Google really wants you to buy a Motorola Droid, the hot new phone that just hit stores today. In fact, Google is so enamored that it’s advertising the Droid on its homepage: “The Droid is on sale now. Learn more.”

Clicking the “learn more” link leads to this “mobile partners” page that touts the Google search capabilities available on the Droid.

The two links in the upper right — the “Get” button and the “Learn more” text link below it — point to verizonwireless.com and droiddoes.com, respectively.

It’s hard to make the case that this isn’t an ad on Google’s home page, and SEO folks will surely notice that neither off-site link uses the nofollow tag. In other words, some can argue that Verizon is effectively buying a link from Google, which Google fights against.

(Postscript: The link from the home page redirects to a virtual page that is blocked by Google’s robots.txt file, so shouldn’t be passing along PageRank and would be in compliance with Google’s paid links policy. But the “Google Search on Droid by Motorola” page has no such block leading to the Verizon site).

For its part, Google will probably point out that it has run promotions on its home page before, like in October, 2008, when it promoted the T-Mobile G1 — the first Android-based phone — on its home page.

At the time, Google denied that was an ad for T-Mobile, instead calling it a promotion for a Google product.

Google has quite famously declared in the past that the Google home page would remain ad free, compared to other portals. Said Google’s Marissa Mayer in 2007:

There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.

But Google actually has a long history of promoting things on its home page. As Mayer also said in 2007:

The Google home page is very simple and when we put a link underneath the Google search box on the home page to advertise one of our products, we say, “Hey, try Google video, it’s new, or download the new Picassa.” Basically it’s the only other thing on the page, and while it does get a fair amount of click through, it’s nothing compared to the search, because most users don’t even see it.

Notable among these was a Da Vinci Code promotion that put a puzzle on the Google home page in 2006, as well promoting Firefox on the home page in the same year. Both were non-Google products being pushed.

What are your thoughts on today’s version of the home page? Is Google advertising Motorola and the Droid phone?

Postscript: Google’s Gabriel Stricker gave us this statement about the Droid mention on Google’s home page:

We are currently running a homepage promotion for Droid. From time to time we include a link on the Google home page that points users to exciting and important information, whether it be relief opportunities in the wake of a tsunami or hurricane, awareness about an important cause, or information about a new product. The Droid is a hardware collaboration that we’ve been very active and involved with, so it makes sense that Google has an interest in getting the word out.

A reader pointed us to the Delta 2 rocket launch where Microsoft was a co-sponsor. If you look closely, you can see the Bing logo on the rocket ship.

While Bing’s logo went into space, Google today announced a partnership with DigitalGlobe to launch a satellite into space to provide “high-quality imagery in Google Earth & Google Maps.”

What about Yahoo? Well, they did bury a Time Capsule in earth in October 2006 which wont be opened until March 2, 2020. Not exactly space, but still feels a bit futuristic.

It appears Google has pulled together a bunch of statistics throughout the web and created a small landing page named Google Internet Stats on the Google UK front. The page explains that this service “brings together the latest industry facts and insights together in one place.” Google collected this data from many third party vendors, on a wide range of topics. In fact, you can submit your data using this form.

Here is a picture of the mobile technology internet stats from this tool:

The categories of statistics include: - Consumer Trends – Community – Entertainment – Information – eCommerce - Macro Economic Trends – Rest of the World – UK - Media Consumption – Changes in Media Usage – Demographic Usage – Media Consumption Stats – Media Multi-tasking – Personalised Media Experiences - Media Landscape – All Media – Online - Technology – Broadband – Devices – Mobile – Speed

The current data providers include B2Bonline.com, BARB, BusinessWeek, Coke, Commission of the European Communities, Comscore, Core Metrics, Datamonitor, Deloitte, The Economist, eMarketer, Enders Analysis, Eurostat, Film Distributors Association, Financial Times, Forrester, GFK, Google Insights for Search, Greenbee.com, Guardian, HarvardBusiness.org, Hitwise, IAB, IFPI, IMF, Internet Retailing, Internetworldstats.com, JP Morgan, KMPG, Media & Marketing, Mediascope Europe, Mindshare, Motorola, Net Imperative, New York Magazine, Nielsen, NMA, Ofcom, Opsos MediaCT, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, QuickPlay Media Inc., Retail Week, Reuters, TGI Net, Times Online, TNS, Verdict Research, Wall Street Journal, WARC, YouTube, ZenithOptimedia, and GM.

Postscript: A Google UK representative answered some of my questions, clarifying the following:

• There are no plans to launch this tool elsewhere at the moment. This is a UK-only initiative.
• Any stats submitted by users will be verified by Google’s market research teams
• Google license data from a number of sources, as well as bring together publicly reported facts and stats from the web (sources shown on the site)

Google has an official blog post on this new initiative at their Google Barometer blog.

Does today’s speech from President Barack Obama to school children across the United States need any more controversy? Having listened to it, I personally can’t see many parents objecting. But I could see one tech company not happy: Microsoft. Competitors like Google got called out as “good” things to aspire to while a Microsoft’s Xbox was something he suggested should be turned off.

From his prepared remarks, which should be pretty close to the exact speech he delivered: Microsoft gets the bad news early:

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

Turn that Xbox off! OK, perhaps some of the time. And you could argue that Microsoft is getting some Obama love here. It’s an Xbox he’s mentioning, not a Sony PlayStation or a Nintendo Wii.

Still, Microsoft probably would have preferred to have the love that Apple got later on in the speech:

Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine.

No one’s putting the Xbox along with accomplishments like saving lives!

There’s more love for Google, as well as Twitter and Facebook:

Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

Google, Facebook and Twitter alongside landing on the moon, fighting a world war or civil rights. Communication changes, true — though made possible by underlying infrastructure changes, that of the internet, not to mention the telephone system itself.

I also found it remarkable that of six brand mentions in total that I spotted (did I miss more?), five of those were tech oriented (the remaining one was the Harry Potter books).

See also related discussion on Techmeme.

Postscript: Video of Obama’s speech is now up on YouTube:

Google’s outreach last week was all about Street View. This week it appears to be Google Maps’ turn in the spotlight, thanks to a new page that touts the benefits of using Google Maps on your web site, and shows the various ways to do it.

The mini-site offers step-by-step instructions with two options — “Quick” for us common folk, or “Advanced” for programmers and developers. The instructions aren’t new — Google’s offered embeddable link code for some time now and an API for more advanced developers.

What’s interesting is Google’s continued campaign to pitch its products to end users. This new mini-site includes case studies from seven companies — including Yelp, the New York Times, Kayak, and Zipcar — that show a variety of ways to use Google Maps. It seems safe to say that this commitment to marketing is helping Google Maps separate itself from and overtake its mapping competitors.

Here’s Google’s blog post announcing the new Google Maps mini-site.

Millward Brown released their top “BrandZ” report for 2009 (PDF) and Google has top the list, once again. The main difference this year is that Google’s “brand value” is up 16%, from $86 billion to $100 billion this year.

Here is a chart of the top ten global brands by Millward Brown:

Microsoft ranks number two, valued at $76 billion (up 8% from last year) and Yahoo ranks 81, valued at $7 billion (a decline of 31% from the previous year).

Google is launching a billboard campaign in four major cities named “Going Google.” There is a ton of buzz around the campaign, being that Google typically does not conduct traditional forms of advertising and that this is a direct shot at Microsoft.

First, here is a video of some of the billboards:

As you can see, this is promoting Google Apps in a major way. Not only does this drive to the core of Microsoft’s products, but it is also one of the few times Google using traditional means of advertising. It is funny to see Microsoft advertise Bing on TV and at the same time to see this from Google, in addition to them advertising AdSense on radio. But if one thing is clear, Google has been using traditional forms of advertising to promote Google Apps, Chrome, Google Maps, and even AdSense.

I will be driving by one of the billboard locations that this ad should appear on. I am not sure if the ad will be there today, but if it is, I will do my best to snap a picture and post it here.

For more information, see google.com/appsatwork.

Google has been recently promoting AdSense over the radio, in fact, @AdSense tweeted about the radio commercial, asking if “you heard it, and where.” A Google spokesperson confirmed the AdSense radio ads in a statement to Search Engine Land:

Google is currently running radio ads to promote AdSense. AdSense is an innovative program that helps website owners earn money by displaying text and image ads on their websites.

On a related note, two nights ago, I saw a commercial for Microsoft’s Bing Travel (remember Farecast). Ars Technica posted the commercial, which I personally think is a great commercial. Here is a video of the TV commercial for Bing Travel:

Microsoft is known to do commercials to promote Bing, but Google is known for often not using traditional means of promotion. Only until recently, has Google done promotion for their products, including Google MAps, Chrome and so on.

I heard the AdSense radio ads were targeting “mommy bloggers,” but then I saw additional tweets saying it also targeted “finance site owners.” So I assume there is a wide range of flavors of these ads. If you do hear any or get them recorded, please send them our way.

Update: Eric Goldman informed me that he heard an AdSense commercial targeting health-related sites Monday night at about 6:30 on 104.9 in Sunnyvale. And Mark Levine has tweeted about the Mommy Blogger focused ad on July 27th.

Watching Shawn Collins of the Affiliate Summit conference tweeting about a big party at the Googleplex last night, I wondered what was up. Turns out folks were being entertained as part of Google’s own Google Affiliate Network Client Summit.

Whoa. Is that new? Nope. Google tells me this is the 5th annual summit they’ve held. This year, about 300 top publishers and advertisers from their network were invited. However, this is the first year it has been held at Google’s main campus. Previously, it was in Chicago.

It wasn’t all a big party. The agenda featured talks on analytics, economics, cross channel promotion and more.

Photo by Shawn Collins at Flickr.

Once upon a time, my evenings were spent watching the popular British soap opera Coronation Street. And once upon a time, I lived about five miles from Stonehenge. Living back in the US now, Google’s got me covered if I fancy a trip down memory lane. Google Street View is mapping both places — and probably helping to win some more support of Google Street View in the UK, as a result.

Was it only a few months ago when villagers were in the streets blocking Google Street View cars? OK, one village, one car — but yes, it did take a village to stop Street View. And while Google got cleared on the privacy front, we also got news that those scary cameras were going elsewhere — onto a bike and out into the UK wilderness.

To me, this seemed a savvy move to win support for Street View. It’s not just the pedophile-enabling privacy hoover that some in the UK made it out to be. It’s also that cute cuddly tool you use for tourism.

The first bike pictures actually emerged in the US. Google Street View Bike Does Santa Monica, Universities & More covers how you can see the Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade and the Monterey Bay Coastal Bike Path on it (I will personally volunteer to ride the bike down the Newport Beach boardwalk if Google makes it out here).

But after asking the British public to vote where the Street View bike should go first in the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, we have a winner. Stonehenge! News.com has a short write-up, and here’s a video from Google itself of the Google Street View trike visiting the stone monument.

Sadly, the cameras stopped rolling after the trike backed up into one and knocked them all down, European Vacation style.

What’s next? Google’s got a release up with more details. The full list to be visited:

• Stonehenge
• Millennium Stadium
• Angel of the North
• Loch Ness
• Eden Project
• Warwick Castle
• Bamburgh Castle

Meanwhile, a Google Street View car is now mapping another popular British destination, that of the fictional Coronation Street, of the UK soap opera of the same name. Here it goes:

Personally, I’m sad they didn’t play the famous theme music as it rolled by. Over at the Coronation Street web site, there’s also short news item about the mapping. Apparently, it’s the first TV soap anywhere to get mapped this way.

Sadly, long standing character Jack Duckworth is moving off the street because of the privacy invasion. Surprised the Sun didn’t go with that for a headline. Ah, there’s always hoping.