Google to sponsor Man Utd?

Blue chip firms and mega-brands - including Google, Yahoo, IBM, Levi Strauss and Coca-Cola - are apparently lining up to take over the shirt sponsorship of Manchester United after Vodafone's decision to curtail its £9m a year shirt sponsorship deal. The Observer quotes unnamed City sources to support a theory that all are prepared to pay more than Vodafone in order to be associated with the Red Devils. Conspiracy theorists will note that Google recently established an office in Manchester.

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What do you get for $420 a GOOG?

"With a stock price topping $400 per share, a market cap of more than $100 billion and a war chest nearing $7 billion, Google is the "it" tech company of the moment."

But what do you get for $420 a share? News.com have a nice table outlining all the positives. For me, Google Base has the most potential financially...

Xooglers Blog

A Xoogler is an "ex-Googler". And Xooglers is the blog of the former Director of Consumer Marketing and Brand Management for Google, a "gathering spot for ex-Googlers to reminisce and comment on the latest developments in search".

[I notice he uses Blogger, so, like me, no longer working for Google doesn't mean hating them]

Free Google Wi-Fi at Heathrow

The temporary installation, termed Google Space, consists of ten Samsung laptops in the public lounge of Terminal One at London's main airport.

The stand will be staffed by at least two Google employees from 0700 to 1900 every day for the duration of the trial, which will run until 19 December.

Google staff will be flown in from around the world to man the station.
As part of the Space, people will also be able to provide feedback on Google's products, the first time the company has created such an open forum.

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Google Testing "Click-to-Call" Advertising

We're testing a new product that gives you a free and fast way to speak directly to the advertiser you found on a Google search results page – over the phone.

Here's how it works: When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click 'Connect For Free,' Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the other party. Then, chat away on our dime.

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Google Analytics overwhelmed

Such has been the demand for Google Analytics that Google have halted new registrations. This is not the first time Google have been unable to cope, and industry analysts are saying an invite only approach (like Gmail) would have been more sensible.

There have been over 230,000 accounts created in just one week.

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Adsense: "advertise on this site" feature

Now AdSense users can offer visitors the opportunity to advertise on their site, with Google running the show and taking a percentage.

I'll now be placing AdSense on all my sites!

GOOG tops $400

From the Washington Post:

Google stock broke through the $400 price level for the first time today amid optimism about a surge in online advertising during the holiday season and continuing projections for rapid, long-term growth.

The search engine that went public at $85-a-share in August 2004 has continually exceeded Wall Street forecasts for profits. At the new level above $400, Google's lofty stock market value of $117.7 billion makes the Silicon Valley firm worth tens of billions of dollars more than the combined value of Internet titans Amazon.com and Yahoo. The shares of Yahoo, Google's biggest rival, also hit a new 52-week high today.

Google Base is now Live

Google Base, a free Web-based database is now live. You you can browse stuff that's already been posted there or start uploading your own data. Already, there's recipes, classified ads, cars for sale & job listings.

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Google Analytics now FREE!

They bought this from Urchin earlier this year, and reduced the price from $495 to $199 per month. Now it is free. They want you to use it with AdWords, but it appears that you don't have to! I feel sorry for all the similar services out there... before long every webmaster will use this product instead, I think. Shares of WebSideStory fell 9 percent yesterday...
http://www.google.com/analytics/index.html

Radio Plug-In for Google Talk

Not a Google product, but works with Google Talk:

Think peer-to-peer music sharing is a thing of the past? You couldn't be more wrong. Mercora IMRadio—a way of sharing copyrighted digital music over the Internet without running afoul of the law—attracts 200,000 unique users a day, generating more than 2 million page views. At any given moment, you can search 50,000 to 60,000 channels of music. And it's completely free.

It is free and legal because the service pays broadcast royalties of 1/7 of a cent for each time a song is streamed, and because songs are streamed we (supposedly) can't save them on our computers. Read more...

Google Testing Newspaper Ads

The initiative, described by the spokesman as "a potential print ads test" would allow advertisers to purchase ad space in the papers through Google's
AdWords system.

The beta service, called Google Publication Ads, is by invitation only, even to users with AdWords logins. It allows users to select a publication or list of publications by demographics, circulation details, or keywords; design an ad that incorporates text and images; and submit the ad online. The ad will then be forwarded to the publisher for approval, and when the ad runs, the user receives a proof of publication and a bill.

But how do people click on a print ad? Read more...

Google Now Pocket-Sized

Google Local is available for download on more than 100 phone models. Compatible phones must run a programming language called Java Brew and have Internet data services included on users' monthly plans.

Google Local will let cell-phone users search for directions and local services and see maps and satellite images.

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AdSense Defector Leaks Info

A former participant in Google's AdSense program has roiled the online publishing community by alleging that Google's pricing system penalizes publishers that have even one low-performing site.

In an Oct. 25 post to WebMasterWorld, the former AdSense publisher, "Kurtpdx," claimed an AdSense representative told him that one low-performing site could cause Google to lower the ad prices of all sites in the publisher's account.

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Google buys cheap jet

Google have made a $15 million purchase of a used 767, that costs about a third of what a choice Gulfstream 550 business jet costs, and is 3 times as big. They're being practical and sensible with their money...

It was used by Qantas for 20 years then mothballed. If it were me, I would never fly a plane that was no longer good enough for Qantas... I wonder what would happen to Google if Brin and Page demised in a crash??

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Google Print now available to search

Sensibly, the titles on offer so far are all in the public domain. If this is all Google ever offer, it's still a great resource! Visit Google Print.

So far the collection includes history books about the U.S. Civil War from the University of Michigan; writings by Henry James from Harvard; government documents from Stanford; and biographies from the New York Public Library.

The books are searchable and, says Google, users can browse every page and save individual pages. Because the books were scanned in, users can also view the covers and illustrations online.

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Google Being Used For Image Campaign

There's no change for the documents that intended to explain the effects of RFID technology on consumer privacy. The document is scheduled for release on Friday. Web surfers will find it by typing into the search bar one of several keywords such as "RFID investing," "RFID," "RFID Spychips," and "Spychips," each word or phrase costs something different and is associated with a different advertising campaign that could last for weeks.

So, instead of selling a product or service, Adwords ads are now being used to promote a nice feel for a new concept, or in this case, to counter negative publicity about RFID being bad

Google becoming an OpenOffice developer?

"We want to hire a couple of folks to help make OpenOffice better," DiBona said.
Google has shown an affinity for open-source software, which are programs developed in the open and available for free. Many of the company's programmers came of age in the open-source era, so advancing the open-source agenda comes naturally, DiBona said. But the company also has business reasons to justify its open-source embrace.

"We use a fair amount of open-source software at Google. We want to make sure that's a healthy community. And we want to make sure open source preserves competitiveness within the industry," he said.

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Google Flight Search

Just enter two airport codes, like JFK and LAX in the regular Google search box for links to the travel Web sites Expedia, Hotwire and Orbitz.