Throughout the day, there’s been a lot of talk about Chrome finally overtaking Internet Explorer (IE) to become the most used web browser in the world, according to new data from Statcounter. While the browser had overtaken IE briefly a while back, this is the first time that it’s been able to do so over a full seven day period.
While Chrome 13, the browser’s latest incarnation, is one of the fastest web browser out there in the market (how fast depends on whether you’re working from a Mac or Windows system), Statcounter doesn’t exactly match the statistics that can be found elsewhere.
For example, according to NetMarketShare, IE is far and away the most popular browser out there holding 54 per cent of the market. Firefox and Chrome are neck and neck with only a percentage point separating them (Firefox holds 20 per cent) while Safari is far behind with only 5 per cent.
The stats acquired by W3Counter has less separating the top three browsers, but the story remains the same. IE holds a 29 per cent market share, Chrome is second with 26 per cent and Firefox just behind them with 24 per cent. Chrome 18 is the most popular web browser holding 22 per cent of the market, but IE still has three different versions of its browser in the top ten.
Going by our own site, Chrome is the most popular browser used (37 per cent) with Firefox in second place (24 per cent) and Safari and IE third and fourth respectively (15 per cent and 14 per cent respectively). While one website doesn’t imply that these are general trends, we have noticed that Chrome is a browser that’s on the up, converting more new users as time passes.
But on the up doesn’t mean popular and depending on where you look, as the examples given above illustrate, Chrome is either neck and neck with Firefox, or is shadowed by IE’s dominance because it’s made standard with every Windows desktop and laptop in existence.
Chrome could very well be the most popular browser out there, but until there’s more evidence to confirm this, it’s best to take such claims with a grain of salt.
There’s a form of advertising that is pretty much my favourite of all time and that’s the Youtube Takeover. We’ve seen some brilliant examples of brands taking over Youtube channels for a day and doing the unexpected. What I like about the Youtube Takeover is you barely notice you’re actually engaging with a brand and it’s where you can really see brilliant technical and creative minds combining. Here I share what I think are some of the best Youtube brand takeovers, some old and new!
Despicable Me
This is an example of both a creative advertising campaign, as well as being one that was incredibly successful for the brand. Universal Pictures ran this takeover on Youtube, which saw the Minions wreck the Youtube page before putting it back together again. Pretty impressive stats as well. The average dwell time on the ad was a huge 90.40 seconds and a click through rate of 11.8%, which is impressive by anyones standards, but represented a CTR 30 times higher than the average. Click on the image below to launch the ad :
Samsung’s 3D Game
Samsung introduced a first with Youtube, when they used their takeover to develop a 3D game that the user was part of. The ad was part of a giveaway, incentivising the user to stay even longer on the page. The ad also worked to keep people’s attention, as it changed from a usual Youtube clip of their projection, to the screen falling apart, before releasing the game.
TippEx
This is pretty much the daddy of Youtube takeovers! TippEx took things to the next level with their Youtube ad, when they invited users to interact with the ad in a very real way. I’m sure you know this one by now, so just behold the magic below.
Chrome Fastball
This is a very inventive Youtube takeover, this time by Google Chrome. They involved people in an interactive game across different websites, starting with a challenge using Google Maps. This is a great example of thinking a little bit differently, while also encouraing people to interact with other products of yours, all within an ad unit.
VW Black Beetle
I think this deserves its place on the list for the quality of the video here. Volkswagen have focused on creating a visually impressive video, rather than just the trickery available with a Youtube takeover. It may not be remembered for really wowing people, but given that Youtube is a video channel, I like what VW have done here. I don’t recommend you watch this if you get scared easily by creepy crawlies!
Wario Land – Shake It
Though by no means the first Youtube takeover, this campaign seemed to really make people take notice of Youtube advertising and at the time it was pretty innovative. The user experience was incredibly good and I remember being surprised when I watched this in its original run in 2008.
The Expendables
Another nice example of using Youtube advertising to promote a film. This shows that the advertiser has really thought about the different aspects of a Youtube channel to make them part of the story. You don’t realise straight away that what you’re watching is an ad, which is about the best an advertiser can ask for!
Google has announced that it is to stop using Microsoft Windows internally in the company operating system, amid security concerns related to the attack on its network late last year.
Microsoft has never been a friendly face inside the Googleplex, but Google's engineering-driven culture and need to test its software on a variety of systems usually meant that at least some portion of its employees preferred the Windows environment. Some Google employees will still be able to use Windows machines, but they will have to get special permission, according to the report.The Financial Times reported late Monday that Google has begun telling new employees that they are no longer able to request Windows PCs, giving them the choice of Mac or Linux systems. Google has long offered its employees their choice of work operating system but will no longer do so, The Financial Times said, after an attack on Windows and Internet Explorer 6 resulted in the theft of Google intellectual property, believed to be source code, late last year.
Later this year Google will begin directing employees toward Chrome OS systems, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CIOs attending a Google seminar on cloud computing in April. Google believes the browser-based operating system will be "inherently more secure" than alternative operating systems, Schmidt said at that event.
Google has announced that it is to stop using Microsoft Windows internally in the company operating system, amid security concerns related to the attack on its network late last year.
Microsoft has never been a friendly face inside the Googleplex, but Google's engineering-driven culture and need to test its software on a variety of systems usually meant that at least some portion of its employees preferred the Windows environment. Some Google employees will still be able to use Windows machines, but they will have to get special permission, according to the report.The Financial Times reported late Monday that Google has begun telling new employees that they are no longer able to request Windows PCs, giving them the choice of Mac or Linux systems. Google has long offered its employees their choice of work operating system but will no longer do so, The Financial Times said, after an attack on Windows and Internet Explorer 6 resulted in the theft of Google intellectual property, believed to be source code, late last year.
Later this year Google will begin directing employees toward Chrome OS systems, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CIOs attending a Google seminar on cloud computing in April. Google believes the browser-based operating system will be "inherently more secure" than alternative operating systems, Schmidt said at that event.
Google AdWords Dynamic Keyword Insertion is an advanced feature that can help make your adverts more relevant to a diverse audience. To use keyword insertion, you place a short piece of code into your ad text. Each time the ad shows, AdWords will automatically replace the code with the keyword that triggered the ad. Find out more about Dynamic Keyword Insertion and how it works.
We were using this advanced technique for a client and were struggling to get the search terms to trigger.We tried everything - we analysed the various blogs on the topic and we were sure that we were doing everything right. The only issue that we thought might be causing the problem was the fact that the Quality Score was 3 on the keywords that were NOT triggering the keyword insertion - we had to turn to Google to clear this up. Below is what they said - which is a confirmation that you HAVE to get your QS above a certain level of Google will simply not enable keyword insertion. And you know what, I agree with them - the ads should be high quality, relevant and targeted.
Google says:
Thank you for your patience. Keyword insertions only work if the keywords
meet a certain quality threshold. For keywords in the ad group that have
low quality scores, the default ad texts would be used instead of the
keyword insertion. This is the reason why your keywords that have a low
quality score are not inserted into your ad text through dynamic keyword
insertion.
Maintaining high-quality ads for both users and advertisers is important
to AdWords. Your keyword's Quality Score reflects your clickthrough rate
(CTR), plus your keyword, ad text, and landing page content. (To learn
more about how Quality Score is calculated, please visit
Google has made a couple of feature enhancements to the view-through conversion reporting to help more effective measurement the ROI of display campaigns on the Google Content Network. View-through conversion reporting helps measure the conversions that result from users who have seen but not clicked on display ads. The enhancements will allow better report customisation
Customizable view-through conversion window. You’ll be able to set a custom range for the window of time for which you’d like view-through conversions reported. Previously, this window was set to 30 days, meaning we reported on the number of view-through conversions that occurred up to 30 days after a user saw your ad. Now, you’ll be able to customize this time-frame, based on what makes sense for your product or service. For example, if you’re a local pizza shop looking for users to download a coupon and order a pizza, users will generally respond to your ad within a day or two after seeing it. In this case, you might set a reporting window that’s much shorter than if you were an auto dealership, for example, as it may take several weeks before a user schedules a test-drive, given the a longer sales cycle for automobiles.
De-duplication of search conversion reporting. In addition, you’ll also have the option to exclude reporting for view-through conversions that are duplicated across both the Search and Content Networks. If you enable this feature, we will exclude from your view-through conversion reports conversions that come from users who have also clicked your search ads. These conversions will only be attributed to your search ads.
If you decide to apply these settings for your campaigns, please note that they will affect data moving forward in your account.
These improvements should make view-through conversion reporting more accurate and actionable. If you are using view-through conversion tracking today, we recommend you evaluate these two new options and implement them based on your needs. However, try to avoiding flipping back and forth between enabling and disabling these settings as this can muddy the usefulness of your campaign metrics.
If you’re advertising using display ads on the Google Content Network, but are new to view-through conversion tracking, you could try out view-through conversion tracking to more effectively track the ROI of your display campaigns. Remember, display ads often drive performance beyond immediate clicks and conversions, like from users who may visit your site and make a purchase after seeing your display ad, even if they haven’t clicked.
You may have been paying attention to the battle that is currently raging between Google and the Chinese government.
So, why would Google bother waging a war against one of the biuggest countres in the world?
In January, Google announced it is no longer willing to censor searches in China and might just pull out of the country. In February, Google claimed that the Chinese goverment was behind the attempts to hack into Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents.
Now, Google.cn (the Chinese version of the Google search engine) is being redirected to the uncensored Google Hong Kong site (Google.com.hk). This has outraged the Chinese government:
“Google has violated its written promise and is totally wrong by stopping to censor its Chinese language search results and blaming China for alleged hacker attacks, ” the Xinhua news agency quoted an official in charge of China’s Internet bureau as saying.
The Chinese official went on to say , “We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts.”
The Chinese internet is protected by “The Great Firewall of China” which blocks tens of thousands of websites and search results.
It started in 2005 when Google entered the Chinese market, agreeing to censor search results. When you google “Tiananmen Square” in China, you get a friendly page about the biggest public gathering place in Beijing. However, in the rest of the world, get the world famous picture of a brave student squaring off with a tank in 1989.
The world is going through a transformation of equality and human rights through the use and implementation of technology everywhere. Every cell phone, every connection to the web and every online business connects another human being around the world.
By simply redirecting Google.cn to Hong Kong instead of unplugging it and maintaining the rest of its operations in China, Google has:
* Maintained all of its China traffic
* Stopped censoring its search results
* Forced the Chinese Government to censor the search results (via the Great Firewall)
* Made clear to Chinese citizens and the world just what content is being censored (those searching for the Tiananmen Square uprising, for example, now get an error page instead of no search results)
* Retained the option to redirect the traffic back to China.cn if an agreement with the Chinese government can be reached.
However, is this simply a short term gain for Google which will lead to a much longer term win for China?
It looks like Google is about to pull out of China and will shut down it’s Chinese-language search engine in the aftermath of spying and hacking allegations that emerged in recent months.
Baidu (rival to Google in China) shares have jumped as a result.
China has denied any role in the attacks on the computers of 20 US businesses and Chinese human rights activists, which prompted Google to threaten to close its Chinese search engine.
In January, Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond revealedthat Google and a number of other companies based in China were hacked and that hackers attempted to access the Gmail accounts of notable civil rights activists.
The controversy has been simmering ever since but now it is increasingly likely Google will exit the massive Chinese market.
Baidu shares triple over year
US depositary shares in rival firm Baidu jumped on the news. Baidu climbed 3.2pc to $567.55, more than tripling over the past 12 months.
According to web analytics company StatCounter, at the end of 2009, Baidu held 56pc of the Chinese market compared to Google’s 43pc.
In recent months, Baidu has been deploying a new advertising system it has dubbed Phoenix Nest.
Talks between Google and the Chinese government are understood to be ongoing but reports suggest little is materialising. Google is adamant it will not accept self-censorship.
It is expected that Google’s pull out from China could happen in the next few weeks.
You just have to LOVE the Apple business model. They don’t have to worry about silly stuff like this (New Windows phones won’t run current apps). Why, because they make their own hardware for it to run on. I have no doubt that someone will have a good laugh at my expense some day but ‘the future’ to me is building your own hardware and loading with your own software.
Can you imagine if BMW or Audi decided 30 years ago only to build engines. Every man and his dog could build the car, any car, pick a car…. Where would Audi and BMW be now. Well we are seeing the slow burn of the once giant Microsoft. I know, I will probably live to regret this prediction…… but hey, we all love a good controversial blog.
Microsoft has said its new software for smart phones, Windows Phone 7 series, is a “clean break” with the past. Now it’s clear just how clean that break is: The new phones, expected late this year, won’t run any applications written for older versions of Microsoft’s phone software.
It has previously also been revealed that those with existing Windows Mobile 6.5 devices will not be able to upgrade to the newer Windows Phone 7 platform with a software update.
In a blog post Thursday, Microsoft executive Charlie Kindel, who handles contact with outside software developers, said that jettisoning support for older applications was necessary to make the new operating system as powerful and user-friendly as possible.
Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin plan to sell five million Google shares each over the next five years, in a trading plan disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing.
The sales, if completed, would provide each of the founders $2.75 billion based on Friday’s closing price of $550.01.
Now, here’e the interesting thing … if you read the NY Times, they tell us that the lads would not lose control of the company that they founded. But if you read Techcentral.ie (an Irish basedtechnology news wire) they give a completely different spin.
New Yowy Times says …. “The sales would bring the founders’ combined voting rights to just below 50 percent, 48 percent to be precise. But for all practical purposes, Mr. Page and Mr. Brin would continue to have effective control of the company. What’s more, Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive, has an additional 10 percent of Google’s voting rights, giving the triumvirate absolute control over Google’s fate as long as they remain united.”
Techcentral.ie says …. “Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are to cede majority control of the company with a forthcoming share sell-off. The duo’s stake in the company will fall from 59% to 48% after the sale is completed over a period of five years. It will mean the pair lose majority voting rights, although given that CEO Eric Schmidt has 10% voting power, the company’s senior management will still remain firmly at the wheel.”
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Throughout the day, there’s been a lot of talk about Chrome finally overtaking Internet Explorer (IE) to become the most used web browser in the world, according to new data from Statcounter. While the browser had overtaken IE briefly a while back, this is the first time that it’s been able to do so over a full seven day period.
Google has announced that it is to stop using Microsoft Windows internally in the company operating system, amid security concerns related to the attack on its network late last year.
