Even With Google TV: Why Broadcast Television Will Never Die

It's been a long week and finally, Friday evening has arrived. Today, your boss yelled at you, you lost your wallet, and then, had to sit through two hours on the freeway during five o'clock rush hour. Basically, you just want to plop yourself onto the couch and relax, with a beer in one hand, and a burger in the other. Naturally, the first thing you do when you get home is to make a beeline for your beloved remote.
This a routine that pretty much any American can attest to going through on a frequent basis. For many of us, this is one of the main parts of life. If you ask me, it'll be pretty hard to change that.
However, Google has other plans, unveiling today, its newest innovation: Google TV. It is touted as something that will combine the best of both worlds, the internet and television. Its developers have promised that users will be able to utilize Google's elaborate search system to find their favorite online video content, then stream that on their televisions. Other nice bonuses include the ability to add favorites/bookmarks and surf the web.
Now, I'll admit, that does sound a lot better than Apple's faltering mega-creation, Apple TV. And of course, it is quite well-known that Google rarely fails to satisfy its demanding customers.
However, while I strongly believe that the internet will be the basis of everything in the very near future, I cannot see good ol' broadcast television ever fading completely from the picture.
I am well-aware that Google's wonderful search system can easily meet the highest of expectations. Still, when even after ten Venti Lattes, you're still exhausted and utterly brain-dead, the last thing you want to do is the "tedious" work of typing in a search query to find something to watch. Pressing the up arrow to surf channels is just that much easier. Frankly, it's a commonly known fact that us Westerners absolutely despise spending extra effort when there is any slightly easier alternative.
Also, there isn't a doubt that surfing channels is way more amusing. Many people adore the enthralling randomness of just trying to come across something watchable. It would be extremely difficult to replicate this feeling of randomness with Google TV, because even with some sort of "random content" feature, the scope of the web is so humongous that the likelihood of bumping into a good show would be next to zero.
And that is one of the tough-to-avoid downsides of Internet content. Humans are a race that lives for every bit of small satisfaction that they can get. And unearthing a good show out of your hundreds of channels is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world.
As an illustration, think about radio. Sure, music has higher sound quality, more customizability, and no ads on your iPod, but it's so much more thrilling hearing your favorite song on the radio, than it is choosing it on your iPod. Moreover, radio has a real sense of personality that isn't just whatever you want it to be; it actually has some life, some flare. Thus, I believe that within the decade, TV will be where radio is now. People will still enjoy it, but there will be many alternatives getting more and more attractive.
Still, even when it reaches the radio phase, TV might just be one thing that is indeed, "too big to fail".
But ponder this: What if marketing takes a turn and further de-emphasizes TV advertising? Then, TV stations simply won't be able to fend off bankruptcy, no matter how many people watch their shows.
I'll leave you with that thought.

Why Adding Annotations to YouTube Videos is Stupid

Yes, we've all seen the incredibly attractive offer of adding customizable annotations to our uploaded YouTube videos. Perhaps some of you have tried it. For those of you have avoided this, good job because they're stupid.
Basically, annotations are little blocks of text- messages that "add" to the video in some way- that you can put in different types of speech bubbles. Anyone who uploads a video or who has permission from the uploader can do it to a video.
However, these things are extremely, unbearably, harassingly annoying. If you're trying to watch a decent video about say, dinosaurs and a block of text that says, "SUBSCRIBE!" suddenly pops up from a desperate user, you're damn right it'll ruin the appeal of the video. It interrupts all the important content in the video. In fact, I don't really see much reason why these annotations can't simply be added into the description to not interfere.
There's no appropriate situation for this horrible offense. Annotations are just wrong. Don't fall into their trap.

When Google's Search Statistics Masterpiece, Google Trends, Stops Working

Cataclysm. Halo pet food. Danbury mint. All very cool phrases. All meaningless. All prominently appearing on Google Trends' Hot 100 searches list. Since it's launch as a part of Google Labs, Trends has been hailed as one of the best tools for marketers. I've been making a decent effort to use this service but it just doesn't seem to do much other than satisfying my craving for interesting search facts.
Sure, it'll make you go "Hmm. That's interesting," but otherwise, I don't see much of a use. This is mostly because it doesn't really do much in the means of working as a keyword research tool (don't worry if you don't know what that means) with the constant sight of peculiar search terms like, today, "ice hotel", "in plain sight", "rejuventation pills" and "catching grapes with my mouth" (what the hell?).
In my mind, this doesn't exactly help me in finding something to blog about that people will read. Of course, comparing keywords is always cool to see although only occasionally helpful.
This is mainly because all of the numbers that Google Trends provides are in comparison to the average volume for that search term. This means that instead of giving you a straight number like 10,000 searches in the past two days, the service gives you, three times the average at the time or two times below average at this time (all on a fancy line graph, obviously). This means that often perception would be distorted because sure something can be at five times the normal volume or even twenty times for all I care. Then, you might get all excited thinking that this is a truly hot trend in terms of searches. On the other hand, the normal volume could be three searches every day. So sixty searches every day is what you're getting all excited about. In fact, even the hot trends are based on how much a particular search surpasses its average volume. "Catching grapes in my mouth" happens to "not have enough search volume to show graphs."
That means a possible explanation for this could be tampering. For instance, if "catching grapes in my mouth" has five searches every day (I wonder who these five people are), and some mischeivous computer geek decides he wants to screw Google up, he'll just call all his friends and he and all these people might each search a this twenty times. This would lead to quite a bit of corruption to the Trends. And even if Google tracks IP address, if a prankster's smart, then he'll just go behind a proxy, which hides IP address.
So maybe Google Trends will serve its purpose some day in the next few years and somebody at Google will find a sick new algorithm, but for now, Google Trends will never pass through my bookmark filter.

Why Internet Ads Will Stop Working: Part One of a Two-Part Series

The heavily favoured internet advertising, whether it be search-engine ads, banner ads, pop-up ads or link ads, are gaining in popularity every day. They're flexible, dependable and proven to improve traffic- at least for now. Google, Yahoo! and some of the biggest tech corporations in the world run on the effectiveness of these ads and the massive number of people who use them. However, this huge number is the reason why the effectiveness is slipping.
In the world today, a lot of people are trying to get your attention. There are the pesky tele-marketers, the store managers and the CEOs, each wanting to take some benefit from you, possibly leaving you worse off than before. In the old days, if somebody wanted to chat, we'd quickly grant that request with a genuine trust and friendly spirit.
But these two crucial aspects are becoming endangered. People are now more aware and don't want to fall into any traps. They won't agree to anything unless they've digested all the information coming at them carefully. Still, sometimes this is not careful enough, leading some to simply stop agreeing.
And this is not without merit. Scams, lies, corruption and deception are profuse these days with everyone taking a shot at the big market of exploitation. Identity theft, hacking and viruses are just a few of the ways that we are cheating.
After this, comes awareness campaigns enforcing that people be heedful of any of these scams. The only problem is that sometimes people are a bit too heedful. They won't give anything a chance. In fact, they won't even click on a link.
That's the important part.
So many people are attempting to trick people that nobody's trusting anyone else, which could lead to disaster for the internet world. We've defined conditions in our mind for legitimacy that filter out even pages with some degree of decency. Is this fair? No when you consider the good sites but yes when you consider what can happen.
Moreover, our time is more valuable than ever now. We aren't willing to spare a single second with something that we don't immediately deem useful, making for a bit of a dilemma.
Plus, our knowledge and demands are getting higher by the second, we direct our attention to the left column with the actual search listings on Google and totally ignore any sponsored links.
So our love of taking advantage of others and need for wariness is going to bite us one day. The countdown has started and is limited. We'll never know when we'll lose our patience and the clock will hit zero.

Stay tuned for the next part of the series: How You Can Get Through.

10 Reasons to Stick to Google Adsense

Google Adsense is the most used ad program in the world and with good reason.

10. Integrated into Blogger.

If you have a blog that you didn't pay for, chances are, you use Blogger and it's always nice having a convenient little tab called "Monetize" that lets you add and customize ads that you want to display on your blog.

9. They'll help.

This is great for newbies. Like all Google services, Adsense has one of the most useful help sections in all of the internet, detailing every feature, fact and technique there is. They'll guide you through pretty much everything.

8. No spam ads.

A problem with a lot of smaller Adsense alternative is that they have to resort to misleading ads that link to malicious, cheat or illegal sites that pay more. However, with the larger audience, Google doesn't have to so you're safe from any complaints or lawsuits.

7. They find the ads for you.

The problem with a bunch of ad publishers is that they make you link up with an ad displayer, which is a long, gruelling process suited only for sites with a ton of views. And in the meantime, they often display ads that don't pay you a single penny, which is really frustrating.

6. No traffic conditions.

A bunch of the "premium" ad sites that are pretty much the same as Adsense demand that you have at least 100,000 individual page views every month, or some other outrageous number for smaller pages. However, Adsense doesn't require a certain number of views or clicks or click-through rate. On the other hand, it's not like they don't have conditions; there's a great deal of restricted types of content, quality guidelines (you need a site map), rules you have to follow and other things, but it's easier to obey these than traffic conditions.

5. They will actually pay you.

You can trust a company like Google to pay you because they want to retain their reputation. But other sites aren't as trustworthy and have not reputation to retain. There are a lot of scam ad publishers that just keep the money to themselves with creative little schemes. However, it's not going to be a way to earn a living; and the $10/click that Bidvertiser offers is pretty attractive compared to the few cents that Google is giving you. Trust be though, it'll be better in the long run.

4. Relevant ads.

It's hard not to find an ad that has something to do with what your site's about in Google's massive database. And you know the deal with their amazing search algorithms that are bound to find something.

3. Low payment threshold.

Last time I checked (a few minutes ago), the minimum payment was only $10 (US) while many other companies demand $20, $50 or even $100 worth of clicks/impressions for you to claim anything. This is fine for some people but definitely not for the hardworking little guy on main street.

2. Most reliable.

First of all, it's not like ads are suddenly all going to disappear because the server crashed or the code screwed up; that'll probably never happen. Also, that little symbol that reads the familiar "Ads by Google" is enough to tell someone that they aren't going to be mislead, obviously leading to more clicks.

1. Most feature-rich.

I can't really stop talking about Adsense's features. You can display the ads in different formats, on different types of sites, in different places, with easy earnings tracking, on multiple different sites with the same account. This is just the beginning.

On the other hand, I'm going to stick with my Bidvertiser just because my blog isn't exactly at an advanced stage yet. When it reaches a decent number of page views though, I'll definitely make the switch.

Google Calendar vs. Yahoo Calendar: The Event Organization Wars

Prettiness:

These days, it's been established as a general rule that Google's sites look better than Yahoo!'s. Yahoo!'s are almost always, hard on the eyes with poor choice of fonts and bad colour integration and really pathetic attempts to look modern while Google's web pages appear natural and very modern. This doesn't change in the calendar service battle.

Google: 1 Yahoo!: 0

Features:

Yahoo! doesn't really help its cause in this department. Sure, it has the somewhat (ok, very) uncreative stock tracker, weather and sports tracker but there's really nothing else that it can brag about that Google doesn't have. Contrarily, the competitor supports mobile access, public calendar sharing as well as viewing.

Google: 2 Yahoo!: 0

Convenience:

Another well-established rule on the internet today is that Google is always more convenient than Yahoo!. However, Yahoo! apparently is trying to squeeze in a little rebuttal with their calendar service. While Google's version gets extremely frustrating with their drag concept, huge time bars and the need to scroll to view the entire day, Yahoo! has a list of events and tasks at your fingertips and shows everything at a glance.

Google: 2 Yahoo!: 1

Simplicity/"Understandablity":

Google usually somehow finds the perfect balance of feature-richness and simplicity but not this time. The calendar has way too many buttons that confuse users and again, the drag concept is downright stupid. And the whole fanciness thing starts to turn against them as some thing just get confusing.
Yahoo! though, has a no-nonsense service with a much simpler "Quick Add Event" bar, a simpler way to add events and a moderate number of details that can be specified.

Google: 2 Yahoo!: 2

Sharing:

Both internet companies did a good job in some areas of this. Google allows users to make public calendars that others can view but it seems these days that there is an overload of inaccurate or unmaintained public calendars that some fall into the trap of putting onto their personal calendar. Yahoo! specialises in individual sharing with a very easy way to share calendars with a single person or small groups: All you have to do is send them to a web page (http://calendar.yahoo.com/*username*) and enable sharing. You can also collaborate with them on these calendars with those with the label of "Special Friend" permitted to edit your calendars. With Yahoo!, you can make your calendars totally public too but this feature is not as good as Google's.

Google: 2 Yahoo!: 3

Verdict:

Yahoo!'s ease of use trumps Google's potential masterpiece of features. Too bad they didn't execute.

Your Guide to Being the Next Google: 9 Things that Google Does Better Than Anyone Else

9. Always aesthetic design

It's never cluttered or hard on the eye. You may notice that each Google page is based on achieving an appealing design by focusing not on how awesome everything looks but just beauty by simpicity.

8. Free is not bad

It's tough to name more than a few Google services that require you to give up a dime, which is particularly helpful in these tough economical times. In fact, rarely does Google even offer you a upgraded version that you must pay for, which often gives users a sense that this company is more credible.

7. The cool factor

Steve Jobs and his company, Apple, are cool factor masterminds with their line of iPods and the revolutionary iPod. However, Google is definitely a contender with many features that basically are meant not so much for useful application but just to entice people into trying something out. For instance, all of their unique search features make people "wow" every time and their extensive news archives are always alluring.

6. Publicity

If you think about it, there's a lot Google does to get into the media. Whether it's introducing a new feature (however small) or hitting the top 100 best employers list, people will always find ways to read about Google. Bloggers will keep posting, newspapers will keep publishing and TV stations will keep broadcasting everything that happens with this internet giant. And sometimes, indeed, there is no such thing as bad publicity, especially for a website.

5. Put things in a good light

Some will never realize that them constantly typing feedback to Google or telling others their "Google stories" is only part of Google's plan. They make you think that you'll benefit from something or they're doing everyone a favor when really, the only thing happening is that Google is earning some major cha-ching. And note how all the words, colors, fonts etc. always appear to be positive. There's never a negative message out in the open so as not to discourage use of services.

4. Accomodate the user

If you asked someone on the street what they liked about Google, a great number of them would probably say that everything they want is right there for them on Google. This is because Google knows users inside and out and know exactly what their complaints are and even understand the most trivial of issues.

3. Attention to detail

Before something is put on their site, Google ensures that it is totally flawless. No typos, no coding errors, no anything errors. And again, they always pay full attention to what users want and deliver this to them.

2. Fill the gaps

Instead of focusing on things where competition is thriving and everywhere, Google focuses on markets where they know that they can be dominant. Google doesn't have Google Sports (they know Sports Illustrated is already there); Google doesn't have Google Music (they know MTV is already there); and Google doesn't have Google Movies (they know IMDB is already there). Instead, they have a collection of all the other stuff from Google Documents to Google Code to Google Scholar, which have not been explored by many others. Likewise, with the essentials, Google adds never-before-seen features to enhance their users' experience by just that little bit that gives them the edge.

1. Simplicity

All Google services are easy to use and pretty much can be quickly comprehended by anyone. Each little nook and cranny is so apparent and nothing is hidden. Their titles, labels and graphics are so incredibly idiot-proof that some even get embarassed if they can't understand a Google product. Plus, even if you do have trouble with something, you can always consult their help pages, which are comprehensive and have a quality that's unheard of.

These don't seem like much but I guess doing your homework a bit goes a long way. Good luck, Yahoo! on beating Google with it's massive arsenal of weapons.

Google Mail's Leap To Video: Gmail Video and Voice Chat

As you may know, Gmail is one of the world's most used e-mail services, offering many great features such as a 20 MB attachment limit, over 7 GB of storage space and a handy labeling system. Another useful aspect is the web-based chat system that has wide selection of emoticons, group chats, personal messages and now video and voice chats.
Recently introduced, this component basically displays a view of streaming video from your buddy's webcam above the current chat. But if that doesn't satisfy you, you can also pop out to full-screen mode. However, if your friend doesn't hasn't enabled video chat, you can still operate a one-way video chat or just utilise the run-off of this, voice chat, which only requires a microphone.
It works like this. Where there used to be an "Options" button at the bottom left, you'll see a "Video and More" button instead (if you have video chat installed). So, you simply click this and a little box will pop up where you can select "Start Video Chat" or "Start Voice Chat". This will "call" the person you want to talk to, which notifies his/her computer with a ring that this person can choose to either ignore or respond to. When he/she has answered, you should see Gmail begin to do its job.
And the great thing about this is that you'll be able to actually see all the facial expressions, hear all the laughs and directly show others your favorite photos in person. In addition, Google provides these features with impressively high quality sound and video.
The old-fashioned text chat just isn't good enough these days. Video chat really re-defines internet communication and Gmail's version of this leads the pack so install this little program (it's only takes a few seconds) and start really taking advantage of the advances of the internet age.

Download
A Little Guide
An Informational Video

5 Reasons Why I Don't Use iGoogle As My Homepage

5. It's too cluttered.

I don't want to come onto the internet every single day looking at a huge jumble of pictures and words. The mess of iGoogle just doesn't appeal to me.

4. iGoogle is overwhelming.

Every time I take a look at my iGoogle page (which I don't do that much any more), I see so many different gadgets that I have to attend to. I don't want to waste my time looking at every unique and extremely alluring thing on iGoogle.

3. You have to constantly browse for gadgets.

If you have nothing better to do, then this is fine. However, I have a life and don't want to be scrolling through the pages and pages of new and "featured" gadgets that would consume me even more.

2. The loading time is a bit too slow.

For the most part, I use Google Search to initiate my surfing and don't wish to be stalled in the middle of some dumb website that I don't have any intention of actually using.

1. You get quickly addicted to iGoogle.

It's hard not to do this because it's sort of intriguing searching for new tools or just admiring the beauty of your little collage. In fact, some people spend quite a bit of time just blissfully observing their artwork. And then there's the themes. And then there's the gadgets.

Why You Don't Need Cuil Search

With a greatly (over)hyped launch, Cuil has hit the world of search engines and is trying to gain market share quickly. One problem; there are hundreds, if not thousands of them already. So basically, what I'm saying is you don't need another search engine: In other words, you don't need Cuil.
To begin with, you obviously can use other renowned and more effective search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN Live Search.
Each of these websites are much more convenient with several additional search features such as images, video, maps and more (Yahoo! leading the way with pages for music, food and travel).
Also, naturally with the many more pages indexed in Cuil's database, you would get more search results. However, most people aren't going to search engines to look for a lot of things, but a few, relevant items. This is one quality Cuil just doesn't possess enough of. In fact, there is not even as much as a small advanced search tool to help narrow down your results.
Moreover, hand in hand with the thumbnails beside some results, are numerous inappropriate images that really make you question the capability of the Safesearch option.
And of course, how can you forget this little trait that major search engines all have. Simplicity. Cuil's search result page is intensely cluttered, making it hard to appreciate the web content. Here's a cold, hard number; 3. 3 columns doesn't cut it when you want speedy reading.
So although Cuil does have some good potential and considerable aesthetic appeal, it's not something that you want to waste your time on right now.