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Barack Obama Wins – So does CNN & Google

posted on November 5, 2008

Congratulations to president-elect Barack Obama–the runaway winner of the 2008 presidential elections.

Congratulations to John McCain–who fought a battle he could not win and still left the stage with a speech that showed his class.

Speaking of which. Google has released a list of what users where searching, immediately after the results were in–and McCain’s speech was more sought after than Obama’s.

Here’s the top 10:

1. mccain concession speech
2. did prop 8 pass
3. mccain concedes
4. obama acceptance speech
5. california election results 2008
6. obama elected president
7. 44th president
8. california proposition 8
9. obama won
10. california secretary of state

I’m willing to bet that Google had a great night–with many folks hitting the world’s #1 search engine for their political updates.

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Google, Microsoft and White Space

posted on November 5, 2008

Look I realize that things are different today. But life goes on in its very own mundane way. So I get to bring to you the news that Microsoft and Google are looking for white space. Huh? I have to be honest that was my reaction as well but today as the Democrats take over the political landscape, Google continues to set its sites on taking over the world. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved a plan sought by tech companies like Google Inc and Microsoft Inc to open soon-to-be-vacant television airwaves to new wireless devices.

With the requirement to move to digital TV signals at the start of next year there will exist an area of unlicensed spectrum called white space that will become available for these use. The belief is that this could ‘encourage innovation in cellular telephones and wireless devices, much as WiFi did’.

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Yahoo, Google Sweeten Ad Deal–Enough for DoJ?

posted on November 4, 2008

In case you missed the memo, it’s Election Day in the US. Be sure to vote. If you’ve already performed your civic duty, thank you.

I don’t know, maybe Andy shamed them into this last week when he said that Google never had any intention of going through with the ad deal with Yahoo, but over the weekend Google and Yahoo began to revisit the terms of their ad agreement in hopes of finally earning approval from the Department of Justice (which is still apparently undecided about whether they should even be deciding on this in the first place).

According to paidContent, new terms include:
Shorter terms: The new plan cuts the partnership length down to two years (previously, it was 10 years).

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What Voters Google Before Heading to the Polls

posted on November 4, 2008

Today is full of buzz about the election. I tried to vote early – too crowded. So my strategy is to wait until 9am to vote by my house. It worked perfectly. There were probably lines earlier, but when I got there, no lines. I walked right up, got my card, and voted.

People are not only going to the polls today – they are searching Google for more information. We want to be updated and to track the election as we go about our day.

Google Hot Trends (www.google.com/trends/hottrends) shows that online people are going to Google before they go to the polls. We want to know where and when we can vote. We are also searching for perks for voting (smart marketing!).

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Who Will Win the Presidential Election?

posted on November 4, 2008

Something different for today. First, there’s not any internet marketing news going on that can’t wait until tomorrow. Second, even if I posted it, your mind would be on the election.

So, I’m saving you the 15 minutes you would have normally spent reading this morning’s posts. That’s time you can now allocate towards the most important thing you get to do as a citizen of this great country–VOTE!

It took me 6 years of jumping through hoops and filling out mountains of paperwork to ensure I could earn my US citizenship and my right to vote. All you had to do was take your first breath on US soil. Please don’t take for granted the responsibility you have to yourself, your family, and the rest of us–go vote!

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Linky Goodness, November 3

posted on November 3, 2008

Don’t forget: vote, vote, vote (well, only vote once per person, please!). I, personally, lost a very important election this weekend because not enough people voted. But next year, I’m totally going to beast that costume contest. Somehow.

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MTV and MySpace Launch Video Ad Deal with Fingerprinting Technology

posted on November 3, 2008

If you thought YouTube’s click-to-buy feature was neat for music labels, allowing them to add links to purchase music on pirated videos featuring that music, you’ll love this: MTV has partnered with MySpace to identify videos posted to MySpace that are copyrighted by MTV, using audio and visual fingerprint technology. And here’s the good part: instead of getting medieval on pirated videos’ hineys, MTV gets to add ads.

The fingerprinting technology, provided by Auditude, is apparently so good that they’re encouraging MySpace users to upload all the pirated MTV Networks content they want—including such long banned shows as The Colbert Report.

But, as RWW points out, Auditude doesn’t just identify the clips (emphasis added):