The entire day yesterday was spent in thinking on how to make a good price announcer communication in line with equity of the brand/product I handle!
Reviewing some of the communication done in India on Low Cost Outlay packs, I chanced upon this ad of Coca Cola which I think, is a gem of an ad when it comes to communicating the price and staying within the brand foot print.
The great thing about this ad is that it is Insight driven, Unique and gives the Value proposition in the form of a great story! What's more, while telling the price story, this ad fits in nicely with the entire Aamir Khan series of Coke ads driving the single, totally own able, 'thanda matlab' idea!
It’s a disgraceful feeling coming back from airports in India. The airports are pathetic when it comes to infrastructure - ticketing facilities, security clearance, baggage clearance, seating space, food, toilets - the list is endless. That story some other time.
This post is about an experience I had recently and is about the transportation facilities to and from the airports in India.
The story starts in Chennai, the city legendary for its defunct auto meters (an interesting take by Vatsa on Chennai autogaars)! Its 19:10 hrs, I am at Mylapore about 11 kms away from the airport and I have a 20:05 hrs flight to catch. Fortunately or unfortunately I have already checked in for the flight and the hunt for a means to reach the airport starts.
Me: Auto
Auto 1 – Driver stops next to me and asks, “Enga ponum saar”? This is Trick no.1. The auto drivers understand English and Hindi perfectly. You speak in a language other than Tamil, they know you are not from that part of the country and the game starts.
Me: Airport. Evalalo?
Auto 1 – Driver scratching his stubble, “Domestic aa International aa?” The Trick no.2, a question to check if you know the city. In Chennai, the entrances of domestic and international are almost next to each other. You flinch answering this question, you are dead!
Me: Domestic.
The driver not wasting a second, “200 kudungo saar”.
I start walking, looking for another rickshaw. The driver realizes that though I am probably not from the town, I seem to know my bearings.
So he follows me slowly in his vehicle and asks, “Evalo taringa saar”? Here comes the Trick no. 3, to check if you know the city, the distances and the rates. You quote the correct rate, chances are he will not haggle and agree straight away - if you are lucky that is! You quote any random number, he knows you don't know and you know he knows you don't know and the game is up!
I am caught, as I have never traveled from that point to the airport ever. So decide that it is best to avoid the question and start looking for another auto.
Me: Auto
Auto 2 Driver slows down.
Me: Airport. Evalalo?
Auto 2 Driver asks, “Domestic aa International aa”? See all drivers have mastered the trick!
Me: Domestic.
Auto 2 Driver knows that I have already rejected one auto, thinks for a while and says, “170”
Me having wasted 5 precious minutes look at another rickshaw and stop the third one. Me: Auto. AUTO!!
Auto 3 Driver immediately slows down, “Enga ponum?”
Me: Airport. Evalalo?
Auto 3 Driver having already seen me rejecting 2 guys, “150 kudungo”
Instinct told me not to trust this guy. But in the interest of catching the flight, I agree. As soon as I got in, I tell him to take me as fast as he could to the airport. My goof and his Trick no 4, knowing your weakness or soft spot. Now, avenues have opened up for him to squeeze that extra money from you tapping this. And as expected the guy takes a route different from the one I took to reach that place from the airport. And yes, it was longer. All the while he was telling me some story on how he was trying to help me reach the airport faster.
Its 20:40hrs now, I don't know where I am! Finally, he takes a turn and I notice a board indicating the way to the airport. 20:47 hrs, I can see the airport wall and suddenly the driver turns into a Petrol pump saying his is almost out of petrol. What? I never noticed him check his damn fuel gauge. The Trick 5 comes here; take an advance higher than the trip fare. Usually, fill in fuel worth (Rs.30-50) more than the trip amount and ask you to pay it. Never fall into this trap! If you do, kiss that extra amount good bye.
By this time, I had given hope of catching my flight. I jump out of the rickshaw, hand him Rs.100/- cursing him for his treachery and run onto the road to catch another one.
Me: Auto
Auto no 4 Driver slows down.
Me: Airport.
Auto no 4 driver, “Domestic aa International aa”? Gawd! I can see the damn airport!
I jump into the auto tell him to race to Domestic terminal. The driver realizes I am in a hurry. While on the way, I ask him how much and he asks for Rs.50, which I have no choice but to accept even though it was ridiculous as I could see the damn entrance of the airport. I reach the airport entrance at 20:52 and as I enter, I can hear my name being called for the final boarding. Anyway, as there was no crowd, I check in real fast and at 20:57 hrs I step into the flight 3 minutes before the departure.
The 90 minute long flight brought my anger down a bit as I was thinking that, at least in Mumbai, I wouldn't have to haggle on the fare etc., What I didn’t know was that more was to come.
I get down at the Mumbai airport at 22:30 hrs. Reach the taxi stand in front, wait my turn for a taxi for about 10 minutes and finally get into the taxi.
Taxi Driver, “Kahaan”?
Me: Mahim.
Taxi Driver immediately says, “Boss, barah ghante wait karna padta hai turn ke liye”? The damn Trick no 6, lament and get sympathy. The hint that he is going to charge more (probably double) than the meter. And all this, right under the nose of the traffic constable who made me sit in the taxi in the first place. If this is the case, I wonder why in the world they timepass for 12 hrs at the airport!
Me: Chalna hai ki nahi, meter pe?
Taxi Driver: Nahi.
I had no other option but to get out and decide that enough was enough and start walking to the exit of the airport. As I walk, an auto driver, who has obviously dropped some one and was going out, slows down and looks at me expectantly.
Me: Bandra?
He immediately gestures me to get in which I do. A little later, I reach my destination and as I get down check the Meter. Its Rs.28 for the trip. The guy notices this and immediately says, “Pachaas do”.
Me: Kya, meter kitna hua?
Auto driver, “airport se aaye hain, wahan police ko das-bees rupay dena padta hai”.
That was it, I had seen enough and this time I decide to take his case.
Me: Chalo Police ke paas, mere aagey paise dena usko.
He stares at me and then says, “do jitna dena hai”. I give him 30 and decide not to take any more cabs/autos for the day.
The Google Reader blog, has an interesting piece on the use of next bookmarkelet to scroll thru your feeds. Playing with it, led me to to the end of the internet. As usual already noted by a few.
I have a e2800+ smart-phone. It runs on a linux distro and has a touchscreen. While I like everything about the phone, typing text on the phone can be annoying at times. More so when you are traveling, an issue which is sure to come up with the Apple's iPhone. Sure it has cool features, but for it to take on the myriad of smart-phone's and PDA's it needs an easy input method too.
Here is Z1 from the inventors of T9 the text input method of choice on more than 2 billion mobile phones. Well, its cool and its easy!
With all the hype on Safari going on, I decided to download Safari and give it a test drive...
The first thing that I noticed immediately after firing up the browser on installation was the rendering. If you have stared at a computer screen running Windows or Linux for ages, chances are you wouldn't like the way things look on Safari. The fonts look fuzzy and funny! No wonder this was debated so hotly.
Using it a little more, I couldn't help but fall in love with Firefox all over again. Firefox has these subtle nuances that I have begun to notice after using Safari. And clearly, Safari is not made for someone who depends less on the mouse. Here are a few annoyances that I picked in half an hour of Safari use...
The first thing that I noticed immediately after firing up the browser on installation was the rendering. If you have stared at a computer screen running Windows or Linux for ages, chances are you wouldn't like the way things look on Safari. The fonts look fuzzy and funny! No wonder this was debated so hotly.
Using it a little more, I couldn't help but fall in love with Firefox all over again. Firefox has these subtle nuances that I have begun to notice after using Safari. And clearly, Safari is not made for someone who depends less on the mouse. Here are a few annoyances that I picked in half an hour of Safari use...
- The entire URL is not selected when you click the address bar which makes you select the entire text to overwrite or delete.
- If multiple tabs are open, Ctrl-Tab to switch between tabs doesn't work.
- The position of the cursor esp in the text box isn't remembered when I switch between windows.
- The browser window rendering is slow when you resize it (see image). Realized the CPU usage is 100% when this is done!
- It still crashes intermittently and doesn't restore back the sessions. Mine is version 3.0.2 (522.13.1) and it crashed twice during the course of this entry!!
- Can't resize the text size with Ctrl-mouse scroll wheel.
- Backspace and Shift-Backspace to go back/forward doesn't work.
- Ctrl/Shift-Enter to complete the URL's doesn't work.
- No add-ons!
Ok, that's enough for me! Firefox, here I come!!
Here's a bigger list of annoyances with a nice debate at the end. And yes, the folks at Apple seem to be tracking annoyances and more and fixing them in their nightly's.
Here's a bigger list of annoyances with a nice debate at the end. And yes, the folks at Apple seem to be tracking annoyances and more and fixing them in their nightly's.
Its close to 2 weeks now since Apple released Safari browser for Windows and things are getting clearer on Apple's strategy. Clearly, its not money as Apple has no hopes of making any revenues on Safari whatsoever (unless it has an agreement with Google like Firefox foundation for integrating Goolge search into the browser).
Well it's about gaining market share without pissing off Bill Gates. Bob Cringely has two articles on this, wherein he points out the need for having higher customization of AJAX apps for Safari because of its integration into the iPhone (plus there is the agenda of Google!) and also to offer a broader array of web services to its customers on the iPhone.
I see some reason in this strategy but doubt if web developers are going to sit up immediately and write/modify AJAX applications specifically for Safari and hence the iPhone. As these statistics for current usage of browser and PC OS show, this will definitely take some time. Millions of people have to download the Safari browser or alternately millions of iPhones have to be sold for customising of AJAX applications to start.
While all this on, I wonder what would happen if somehow the Internet Explorer or Firefox were to be ported and made available for free for iPhone within months of its release!
Going thru the recent set of Ads that Indian FMCG behemoth HLL has made, one does wonder why they are overusing Kids (not counting ads for their Kids products)? Is it the easy way out to catch attention, engage viewers and make ads appealing?
Watch these recent ads (free publicity for HLL :)...
- Pepsodent
- Surf Excel [1] [2]
- Clinic Plus
- Lifebuoy
- Pears
- Pears Germshield
- Vaseline
- Vaseline Aloefresh
- Hamam
- Annapurna (old)
- Kissan (old)
- Brooke Bond
- Rin (old)
- Knorr (old)
- Ponds white beauty
I hope this is a conscious decision for it might be working at the moment. But long term, its going to do them more harm than good!!
Here is a nice story of how the baby business of Johnson and Johnson started. I am obviously kicked to know that the product I handle currently, is the first baby product of the company, worldwide as well as in India!
Following yesterday's tech news was sweet!
First there was the announcement that Apple was releasing Safari browser for Windows claiming 'blazing performance' with 2x speed improvements in page loads and JavaScript executions. Within hours there were a number of bugs[1] [2] [3] reported on this beta release.
Firstly, I do not think '2x faster' is a big claim when the difference is in microseconds. Plus, the fine print says that the test was done on an iMac system running Windows XP. Now, what is the performance of the browser on a PC running Windows where it is most likely to be used? The bigger thing though which comes second, is how did Apple miss these bugs in its tests? It took others just hours to find them using publicly available software (like hamachi).
Among the other interesting things... here is one by Joel Splosky on the font rendering in Safari. He goes on to talk about the preference of people and makes a motherhood statement on the outcome of preference studies - "when you do preference surveys, you'll find that most people don't really know what to choose, and will opt for the one that seems most familiar. This goes for anything from silverware (people pick out the patterns that match the silverware they had growing up) to typefaces to graphic design: unless people are trained to know what to look for, they're going to pick the one that is most familiar". Hmm, I should check on the accuracy of this one.
The other day, I decided to take a walk with a camera in hand to see if I can capture something interesting. And well, this is Mumbai and you have zillions of interesting things happening at once...
One of the most interesting things I observed was this family of five - Husband, Wife with their Mother and two little girls - parked right in the center of the road on the divider next to a street lamp. They were laborers, probably homeless and planning to spend the night right there, with their entire belongings in a small sack next to them.
What was interesting about them was that they were happening to use a branded product. The product in question was Pond's Magic talcum powder (I wish I had a telephoto lens to capture the moment better). It was the violet colored pack and that too the biggest size available that I wouldn't mistake even in my dreams. The woman applied oodles of powder from the pack on the girls first and then on her husband.
Soft n fresh talc with Acacia honey - the pack claims!
"Mann chahi khoobsoorti?" - the advertisement says!
"Mann chahi khoobsoorti?" - the advertisement says!
Well, these people were not using it for beauty, confidence or for that 'motivational claim level' honey definitely!!
Their need was much more basic and this communication would have sufficed for them to go and pick the product. Wonder when these people will come into the radar of us marketing folks ?
ps: I suggest you read the advt link - its hilarious.
As a contrast to annoying layout and badly written Google article of NYT, here is well written article complemented by the layout by the Economist on Steve Jobs' attempt to take Apple to new heights with the iPhone).
The article is written keeping in mind the end reader who picks up the Economist, with enough background support and insights. What's more its laid out very well on the page.
My trip on Google continues...
Saw a post on the size of Google and decided to plot the Market Share of various Google Products versus the second leading player (this is work in progress and hopefully I will have the stats up soon) .
The below shares (% of all Google properties) are dated (outdated if you consider internet time!) and of US alone but the overall picture is clear, around 87% of the traffic that Google gets is for search ...
Source: Hitwise
Below is a comparison across categories (more dated) to put the above numbers in perspective. Note: Google Search now has 65%+ market share...
Here is a story on how Google keeps tweaking its search engine on New York Times that I am sure has been picked up by every tech site by now, opined by most tech enthu bloggers by now (or will soon be) and will probably be referred to by most Indian newspapers in their tech sections in days to come.
I am not going to write on what's in there; actually nothing much that you wouldn't didn't already know. Well, I picked up less than half a dozen interesting points for which I could say "Aha! I didn't know that". But, what irritated me most was almost all the 'Aha' moments could be summed from what was written on the last page and I had to endure three mouse clicks, 23 image ads and 17 text ads to reach that page! Besides Seth Godin puts it in 5 elegant paragraphs.
...with the cool looking and functioning Microsoft Surface. Read the article and see the video on Popular Mechanics.
Video Courtesy: Popular Mechanics
Here is a thought provoking article from Bob Cringely wherein he argues that Google is sowing seeds to its eventual destruction. While I don't think that Google is anywhere close to its demise, the article has interesting pointers on the sustainability of business ideas generated by its employees in 20% of their work time.
Now, I work in an MNC and I know the pressures when you have to execute a new idea - Is it the right business? Is the timing right? What are the returns? So on and so forth... He hits the bulls eye when he talks about the number of ideas that Google can take to market and the hundreds of dissatisfied employees whose ideas, though top class, haven't seen the light of the day. And yeah, he might be off on numbers but not all ideas that Google took to market are great (as shown by usage in this survey) while some good ideas might have been missed altogether.
Touchgraph (the website has now got a facelift!) and the TG-GoogleBrowser was one of the early visualization products I played with to visualize sales data.
Here are some pictures that tell a thousand words...
- The search clock by Chris Harrison which looks at search trends from 1997 to 2000
- The Wikipedia power struggle by Bruce Herr and Todd on what's happening on Wikipedia
- Clusterball by Chris Harrison visualizing Wikipedia
Immediately after posting the previous post on the blog, I checked the blog to see how the post came in the layout (with the image in it!). Surprised to find the archive show vague names...
'toukokuu', 'huhtikuu', I assume are finnish names for months... Wonder why they came up in my English blog !
Spending money on Google AdWords, you sometimes wonder if the biggest influencer's of ad click are the placement, the creatives, the brand name, the relevance etc., I would like to add a different dimension - the eye movement of the viewer. My previous web trawling exercises for any research that throws light on what parts a viewer concentrates on when looking at a search results page, returned nothing.
So, I was pleasantly surprised today, to find this (Courtesy:PR web)...
"The key location on Google for visibility as determined by the eye activity in the study is a triangle that extends from the top of the results over to the top of the first result, then down to a point on the left side at the bottom of the “above the fold” visible results. This key area was looked at by 100 percent of the participants. In the study, this was referred to as the “Golden Triangle”. Generally, this area includes top sponsored, top organic results and Google’s alternative results, including shopping, news or local suggestions"
Hmm... Now, if I were Google, I would be having a model that charges on a CPM basis for the top sponsored results ("being seen by 80 to 100% of participants") and a CTR basis for the others.
eBay seems to be pretty open in telling its investors its revenue model. Was given a case based on this model and a little post work revealed that I could have been better prepared to tackle the case. Any way's here's the model copied from the eBay investor site...
Transaction Revenues = Total Sellers x Listing per Seller x Conversion Rate x Average Sale Price x Take Rate
People in my office would understand what I am talking about :).
- Bing: 50 Bulls**t jobs
I noticed in a link posted today in a Slashdot article that the browser information is being passed in the Google query. Now, the browser gives out its information in the header anyway, then why are the Google guys passing it again? Quickly realized that the search bar of the browser is the culprit!
Some quick research online revealed that there has been some discussions on this already [1] [2] and it looks like there is probably some monetary gain in it for the browser developers for doing it. Then to my surprise found out that Mozilla is both a for-profit Corporation and non-profit Foundation - Mozilla Corporation is a taxable entity under Mozilla Foundation.
Firstly, how can I be in the dark about this for so long!! Still trying to think what the long term implication of this are going to be. Here are a few thought starters...
- Daniel Glazman: Mozilla corp in 12 simple items
- e-week: End of innocence
Chanced on two posts on brands/brand value today almost at the same time...
- Seth Godin: The brand formula
- Brand = [Prediction of what to expect] times [emotional power of that expectation].
- Millward Brown, FT Study: Google becomes the world's most valuable brand
- Google Brand Value = $ 66,434 Million .
I don't think anyone will think of Google as the best way to "organize their information". The Google brand stands for an offset of that mission. The first thing that comes to mind (my mind at least!) and what the brand stands for is of a search engine, so simple and so brilliantly efficient that you know you can always trust it to quickly give you the information you are looking for.
Don't know the specifics of the 'brand definition' based on which Millward Brown did its valuation. But if you think of it, Google has been branching into too many things thereby diluting its equity. Sure Search, Desktop, Gmail, Books, Directory etc., organize information and add to the expectation from Google. But there are so many other Google products that don't fit the bill!
So far Google managed to be a valuable brand because it stands for so few things with most people. If you look at this survey results, you will understand what I mean.
To cut a long story short, borrowing a few things from Seth and adding my own... Google may value whatever it has been valued at as of now, but if 'they do so many different things and because the value of what they create has little emotional resonance' they might be eroding their brand!!
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