Marketing Pilgrim

If Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross is to be believed, his most recent research has just ruined the environment for future generations!

Why?

He’s calculated that a typical search on Google generates about 7g of CO2–due to the complex system of servers the search engine uses around the world. To put that into perspective, boiling a kettle for a cup of tea uses about the same amount of energy.

That’s all well and good, but Wissner-Gross didn’t take into account the blogosphere maxim. What’s that you ask? Any story that mentions Google, on a quiet weekend of news, AND happens to include the possibility that Google is evil, will result in dozens (hundreds) of blog posts being written.

Where are you going with this Andy? Well, consider this:

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(Hat-tip)

Oh boy—it’s Friday! In case you haven’t noticed, you know, now that the day is over…

• Good news for video: Downloading TV and watching video online were the biggest gainers in 2008. Which doesn’t really explain the next two stories.
• 35% of US television households will soon be covered by a new Mobile TV service with 22 major channels participating—even though mobile video has plateaued at 5% penetration among US mobile subscribers. Is this the push they need to get beyond the plateau?
• And apparently MySpace, Yahoo, and Intel got it backwards, because now they’re all excited about a leap to TV from the Internet.
• Have some Facebook friends you don’t really like and a hankering for fast food? Add the new Burger King-sponsored app, ‘sacrifice’ 10 friends and get a free Whopper. Seriously (CP+B FTW again).

Google is now inviting users to give Chrome 2.0 Pre-Beta a test run. In an effort to confuse many users, Chrome will be going from a 0.2 version release straight to 2.0.

The Chromium Developer Documentation site has a listing of all of the new features in 2.0. Here are a few of the more exciting features (in order of how exciting I find them):

Support for user scripts/Greasemonkey scripts

Could this be the beginning of a transition to plugins in Chrome? This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. Chrome has always been second fiddle for my browsing needs because of its lack of add-on features. See the developer documentation for details.

Browser profiles

What type of CEO do you think Yahoo needs? Calm and steady, or someone with more flair and willing to take risks?

According to the WSJ, Yahoo could be close to choosing a CEO that’s a safe bet, rather than a gamble.

Among candidates still under consideration is Carol Bartz, the former chief executive officer of Autodesk Inc., a publicly traded company that builds design software used in engineering. She’s “on the list,” said a person familiar with the matter…[and] would indicate that Yahoo is looking for a steady hand who has run a public company over someone with Internet and online advertising experience.

As the search continues, I can’t help compare it to the annual football coaching shuffle, which happens this time of year. Will the AD/manager pick someone on the rise? Someone with proven experience? Or, pick the offense coordinator in-situ–which rarely gets anyone excited.