What Does the Google Buy Button Mean for Your E-Commerce Business? | All Business

September 23, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It takes a lot to run a successful e-commerce business these days,and there are plenty of resources to help you when it comes to looking for strong business advice. But with all of this advice, comes more obstacles, like how to convert customers.

If you want customers, then you need Google’s help; Google essentially controls what traffic goes to which site. So when Google changes how it operates, it puts a lot of strain on businesses in order to comply. The Google “buy button” is next up in the queue of things changing, and e-commerce store owners are worried it will impact their businesses.

Why Are E-Commerce Stores Worried About the Google Buy Button?

The fear for e-commerce business owners is that Google will be more than a search engine, instead becoming a reseller or middleman. This obviously robs e-commerce stores of important relationships with their customers. The fear is that this will lead to an Amazon-style situation, where customers often believe that they are doing business with Amazon as opposed to third-party sellers, and any customer service and returns processing will be handled without the control of the e-commerce store operator.

Alphabet Lets Google Chase Moonshots and Stay Profitable | WIRED

August 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

GOOGLE IS NOW many Googles.

Company co-founder Larry Page said in a blog post Monday that Google is reorganizing into multiple companies that will sit under a new umbrella operation called Alphabet. Core businesses—Search, YouTube, and Android—will operate semi-separately from Google’s myriad “moonshots,” including the X lab and Page’s various life science projects.

Google Tightens How Advertisers Buy YouTube Ads | Adweek

August 7, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Google wants more control over how advertisers buy YouTube ads.

On Thursday, the search giant revealed that it will cut off ad buying through DoubleClick Ad Exchange (or AdX), its programmatic network, by the end of the year.

Instead, advertisers will need to go through Google’s AdWords or DoubleClick Bid Manager, the company’s other two pieces of software that marketers use to buy search and skippable TrueView promos.

The move shows how Google wants a tighter grasp on its ad business. DoubleClick Ad Exchange works with third-party ad tech firms to help brands manage their campaigns and gain access to extra data that Google itself doesn’t provide advertisers. In those cases, the Mountain View, Calif., company doesn’t have as much control over its ad network as it may want. By contrast, AdWords and DoubleClick Bid Manager campaigns are handled by Google reps

Google’s YouTube Signs Up Everyone But TV for New Paid Service | Bloomberg Business

July 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Google Inc.’s YouTube, which has signed up partners for a new paid video service, may find out by early next year whether its own Internet stars really are as valuable as those in Hollywood.

Partners accounting for more than 90 percent of YouTube viewing have signed on to the paid service, the company said in a statement. While the lineup incudes home-grown celebrities and music videos, YouTube so far doesn’t have TV networks such as Fox, NBC and CBS, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified discussing the project.

TV staples like Fox’s “Futurama,” NBC’s “Parks & Recreation” and CBS’s “Under the Dome” are a featured part of competing products from Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Without shows like those, YouTube’s commercial-free service will have to attract paying viewers with original series, music videos and thousands of its channels already available for free.

Google and Red Robin Made a Terminator Banner Ad That’s Cool | Adweek

June 26, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Banner ads are pretty much the bane of every digital consumer’s existence. So, it’s no small measure that Red Robin just launched—through a partnership with Google—an interactive display campaign that could actually turn sci-fi fans into patrons of the fast-casual burger chain.

The brand worked with Google and its digital agency, Vitro, to create immersive video promos for Red Robin’s Terminator Genisys campaign, which also includes TV spots and signage in the company’s restaurants. The ads let viewers see Red Robin pitchwoman “Melanie” as a Terminator character would. They can use their smartphones to add another digital layer to the experience or watch on their desktops for a simpler view.

Check out the demo below to better understand the marketer’s take on Terminator:

Google Must Expand Privacy Delistings, Says French Watchdog | TechCrunch

June 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The French data protection watchdog has ordered Google to widen its implementation of the so-called European ‘right to be forgotten‘ so that links are also delisted from all Google domains, including google.com, not just (as is currently the case) from the .fr French subdomain.

Quick backgrounder here: the rtbf refers to a legal ruling by Europe’s top court last year. It identified search engines as data controllers and required they process requests from private individuals wanting outdated, inaccurate or irrelevant information delisted from a search result for their name.

Google, which is by far and away the dominant search engine in Europe, started processing these requests last summer. However the way Google implemented the court’s ruling has created a trivial workaround because it only delists links from European sub-domains (such as .fr and .co.uk), not from google.com.

New Ruling Is a Stark Reminder That Your Image Isn’t Yours | WIRED

May 20, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

CINDY LEE GARCIA said she’d been had. The actress claimed that she thought she was acting in an action-adventure thriller called Desert Warrior, but her performance was co-opted into five seconds of Innocence of Muslims, a 14-minute trailer mocking the Islamic prophet Mohammed that sparked an anti-American backlash in the Middle East and led to death threats for the actors involved. The inflammatory clip was first uploaded to Google-owned YouTube in June 2012, and a few months later Garcia sued Google demanding that what she called the “hateful anti-Islamic production” be taken down.

Garcia first filed a suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, but a judge refused to have it removed, even as she claimed she was receiving death threats. She then filed a suit in federal court, yielding the same response. After all, video creators own the rights to their creations, not actors. Last year, however, a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shocked First Amendment and copyright attorneys around the country when it found in Garcia’s favor, determining that her performance was “independently copyrightable.” Google removed the video.

Google Is About to Make Your Wireless Carrier a Lot Less Relevant | WIRED

April 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

GOOGLE’S NEW WIRELESS phone service, Project Fi, offers a long list of modern day perks. It automatically moves phones between traditional cellular networks and the WiFi wireless networks inside homes and businesses. Once on WiFi, you can still make calls and send texts. And you can pay for all this in small, flat, monthly fees—avoiding the sort of inflated, strings-attached pricing that so often accompanies our cell services.

Google, Microsoft Join Obama to Fight Climate Health Woes | Bloomberg

April 22, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

President Barack Obama is warning that climate change will start affecting Americans’ health in the near future and he’s recruiting top technology companies to help prepare the nation’s health systems.

The administration unveiled a series of initiatives Tuesday to help moderate the effects it says a warming planet will have on increasing smog, lengthening allergy seasons and increasing risks of extreme weather-related injuries.

“The challenges we face are real, and they are clear and present in people’s daily lives,” said senior presidential adviser Brian Deese in a telephone conference call with reporters on Tuesday. Seven in 10 doctors are seeing effects on their patients’ health from climate change that is “posing a threat to more people in more places,” Deese said.

The White House plans meetings this week with medical professionals, academics and other stakeholders. Later this spring, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will host a climate change and

Google shaking up search results on smartphones | LA Times

April 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Google is about to change the way its influential search engine recommends websites on smartphones in a shift that’s expected to sway where millions of people shop, eat and find information.

The revised formula, scheduled to be released Tuesday, will favor websites that Google defines as “mobile-friendly.” Websites that don’t fit the description will be demoted in Google’s search results on smartphones while those meeting the criteria will be more likely to appear at the top of the rankings — a prized position that can translate into more visitors and money.