The real Google AdSense infiltration

It was just a matter of time until $Google$ release its multi-billion-$-online-beast into the real world. After various speculations how the $Google$ web advertising system, “AdSense”, could be utilized with a variety of online multimedia (i.e. YouTube) the NewScientistTech reports on a patent Google apparently as filed.

Google’s AdSense, which displays adverts for products related to the page being viewed now, wants to do the same for billboard ads.

"In a patent the company has filed, it argues that however glitzy the ads that run on electronic billboards in shopping malls and out on the street, they are all but useless if local stores have not got the advertised products in stock. Google has come up with a system that only advertises products available nearby."

According to the NewScientistTech, stores can purchase advertising time on their local electric billboards which are connected to the clients’ stock-control computers. The ads are displayed repeatedly until the stock-control computer reports a product to be sold out. If this happens the ad is omitted from the cycle until the product is restocked.

One the one hand this kind of advertisement system is really smart, since consumers do like to buy what they see advertised, hoping that the specific product is in stock.

However, within an online environment, where products can be purchased globally, at any time, and at a rate which is not comparable to any local shopping mall’s retail store, the idea of advertising the actual stock seems to be of much more importance. Shops in local malls surely do not really have the vast amount / constant consumer traffic as online shops have. The above mentioned system thus seems to still be more appropriate to the virtual consumerist world.

It is either way interesting to note that the AdSense system is expanding from the online into the ‘real’ consumerist environment and will no doubt be soon visible on our local radar screen.

Labels: adsense, google, retail, stock-control

By: Gregor | Monday, January 15 at Monday, January 15, 2007 | |

Bush and Google - the axis' of evil?

This is a transcript from an interview with G.Bush:

HOST: I’m curious, have you ever googled anybody? Do you use Google?

BUSH: Occasionally. One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see — I’ve forgot the name of the program — but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes.

You can view the interview here. I also searched for Bush's ranch and found an apparent match on Google Earth...lat: 31.570477. long:-97.503966

Labels: Bush, evil, google, google earth, ranch

By: Gregor | Tuesday, October 24 at Tuesday, October 24, 2006 | |

Politicians to face the net!

The front page (yes, I do still read the newspaper) of yesterdays Financial Times presented a very interesting article about how politicians need to wake up and face the realities and the power of the internet and its users.

Google’s chairman and chief executive, Eric Schmidt (with an estimated wealth of $4.8 billion, so listen to him) says in this article that “Many of the politicians don’t actually understand the phenomenon of the internet very well.”

Schmidt also predicts that within the next couple of year’s truth predictable software will emerge. This kind of software would allow voters to check the probability of politicians ‘factual statements’ being correct, by comparing claims with historical data. This does not sound to far fetched and is a matter of converging and mashing-up data which is online anyways.

What also needs to be acknowledged are the political blogs out there. They are amongst the most popular blogs worldwide and could create a sense dependability as they voice an opinion from the average citizen and not from a sleazy politicians mouth. The American political blog, Daily Kos, for instance receives around 20 Millions hits a month, that’s a large audience one can influence. On a local level we have a variety of blogs, such as Politics.za and The Nervous Voter, who are probably rapidly gaining readership on a daily level, especially in the light of our chaotic political structure and our constantly trialled politicians.

Oh, and I actually did find an electronic copy of the article after reading it on the ancient scripts of print :P

Labels: blogs, eric schmidt, google, politics, south africa, truth predictable software

By: Gregor | Thursday, October 5 at Thursday, October 05, 2006 | |