On Monday, Google announced that “citizen cartographers came together in Google Map Maker” to help create a “new map of North Korea” for Google Maps. BuzzFeed was the first to point out that the new maps contained references to “gulag” and “concentration camp.” Beyond this, some people on Google+ have added satirical, fake reviews to […]
I was saddened to see the news that Aaron Swartz had committed suicide. Such a tragedy. Swartz is known for a wide-range of things, such as helping create Reddit, RSS and being an internet activist. But I remember him most as one of the earliest Google bloggers. The Google Weblog went up on March 17, […]
By the time this election is over more than $2.6 billion will have been spent by the two US presidential candidates on political advertising. I’ve also seen some estimates that say total political advertising this election cycle will top $6 billion. Yet, remarkably, The Atlantic points to a Google Trends report showing a huge November […]
Over the weekend President Obama made a campaign stop at Big Apple Pizza in Ft. Pierce, Florida. The owner, Scott Van Duzer, is reportedly a registered Republican but is also a supporter of Obama. During a photo-op he bear-hugged Obama (with Secret Service permission). The story and the image (at right) received national media attention. […]
As Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum loses two primary races to rival Mitt Romney, perhaps he can console himself with, ironically, another loss. Spreading Santorum, the page defining “santorum” as a by-product of anal sex, has finally dropped from the top results on Google. The related anti-Santorum blog, however, remains. And a page from Urban […]
Perhaps Google may finally have to figure out a “fix” for Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem,” now that an anti-Romney site is making it appear that anyone can rank any protest page for any politician’s name. Bing has the same problem, but no one ever seems to care about that. Spreading Romney I was pretty surprised […]
Russia blames Google for stirring Egypt unrest: report from Reuters reports Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s deputy, Igor Sechin, as telling the Wall Street Journal: Look what they have done in Egypt, those highly-placed managers of Google, what manipulations of the energy of the people took place there. Of course it is a bit interesting […]
The first five minutes of my local TV newscast last night was spent showing how much local interest there was in President Barack Obama’s inauguration. People watched on TV in schools, sports bars, department stores, dentists’ offices, nursing homes, and just about anywhere else a TV could be turned on. Google says that interest was […]
Valleywag (using data from Hitwise) posts about the paid search campaigns of the two major US presidential candidates, over the past 12 weeks. The post shows a list of the actual keywords being used by the campaigns. It’s a fascinating look into their “offensive” and “defensive” strategies concerning paid search.
As explained on the Google Blog, Google has created a Google Australia election website to track the candidates and results of the forthcoming Australian national election. The site involves use of Google Maps, iGoogle and YouTube. It’s something of a mix of public service and self-service (in the sense of smart marketing for Google’s applications […]
Google canvasses for political ads at the LA Times reports that Google gave a seminar at the annual conference for political consultants and internet activists run by George Washington University. The seminar, “Making the Most of Google in 2008,” saw Google advising how groups can use Google services to promote their agendas.