Global marketing challenge now underway

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Daniel Rubin, Google AdWords Communications team</span><br /><br />It's well known that online advertising is becoming increasingly important to the marketing mix. Now we're giving 21,000 students the chance to experiment and gain hands on experience of this medium -- and to empower small local businesses to harness the power of the web to attract more customers. In a vast global academic competition, business students from 466 universities in 61 countries will participate in the Google Online Marketing Challenge.<br /><br />The competition offers student groups $200 vouchers to spend on Google AdWords™ advertising so that they can work with a local business they choose to devise effective online marketing campaigns. The teams will outline a strategy, run the campaign, assess their results, and recommend ideas to further develop the businesses' online marketing.<br /><br />Students will have three weeks to mastermind their strategy, and will pit their marketing minds against thousands of others worldwide. During this period, the various teams will submit two competition reports: one before they begin the Challenge, and one after the campaign has ended. An international panel of professors will judge the entries, and will choose winners based on the success of the campaigns and the quality of the reports.<br /><br />We'll post an update once the winners are announced in July. <a href="http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/index.html" target="_blank">Read more about the Challenge</a>.

Global marketing challenge now underway

Posted by Daniel Rubin, Google AdWords Communications team It's well known that online advertising is becoming increasingly important to...

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What if... you could have your doodle on the Google homepage for a day?

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, and Dennis Hwang, Webmaster Manager and Chief Google Doodler</span><br /><br />Today, we're excited to announce the Doodle 4 Google competition.<br /><br />Every once in awhile, we redesign the logo (a.k.a. Google Doodle) on our homepage to commemorate special birthdays and events. Dennis Hwang draws these <a href="http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html">Google Doodles</a> (check out this cool time-lapse video of Dennis creating the latest one):<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TOOY0xuQ3TU&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TOOY0xuQ3TU&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />However, with the Doodle 4 Google competition, we're making an exception...<br /><br />Doodle 4 Google gives U.S. students in grades K-12 the opportunity to design a doodle for the Google homepage. Students will be asked to draw a doodle that best represents the theme <span style="background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"What if...?"</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> We ask ourselves this question every day when we build our products, so we thought we would ask the same of the future doodlers.</span></span><br /><br />A panel of expert judges and Googlers will select 40 regional winners, who will be invited to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, in May. Four national finalists will be announced as the result of a public vote. From there, Dennis will select one lucky student whose doodle will be on the Google homepage for a day in the U.S. This winner will also receive a <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">$10,000 </span>college scholarship and a technology grant for his or her school.<br /><br />Check out <a href="http://www.google.com/doodle4google/"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"><u>www.google.com/doodle4google</u></span></a> for more details. All you need to do to get started is to have a teacher or principal register your school. Registration closes on 3/28/08, and entries must be postmarked by 4/12/08.<br /><br />So gather those art supplies. All it takes to enter is a drawing on paper using your favorite medium (crayons, markers, colored pencils, whatever!) -- and encourage your kids to enrich us all with their imaginative vision. We look forward to seeing the creative doodles that are submitted!<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.co.uk/doodle4google/index.html"></a>

What if... you could have your doodle on the Google homepage for a day?

Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, and Dennis Hwang, Webmaster Manager and Chief Google Doodl...

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You are connected to mountaintop removal

<span class="byline-author">Posted by <a href="http://www.robertfkennedyjr.com/">Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">[From time to time we invite guests to blog about initiatives of interest, and are very pleased to have Mr. Kennedy join us here. – Ed.]</span><br /><br />In 1810, Thomas Jefferson wrote to a contemporary, "No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government." Almost 200 years later, Google provides us all with unprecedented access to the world’s information. In Appalachia, nonprofit organizations are using that information in innovative new ways to reveal the destruction caused by <a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/">mountaintop removal coal mining</a>, and to demand for the people of Appalachia the "free and good government" that Jefferson envisioned.<br /><br />If the American people could see what I have seen from the air and ground during <a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/cost_of_coal/87">my many trips to the coalfields</a> of Kentucky and West Virginia: leveled mountains, devastated communities, wrecked economies and ruined lives, there would be a revolution in this country. Thanks to <a href="http://earth.google.com/outreach/index.html">Google Earth</a>, you can now visit coal country without ever having to leave your home.<br /><br />Every presidential candidate – and every American – ought to take a few seconds to visit an ingenious new <a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/">website</a> created by nonprofit organizations in Appalachia that lets you tour the obliterated landscapes of Appalachia. By <a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/myconnection/">entering your zip code</a> into this amazing new website, you learn how you're personally connected to mountaintop removal. Americans from Maine to California can see these mountains and the communities that were sacrificed to power their home. This puts a human face on the issue by highlighting the stories of families living in the shadows of these mines.<br /><br />The site uses <a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a> and <a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a> as interfaces to a large database of power plants and mountaintop removal coal mines. A November 15, 2007 article in the <i><a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/news/349">Wall Street Journal</a></i> highlighted the site as one of the most cutting-edge uses of these powerful tools. And today, the <a href="http://earth.google.com/outreach/index.html">Google Earth Outreach</a> program is launching a <a href="http://earth.google.com/outreach/cs_app_voices.html">featured case study</a> about this project, along with <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/02/six-rs-of-google-earth-outreach.html">additional resources</a> for nonprofit organizations, in order to help spread the word and make these tools even more accessible to the public.<br /><br />Each day coal companies detonate <a href="http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/explosives/index.html">2500 tons of explosives</a> – the power of a Hiroshima bomb every week – to blow away Appalachian mountaintops to reach the coal seams beneath. Colossal machines then plow the rock and debris into the adjacent river valleys and hollows, destroying forests and burying free-flowing mountain streams, flattening North America's most ancient mountain range. <a href="http://www.epa.gov/Region3/mtntop/">According to the EPA</a>, 1,200 miles of American rivers and streams have already been permanently interred, leaving behind giant pits and barren moonscapes, some as large as <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmemorialforthemountains/237882016/">Manhattan Island</a>. I recently flew over one 18 square-mile pit – Hobet 21 – which you can now <a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/">tour in Google Earth</a>.<br /><br />We are literally cutting down the historic landscapes where Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett roamed and that are so much the source of American's values, character and culture.<br /><br />Mountaintop mining poisons water supplies, pollutes the air, destroys hundreds of miles of North America's most ancient and biologically diverse hardwood forests and permanently impoverishes local communities. For too long, this devastation has been hidden in the remote poverty-stricken communities of Appalachia. This new <a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/">website</a> finally exposes this national disgrace for every American to witness. Wherever you live, <a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/myconnection/">you have a connection</a> – and a responsibility.

You are connected to mountaintop removal

Posted by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. [From time to time we invite guests to blog about initiatives of interest, and are very pleased to have Mr....

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New Open Source Programs blog

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Leslie Hawthorn, Program Manager, Open Source Team</span><br /><br />Since its inception in 2005, our <a href="http://code.google.com/opensource/" id="kf5j" title="Open Source Programs Office">Open Source Programs Office</a> has been responsible for maintaining license compliance within Google. And over the past three years, our mission has grown encompass even more activities that we hope are useful to our colleagues in the open source community: <a href="http://code.google.com/hosting/" id="tk:f" title="project hosting">project hosting</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/hosting/search?q=label%3aGoogle" id="xw4u" title="releasing Google created code into open source">releasing Google created code</a> and <a href="http://code.google.com/opensource/wine.html" id="lbyt" title="funding open source development">funding open source development</a>. We've also continued to get students involved in open source, recently debuting the <a href="http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/" id="o:2i" title="Google Highly Open Participation Contest">Google Highly Open Participation Contest</a> for secondary schoolers as a complement to our university program, <a href="http://code.google.com/soc/" id="nfjf" title="Google Summer of Code">Google Summer of Code</a>.<br /><br />When you have this much good news to share, you just have to create your own blog --so we did. Come check out the new <a href="http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/" id="qu4." title="Google Open Source Blog">Google Open Source Blog</a> for regular updates on all of the above and, if you like what you see, <a href="http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/atom.xml" id="zr8m" title="subscribe">subscribe</a>.

New Open Source Programs blog

Posted by Leslie Hawthorn, Program Manager, Open Source Team Since its inception in 2005, our Open Source Programs Office has been responsi...

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Google search on Nokia phones

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Christian Hernandez Gallardo, Strategic Partner Development Manager, mobile team</span><br /><br />At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, we announced a partnership with Nokia that will bring Google search to millions of Nokia phones. There's <a href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/02/mobile-world-congress-2008-google-and.html">more detail</a> on the Google Mobile Blog.

Google search on Nokia phones

Posted by Christian Hernandez Gallardo, Strategic Partner Development Manager, mobile team At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, ...

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Share the love with iGoogle

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Paul Wilcox, iGoogle Support Team</span><br /><br />From time to time, people share stories with us that are too good to keep to ourselves. Here's one that an <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">iGoogle</a><a href="http://www.google.com/ig"> </a>user named Heather recently shared about how Gadget Maker helps her connect with her boyfriend Christopher.<br /><blockquote>"My boyfriend lives in Memphis and I live in Manhattan. We've each created a custom gadget for each other that we update every morning. Generally it's a compliment, or song lyrics, or something related to an inside joke. It takes us 2 minutes to update every morning and helps us to stay connected in a small way every day. We also both have a countdown gadget on our homepage, which counts down the days until our next visit with each other. Thank you for helping 'keep the magic alive' with my boyfriend, even if he's not here in person!"</blockquote>As Valentine's Day approaches, we wish Heather and Christopher the best. May their countdown go extra-fast this week. Heather shared one of her gadgets with us:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFcQw5WE7Swff2u1hXme7USibadRAFrwElQ_5hgqa500H_rk33X2g1wJWx7psIRXemnNK6lX7Kr_LWjAUuQ7C83dUOnoJe2jpUg60IZ9y6RIkT6naJx9awlw1Yz3MeunhI4WubMT2E6RkO/s1600-h/V-gadget.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165891956085863810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFcQw5WE7Swff2u1hXme7USibadRAFrwElQ_5hgqa500H_rk33X2g1wJWx7psIRXemnNK6lX7Kr_LWjAUuQ7C83dUOnoJe2jpUg60IZ9y6RIkT6naJx9awlw1Yz3MeunhI4WubMT2E6RkO/s320/V-gadget.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /></div><br />If you're part of our gadget developer community, perhaps hearing about interesting and unique ways people are using gadgets will help spark some creative ideas. But whether you are HTML-savvy or not, and you want to show your sweetie how much you care, it's very easy to be able to create gadgets. Just visit the <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/about/" id="t6i." title="Google Gadget Center">Google Gadget Center</a> or <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/gmchoices?source=gdha" id="ency" title="Gadget Maker">Gadget Maker</a> and give it a try.

Share the love with iGoogle

Posted by Paul Wilcox, iGoogle Support Team From time to time, people share stories with us that are too good to keep to ourselves. Here...

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Survey says: love at first ping

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Jen Grant, Group Product Marketing Manager</span><br /><br />In the spirit of Hallmark and chocolate roses, we recently took a special interest in Valentine's worthy tidbits about how Gmail has helped spur romance -- as it did for Jordan Burleson, who told us:<br /><blockquote>"Gmail is the new Cupid. Gmail's green chat light meant 'go' for love in my life. My girlfriend and I used ... it for projects and homework at first, but then for flirting, pinning down a location for a first date, emoticon hearts and more."</blockquote>In other cases, email has helped maintain long distance relationships, like that of long-time Gmail user Meagan Coleman:<br /><blockquote>"My husband and I met in 2004. He's from Macedonia and I'm from the USA...Since we met, Gmail has been archiving our long-distance relationship from the beginning! It's very sweet to be able to read those messages that we wrote to each other 3 years ago."</blockquote>Curious about how common emailing love letters really is -- and to learn more about how people use email to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers -- we recently worked with Nielsen Online to conduct a national survey examining how people think about and use webmail.* The survey affirmed that email is an increasingly important part of our most intimate and personal interactions, and that younger people are leading the charge: they are more likely to use email for everything from sending love letters to ending relationships.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Love is in the inbox</span><br /><ul><li> 1 in 3 survey respondents noted having emailed a love letter </li><li> Young people indicated they were less averse to showing their affections over email than older adults: only 14% of 18-24 year olds considered email love letters bad behavior, compared to 43% of respondents over the age of 55<br /></li><li> Men were more likely than women to have asked someone out via email (26% versus 16%) </li><li> While 31% of 18-24 year olds thought asking someone out on a date via email was poor form, 42% of respondents aged 55+ felt the same way</li></ul><span style="font-style: italic;">Breaking up is hard to do; some get help from email</span><br /><ul><li> 1 in 3 male respondents considered "break-up emails" neutral to good email etiquette, whereas only 1 in 7 female respondents agreed </li><li> 8% of men and 6% of women said they had broken up with someone over email </li></ul>Whether you're <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/gmail-hearts-you.html" id="sg::" title="send your loved ones some hearts">sending hearts</a> this year or breaking them, we hope you have a happy Valentine's Day.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* The online survey, commissioned by Google, was conducted by Nielsen Online from September 24th to October 15th, 2007, with a sample of 1,713 webmail users over the age of 18. "Webmail user" was defined as someone who uses AOL Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail.</span>

Survey says: love at first ping

Posted by Jen Grant, Group Product Marketing Manager In the spirit of Hallmark and chocolate roses, we recently took a special interest in V...

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