Today Google introduced AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), a tool designed to optimize AdWords accounts by letting advertisers test and measure changes to keywords, bids, ad groups, and placements. "In the past, the most common way to measure how changes to your account affected your campaign performance was to measure how the campaign performed before and after you implemented your changes," says product marketing manager Courtney Lischke. … [Read more...]

Google has released a new Gmail Labs feature that lets you preview Google Maps within Gmail and Google Buzz. "I often receive emails containing addresses in them — where to meet for dinner, the location of my friend's new apartment, etc. To find out where these places actually are, I have to copy the address, open up Google Maps, and paste it in," says Google software engineer Mark Knichel, explaining the motivation for creating this … [Read more...]

When I was a history major at Haverford College, I spent countless hours with old documents at Magill Library. It was one of the best parts of the Haverford experience—studying and researching with a great collection of musty works. Little did I or any other student know at the time that as we worked, we sat a few feet away from an international mystery involving none other than René Descartes. It reads like a historical thriller. In 1641 … [Read more...]

Lawyers - and particularly lawyers who know a lot about privacy laws - might want to send their resumes to Google.  It seems the company could use some extra legal representatives before long, given that Connecticut's attorney general has now started yet another investigation concerning the collection of sensitive WiFi data. This means Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general in question, joined officials in Australia, France, Germany, Hong … [Read more...]

Last year Google launched Campaign Insights for AdWords. This is at tool for advertisers to see data about their campaigns’ performance. Google has now launched this tool for YouTube ad campaigns. It's only available for campaigns that are reserved in advance, and not those bought in the AdWords auction. YouTube says it can only measure the effects of large campaigns, but it's working hard on expanding into smaller ones. "Campaign … [Read more...]

Google's attempts to appease the international community with regards to its collection of sensitive WiFi data don't seem to have paid off.  Instead, the Attorney-General of Australia, Robert McClelland, announced this weekend that a new investigation has begun. McClelland indicated that this is not some corporate witch hunt conducted by a few bad-tempered politians.  He said according to Stephen Hutcheon, "I note there has been some … [Read more...]

We work hard to consistently develop new tools, features and algorithmic changes to help us better understand what you mean when you enter a query into the Google search box—and we ultimately use that understanding to get you the information you're looking for as fast as possible. Understanding is core to our mission—particularly as we strive to be as useful in your everyday tasks. For example, if you search for a local sports team, and … [Read more...]

First, dogs were allowed in the offices.  Next, goats were brought in to cut the grass.  Now, bees have also made their way onto Google's property, with four new hives arranged at a safe distance to raise awareness about Colony Collapse Disorder (and supply employees with honey and wax). With regards to the most serious reason for this move, Marc Rasic, Google's executive chef, explained on the Official Google Blog that CCD is "a phenomenon … [Read more...]

I’ve always thought that beehives are organized similarly to how we do things here at Google. Bees have a flat management structure and they adapt quickly and change roles throughout their career (nurse, guard, foragers, quality control, etc.) depending on demands. And the bees that collect nectar from the forager bees at the entrance to the hive also scrutinize it for quality. If it’s not high enough, they send the foragers back out to get … [Read more...]

While there are other mobile operating systems that shouldn't be ignored (Blackberry for one), there are two that seem to get the most attention, and that may end up competing most for user and marketer attention above the rest in the foreseeable future. These are of course the iPhone OS and the Android OS. Obviously the iPhone OS runs on iPhones, and now on iPads. These are very popular devices, but in the smartphone market Android is gaining … [Read more...]