A little while back, I signed up for Google’s AdSense program, which puts ads down the right-hand side of this page. The idea was not to make money (just as well — to date I’ve earned a grand total of about $10) but to see what inferences Google servers would draw from the Blog content. The results are sometimes puzzling and sometimes hilarious. For example, I’ve just posted something about Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of community sites for twentysomethings and the first ad is now for “Free Sex Dating Contacts”! The second ad is for an Internet Security Guide. The third and fourth are for search-engine services (presumeably triggered by several posts about Google). Whenever I write about Iraq, there tends to be an ad for something about the CIA. Weird.
Daily Archives: November 28, 2005
Google tests out Click-to-Call AdWords
Someone should call Google and tell them to stop introducing a new service every day. It’s giving rise to cognitive overload in the advertising industry! Greg Yardley picked up on the sudden appearance of a phone icon beside some sponsored links appearing on the right hand side of a Google search-results page. He then investigated further and quotes this from the FAQ page of the experimental service.
We’re testing a new product that gives you a free and fast way to speak directly to the advertiser you found on a Google search results page – over the phone.
Here’s how it works: When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click ‘Connect For Free,’ Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the other party. Then, chat away on our dime.
We won’t share your telephone number with anyone, including the advertiser. When you’re connected with the advertiser, your number is blocked so the advertiser can’t see it. In addition, we’ll delete the number from our servers after a short period of time.
My tiny screen is frozen
Thinking of getting a mobile phone which runs Windows? Check out this first!
Quote of the day
“I don’t know anybody under 30 who has ever looked at a classified advertisement in a newspaper.”
Rupert Murdoch, quoted in the Financial Times.
Well, he may have misunderstood the Internet the first time around, but he certainly gets it now. News Corporation has spent $1.5bn so far this year on MySpace.com, a fast-growing online community, and IGN Entertainment, a games and content site, Murdoch responded to the recent claim by Martin Sorrell, a leading advertising honcho, that some traditional media owners were “panic buying” new media assets. Quoth the Digger:
“There’s no panic, and there’s certainly no overpayment. It was a very careful strategy to go for the two biggest community sites for people under 30. If you take the number of page views in the US, we are the third biggest presence already.”
The laws of physics
An old Dave Barry column…
Rob and his roommate, Hal, stay up all night discussing Deep Questions and figuring out the universe, and when they have it nailed down — The Rob and Hal Theory of Everything — Rob calls me up, all excited, and starts talking about time travel, the Fifth Dimension, the Big Bang, etc. I try to follow him, but I am hampered by a brain that for decades has firmly believed that the Fifth Dimension is the musical group that sang ”Up, Up and Away.” So I quickly become confused and testy, and Rob gets frustrated and says, ”Don’t you understand? THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS TIME!” And I’ll say, “YES THERE IS, AND RIGHT NOW IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING!”…
This is not to say that I know nothing about physics. I studied physics for an ENTIRE YEAR in Pleasantville High School under the legendary Mr. Heideman. We learned that there are five simple machines: the lever, the pulley, the doorbell, the hammer and the toaster. We learned that the most powerful force in the universe is static electricity, which Mr. Heideman demonstrated by getting a volunteer to place his or her hand on a generator, which caused the volunteer’s hair to stand on end, unless the volunteer was a girl with the popular early-’60s ”beehive” hairstyle held rigidly in place by the other most powerful force in the universe, hairspray. Presumably, if Mr. Heideman had cranked the power up enough, the static electricity buildup would have caused the volunteer’s head to explode, and we would finally have found out if — as widely rumored — many ”beehive” hairstyles contained nests of baby spiders.
Jim Getty’s thoughts on the $100 laptop
Informative and interesting essay. Includes thoughts for anyone thinking of developing software to run on the machine.
The things you can do with monopoly rents
Well, well. From The Inquirer…
US ANALYST firm iSuppli said it had ripped apart an Xbox 360 to find out just how much the components cost.
The triple core IBM CPU used in the Xbox runs at 3.2GHz, the lads reckon. This CPU costs $106 and that represents 20.2 per cent of the bill of materials (BOM) for the console.
Add in the other integrated circuits and the BOM is a staggering $340 per console.
ATI’s graphics chip costs $141 including embedded memory from NEC, a Japanese company.
Add in the DVD drive to the Xbox Premium, the RF board, the wireless controller, the cable, the literature and the packaging and the total BOM is $525.
Isuppli didn’t say how much the power cord cost.
Fact: The Xbox sells in the US for $399.
Alabama shuts Internet cafes
Yep. Or should that be Yup? Anyway, according to the Mobile Register,
The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office and the Alabama Attorney general Wednesday shut down two businesses where patrons used computers to participate in Internet sweepstakes, authorities said.
No arrests were made in Wednesday’s raids, but at least 60 computers and other items were being catalogued and confiscated from Lisa’s Internet Cafe on U.S. 90, just outside Theodore, and Jackie’s Internet Cafe on Schillinger Road. Arrests may follow after a lengthy investigation, authorities said.
At the businesses, patrons could buy prepaid Internet cards enabling them to log onto www.hello-money.com to participate in games while their points were tracked on the debit type provided by the cafes, Sheriff Jack Tillman said.
Look on the bright side. Gambling is one issue on which the inhabitants of the Deep South see eye-to-eye with Osama bin Laden. What a country!
Amazon wins in 1-Click patent defence
From The Register…
Amazon.com has successfully defended a claim that its famous 1-Click payment feature infringed another company’s patent for an electronic fund transfer or transaction system. IPXL Holdings had been seeking around $50 million in damages.