Microsoft To Spend $2 Billion On Bing Ads In The UK
March 8, 2010
As fans of "The Office" may know, it's fairly common for the entertainment industry to take a successful concept and adapt it for use overseas. And now, Microsoft's performing a similar conversion, launching a "Bing and decide" advertising campaign in the U.K.
It's a good bet that you've seen a couple of these amusing TV spots by now; they feature one person trying to talk to another, but the second individual, suffering from "search overload," is only able to respond by rattling off absurd details related to certain keywords.
It's commercials in this vein that Microsoft intends to air in the U.K., starting this Wednesday and continuing through the middle of June. Mark Sweney reported that the campaign will cost the company a significant amount: $2 billion.
Ashley Highfield, who used to work for the BBC and now holds the lengthy title "Managing Director & VP, Consumer & Online UK" at Microsoft, also assured Sweney, "This is a big moment - we are taking out our slingshots and taking on Goliath."
Highfield didn't lay out what sort of market share gains Microsoft hopes to make as a result of this ad campaign.
Kansas Capital Adopts “Google” Name
March 2, 2010
The capital city of Kansas really, really wants Google to build it a high-speed broadband network. Indeed, rather than stick to the standard email campaigns and Facebook groups, its efforts to catch the search giant's attention have extended to the mayor renaming Topeka "Google." At least temporarily.
This is no joke or repaint-the-town-sign prank. According to Tim Hrenchir, Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten consulted yesterday with all seven city council members and got their approval. Then he "signed a proclamation . . . calling for Topeka to be known for the month of March as 'Google, Kansas - the capital city of fiber optics.'"
Considering that not a lot of other cities are likely to take this step (and now, they'll look like copycats even if they do), it's a good bet that this'll earn Topeka big points in Google's eyes.
As for the related Facebook group (because there is one of those, too), "Bring Google's Fiber Experiment to Topeka!" has 10,717 members at the moment, and that number represents about 8.74 percent of Topeka's population (according to 2007 census data). Which is rather impressive.
Anyway, Google's supposed to keep collecting responses to its broadband network proposal until March 26th, and then the company should name its target communities later this year.
Chrome Wins Browser Speed Test
January 28, 2010
Two years ago, Google's Chrome browser didn't exist. Now, it might be the best browser available. New test results claim that it beats all competitors by a significant amount, at least in terms of speed.
Lifehacker's Kevin Purdy recently put Firefox 3.5.4, Firefox 3.6, Google Chrome 4.0.249.78 (which is considered stable), Google Chrome 4.0.302.3 (which is a developer version), Opera 10.01, Opera 10.5 (which is a pre-alpha version), and Safari 4.0.4 through their paces. Experiments related to load times, JavaScript, DOM/CSS, and memory use were performed.
Chrome came out on top in a couple of categories, and according to Purdy's scoring system ("we took the numeric score placement of each browser in each category and ranked them from 7, as best in category, to 1, as worst. We totaled those numbers up, and present them here as a total out of 35") won the comparison, with the developer version placing first and the stable version securing second.
Then Opera 10.5, Firefox 3.5.4, Firefox 3.6, Safari 4.0.4, and Opera 10.01 followed, in that order.
Purdy's article has been viewed about 92,000 times, and it's a good bet that his findings have driven a lot of people to try Chrome for themselves. Assuming those individuals don't find the browser wanting in some area other than speed, Chrome may get quite a bump thanks to this experiment.
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Going Home For The Holidays? Google Wants To Tag Along
December 23, 2009
As people return home this holiday season, there will be all sorts of hugs and "have you had enough to eat"s. Then they'll be pressed into service, lifting heavy stuff or perhaps climbing ladders. And Google would very much appreciate it if visitors install the company's software, too.
A new post on the Official Google Blog about "unofficial tech support" isn't blatantly self-promotional at first. Jeffrey Chang of the Google Chrome Team wrote, "[T]o ensure your family is getting the most speed and security out of their web experience, you can help your family upgrade to the latest version of Google Chrome, Firefox 3.5, Opera 10, Safari 4, or Internet Explorer 8 - just to name a few modern browsers."
It's a good bet that readers of the Official Google Blog are more inclined than the average person to use Chrome, though.
Then we get into an almost comical advertisement. Chang continued, "You can also check out Google Pack, a collection of free Google and third-party software that's ready to use in just a few clicks. From anti-virus software to keep a computer more secure and voice applications like Skype to help you keep in touch once you leave, to Google applications like Google Earth (where you can track Santa over Christmas), Google Pack's applications help your family get the most out of their computer."
Ah, well. Google's doing plenty of good, making it hard to blame the search giant too much for pushing its mostly useful offerings.
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