Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Google’s blog post last week announced that they will be partnering with Sony, Logitech and Intel to bring their latest brainchild (Google TV) into your home via your television, Blu-ray player or companion box sometime this fall.  After realizing that people are more readily accessing internet videos and other content via their smartphones and computers, Google TV is born.  Google TV will marry the convenience of internet content with the comfort of the America’s favorite electronic device – the good old television.

According to Google (via Nielsen), the average American spends five hours per day watching TV.  However, while doing their market research, Intel discovered that two BILLION hours of Internet video was downloaded worldwide in February, 2010 alone.  This on top of the fact that 10-15 MILLION U.S. households already stream video to their televisions makes Google TV sound like a fabulous idea.

But wait a minute…doesn’t this technology already exist?  I can already link my PC to my television using an HDMI cable and control it with a wireless keyboard and mouse.  I can use my Chrome browser to search for what I want to watch on Hulu or YouTube.  I can even pay between $27 and $100 to download software from countless providers that allows me access to all the satellite TV I could ever need or want.  So why is Google TV being heralded as such innovative technology?

The answer, in my opinion, will lie in the content and the user interface experience.  If Google TV allows a typical family easy-to-use access to both the internet AND television channels in one seamless experience – Hallelujah!  According to Google, Google TV will do just that.  Google TV “opens up your TV from a few hundred channels to millions of channels of entertainment across TV and the web.”  This allows our televisions to become more than just fancy high definition video players, it turns them into photo slideshow viewers, gaming consoles, music players, entertainment centers, social media hubs and so much more!  Next step is to develop a Google tablet device that has an app that would allow it to be used as a remote.

Google TV is also built on open platforms like Android and Google Chrome which means that developers will be able to create web and Android apps to make the Google TV experience even more robust.  This open-source development means that the sky is the limit and I cannot WAIT to see what Google TV has in store for us.  As Google says:  “This is an incredibly exciting time — for TV watchers, for developers and for the entire TV ecosystem. By giving people the power to experience what they love on TV and on the web on a single screen, Google TV turns the living room into a new platform for innovation. We’re excited about what’s coming. We hope you are too.”

I AM excited Google – THANK YOU!

Google News:

New G1 Phone/ Android Operating System News
Early last week, the first cell phone with Google’s Android software was released, called the G1. The new G1 Google phone will be available in stores October 22nd. It comes pre-packed with various Google services, encouraging use of the Internet on phones. Learn More.

Chrome Browser News
So far, Google’s new Chrome Web Browser is slow to be embraced. Various sources indicate that Chrome’s market share is about 1% and not increasing. However, it is just 1 month old. Here at JumpFly, analytics data informs me that 3% of our users access our website via Chrome.

Crazy GOOG Stock Price Swing
Apparently, a huge quantity of erroneous trades sent to the Nasdaq Stock Market, caused Google’s share price to swing wildly Tuesday afternoon, soaring as high as $485 per share and falling as low as $25! The errors were corrected the next day, but for those involved, this must have seemed like total insanity at the time.

Google AdWords News:

New Quality Score Improvements
Per Google, new Quality Score improvements are getting rolled out this week. The three main improvements are:

1. Quality Score calculations will be more accurate
2. Keywords are no longer marked ‘inactive for search’
3. ‘First page bid estimates’ replace ‘minimum bids’ 

View Nikki’s recent article about Google’s quality score update to learn more.

Google Site Statistics Logo News
Attention everyone using Google AdWords conversion tracking - As of this week, conversion tracking users are no longer required to display the “Google Site Stats” logo on the conversion pages of their web sites. Learn more.

Google AdWords Launched Smart Positioning Beta
The goal of Google AdWords Smart Positioning is to place an ad in the most cost-effective position each time it is displayed on Google and the search network, with the end goal of achieving more clicks for the same total cost.

And to cap it off, Google just announced an ambitious $4 trillion plan to “transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy”. Well if anyone can pull it off, it’s these guys. So what’s next? Maybe Google for President? The way things are going right now, they just might get my vote!

Brad’s Profile

Recent Google News Video

Google’s new web browser called Chrome was launched last Tuesday and represents yet another new direction for Google. While Chrome is quite simple on the surface, much like Google itself, it offers some nice user-friendly features

Please refer to Patrick’s previous blog for a great review of Chrome. Today, I’d like to take a look at the deeper significance of this new browser.

It’s free, fast, user-friendly and safer to use than other browsers. While some speculate the new Chrome Browser will not be a threat to Internet Explorer, I’m not so confident. I’ve seen Google come from way behind to dominate the PPC industry and wouldn’t be surprised to see them do it again here over time.

This represents yet another assault on Microsoft. First, Google entered the search and PPC markets, which they quickly dominated, leaving Microsoft with a very small piece of the enormous search market. Next, Google offered online applications, representing yet another assault on Microsoft. Google even helped Yahoo! resist a Microsoft buyout advance, providing a valuable partnership that also further complicated any potential transaction with Microsoft. Now this, the web browser, where Microsoft’s Internet Explorer currently commands 72% market share. I suspect that number will start to slowly decrease in months and years to come.

According to Google, Chrome will not initially have any impact on Google AdWords. Ultimately using Chrome and Google’s various other valuable services, like Gmail or their online applications, will give Google a great deal of information about what their users are doing. Some may not like this. But, one good thing is the likely ability to even better target PPC ads, which I think should prove to be a good thing for advertisers. It will be interesting to see where Google attacks Microsoft next.