September 29, 2009

Microsoft Windows 7 House Party: Public Relations Disaster or Video Marketing Triumph?

If you create something so bad that it goes viral, is it a public relations disaster or a video marketing triumph?

That's the question that journalists and bloggers are asking after watching HostingYourParty, which tells you how to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House Party.

Microsoft is putting a Tupperware-style twist on the upcoming Windows 7 rollout -- launching a new initiative to encourage thousands of employees, partners and technology enthusiasts to throw parties in their homes and communities to demonstrate and help spread the word about its new operating system.

People accepted as official launch party hosts will get their own copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and a chance to win a computer. But unlike the Tupperware model, there will be no literal selling. These parties are more about generating word-of-mouth buzz.

To promote this idea, Microsoft has uploaded a video to YouTube. Some journalists and bloggers think it is a public relations disaster.

Cindy Perman of CNBC writes, "You just knew that once they put the Microsoft geeks in charge of the "party," that it wouldn't be a 10-kegger and before long, we'd all be putting lampshades over our heads."

Ian Douglas, a tech blogger for the Daily Telegraph in London, writes, "I'm beginning to think that no one involved with Microsoft's advertising has ever left the house or spoken to a real person."

And James Lileks of The Bleat writes, "If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool."

Now, you may be tempted to watch this 6-minute, 14-second video yourself -- to jump to your own conclusion. But, I warn you -- only serious geeks like me will watch beyond the first minute.

HostingYourParty

Now, if Microsoft really wanted to show people how to hold a Windows 7 Launch Party, they might have created a remix of the 1950s educational video below about what, in fact, makes a "good" party.

1950 - What Makes a Good Party

Not all of the reaction to Microsoft's Windows 7 House Party has been negative. Some of it can be charitably described as "mixed."

David Meerman Scott of Web Ink Now, asks, "Is this Microsoft Windows 7 House Party thing real? Or is it an incredibly wonderful and clever spoof on a 50s educational video that is so well done as to have fooled most observers who seem to think it is legit?"

Janice L. Brown of The Fussy Marketer also asks, "Hmm, if something goes viral because it's so bad, does that still count as achieving the marketing goals?"

Nevertheless, Lieutenant Columbo, if he were blogging these days, would ask just one more thing: "Why did Microsoft disable ratings and adding comments on HostingYourParty?"

Is this something you'd do if you were hoping for a video marketing triumph?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

August 11, 2009

Protect Your Data By Moving to the Google Opt-Out Village

The Onion reports:

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

via Google Blogoscoped

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 22, 2008

Yahoo Says “You Like Me, Right Now, You Really Like Me”

Well, that seems to be the case for both Sally Field and Yahoo.

When Sally won her second Oscar, she felt the love and respect of The Academy. All those years of TV acting, training with Actor Studio's Lee Strasberg, and towing the line had paid off. She had been cast in strong dramatic roles, and won two Oscars. It was not a fluke.

Yahoo recently felt the love and respect of Keynote Academy. They worked hard, and had ups and downs. Then they focused on Search Assist, and jumped to #1 Keynote rankings for “Search Assistance and Suggestions” and "Homepage Appeal." It was not a fluke.

With the Oscars ahead, I wanted to investigate other similarities between Sally and Yahoo -- and there were more than I expected.

Sally: She has delivered some Hollywood hits, including Smokey and the Bandits which drew $59 million (per Box Office Report). That same year, Star Wars was released and earned $271 million. Yahoo: They also have delivered big numbers, and drew 2.5 billion searches last month (per comScore). That was eclipsed by Google's 7.7 billion searches.

Sally: She's quite popular elsewhere, especially on the small screen. Yahoo: They're very popular elsewhere, especially through email and overall portal traffic.

Sally: She had a carefree youth, starring as Gidget and then the Flying Nun. Yahoo: They had a carefree youth, starring as the search directory and then the portal.

Sally: She is currently single. Yahoo: They are (well, it is) currently single.

Sally: Sally has remained outspoken and quotable. While accepting an Emmy Award, she declared: “If the mothers ruled the war, there would be no @#$& war in the first place.” Yahoo: We certainly have heard a lot from Yahoo lately, who officially told Redmond to go away.

Posted by at 11:08 PM | Permalink

April 18, 2007

SEOMoz Declares Stephen Colbert "Greatest Living American"

Rand Fishkin, founder and CEO of SEOMoz, is attempting to brand Stephen Colbert as the greatest living American. It's an exercise in link building and a test of Google bombing.

Greatest Living American is a fun way of tipping your hat to a great political and cultural comedian.

So grab the link and have some fun.

Posted by Frank Watson at 2:18 PM | Permalink

February 23, 2007

SES London Cartoon Review

Hats off once again to the Rebecca Kelly over at SeoMoz for her great cartoon of the real conference.

Good reason to get you to all the conferences - put them together as a book. Great follow up to the Super Proposal.

New York will make a great next chapter! See you there.

Posted by Frank Watson at 7:59 PM | Permalink

December 20, 2006

Regifting SEO tools, calculators and images for the holidays

Are you searching for some cheap Christmas gift ideas or last-minute Hanukkah gifts for search engine marketers, great bloggers, or conference speakers? I am. Here are some free SEO tools, a free online calculator, and royalty-free images that someone gave me during the past year that I'm now regifting to friends and colleagues just in time for the holidays.

First, for all the search engine marketers on my holiday gift shopping list, I plan to regift the free SEO tools created by SEOmoz. This includes the Keyword Difficulty tool and Page Strength tool that were both reviewed by Barry Schwartz back in July. It also includes an IP Location Lookup, which isn't an SEO tool, but is still very useful.

The SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty tool issues a percentage score and provides a detailed analysis of the top ranking sites at Google and Yahoo. It can be used to analyze the competitive landscape of a particular search term or phrase. The SEOmoz Page Strength tool is designed to satisfy the curiosity of search engine marketers seeking a better metric to quickly assess a site/page's value. And the SEOmoz IP Location Lookup determines the geographic location of an IP address using a bit of AJAX and Google Maps.

Next, for all the great bloggers who deserve to get corporate holiday gifts this year, I'm regifting the Blog Juice Calculator created by Text Link Ads. Barry Schwartz reviewed this fun little tool back in October.

The Blog Juice Calculator allows you to compare your blog with others based on Bloglines RSS subscriber data, Alexa rank, Technorati rank, and Technorati inlinks. It was the first “link bait” project by R. Marie Cox for Text Link Ads.

Finally, for the many, many conference speakers who I hang out with at Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld, and AdTech, I plan to regift iStockphoto. Guy Kawasaki, a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, touted this collection of royalty-free images during his keynote presentation back in November at WebmasterWorld's PubCon in Las Vegas.

iStockphoto features photographs, vector illustrations, Flash files, and video clips. To search for images, just enter the keyword in the search box at the top. Web-ready images only cost $1 and video clips are available for as little as $5.

Okay, so maybe it's a little cheesy of me to be regifting free SEO tools, a free online calculator, and royalty-free images to friends and colleagues. But, try searching for something more creative than free holiday screensavers at this time of year. It ain't easy.

Next year, I plan to celebrate Festivus. It's got to be less hectic to participate in the “airing of grievances” and the “feats of strength” than it is to find cheap Christmas gift ideas or last-minute Hanukkah gifts for dozens of search engine marketers, great bloggers, and conference speakers.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 2:54 PM | Permalink

October 4, 2006

Your Name Here On Google's Home Page

Via the New York Times Pogue's Post, Custom Google is a way to get the Google home page showing whatever words you want in place of the Google logo -- but using the Google logo's style. You're supposed to be able to do the same for the Yahoo home page, that that simply takes me to a page of paid links.

You aren't actually changing the Google home page, of course. Instead, you'll go to a customized version on a third party site, such as this example. But it can be a fun way to trick your friends into thinking you've cut some special deal or for making funny screenshots like this:

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:20 AM | Permalink

August 4, 2006

Searching For Other Search Engines At Search Engines

Yesterday, I thought I discovered Yahoo stealing searching from Google, but I did not, Rand discovered it. Basically, if you do a search on Yahoo for google, Yahoo puts up a Yahoo Shortcut asking you "Want to search the Web?" with Yahoo? Is this fair? Is this respectable? Who cares... But is this relevant?

Navigational searches are important. Does Google throw up a OneBox result doing the same? No, they do not. Yahoo doesn't do it for MSN or Ask.com, only for Google. When I asked GoodROI to ask Tim Converse of Yahoo on his WebmasterRadio show last night, Tim replied that he was unaware of that result but it is possible that it may be a joke. Meaning, sometimes the search engines play jokes with each other.

When I went over to Ask.com to do a search on Google, I got this Smart Answer that is incredibly useful and relevant (IMO) to this search.

When I went over to MSN yesterday I did not get anything special. But today, it seems MSN is playing the joke on Google & Yahoo but not on Ask. They ask "Want to search the Web? Try MSN Search" with the search box to MSN.

So now we have Yahoo and MSN both playing this game. Google doesn't do anything much special for these navigation searches. And Ask.com shows a detailed Smart Answer with details of each search company.

Why does Yahoo and MSN do this? Well, as I said it is most likely because Yahoo and MSN are portals. They attract less web savvy individuals and when they search at Yahoo or MSN, they may not understand that they are actually searching. Sounds kind stupid, but this is the case.

Matt Cutts of Google commented in the SEOMoz post saying;

Yahoo: "Want to search the Web?" User: "Yes, but not with you." Too funny. I wish I had a T-shirt with that on it. :)

So Chris Boggs decided to play artist and make a Did you mean? result in Google for good search engine, it does not really work, but he wanted to have fun.

I doubt this is just a joke between search engines. For a high volume keyword, trust me, it is high volume, like "Google," search engines typically play jokes with each other.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:51 AM | Permalink

July 27, 2006

Google The Musical Coming Soon

Philipp Lenssen spots a new musical named Google: The Musical. The musical is being hosted at the Rarig Center on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. The dates of the musical include; Friday on August 4th at 5:30 pm, Tuesday on August 8th at 7:00 pm, Thursday on August 10th at 10:00 pm, Friday on August 11th at 8:30 pm, and Sunday on August 13th at 1:00 pm.

What to expect?

Synopsis

Google is taking over the world - one thought at a time. An entirely original darkly-comedic electronic musical. Librarians, DJs and zombies - it's a brave new world. This fable about the dangers of information ubiguity will make you laugh, cry and run home to your Internet.

Some more details at MySpace.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:54 AM | Permalink

July 26, 2006

FAA Safety Instructions For The Google Jet

InsideGoogle spotted a funny write up from the Seattle Times called Google founders eager to take users for a ride. I'll quote the piece InsideGoogle quoted:

I'm now required by the Federal Aviation Administration to give the following safety instructions, because our aircraft is in beta and always will be: In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, stock options will drop from the ceiling above you. Please inflate the options until you feel financially secure.

In the event of a sudden loss of propulsion, look under your seat for the blue, red, yellow and green Google parachute. Place the straps around your shoulders, tighten the waist belt, jump out of the aircraft and press the “I'm Feeling Lucky” button on your chest.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:27 AM | Permalink

June 26, 2006

Build Your Own Matt Cutts

I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable on a funny little web site that gives you a way to build your own Matt Cutts. To dress up Matt Cutts, go to the Matt Cutts Doll and drag and drop clothing on top of Matt's body. Oh, if you ever wondered if Matt was a briefs or boxers guys, now you know. Too funny.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:21 AM | Permalink

June 9, 2006

Google Founder "Ron Google" Helps Jessica Alba At MTV Movie Awards

Via Valleywag, this clip from last night's MTV Movie Awards shows Jessica Alba having "Ron Google," the inventor of Google, comment on if she's really that popular.

The camera zooms in on Seth Rogen in the audience as someone who has looked for her 10,000 times. And that mustache on Ron Google -- clearly it's the new home of The Captain mustache, back on sale at eBay and featured on the faces of a number of people search marketers at the bottom of the page.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:18 PM | Permalink

May 4, 2006

BMW Sort Of Hits Back At Google In Ad

BMW Ad With Google over at Google Blogoscoped gives me a chuckle for a variety of reasons. It shows an ad from BMW saying "The Search For Yourself Doesn't Run On Google." The irony! It comes after BMW was banned by Google briefly plus after Pontiac tapped into the Google brand to sell cars. Specifically:

• Welcome Back To Google, BMW -- Missed You These Past Three Days covers how Google banned BMW Germany for spamming, knocking it out of the index for a few days. I'm sure the ad is just a coincidence, but it's sort of funny to see a pseudo-slam against Google following on this.  

• TV Commercial "Googles" Pontiac covers how Pontiac embraced the Google name, with Google's permission, to help push its cars by tapping into the Google brand positively. Now here's BMW using the Google brand I'd say negatively to push its motorcycles. And you've got to wonder if they got (or needed) permission to use the Google name (it's only the name used, not the trademarked logo).

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:12 AM | Permalink

April 13, 2006

Gary Price Takes On Anti-Tagging Role

Former SEW news editor Gary Price is pretty well known for being dubious about tagging. Why here he goes again after a Newsweek cover story on the topic. Gary's now at Ask, of course, but it turns out he's moonlighting on the anti-tagging front. More details are covered this Denver Post story that Chris Sherman passed along to me, explaining how Gary Price has overseen the 2.4 million square feet of paint used to cover tagging in the city.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:16 AM | Permalink

February 10, 2006

Rate Yahoo & MSN Evilness, Too

Remember Evil Or Not? That's the site we wrote about last month that lets you rate how evil (or not) Google is based on current news stories. Growing concern over evilness has allowed the site to grow rapidly into new areas. In addition to rating Google's evilness here, you can now rate Microsoft's evilness here and Yahoo's evilness here.

Once again, Ask Jeeves is in the tricky position of being left out. They aren't considered big enough to warrant evilness measurements. But then again, they're probably relieved that they aren't considered potentially evil enough for such ratings.

Trend charts on evil are available for each company in the upper-right hand corner of their respective sites. Google's actually on a bit of a downswing. C'mon. Someone please mash up Google's stock price with the evil scale. Doing a very rough comparison, I see a bit of a stock price dive during Google's evil spike. But then again, recently both evilness and the stock prices have been falling.

Keep in mind that Evil Or Not does NOT use EvilRank. EvilRank, as it's known around the 'plex, is an internally developed scale that Google uses to determine the potential consequences of its actions.

Keep in mind, it's actually EvilRank Beta. So while some might not agree that EvilRank worked well with the China decision, rest assured that EvilRank may improve over time and better keep Googlers out of evil's way.

If you're curious to know more about EvilRank, Gray Hat News managed to get the scoop on how it works. Details here; photo below:

Interestingly, Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny shared on his personal blog how this same person recently lectured on evilness at Yahoo:

Jeremy will no doubt protest that he never actually said this person spoke at Yahoo. Jeremy will say he was simply referring to a Yoda versus Darth Vader PowerPoint face-off over at Presentation Zen. But the evidence is clear that Presentation Zen got its photo from someone upset about Darth making the rounds at search companies.

Look closely at the slide. Notice how it says

Search your feelings.

I've bolded the key word, Search. This isn't some funny, made up slide. This is actual evidence of Darth Vader pitching evil to our gatekeepers of the web. Why else would the word "search" be in his presentation?

Everyone will see the proof soon enough. One of these search companies will go with the "Search Your Feelings" in the near future, and now you'll know exactly where it came from.

Finally, with all this attention on being evil, it's worthwhile warning people against trying to buy or sell evilness on the web.

Yes, there are many evilness brokers out there promising to get your EvilRank higher through reciprocal evil trading, such as the dude in black above. But if this is spotted, you could be severely penalized. That's why you should make use of the noevil attribute, to transparently signal that you are buying evil rather than honestly earning evil the hard way.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:14 AM | Permalink

February 6, 2006

The chrisisthebest rohtuaswentahyarg & gurtieisthebest rohtuaswentahyarg SEO Contests

I know, I know. I swore off writing about SEO contests. But the chrisisthebest rohtuaswentahyarg SEO contest is different, as it involves some of my pocket change plus a cool "I Love Larry" T-shirt. There's also the gurtieisthebest rohtuaswentahyarg contest run by Gurtie, as she describes more here. It's open to old and new skool SEOers (I'm old skool), but winning will be nearly impossible. I mean, what's the "non www version of the www" mean? Anyway, link to me with both of those terms, so I can win them both. Meanwhile, Interview with Tim Mayer is priceless. Really priceless. I'll except:

TM; Well, don't you want to discuss about Yahoo saying they don't want to be number one in search?

GHN; Not yet. So what was your surname before you married Marissa?

TM; My wife's called Christa. We could talk about the latest Yahoo weather update?

GHN; Yeah in a bit. What's it like being married to Larry's ex?

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:06 PM | Permalink

January 20, 2006

How Timely: Philipp Lenssen's Patriot Search

We can add search satirist/searh humorist to other terms like creative and inventive that best describe Google Blogoscoped's, Philipp Lenssen. Check out his latest and very timely creation, Patriot Search. Make sure to review the entire site especially the advanced syntax. :-)

Posted by Gary Price at 5:49 PM | Permalink

January 17, 2006

See How Evil Google Is On Your Google Personalized Home Page

Gary wrote earlier of a site that lets you rate whether Google is evil or not, based on news items each day. Google Blogoscoped now points to a module for your Google Personalized Home Page where you can keep informed on how Google is doing in the good-versus-evil battle. I've installed the module, where it's now telling me that "On this day, Google was considered 36% evil based on 14 votes."

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:21 AM | Permalink

January 15, 2006

More Google Mentions on Saturday Night Live

Last night was the first new Saturday Night Live program since the Yahoo, MapQuest, and Google mention in the now famous "Lazy Sunday" video. Last night's show included two Google mentions along with one about the European multimedia engine (in development), Quaero.

After the opening monologue from guest host Scarlett Johansson, the show featured a skit about a new MTV Channel (MTV 4, "The Alternative to the Alternative") that airs a song about "Googling." Cast member, Amy Poehler, portrays a singer (Kaylesha Kane) who sings a song about "'Googling' her man."

From the transcript: I told my boyfriend to hold to the phone, I had to Google something while I was alone. I Google his name and did a Google search and what I found made my stomach hurt Google found a picture of my boyfriend and you I recognized him from his Bart Simpson tattoo. Why did i goo goo Google him goo goo Google goo goo Google I'm through through through with him. Don't Google your man.

She then sits down with the program's host and is asked what people can find about her if they were to search for info on Google.

From the transcript: Host: If i were to Google you, what would i find? Give us some concert dates. Kane: Well, on March 1st, I'm gonna be singing at the Paul Sebastian hair show early in the morning. And that afternoon, I'm opening the George Takei gay/lesbian center in Hotlanta. [laughter] and then later that evening, I'm gonna be singing at a hepatitis benefit. And the rest of the month, I'm gonna be running errands, I hate errands.

Funny stuff. Could this also be some satire on the type of info you find when searching the web?

The second web search mention is in the Weekend Update news segment. This time Amy Poehler talks about Quaero. Visible behind her is a slide with the word Quaero (in the Google font and colors) with the word's "French Google" below it.

From the transcript: The French have launched their own version of Google called Quaero. You just type in the subject you are interested in, and Quearo refuses to look it up for you.

I'm sure this will make Thomson chairman, Frank Dangeard happy, NOT!

For facts sake, companies from several countries are developing Quaero.

At this point in time, I was unable to find video clips or transcripts of these skits on either Google Video or YouTube. I would bet they'll be there soon.

Thanks to my friends at TVEyes (the people who provide Podscope) for help in accessing the mechanically generated transcripts.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:41 AM | Permalink

January 11, 2006

Google Trademarking The Word Beta

No, not really. But one of our SEW Forum threads points over to In Search Of Stuff, where 2006 isos Search Predictions suggests humorously that this will be the year that Google decides to trademark the word "beta." Others I liked:

• Search will be integrated with everything from mobile phones to microwaves, but people will continue to use their browser to search, their mobile phones to make calls and their microwave to reheat 4 day old pizza that is ?still good?.  
• The Hilton in Paris will continue to pay well over the odds for PPC traffic, and leave many punters bitterly disappointed when they arrive at their site.  
• Google release rel=?this_link_is_not_paid_I_promise? link attribute.

A good chuckle. Thanks Scottie and Mike. My prediction is that Gray Hat Search Engine News will either challenge ISOS for a duel over who can have the funniest satire site about search or that the two will merge.

Speaking of betas, Stop Press! Google Product Leaves BETA covers how Gray Hat is in disbelief that a Google product has left beta.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:18 PM | Permalink

December 27, 2005

Saturday Night Live Skit Mentions MapQuest, Yahoo Maps and Google Maps

The final edition of Saturday Night Live of 2005 about 10 days ago included a hilarious "digital video short" by cast members Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg as they walk the streets of NYC rapping about everything from The Chronicles of Narnia to map search tools (MapQuest, Yahoo Maps, and Google Maps).

When the video ended I wondered (more liked hoped) a high quality copy would be available on the web and available for downloading.

Today, Media News Daily reports that the SNL video is available on iTunes for free. If you have access to iTunes, go to the iTunes Music Store and select: + TV Shows for the genre box (left column) + Then NBC in the "Networks" section (left column). The video is titled "Lazy Sunday." Look for the text that says "free."

If you don't have access to the U.S. iTunes store or don't want your own copy, no worries, the video is also available (copyright emptor) Google Video and YouTube. The iTunes version looks better (not recorded off of tv) and does not have an NBC spider (the logo in the lower right corner).

So, what does this fun and funny music video have to say about the three map search tools?

They're rapping about where to see The Chronicles or Narnia Chris: Let's hit up Yahoo Maps to find the dopest route. (image of Yahoo Maps page visible)

Andy: I prefer MapQuest

Chris: That's a good one too.

Andy: Google Maps is the best.

Chris: Tru dat!

Andy and Chris: Double True!

The words "Double True" appear in Google colors.

Yes, the video is also another example of the power of how Google is able to reinforce its brand with little extra effort.

The complete transcript (unofficial) of the rap is also online.

If you feel like several big laughs and many smiles, this 2.5 minute video is more than worth a look and/or download.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:10 PM | Permalink

October 13, 2005

Google's Onsite Dentist Is A Hoax!

It turns out there is no onsite dentist as Google, as we and others reported yesterday. Yeah, you got us! Google Blogoscope's got the official denial from Google over here. Those worried about the dental hygiene of Googlers can relax to know onsite visiting dental service for them is still available.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 5:50 AM | Permalink

October 10, 2005

Searching (or Not) With Spam Google

Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped fame has a new parody site online today called Spam Google. The site's slogan is, "Just the Noise." If you click the "Our Technology" link on the Spam Google homepage you'll see that Spam Google utilizes Google's well-known pigeon rank technology. (-:

Lenssen writes on his blog:

At the new SpamGoogle.com, you?ll find nothing but... spam! If you?re also tired of web pages not trying to sell you something, endless explanatory stuff from university servers, or blogs without Google ads, this is for you. You can learn the latest about cheap viagra, poker parties, or download just the spyware you need...Best of all, sites in the Spam Google index try to rip you off by being relevant to your search. And isn?t that what Google is all about, relevancy?

Those are some very tough and critical words from Phillip towards Google but it goes without saying that spam is not only an issue for Gogole but one for all general-purpose web engines. They also say something about the commercialization of the web in general.

Back in April, Lenssen unveiled another Google site, Google April Fools.

Postscript: For the techies out there, Phillip shared the following with me about how Spam Google works: Internally, Spam Google makes use of the Google API along with PHP5. For every user query, only a certain subset of "spam" sites is being searched through. In other words, what you see on the SERPs is a sub-set of Google results... and a noisy one at that. Also, there's some easter-eggs hidden in the application, some making use of the Yahoo API.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:48 PM | Permalink

October 9, 2005

Unofficial South Park Characters Take Aim At Google

Google is a BIG company now (some might forget this) and and I'm sure they're more than capable of handling a poke (some might call the following a pounding while others will also call it satire and free speech). It comes courtesy of the South Park gang (unofficial, of course). Basically, someone (those responsible for the page) are not very happy with Google juggernaut. You decide. Check the page out here. Btw, I came across the site while running searches looking for new Google domains. In this case the domain has been around for about a year but I'm not sure the artwork has been online.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:40 PM | Permalink

September 8, 2005

Need A Laugh? Try This Search News "Quiz"

I wrote earlier of a new SEO quiz, but the over 40 questions are too much work for you, try The Gray Hat News Quiz. It's not so much a quiz by a satirical look at some recent search news stories, sure to give many of you a chuckle. Larry and Sergey arm wrestling to see who really is most powerful!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:27 AM | Permalink

August 31, 2005

New Parodies: Google Meets South Park, Plans To Destroy Information & More

A five-fer on the Google parodies front for you today, a sure sign that its the summer holiday period and people have too much time on their hands. Overview? Google falls into the South Park universe, a Google Purge plan to wipe out what can't be indexed, a funny top-five list of real reasons behind Google Talk, a fake, funny TV commercial to pitch Google Maps and building new offices on the beach.

GooglePark: Scoble Goes To Google at the Channel 9 forums has Microsoft blogvangelist Robert Scoble paying a visit to Google done up as a clever episode of the South Park cartoon series. He meets up with Larry and Sergey, who have an unhealthy obsession over information. A trip to Google Moon reveals Alien (as in the movie) sales reps are behind Google's growth, leading Bill Gates to demand that Microsoft develop its own sales aliens.

Spotted via Google Blogoscoped, Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can?t Index over at The Onion covers a new "Google Purge" plan that has Google declaring that the best way to help organize information is to destroy whatever it can't index. "Book burning is just the beginning," said Google co-founder Larry Page, in the parody article. Give it a read.

Meanwhile, spotted via Threadwatch, JupiterResearch analyst Joseph Laszlo's Top 5 Reasons to Launch Google Talk ranges from "Larry and Sergey got tired of yelling across the office at one another" to the hilarious "Wanted yet another communication channel via which to refuse to talk to CNET."

Over at the blog of Google's communications chief David Krane, Google TV Campaign? links to this archived version of a QuickTime file where some male strippers end up at the wrong place -- a pitch that maybe they should have used Google Maps.

Still need more? The Onion's fine, but Gray Hat Search Engine News will keep you going with a steady stream of Google parodies. Check out the Googlers with sand pails building new offices.

A personal plea to the other SE's is also a brief note from the site wishing that the other search engines would do things to be parodied. Hang in there, Gurtie -- I'm sure there will be plenty coming around :)

Feel you must comment or discuss these parodies? Suppress that desire and move on to more productive activities. OK, start a thread over at our Search Engine Watch Forums!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:40 AM | Permalink

August 19, 2005

MSN Virtual Earth: The Video

The folks at MSN Virtual Earth have publicly released this very funny video clip that has the MSN Butterfly (as portrayed by Steve Lombardi, Program Manager, of MSN VE) gathering info in and around Seattle to add to the service. The clip was originally created and shared internally to reward and praise those who worked on the project.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:26 PM | Permalink

August 11, 2005

Far Out! Virtual Neptune From Ask Jeeves Goes Live (-;

Technical issues at the Ask Jeeves SES party on Monday made the debut of their new Virtual Neptune (VN) service an impossibility. However, this new service, I mean satire, is now ready for use. (-: The VN site mentions that local search listings from Neptune will soon be available. Cool! I wonder how many hotels, spaceship dealerships, casinos, or coffee houses are located on this distant planet. (-:

Posted by Gary Price at 7:32 PM | Permalink

July 21, 2005

Ask Jeeves The Search Engine Interviewed -- Circa March 2000

I keep seeing references going around recently to a funny interview with Ask Jeeves -- meaning Ask Jeeves the search engine. It is funny, but it's not new. It originally went online back in March 2000, as I reported in the Search Engine Report newsletter at the time:

Interview With The Search Engine FN Wire, March 2000 Humor site FN Wire interviews Ask Jeeves -- and I do mean Ask Jeeves -- not someone who works there.

Well, if you didn't see it then, I'm sure you'll find it funny now. Sadly (or not), you couldn't do that interview today on Ask Jeeves because of how the interface has changed.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:28 PM | Permalink

June 30, 2005

Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves, AOL, A9 Agree To Release Everything At Once

Worried that one of their competitors might release something that hasn't yet been released this week, major players have agreed in principle to unveil all products currently in development as of 6pm Pacific Time tonight.

Called the "Piñata" plan, because of how searchers are to be showered with new search products of all types in one go, the deal was brokered early this morning by tired public relations officers at the major search engines, after equally tired reporters lost the energy to answer further email, phone calls or even blog an additional sentence about anything.

One fear in arranging the deal was that after everything that's already come out this week, there were no search goodies left. But Google checked on a little known feature of its marketing department. There's a big gumball machine usually kept brimming with products in development. Whenever it looks like someone might not write something about Google, in goes a penny and out comes a nice new product to announce, in beta of course.

Fortunately, while Google's product gumball level was lower than usual, it still had plenty left. But even informing its competitors that it was good to go on Operation Piñata was fraught with the usual competitiveness.

On hearing of the Google product gumball machine, Yahoo immediately announced that it had its own gumball machine full of products, but one that was better due to the social aspect of allowing anyone to operate it, not just selected people. It had even been tagged *.* by many in the know, to represent how it covered everything.

MSN then responded that it had a gumball machine in development. But MSN self-admitted that it was the third horse in the gumball machine race, with Robert Scoble adding further depression when he blogged that "Google's gumball machine is kicking our ass."

MSN then bounced back with confidence:

"Give us six months, and our gumball machine will be so full of products that no one will doubt us," replied several top level executives, speaking to various children in various parts of the world.

As expected, AOL was easily able to come aboard after having dropped the walled garden around its own machine. As for A9, it announced Open Gumball. In this plan, anyone with product launches can easily integrate them into A9, relieving it of the burden of developing stuff itself.

I know, it's not April Fool's. But I thought we could use a little break. And people scoffed at the idea of search marketing day. Hey, if you'd all just have picked a date, you'd be relaxing right now. Well, you can still comment and suggest at the forums: Vote On Day For Search Marketing Day!

Anyway, after getting a zillion emails as reported by The Onion of search blogs, Gray Hat Search Engine News, I'm a bit punchy. Then again, Chris has apparently been spending all the money I've been giving him for fine liquor and whole-grain snacks on other things, degrading my mental health.

Huh? There's a diagram that explains it all: Danny Sullivan Will Eat Himself. Geez, there's even a forum thread, which makes Gary depressed. He blogs and blogs but doesn't get on the diagram and doesn't get a thread. Someone, please illustrate something about Gary. As for Elisabeth, she's cool. She found a mountain with snow on it still somewhere...

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 5:19 PM | Permalink

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