Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, and Dennis Hwang, Webmaster Manager and Chief Google Doodler Asks…. what if you could have your doodle on the page of Google in place of the logo?

Heh. Personally I would probably doodle something that would land me in trouble…they probably figured adults like me shouldn’t be turned loose with crayons. Therefore the kids get a whack at the scholarship.

However, with the Doodle 4 Google competition, we’re making an exception…

Doodle 4 Google gives U.S. students in grades K-12 the opportunity to design a doodle for the Google homepage. Students will be asked to draw a doodle that best represents the theme “What if…?” We ask ourselves this question every day when we build our products, so we thought we would ask the same of the future doodlers.

A panel of expert judges and Googlers will select 40 regional winners, who will be invited to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, in May. Four national finalists will be announced as the result of a public vote. From there, Dennis will select one lucky student whose doodle will be on the Google homepage for a day in the U.S. This winner will also receive a $10,000 college scholarship and a technology grant for his or her school.

Googleplex…ensure your children have security clearance! Seriously I am going to take my own shot at a doodle and try to sneak it in and save a kid (he or she can have the scholarship)…not like my GUID gives away my age…well I know it does, but I will try it anyway.

And for all of you that tried to draw Tippy the Turtle for years…this is your chance to subvert the system since we are going to stop taking it all so seriously.

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Paperghost serves up photos (nostalgia) behind our RSA 2007 trek…this post was short enough it should have been a “tweet”. I am beginning to think most communications could be tweets. Instead it got Pownced. Now I am fool enough to accept Sam Harrelson’s test of Grand Central and Spock…Facebook I resist- for now. I look for Google to sweep that up…

ADDENDUM- Why would Google sweep it up? Vinny Lingham’s take is pretty telling.

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Thanks to a Twitter from Steve Rubel who did some probing at Technorati on “Twitter”. (I know- not a perfect process either- no data source is near it.)

Technorati

Any Authority
Posts that contain Twitter per day for the last 30 days.

A Lot of Authority

Posts that contain Twitter per day for the last 30 days.

Some Authority

Posts that contain Twitter per day for the last 30 days.

A Little Authority

Posts that contain Twitter per day for the last 30 days.

Looking at Google Trends for the term Twitter over all time, and perhaps more fascinating the term Twitter for just 2007 you see a steep slope. (No notable traffic for misspellings or twitter.com). A caveat, of course, about Google Trends- “Google Trends aims to provide insights into broad search patterns. As a Google Labs product, it is still in the early stages of development. Also, it is based upon just a portion of our searches, and several approximations are used when computing your results. Please keep this in mind when using it.”

Milan, Italy and London, UK are runaways according to the chart, as it stands now, in terms of type-in traffic.

1. Milan, Italy

2. London, United Kingdom

3. Phoenix, AZ, USA

4. Irvine, CA, USA

5. Austin, TX, USA

6. Helsinki, Finland

7. Montreal, Canada

8. Auckland, New Zealand

9. Bologna, Italy

10. Brentford, United Kingdom

By region- Italy, USA, UK and Canada show strong volume.

1. Italy

4. Canada

5. Romania

6. Hong Kong

7. Russia

8. Turkey

9. Israel

10. Argentina

Italy? I wonder if twitter means something else in Italian. I don’t think so.

Technorati, CNN, BBC Video and Google News all have Twitter channels. I find that remarkable on its own given the lack of authentication. At any rate it is worthy to note this entry The Asymptotic Twitter Curve while we are on graphs and trends…

The interesting thing about Twitter-it is conceptually barely touched at all. Last night I spent some time helping a friend work on a metaverse (Second Life- yes of course.) to “Real World” relay service. One or two exist, but not to our liking. It uses the Twitter API, and twitter as an optional and ultimate destination. During testing I could easily so how Twitter, again as a CONCEPT, can be extended to be a whole lot more. The nice thing about Twitter is that you can set your limits. I don’t want SMS, or IMs at all- too disruptive. I am just fine interacting via the web. If there is someone I don’t want to follow- I can leave. Vice versa.

User Control. Experimental Communication. Micro-production. Micro-intake. Niche. Amateur creation. Monetization. Syndication…it is an interesting future- with silly service names and it will be dominated by everyday people- people with a passion.

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I caught this video piece by Michael Wesch at Docu-Blog/ Steve’s POV…although I have seen it passed around before this time I watched it several times and let it simmer…sure Web 2.0 is all about sharing, collaboration, and interaction. We tag, we recommend, we organize, and we create more at an even faster rate. The barriers have come down. Data is no longer constrained and thus the rise of the “mashup” as they are blended together into something new and move like kudzu into the Net.

Then I began thinking beyond “Google” and mere search queries as the feared, future tyranny of:

and the realization was simple. We really are feeding “the machine” by what we do- and by what we don’t do.

I began to think about the Googleplex as one example, and the vast array of machines they build- yes they build their own low-cost boxes sporting some unknown-to-me breed of linux…and when one machine goes dead, they leave it there and the systems route around it or so I read.

God do they really leave the dead to lie forever gathering dust?! Is THAT Google Death? If you think about it- is that a nascent form of network A.I.? self-healing, self-patching- self-routing….

I wonder *who* walks behind those sacred walls?

What kind of technicians have access to this grid?

How in the hell do they cool it all down- this linux-driven hellfire?

I went beyond just queries…because queries are only part of it… a cheesy ballad came to me…

Every click you make…

Every route you take…

Any one you forsake…

Anything you fake…

It will be watching you….

And “it”, whatever “it” is- will. Taking note of what you click, what you DO NOT click, what interaction you make, what interaction you pass on, what you build, and what you destroy, what you recommend and what you rate…all roads lead to knowledge for the “machines” and the knowledge is cumulative. The more you feed it, the more it knows you. Perhaps until it knows you better than yourself.

Watch on…

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One of my favorite to read, and quite handy, resources is celebrating their 400th issue today. Congratulations Tara! (Tara Calishain, an Internet search expert and author or co-author of over a dozen books, including the 2003 New York Times bestseller Google Hacks. Her latest book, Information Trapping, was published by New Riders Press in December 2006.

ResearchBuzz, a free weekly newsletter that covers search engines, databases, and other online information collections has been online since April 1998, ResearchBuzz.com is celebrating their milestone issue with several new offerings on the Web site plus a venture into a metaverse. (I peeked at earlier when it wasn’t quite done.)

Naturally I find a foray into Second Life quite neat.

Their virtual location in Second Life makes the newsletter and RSS feed available to Second Life citizens who wish to read in that medium. Plans include a classroom and in-world directory of educational, search, and museum resources in Second Life. Check out this page for a map of the ResearchBuzz location or here is the SLURL if you want to head in direct or here to sign up for Second Life for free.

The new features include:

Updated Tools

Kebberfegg is a one-stop site for generating keyword-based RSS feeds. You can generate keyword-based feeds from over 50 different sites in over ten categories. Lists of feeds are available in HTML or OPML. Kebberfegg is free!

New Search Engines

ResearchBuzz has several specialty Google search tools available, including one of Time’s Top 50 Web sites for 2004, Cookin’ With Google. It uses Google’s new Custom Search Engine program, to provide two new specialty search tools:

- Just Ask Anybody — Just Ask Anybody searches the archives from over 75 different Ask-An-Expert and Advice sites. For an easy-to-remember URL use http://www.justaskanybody.com.

- Search Official Blogs — Search Official Blogs does just what it says — searches the official blogs of over 150 celebrities, politicians, companies, educational institutions, musicians, and public figures. Search the blogthoughts of the rich and famous. Easy to use remember URL at http://www.searchofficialblogs.com.

Once again congratulations ResearchBuzz.

Del.icio.us Tags:
ask_an_expert, blog_search, cooking_with_google, free_databases, free_google_tools, justaskanybody.com, kebberfegg, online_databases, online_research, opml, researchbuzz, research_buzz, rss_feeds, rss_keywords, searchofficialblogs.com, search_blogs, search_engines, search_official_blogs, second_life, second_life_search

Furl Tags:
ask_an_expert, blog_search, cooking_with_google, free_databases, free_google_tools, justaskanybody.com, kebberfegg, online_databases, online_research, opml, researchbuzz, research_buzz, rss_feeds, rss_keywords, searchofficialblogs.com, search_blogs, search_engines, search_official_blogs, second_life, second_life_search

Other books written by or co-authored by Tara. Some are a bit dated, and I am sure I may have missed some, but if you want to sharpen your research or information handling skills- especially with Google- Tara is truly a master at Net research.

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Google grants program or programme if you are from the U.K.

US Version:

The Google Grants program supports organizations sharing our philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.

Designed for 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program. It harnesses the power of our flagship advertising product, Google AdWords, to non-profits seeking to inform and engage their constituents online. Google Grants has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education.

For U.K. charities:

The Google Grants UK beta programme supports organisations sharing our philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.

Designed for UK charities which meet our requirements and are registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator or by the Inland Revenue, Google Grants is a unique free advertising programme. It harnesses the power of our flagship advertising product, Google AdWords, to non-profits seeking to inform and engage their constituents online. Google Grants has given AdWords advertising to hundreds of qualified non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education.

The program allows those who have valid 501(c)(3) status to receive credits in Adwords buy to help raise awareness for your organization. They are currently accepting applications from eligible charitable organizations based in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

Who is not eligible? From what I read at Google… Those are participate in AdSense program and organizations that are either religious or political in nature are not eligible. This includes those groups focused primarily on lobbying for political or policy change. Good thing perhaps given the recent spat, as covered by Sam Harrelson, of Google Bombs (Setting up a large number of Web pages with links that point to a specific Web site so that the site will appear near the top of a Google search when users enter the link text) and Adwords domination. I guess that group of political tricksters would not have been eligible.

For those seeking grant information also note another good resource is grants.gov

Grants.gov allows organizations to electronically find and apply for more than $400 billion in Federal grants. Grants.gov is THE single access point for over 1,000 grant programs offered by all Federal grant making agencies. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is proud to be the managing partner for Grants.gov, an initiative that is having an unparalleled impact on the grant community.

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Just so it is clear, since I have been pinged about it this more than once, actually several times, let me set down the simple facts about Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) rumors as I know them…so folks don’t get confused.

1) True: Yes Chris Boyd and I (and I should add our team) were acknowledged on the Google Security Thank You page today, along with some other security guns, for contributions to Google Security in general. I personally thank Google for the kind acknowledgment:

Google Thanks You
People and organizations with an interest in security issues have made a tremendous contribution to the quality of the online experience. We are grateful for the responsible disclosure of security vulnerabilities in our software. On behalf of our millions of users, would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for going out of their way to improve the Google experience for everyone:

* Alex Shipp, Messagelabs
* Bryan Jeffries
* Castlecops
* H D Moore
* Jeremiah Grossman
* Johannes Fahrenkrug
* Martin Straka
* Team Cymru
* Yahoo! Paranoids
* Wayne Porter & Chris Boyd, FaceTime Communications
* Alex Eckelberry, Sunbelt Software
* Richard Forand

2) Jeff Molander, of ThoughtShapers states in his Leak: Google to Re-Org IBM Style post that:

As of yet nobody can confirm with anyone at Google but the leaks are emanating from Google itself according to all three of my sources.

One of my most trusted colleagues, who asked to not be identified, suggested “People love Google planned leaks. My theory is that Google intentionally uses these leaks to gauge industry receptiveness and craft their spin.”

False. (Not the rumor- I don’t know.) It is not I who made this speculation, nor am I any of the other individuals who leaked information of rumors to the Molanderski. Athough if that is Google’s media strategy- it is well done. Others have noted the rumor as well, and Richard MacManus, web 2.0 SME and author of ReadWriteWeb goes as far as to speculate CJ being an aquisition target. I can see the arc of that thought, but I am just not convinced of it since Google tells us in Q2 that partnerships, not acquisitions, would be a big part of their strategy moving ahead. Then again, in the recent Q3 call, click fraud isn’t mentioned even once. As eagle-eyed Sam Harrelson notes. Nor invalid clicks. Nor syndication fraud. It is as if it all vanished. Hmmm, I will have something to say about that- actually I won’t need to say it. At any rate if they were an aquisition target it might be for the CPA DNA of the company. I really scratch my head with Google doing that- thinking scale…CPA doesn’t scale that well.

3) True: I was quoted as saying,

“Google continues to surprise and run interesting feints and parries,” says Revenews.com’s Wayne Porter.

“MTV is already using their engine for video serving, APIs for their Google Maps… which will no doubt spring ads with a nintey day notice… and soon to tap the well of podcasts via their patents. Indeed, YouTube and video advertising are becoming wrapped into one shocking move.”

“As Google turns you can feel the fabric of the media tear beneath your feet,” comments Porter.

You better believe it. GDeath is just around the century. They do amaze me with their ability to innovate and put together seemingly meaningless bits of string into something cohesive.

4) True. I do recommend this text in my reading room ( a new project), I think it is a testament to the firepower of Google: Google Hacking for Penetration Testers by Johnny Long. From finding Xerox printers, photo dumps, cameras, address books, sensitive PDFs…you name it someone may have left it in the wrong place. This text is a must read for everyone interested in information security and honing their research abilities to a razor’s edge. As Obijan says “know your target- get inside of his mind.” Google hacking is sort of the lazy way to do it…or time efficient…depending on how you see it.

Now you know…as much as I do.

Del.icio.us Tags:
Google, Security, Rumor, rumormill, GOOG, porter, wayneporter, CJ, acquisition, media, podcast, adwords, clickfraud, syndication fraud adsense

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I feel almost trite even bothering to post about Steve Irwin, a.k.a. The Crocodile Hunter. Can’t help it though- like others….the list of bloggers mourning or thinking about him seem to go and on and on and on and on…loved by millions. Apparently Irwin was filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Queensland state when the accident occurred. He was diving near Low Isles Reef near the resort town of Port Douglas, about 1,260 miles north of the state capital of Brisbane.

I enjoyed the guys daring and his bold sense of controversial conservation awareness- even the goofy movie that my kids enjoyed- of course the footage of his death will probably never be seen, although officials commented on it. No funeral plans have been announced, apparently the Queensland Premier Pete Beattie said he would get a state funeral if the family agreed to it. I hate funerals, but the world needs closure and I hope there is no backlash against the stingray. Irwin wouldn’t have wanted that.
I think we all knew sooner or later his luck would run out, then again, perhaps as a collective we believed he would be one of those immortals- sort of like a beat up Evel Knieval. He would have painful old age, but would sit around on a rocker and tell his grand kids about wresting crocks, picking up cobras and other venemous creatures. In my lifetime the only daring I really had was breeding a nest of black widows and capturing a copperhead and rattlesnake or two. In remorse I killed more than I ever freed, until I after I watched Irwin- I was young. Forgive me Steve.
Having had my own close brushes with death- two to be exact. Once in a horrific car accident where I truly passed on (another entry perhaps) and one nearly drowing in the wilds of Canadian wilderness, saved only by the remote chance that two biologists in Loring, Ontario, conducting a soil survey on a remote island, (long story) pulled me out of a remote glacier lake as I went down…far more terrifying than my car accident. At least with the accident I wasn’ dieing alone. Then again I think about my time spent as a nurse and the many I watched die, or failed to save or as a fire fighter and emergency responder pulling those I knew and complete strangers from their tragic end. Once again the frailness of life is put into stark focus and the things that seem so important, so critical- really are not. We must stop and smell the roses to be cliche.
The only irony I could find, besides escaping crocs and man handling anacondas, only to get killed by a fluke attack by a stringray- was that his death devoured Internet bandwidth. This again proves my intuition that the Internet isn’t all about technology, software or even people- it is about conversations. That media is recursive and we wander from campfire to campfire telling our own stories and those of others.
I will watch Google Trends over time. To see how fast his legend passes in and out of our search consciousness. Like the WV coal mining tragedy…a short spike on Google Trends. Where will Steve Irwin sit in the landscape of our digital memories? Already the Wikipedia entries for Steve and Teri Irwin and even the stingray are locked due to vandalism…then again not all campfire conversations are polite.

For me, Steve Irwin is a fond memory- a fiery flame in the mind. I will not forget his daring educational style and mourn his tragic passing…perhaps like Chance, our late dog, I will see what Team Razorwire can do about a memorial for Steve in Second Life. I have no doubt he will live on there, despite the fact my feelings on the after life are much like Flemming’s latest flick.

Digg It.

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Note: I have went back and tried to make this post a bit more clear and cleaned up some HTML. The substance is the same…

The Director meets Researcher / E-Commerce Specialist over Google Badwords
This is a long entry, but needed to clarify and summarize the questions coming in over the issue. I have set forth a recap of the discussions between Rosenbaum and myself over the Google “censorship issue” The story kicks off at Steve Rosenbaum’s IndieWire blog. For those not in the know- Steve is a well-respected film personality, director, Emmy award winner, etc.etc. Also known by some as sort of the old man of “user generated content”…

Rosenbaum’s Video DNA

This is important and the heart of the matter. If you are not familiar with Rosenbaum check the extensive Wikipedia Entry. Many of my generation might recognize him as the creator of MTV’s
News Unfiltered. The mid 90’s the premiere of “MTV News Unfiltered.” invited viewers to call an 800 number with story ideas, then sends cameras to the most promising respondents for use in telling their stories. MTV edits a few, a wild half-hour show.
A quantum leap forward for the era too showing that not all people are retards. Imagine letting viewers submit their own stories and films (man… sounds like YouTube in a way). Steve is widely acknowledged as an early innovator in video journalism, the process where journalists are deeply immersed in the stories they report, using a handheld video camera to capture events as they occur. Knowing his DNA you can see the obvious drive behind his current experiment of video aggregation with his Magnify platform using video footage around the Israeli and Lebanon conflict caught by real people- you know the ones wading around in all the unreality… the only thing Steve might not have counted on was Google Adwords being an impediment.

Backgrounder- How People Meet & Dialogue Starts

I don’t know why I do this, but I am fascinated by how people meet. Clark, who I cite below would probably tell me I was being Fooled by Randomness ala Taleb, but I think there is more to these collisions.

People always seem to ask details like this too- I guess to understand the “campfire nature” of the Internet. Fair enough.
J.D. Ashcraft, Production Manager for GMD Studios, firm heavily involved in Indiewire passed the story on to me (being a past and current collaborator e.g. Nothing so Strange and Eldtritch Errors) knowing my seething disgust for censorship. Brian Clark, CEO of GMD Studios introduced me by e-mail to Steve Rosenbaum perhaps because of my recent brushes with Indian censorship and the MSFT/Google ecosystem pollution research I worked on around Blogspot and Microsoft’s “algorithm” (cough). Perhaps it was simply that Rosenbaum, Clark and I were members of a Secret Cabal that I cannot name. Right- as if that really happens. There are no conspiracies- pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

After introductions, my thoughts to Steve were to try to amplify the story a bit, see what would happen and hopefully Google would reverse their policy if some heat were tossed around. Started at Digg only, but a much longer attack would be needed, as expected not much movement, however we kept our dialogs going by e-mail. (I will not reveal that, but much of it is posted in the blogs per his permission and mostly Q&A). Incidentally I have been testing a colleague’s new system (and very cool system) to look at how some of this spreads so it was an interesting experiment from a technical angle too.

Blogs- Dates and General Breakdown- Key Points – Extractions - Mail
:
(Note this is a meta-summary by me so please visit blog entries for the full story and take. One day I will go back and make them more readable…)

Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Entry: Google Erases Israel/Lebanon Ads - but why?

Steve explains the situation. He has provided a platform for users to aggregate various “citizen journalism” video pieces on the Israeli/Lebanon situation and for users to comment on them. He didn’t upload them, didn’t take sides, No pro Israeli or Lebanese bias or agenda. Just wants a platform where people can discuss what is really going on.

Like many people he opens up an Adwords account to drive traffic to the site. Much to his dismay the entire campaign is rejected and he lists the all the rejections, sample ads and references the policies.

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Content: Due to the sensitive nature of this matter, we are not able to run this ad at this time. As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site.
———————
POLICY DEFINITIONS:

Unacceptable Content: Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. Please note that both your ad and keywords have been suspended at this time.

Of course Google reserves the right to do this as they control and approve advertisements, however it was interesting to note that other ads of a similar nature came up.

Hezbollah vs Israel
Hezbollah capture 2 Israel soldiers
Will this lead to Israel-Iran war?
vanrcook.tripod.com/nextwar.htm

War in the Mid-East
Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Read the Latest News.
www.RealTruth.org/SpecialReport

As Steve notes the only real difference is they point to text and not Video.

INTRO TO THE ADWORD BADWORDS

Steve Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Entry: Disapproved Keywords

Steve goes on to list a long list of keywords all disapproved although they seem contextually targeted. I later use this list to do some extensive e-commerce analysis on the words and hope to post chart at Revenews and perhaps a basic one here. E.g. bid ranges, overture costs vs. Google costs, query volume predicted, etc. I also noted some strange anomalies with Google Trends when I trended some of these words. For such a momentous event- search volume is quite low- perhaps poor keyword selection on his part.

While Google news displays tons of ink being pressed about the conflict- Google Trends comes up with almost nothing in search volume. Could be normal, but after almost a month- it is odd. However it is in beta.

THE STORY IN A NUTSHELL

Wayne Porter 08-08-06 Entry: Google Disapproves Israel Lebanon Hezbollah War Ads- Reminds me of India?

In short I amplify much of Steve’s findings in this entry and then ramble on because I can (it is my blog).

The Story in a Nutshell: As the conflict in the Middle East heated up Steve Rosenbaum began to search the web for videos shot by real people in and around the conflict. He found plenty of video citizen journalism and to get the word out he created a channel to aggregate the videos and organize them in a central area. Nice- Great idea! Something Google might have thought of doing since their mission is to, and I quote, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

I go on to pull key points from Google’s philosophy, and apply them to the current situation and end up with my own advice for Google- after quoting a lot of stirring Shakespeare to try to get people fired up into action… plus those plays are like awesomesville.

In Summary To Google: “Perhaps you mean well, but the user, many of us are intelligent ones, can decide on the sensitive nature of world matters. After all we are your customers. We drive your business. We rely on you for relevant information in both advertising and search.
In this case, it was a needed civic experiment.”

Someone should have been paying Steve…not Steve trying to pay Google via CPC deals.

Also of note and I e-mailed Yahoo! about this next twist…my contact was intrigued and asked for clarification…waiting to hear back on them and THEIR policies in a situation like this. I doubt they go public (why stick your head into a noose?) but intrigued was enough. Yeah Yahoo! I know you’ll see it- take a stand! I assume you will on what constitutes click fraud and invalid clicks- assuming you can really handle rogue web agents/bots and botnets…
Too be really “insensitive” and for contrast I tried Googling- gasp: execution videos.
Paydirt: I got an ad!


Execution Videos
Find hundreds of new and popular
Execution videos now!

I didn’t know there were so many popular and new execution videos! Wow! The irony was the “execution videos” lead to a page that had no videos, just decoy images and a bunch of text (apparently cobbled from ezine articles material on LCD projectors).

Thus relevance = zero and Goal = Game the system.

So Google would accept an advert for execution videos? Tasteful indeed, but let information flow. Even though the advertisement was totally and completely non-contextual given the content of the page… YPN! Ads however, were targeted well, showing ads for LCD projector stuff based on the page’s content- I guess so you can watch execution videos in full glory on big projectors. I notified my contacts at Yahoo! and the ads are still there so maybe they are ok with it. After all their contextual targeting is working fine- Google’s search targeting is the screw-up. (I still find it tacky.)

THE ROSENBAUM DILEMMA

Wayne Porter 08-10-06 Entry: Rosenbaum’s Dilemma: The Lost Lebanon/Israel War Videos Return Without The Help of Adwords

In my eyes this is the interesting part of the whole dialog…Steve Rosenbaum was almost caught in the same “censorship trap” as Google.
In the end, after an e-mail exchange with Bennett Hazelton of Peacefire.org, I had to circle back around to Steve with some questions of my own.

While the censorship issues intrigued me, I also found out he had taken down a few of the videos because of a harsh post on Google groups (opens in new window)- in his own words “he felt bad”.

This worried me. He hadn’t even created the videos, found them or posted them. He merely created a venue, a platform, to help people archive them by vertical or niche and went on to help call attention to them by spending his own ad dollars. In my eyes this was noble- to call our attention to world problems. So I had to ask the obvious question…
Was Steve practicing well-meaning censorship to protect others from the harsh realities of these war videos? Perhaps just as Google did?
(I might have done the same. However, Steve rallied to his convictions and conquers what I call the “Rosenbaum’s Dilemma”.)

I also asked him some questions about his site, and how it was setup, etc- did users get shocked or have chance to change minds, etc. See entry for the Q&A but overall it took four deliberate clicks to view the war videos- again some of the videos are very “mainstream” and some shot by citizens while under hostile conditions.
In the end Steve told me by e-mail he pulled four because “he felt bad” over some posts- one post in particular…we discussed this via e-mail and he let me know he had put them back up. As a sign of solidarity (that he wasn’t alone- he had a “brother in arms”) I also posted links directly to the videos on my own blog- the ones some found so disturbing. For two of them you must register for mature access at YouTube. If people find them disturbing- they should. The truth is disturbing.
Rosenbaum’s Dilemma ‘Recovered’ Videos: (Hosted at YouTube) linked from my blog.

Steve also restored the videos to http://warzone-video.magnify.net/

The site is obviously a serious site about desire for user interaction and social commentary on real and current events. This is social commentary, although harsh commentary because some of the footage is real- and hey- it is footage not just words. Again this really is not surprising given his well known production DNA.

THE BADWORDS of ADWORDS

Porter 08-10-2006 Entry: Google Disapproved Adwords- More on Google’s War Sensitivity Issues

For anti-spyware insiders I give you an insider’s joke- badware.org…badadwords.org

In this entry select trackbacks and comments come in on the issue that I highlight and quote as well as the list of banned words as reported by Steve. Out of curiosity I began doing some analysis on it in a separate spreadsheet also making comparisons to Overture pricing, positions, etc.

The table is below out of academic interest- it is not yet complete (for example Overture traffic estimates) and could use some more fields and study. I just lack the time… let the myriad of PPCSE experts at Revenews do their thing or bring in big guns like Dan Murray at Ravenswood Marketing or Craig Danuloff at Commerce360.

Keyword Statistics
Price Marketing: Overture - Google
Click Range Estimates: Google

Price Target Market: United States
Language Target: English
Google Traffic Estimate Inclusion:: All Countries

CAVEAT: Because the Google campaigns did not yet have a performance history, keyword estimates were based on system-wide performance information.

Google Cost Scenario: Average CPC: 0.89 (at a maximum CPC of 4.78)
Estimated clicks per day: 1,441 - 1,820 (at a daily budget of $1,900.00)
All estimated positions were in slots 1 to 3 and set to Broad Match.

Estimates were based on bid amount (left open) and geographical targeting selections (all countries).Because the Traffic Estimator did not consider daily budget, the ads may receive fewer clicks than estimated.

So at best, for his project, it would have cost him 2 grand a day to bring in 1400 to 1800 visitors. From a budgetary standpoint he might be better off getting banned and letting the Net route around the damage and people create buzz about it. I think the ROI sucks in the Google scenario- although we have to let it run to see how the NQ index would impact cost over time.
Still it leads us to Steve’s clever routing around damage on his own.

CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO- INTERNET ROUTES AROUND DAMAGE

Wayne Porter: 08-10-2006 Routing Around Misguided Adwords Policies

Partial Version from Entry above, and
I have added notes from myself.

An update from Steve Rosenbaum on Google’s Adword Censorship affair I have gotten fired up into this week: Steve reports no answer from Google Adwords yet.

Meanwhile back in the bat cave the videos have emerged at http://lebop.blogspot.com/ on a site called the Lebanese Political Journal, hosted at Google’s BlogSpot service. I have it on good word that Steve and Co. are proud of it…I have to wonder if Google would reject ads from the Lebanese Political Journal?

In my e-mail exchange with Steve he noted:

“They should have paid attention already. The fact that they didn’t is scary.”

Damn straight I think.

Steve wants a correction from Google that it was a mistake and to re-instate the campaign. (Rightly so Steve, although after analyzing the potential economics of the campaign I think you would be better served through BlogAds- or going to Overture where the prices are inline or better putting a serious memetic engineering campaign into the mix.)

Perhaps most importantly, Steve wishes, that the person who dinged the campaign understands that sites talking about world affairs are not ‘distasteful’.

My Take: Some will argue it wasn’t even censorship…maybe it wasn’t- maybe a misread policy and Google was in still in contractual rights. But c’mon this is Rosenbaum- pay attention people. No matter HOW you slice it is a slippery slope worth noting and again “sites about world affairs are not distasteful.” Maybe hard to watch, but if we don’t watch the real footage, we might as we just insert the propaganda IV lines. Not to mention inconsistent implementation of policy.

This is an important battle folks…

When corporations, especially powerful ones whose primary, and self-stated mission is to organize the world’s information can close off the release of controversial information, no matter how well meaning their intent…we move one step closer to losing our freedom of communication, our freedom of speech and the power of the net is diminished. EVEN IF IT IS AN ADVERTISEMENT. We must demand higher standards.

My Message to Google- let’s get back to Don’t Be Evil- and move on to organizing the world’s information and letting it flow. To be honest I have watched your behavioral changes since going public, and frankly I see many things that I don’t like- this is the kind of stuff other e-commerce insiders see and discuss quietly too. Do I blame a corporation? No- its job is to earn money for share holders, but I still believe this can be done without selling out completely and it is the people behind it that have to make it happen.

Please don’t turn me from a real fan and an advocate of your brand into a disgruntled Googler. (I can be just as arrogant btw, I understand your business model’s precarious foothold quite well.) I also liked that you moved “Video” search (with a shiny, red “new”!) to your home page and knocked out Froogle. Interesting…
So let’s get back to that information thing and by the way advertising is information too- especially contextual advertising. You told us so right? Those relevant text links (unless we count execution video queries right?) that you syndicate. BTW- hope you get a handle on THAT situation too.
Great idea, poor implementation if you want it to last long term. Take a lesson from affiliate marketing circa 1999-2000.

THE FINALE- GOOGLE QUIETLY REVERSES

Steve Rosenbaum 08-13-2006: Update on Google Keywords

In the end Google reverses the situation with little fanfare. Doesn’t surprise me- Google doesn’t like fanfare around silliness. I have taken the liberty of quoting Steve’s entry and make note he doesn’t even get a phone call. I know platinum spenders that get phone calls from their reps. Steve- you must not spend enough money.

Direct quote from blog:

Well, it appears that Google has changed it’s mind and agreed to run the my keyword ads. That said, it appears that Google hasn’t read The Clue Train Manifesto.

Rather than have a real person contact me, and actually explain what happened, instead we get a form letter from “lizzie” without a contact email address or phone number.

Here’s the email ‘resolution’ - see what you think

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

adwords-support@google.com

Hello Steve,

Thank you for your email. I’ve confirmed that your ad is approved and running on Google.

Our AdWords Specialists review ads that run on Google to ensure that they comply with our advertising policies. I apologize if the prior disapproval of your ad was made in error. However, after reviewing your ad again, our Specialists have found that your ad meets all our Editorial Guidelines and advertising policies.

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support to find answers to many frequently asked questions. Or, try our Learning Center at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/ for self-paced lessons that cover the scope of AdWords.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

Lizzie
The Google AdWords Team

Steve here is what I think- you can still get “execution videos” advertised by eBay and TopLineVideo- well maybe you can get them at eBay. TopLineVideo still carries nothing but content about LCD projectors and runs YPN! ads…but since there are no perceived politics involved no one probably gives a flying damn that the page is completely and totally misleading- unless you count the MySpace Videos, Funny Videos, Music and Sexy Videos as part of an execution series….wait you can’t even get those. There are no videos you can access.

As for the most effective advertising possible- just run some tests (if you can get past Google), do the math, understand invalid clicks versus fraud… or if you have absolutely diabolical and have no ethics- team up with Zango and Invade Myspace with an army of teenagers. Not only is it cheaper- it is more profitable. Of course you won’t be able to look at yourself in the mirror in morning. That’s a jest of course- I know you don’t want to do that, but that reminds me to tip off Chris Boyd and do some black ops intel gathering.

Oh yes the ads…

Execution Videos
Whatever you’re looking for
you can get it on eBay.
http://www.ebay.com/

Execution Videos
Find hundreds of new and popular
Execution videos now!
http://www.topvideoinfo.com/

ADDENDUM: Other Notable Entries (Query if I missed some) Jimmy Daniels of RealTechNews (Note some commentors argue Google has the right to reject ads- Neither Rosenbaum or myself disputed that- we read contracts. It was the inconsistency and the slippery slope factor.

Chris Kramer , To summarize, Mr. Rosenbaum created a useful site that collected various user shot videos of the Middle-East conflict and built an Adwords campaign to spread the word. What happened was that Google not only rejected the ads but deleted the entire campaign from his account

Sam Harrelson … Amazing look at how the world is quickly realizing that politics, advertising, marketing, pr, religion, sociology, anthropology, economics and a host of other once seperate disciplines have melded together on the world wide web to form an inescapable reality that can be controlled by corporations (not governments) at the top… unless citizens realize the manipulation and demand transparency.

Nationalism is finally dead, and we clicked our way to its funeral. Let’s hope corporationalism isn’t as bad long term as its looking so far…”

Chris Boyd a.k.a. PaperGhost
Apparently you can’t mention the whole Israel / Lebanon “thing” in your Google Adwords campaign or your ad(s) will be rejected. A guy who runs a site which aggregates all kinds of footage shot in the warzone (think Youtube, but less “fluffy”) had his marketing campaign given a rather large thumbs down. The ads went a little something like this..

Blog Summary Reference List:

Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Google Erases Israel/Lebanon Ads - but why?

Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Disapproved Keywords

Porter 08-08-06 Google Disapproves Israel Lebanon Hezbollah War Ads- Reminds me of India?

Porter 08-10-06 Rosenbaum’s Dilemma: The Lost Lebanon/Israel War Videos Return Without The Help of Adwords

Porter 08-10-2006 Google Disapproved Adwords- More on Google’s War Sensitivity Issues

Porter: 08-10-2006 Routing Around Misguided Adwords Policies

Rosenbaum 08-13-2006: Update on Google Keywords

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The Story in a Nutshell: As the conflict in the middle East heated up Steve Rosenbaum began to search the web for videos shot by real people in and around the conflict. He found plenty of video citizen journalism and to get the word out he created a channel to aggregate the videos and organize them in a central area. Nice- Great idea! Something Google might of thought of doing since their mission is to, and I quote, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

The Catch: What he didn’t bank on was not just having certain ads rejected, but his entire AdWords campaign deleted!

Sample Campaigns:

==================

Israel/Lebanon War Video
See real video. Post Your Own
Comments and Opinions.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

==================

Israel War Video
User-Generated Video from the
Front Lines. Uncensored.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

==================

Hezbollah War Video
Uncensored User-Generated Video
from the Front Lines.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

==================

Lebanese War Video
Uncensored User-Generated Video
from the Front Lines.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

==================

The Result: All four ads came back: “Disapproved” for “Unacceptable Content”.
Steve goes on to share the e-mail he received from Google:

————————————————————————————–

adwords-support@google.com
Subject: Your Google AdWords Approval Status
Date: August 3, 2006 7:06:32 AM EDT

———————————————-
Campaign: ‘WarZone,’ Ad Group: ‘israel/lebanon’
———————————————-

AD TEXT:

Israel/Lebanon War Video
See real video. Post Your Own
Comments and Opinions.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

AD TEXT:

Israel War Video
User-Generated Video from the
Front Lines. Uncensored.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

AD TEXT:

Hezbollah War Video
Uncensored User-Generated Video
from the Front Lines.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

AD TEXT:

Lebanese War Video
Uncensored User-Generated Video
from the Front Lines.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Content: Due to the sensitive nature of this matter, we are not able to run this ad at this time. As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site.
———————
POLICY DEFINITIONS:

Unacceptable Content: Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. Please note that both your ad and keywords have been suspended at this time.

———————————————-
Campaign: ‘WarZone,’ Ad Group: ‘israel/lebanon’
———————————————-
AD TEXT:

Israel/Lebanon War Video
See real video. Post Your Own
Comments and Opinions.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

AD TEXT:

Israel War Video
User-Generated Video from the
Front Lines. Uncensored.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

AD TEXT:

Hezbollah War Video
Uncensored User-Generated Video
from the Front Lines.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

AD TEXT:

Lebanese War Video
Uncensored User-Generated Video
from the Front Lines.
Warzone-video.magnify.net

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Content: Due to the sensitive nature of this matter, we are not able to run this ad at this time. As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site.

———————
POLICY DEFINITIONS:

Unacceptable Content: Google believes strongly in freedom of expression
and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without
censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make
concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver.
Please note that both your ad and keywords have been suspended at this
time.

————————————————————————————–

Steve goes on to explore the irony and notes this startling contrast:

“Also, what is perhaps even stranger is that Google is delivering ads like these:”

Hezbollah vs Israel
Hezbollah capture 2 Israel soldiers
Will this lead to Israel-Iran war?
vanrcook.tripod.com/nextwar.htm

War in the Mid-East
Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Read the Latest News.
www.RealTruth.org/SpecialReport

To my eye the only difference between Steve’s ads, and the ones above are that they point to text and not video. While it is Google’s site, and they reserve the right to cancel any ads you have to conjure up with that dingy “Don’t be Evil” mantra.
I would ask is it evil to disallow advertising that brings users to real footage of current events even if the footage is real?
Let’s look at few points taken from Google’s philosophy and I have added my own retorts. You can view their philosophy page for an in-depth breakdown.

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow. I would argue that users want to access this information, especially in a state of media spin and mistrust.

3. Fast is better than slow. What faster way to dessiminate key information then to aggregate these videos and get them into the hands and eyes of users who can make their own value judgements?

4. Democracy on the web works. Google uses “democracy” in their search algorithms- why not let it extend into their paid advertisements? The Internet will route around damage.

7. There’s always more information out there. Indeed, the information IS OUT there. Steve found plenty of it and made it more accessible for others. Google should enable access not restrict it.

8. The need for information crosses all borders. Great point and Steve was ready to pay to help that information across the various borders.

10. Great just isn’t good enough. Exactly. Google is a powerful steward. They must strive for greatness not only in their technology and business, but in their principles.

Why, oh why does this remind me of the recent Indian blogspot “mistake” and censorship? (Yes Google i won’t let that JS Header Injection issue die will I?)

Granted it is a different situation and Google has the contractual right to reject the ads- but should they? Do we need Google to guard us against the images of war- the real images? Do we need them to sanitize the media to the point where it is no better then CNN? Maybe if we saw more real footage we could dispense with these horrible wars?

People of the Net- How about a little Henry V to get us motivated?

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as does a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height.

Perhaps some Julius Ceasar?

Cry “havoc!” and let loose the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial

As the blogosphere proved recently with the Indian debacle our pens and words can make change and at the very least call into the light the issues that need to be discussed.

I ask people of the free Net- Digg Mr. Rosenbaum’s blog entry and his novel video aggregation experiment!

Let it echo with your keyboards on a blog or your voice in a podcast or tell a friend.
Call attention to the fact that people can decide for themselves what is good and evil.
At least let us ask the question.

To Google: Perhaps you mean well, but the user, many of us are intelligent ones, can decide on the sensitive nature of world matters. Afterall we are your customers. We drive your business. We rely on you for relevant information in