Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bill gates, browser, firefox, jerry seinfeld, mac, mac guy, microsoft, new york giants, nfl, operating system, pc, seinfeld, washington redskins, windows, windows vista
Microsoft recently launched a $300 million ad campaign in an effort to give its image a makeover. As of late, Apple has been dominating the ad side of things with their successful Mac guy, the hipper alternative to the dorky, stodgy PC. Charged with reversing Microsoft’s brand, the company has decided remake itself into a more family friendly company and also help consumers move past all the negative talk about Windows Vista. I personally don’t have anything bad to say about Vista, but then again I’m more interested in web browsers than operating systems anyway. (Go Firefox!) According to some things I have read, critics aren’t optimistic that Windows can remake its image. Well Microsoft isn’t drinking that Kool-Aid. As part of the $300 million they are spending on the brand, $10 million of that will go to comedian Jerry Seinfeld, one of the most popular television stars of the last couple of decades. The ads debuted last night during the first NFL game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. I think this was a great way to launch the ads in front a large captive audience, especially since both of those television markets are sizable, and the NFL as a whole is a national broadcast. In the commercial Jerry actually teams up with Microsoft’s own Bill Gates, who plays his usually nerdy persona to perfection with that type of deadpan acting that most non-actor types (athletes, ceo’s, etc) can get away with. I didn’t catch it live, but saw it on Youtube. I won’t tell you how it ends or what its about, its funny so I don’t want to ruin it for you. Check it out and tell me what you think about it?
Filed under: Daily Ramble | Tags: google, google labs, google suggest, keyword list generation, keywords, ppc, sem
I just caught up on some reading and wanted to talk a bit about the new Google Suggest. You’ve probably all encountered this technology at some point on the web while doing a search. I’ve been using this for some time through the Firefox search box, but didn’t know the history behind it. As you type the first few letters of a search query, a drop down menu appears offering you suggestions based on your intent. This can be extremely helpful if your not sure on spelling, or if you are searching for something you’re really not sure about, like song lyrics or famous quotes. And for those of you looking for an edge in your keyword list generation, you can add this to your list of suggestion tools as well. After making its way through the Labs at Google, Google Suggest is now available on Google.com. I use iGoogle quite a bit and I don’t see that feature working there yet, other than showing you suggestions based on your search history. Another great feature about this, especially for SEM/PPC folks is that it couples those query suggestions with an approximate search volume for each.
Check out the Google Suggest feature next time you go to Google. Do you think this is useful for SEM purposes?
