EricEwe.com

Every now and then, Google would change their homepage to reflect a certain event or cause. Today, you are able to play Pac Man on Google for free. This it to acknowledge that it is the game’s 30th anniversary.

Hey Web Searchers,

If you’ve visited our homepage today, there’s no doubt that you noticed our Pac Man doodle honoring the game’s 30th anniversary. If you insert the virtual coin, you can begin playing this legendary game or you can wait 10 seconds and it will automatically start. If you’re not a Pac Man fan or want to skip the music and lights, just enter you search query as usual and you’ll be directed to our normal search results page. Other options include:

1. Closing your browser
2. Turning the volume down or off on your computer
3. Playing Pac Man all day long (or at least until you beat your co-workers)

Happy Friday!

~Rubie

Google took a bold step today and is in the process of moving out of China. In the controversial move about over censorship by the Chinese government, Google is currently redirecting all of the traffic from www.google.cn to the HK domain. Other than censorship, Google was hard hit by hackers which they believe that it came from China.

In Hong Kong, Google should technically enjoy less censorship as Hong Kong which is is a special administrative region of China and enjoys more freedom, including an uncensored Internet, than mainland China.

On that note, web users in China are still having their internet searches filtered at a higher level with the Golden Shield Project aka Great Firewall of China.

Unconfirmed reports are saying that Google will exit China by April 10, 2010. I am wondering about how is Google going to make up the est $600 million / year revenue that Google generated in China. Either way, this will absolutely help Baidu defending its marketshare.

Google announced today that they are taking an aggressive move to make reviews more accessible to those brick and mortar stores. Google will allow U.S. consumers to read reviews about local stores on their cell phones when they point and scan the bar codes on those local stores.

Google labeled this initiative as “Favorite Places on Google”, and Google sent out 100,000 bar codes to 100,000 most popular local businesses based on searches. That initiative spanned across 9,000 towns across the 50 states.

Businesses can put the barcode up in their window; searchers can scan it with any camera- and app-enabled phone, then read the reviews and other info on the Place Page, and even get mobile coupons on the spot. The QR codes can be scanned by a variety of mobile phones, including Android-powered phones, the iPhone and BlackBerry devices, provided that the user downloads a barcode-scanning app. Google suggests its own Barcode Scanner app for Android, and the $1.99 QuickMark app (iTunes) for the iPhone, among others. 

Google mentioned that the barcode initiative will be expanded with more bar codes being sent out, but there was no mention of a timeline. If you are keen on getting onboard, you can claim your own barcode via this Google Favorite Places link.

I have been working with Google since they were a fledgling company that was trying to claim market share from Overture/Yahoo and one of the beta testers for Gmail. When a company grows so fast, sometimes they will get sloppy.

Here is a good example, I signed up for a new MCC account for the Google Pay Per Click aka Google AdWords, the MMC confirmation email goes directly to the SPAM FOLDER in my GMAIL. I think there are simple things they overlooked….”to have Google emails not go into spam for Gmail accounts”.

 See email I got below which went into GMAIL SPAM.

Hello Eric Ewe,

We’re delighted that you’ve joined the Google Advertising Professionals Program. Using the components of this program – including online training and qualification, as well as marketing materials designed for your needs – you can more efficiently manage client accounts, extend your AdWords expertise, and attract more prospects.

To get started with the program:
1. Log into the Google Advertising Professionals Program site at https://adwords.google.com/professionals/account/?hl=en with the Google Account username and password you used during the program sign-up process. Familiarize yourself with the various elements of the site – it’s where you’ll be tracking your online training and qualifications for the program, as well as accessing useful resources such as marketing materials.
2. Create a Company account, or ask the Administrator of a Company you want to join to invite you as a Professional member (this allows you to take full advantage of the program features and benefits).
3. Create a My Client Center (MCC) account, if you don’t already have one, so you can more easily manage multiple client accounts. Managing a certain amount of spend in your My Client Center is also a requirement for qualification in the Google Advertising Professionals Program, so you should take a moment now to set up your MCC account by visiting http://www.google.com/adwords/myclientcenter.
4. Link your MCC account to your new Google Advertising Professionals Program account so that your managed spend can be associated with your account. Read this FAQ to learn how: https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?answer=148358&hl=en.
5. Start learning! Visit the AdWords Learning Center to begin training for the Google Advertising Professionals Program exam. Once you pass the exam and have achieved the minimum client account spending requirements in your My Client Center, you’ll be eligible for qualification in the program. Access the Learning Center at: https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/go/learningcenter?hl=en
6. Explore our Help Center, which is full of useful information about qualification, training, and more. Visit the program Help Center at: https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/?hl=en
7. Take advantage of AdWords promotional coupons: Once you become qualified through the Google Advertising Professionals Program we will provide you with 20 coupons, in the amount equivalent to $100 each, which may be applied to new client accounts. You can use them as an incentive for new advertisers to try AdWords and sign up through your company. You will receive your coupons in a separate email from us within one month of qualifying as a Google Advertising Professional – please note terms and conditions apply.
Congratulations on your enrollment in the Google Advertising Professionals Program! We look forward to all the great things you’ll do as a member.

If you have any questions or comments, please click the ‘Contact Us’ link at the bottom of your program page after you log in.

Sincerely,

Google Advertising Professionals Team

You have received this email because you recently signed up for the Google Advertising Professionals programs.

Today, Google sent out about 100,000 invitations to the Google Wave for the Beta users. The Google Wave project was revealed at the Google I/O on May 27 – 28, 2009 in Moscone Center, San Francisco and limited account were given to those who attended. On Oct 1, 2009, it was released to beta tested who did not attend the I/O. The Google Wave is basically a communication and collaboration tool that works with richly formatted photos, text, videos, maps, and more. According to Google Wave‘s website:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

This created a buzz in the online tech and create a market for “entrepreneurs” who got the invite. Within minutes, ebay was flooded with Google Wave Invitations and some of the invitations were listed and sold  for $89.99.

Humm… so next time, be one of Google’s tester or be on their active list and you might be able to make a lot of dole.

I was one of the first few people who got a GMail invite when they were beta testing it and I could have sold mine for a fortune on eBay but it wasn’t in me. I did give out a dozen free invites to co-workers, friends out of the 100 invites I got. So, anybody for a free Gmail invite? 

$89.99/invite X 100 invites = $8,999 (Quite a nice change…)

The new Google Wave. 100,0000 invitations was sent out on 10/1/09

Adv: Send money internationally via Xoom