The Digital Lookout

Great work from Google with its latest push on gadgets for your Google homepage.

The guys at Google have built a landing page and gadgets section purely taregting those gadgets whichc fit in with your New Years Resolutions.  Whether your New Years Resolution is to ose weight, quit smoking, or excercise more, Google has it covered in this New Year’s Resolutions landing page.  A little helping hand from Google in the battle for a fitter/healthier/cheaper/happier/more organised 2009.

You can see the full page here.

The volume of searches being performed on particular topics can tell you a lot about the world. From seasonality of markets, the latest trendy gadget to who is going to win an election (or at least who is making the headlines!).

In this example which can see the harsh reality of the infamous credit crunch taking hold through the use of Google trends.   Earlier in 2008 term credit crunch as the US sub-prime market fell to pieces and the UK promptly followed suit. The term credit crunch became increasingly popular but now as the affects of it are beginning to really take hold the depressing sight from Google trends shows that searches for redundancy are on the rise in Q4 as businesses feel the pinch.

Don’t be surprised if the next high flying search term in Q1 2009 is recession, a depressing tale told through search volumes!

Google has entered into the festive spirit today by including images and icons on christmas based search results.  A search on Google today for the keyword christmas presents, christmas trees or christmas gift ideas brought back the usual search results but with a festive icon running down the page to the left of the PPC listings.  I’ve spotted listings using candy canes and holly, have you seen any I havent found?  Im guessing there are more out there if you have the time to spend searching on Christmas keywords.

Interflora this week launched legal action against Marks & Spencer and Flowers Direct in a case which could set a precedent in pay per click marketing.  They are claiming both companies are infringing their trademark by appearing in the sponsored results for searches on “interflora” and various mispellings.  This, of course, does not break any of Google’s brand bidding guidelines since they were changed earlier this year as they now only prevent advertisers using a trademark in their ad text.  But many large companies still believe that bidders are infringing on their trademark and the brand they have worked hard to build.

Up until now their only option has been to send the obligatory cease and desist letter and hope it scares people away.  But this case could set a serious precedent and if successful pave the way for numerous other cases, and who knows, perhaps a reversal of Google’s policy?

Google has launched a service which will challenge Skype’s dominance in the voice over IP communication project. The product comes in the form of Gmail chat which allows Gmail users to text chat with over internet connections but now also use voice chat and even see each other via video connections. (reported on bbc blogs)

This is a serious challenge to Skype and even more-so given the fact that Skype has struggled to monetise its service since its buyout by eBay.Google should have no such problems, even if it is only through Adsense text ads, it will be monetising this new solution. Also, if the only thing that this new Google initiative does, is to encourage more people to use Gmail, then Google also wins. As it is able to monetise these users through Adsense and CPM advertising.