Bogdan Gavrila – Core Target

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

“Google had a strong quarter–we saw 7% year-over-year revenue growth despite the tough economic conditions,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. “While there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future.”

Google reported revenues of $5.94 billion for this quarter , an increase of 7% compared to the third quarter of 2008. Full report here…

WR Hambrecht CEO Bill Hambrecht on Google’s IPO anniversary (movie uploaded 2 minutes ago):

A Dutch auction is a type of auction where the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer’s price, or a predetermined reserve price (the seller’s minimum acceptable price) is reached. The winning participant pays the last announced price. This is also known as a “clock auction” or an open-outcry descending-price auction. wiki

Continue reading ‘Google Reaches 5 Years Since Its IPO’

Big buzz in London these days as Google plans to relaunch a new version of its search engine. Since Google is the only player in the local (Romanian) search market, and only a few websites depend on direct traffic, any change is interesting to follow.

This upgrade is also probably a response to Bing in a very competitive market. Google aims real-time relevant search and they’re also focusing on a multi-platform user experience.

Interesting to note:

• - new architecture will include crawling, indexing, and ranking changes;
• - “page rank” was so 2008 – new focus on reputation and authority;
• - developer preview available here for testing.

According to alexa.com, Google.ro is now the most popular website in Romania – few people know that in 2001 Google.ro was registered by someone else and the first Romanian localised version was available in 2003.

But, by far, the most interesting fact is that the servers hosting google.ro are installed in a military governmental facility, in a high-technology campus at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View (a partnership created between the public and private sector, Google pays NASA an initial base rent of $3.66 million per year but for this money the have their own airstrip just a few meters away ).

I’ve noticed yesterday that Google updated its Page Rank stats and it seems that I’m the only blogger in Romania with PR 6/10 (cool) Continue reading ‘Google PR 6/10 for my blog, 7/10 in our network’

This is the first major online news that involves IAA. If you don’t know (yet), IAA is the International Advertising Association, a “one-of-a-kind global network” with more than 4,000 members, 56 chapters, 76 countries. IAA’s members are top players from the marcomm industry and that’s why this press release is important.

IAA (as a platform for industry issues) is dedicated to consumer choice, responsible advertising, protecting and advancing freedom of commercial speech. Continue reading ‘IAA says no to Yahoo! and Google partnership’

The new browser from Google is available for download here: Google Chrome download (alternates: http://gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=en or http://www.google.com/chrome ).

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier

A few days ago I started to worry about Internet Explorer 8, about its privacy issues and about the impact this type of browser can have on the advertising market. The new feature, called InPrivate, can be the nightmare of any ad server. Continue reading ‘Download Google Chrome’

Google updated their stats and the new toolbar PageRank values already become visible in Romania – I don’t believe in “SEO techniques” but I do believe in Google and in their guidelines – making things by the book and focusing on the quality guidelines usually pays off.
Continue reading ‘Google PageRank update: 6/10′

This is another exclusive news I dare to publish regarding the Google account for Romania – it seems that Scala Thompson is on someone’s short list (there is a written proof for this).

I wonder how will this affect their partnership with Synergy.

Here is something fun: the Yahoo! employee in charge with entering Romanian Internet market uses Google and Internet Explorer for searching the web.

It seems that Yahoo! Europe is interested in organizing an Internet event in Romania (I found this by analyzing this employee’s behavior/searches on some Romanian websites using public information/tools). If he manages to organize the launch, I hope he also invites me but meanwhile I’m just happy he could find my blog useful

PS: I bet you can hardly find a parking place on Rue Guillaume Tell

Google launched today the Romanian beta version of Google Book Search.

While surfing google.md I had the chance to see that the languages available are Russian and “Moldovenească (Moldovan)“.

I was surprised to see this because “Moldovenească/Moldovan” is not really a language, It’s just how the communists in Moldova call Romanian language. I’m not the one saying this but the U.S. government – Moldovan (official, virtually the same as the Romanian language) – and that is why I’m going to send Google (and to all Romanian speaking staff at Google) this memo regarding the Romanian version of Google.md.

I want Google to change the term from “Moldovan language” to “Romanian language”.

Please note that the term „Romanian language” is used to by the UN, European Union, World Bank, CIA, U.S. Department of State, etc. when referring to the language spoken in Moldova.

For further reading: EN Wikipedia and RO Wikipedia pages on this matter:

The 1989 law on language of the Moldavian SSR, which is still effective in Moldova according to the Constitution, asserts the real existence of “linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity”. Title I, Article 13 of the Moldovan Constitution, names it “the national language of the country” (the original Moldovan/Romanian uses the term “limba de stat”, which literally means the language of the state, or official language, thus avoiding the term national, whose sense is that of ethnicity). In the breakaway region of Transnistria, it is co-official with Ukrainian and Russian.

My first mail goes to Radu Tudorache (Country Consultant Romania) but I also want to ask Romanian speaking bloggers to write about this and to ping the official Google blog.

Google published the top *gaining queries for October 2007 in Romania and here is the top 15:
1. download mozilla
2. scufita rosie (little red riding hood)
3. codul civil (Civil Code)
4. vanzari case (houses for sale)
5. ciorba de burta (tripe soup) Continue reading ‘Google Zeitgeist for October 2007′

I was very surprised to read this article in a local Romanian newspaper.
The article states that there is a project called “Google came to school” focusing on educating young people from isolated communities. I had no idea that Google has this kind of projects in Romania and it seems they are very discreet about this matter (I couldn’t find any press release and I used Google to search).

I’m glad to see that Google added Romania in the monthly Zeitgeist list. Below are the top 15 keywords from September 2007:

1. colin farrell
(Actor)
This is quite a surprise for me and I can’t explain it right now. I expect Elodia to be no.1 in October.

2. casa poporului
(building in Bucharest)
When talking about country branding, Romania has Dracula and Casa Poporului – after all, this is the second biggest building in the world.

3. protectia consumatorului
(customer protection)
This Dacia commercial had a great insight

4. christopher uckermann
(singer/songwriter/actor)
This made me think that Google has some problems with the ip database… maybe some addresses seem to be allocated to Romania but since Google is never wrong, I found out what’s behind this mistery. Uckermann is a Mexican singer-songwriter and actor, best known as a member of the pop band RBD, a very popular band among Romanian teens.

5. achizitii publice
(public acquisitions)
I have an explanation for this
Many governmental workers have access to the Internet but don’t know how to use it. Often, they type words in the browser’s address bar – because of this, the governmental it technicians configured the web browser to perform automatic Google searches.
But something has to be wrong with this keyword because is not a very popular one – the website ranking no.1 on Google search when typing “achizitii publice” has a very small traffic. Maybe it was some scandal in the press in september because I have trouble explaining this keyword.
Continue reading ‘Google publishes the monthly Zeitgeist for Romania’

SAN FRANCISCO: Google took its long-awaited plunge into the wireless world Monday, announcing that it was leading a broad industry alliance to transform mobile phones into powerful mobile computers that could accelerate the convergence of computing and communications. Continue reading ‘Google software for mobile phones’

Blogging from Crowne Plaza – looking forward to meet Michael Champlin and attend the Google Apps Event.

A) The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama accepted the Congressional Gold Medal, lawmakers’ highest civilian honor, in a formal ceremony in the US Capitol’s ornate Rotunda -> panic in Beijing.

B) Crises management -> local propaganda plan, Internet Censorship, etc

C) Redirecting all Chinese users trying to search on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft websites to a local, safer Chinese search engine.

Baidu looks nice. Do no evil (because the truth hurts)

Walt Disney Co, Microsoft Corp, Viacom Inc, News Corp’s Fox and MySpace, CBS Corp, General Electric Co’s NBC Universal, and online video services such as Veoh Networks and Dailymotion plus other media companies gathered in peace and have agreed to a set of guidelines to protect copyrights online.

Google Inc, YouTube owner, is absent from the pact and is sending an important signal. On the other hand, the copyright pact is just a symbolic gesture as the companies agreed to eliminate copyright-infringing content uploaded by web users and to block any pirated material before it is publicly accessible (things already applied by YouTube).

Interesting quote – Forrester’s McQuivey: “The pressure on Google to go along with this cooperative initiative will be intense, as the fate of existing lawsuits will likely hinge on Google’s acceptance of the common solution”.

Google is the most complex search engine available for public use but very few know how to use its full potential. 99% of the Google users use just the classic keyword search. Sometimes you need to unlock the full power Google is offering and find specific files as word, power point or excel documents, mp3, exe files, hidden movies or simple source files as cdr, psd or zip. Below is a query you can use when you’re in a desperate need for a certain file.

Let’s say you need to find out a specific doc or xls file called “prices” – here is the syntax you need to use (type it in Google Search):
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(doc|xls) “prices”

If you love the music and want to listen to Pavarotti before you buy the CD here is how you can find a song:
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3) “pavarotti”

If you like to collect propaganda, and want to search for CIA movies, here is a suggestion:
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(avi|mpg) “CIA”

Enjoy and remember: do no evil!

This can be painful – index of doc:

The Ministry of Internal Affairs – documents
The Ministry of Environment – documents
The Ministry of Development – documents
Romanian Auto Authority – documents
Institute of Cardiovascular Medicine – documents
Veterinary Inspection – documents
Faculty of Political Sciences – documents

And the list can go on…

Since we already work with Boom and ARBOmedia (CPM sales) and Neogen (Referrals, CPC) and we want to keep up with the market, we started to test Google AdSense on our websites. The decision was triggered by Google’s decision to improve the payment methods for Romania and also by the large number of local publishers choosing this service.

After the first week, we figured out the greatest secret for Google AdSense and It’s related to psychology and not Internet . Continue reading ‘Google AdSense secrets, tests and hot tips’

In a time where people don’t like big corporations, big profits, dropping stocks, acquisitions, etc, I seem to realize that Google really is a lovemark for me.

I discovered Google in its early years and the simplicity made use it. Google shaped the way I think, made me focus and look for keywords both online and on my everyday life. Google was the first to teach me about networking with people and made me aware of the biblical power of the word. Google made me pragmatic and also structured my perception of the informational world we live in.

Google it’s not only a search engine.
It’s my no.1 business partner, an incredible tool for research, a philosopher and magic genie, it’s maybe the greatest man built machine on the planet and a way of life.

I know that because of Google, the human race grows to be smarter, safer and more aware of its thoughts.

Happy birthday Google and thank you for the last 9 years!
It was an awesome ride!

A. According to the GfK Roper Consulting Annual Worldwide Study:
1. Sony, 2. Coca-Cola, 3. Nokia, 4. Nestle, 5. Pepsi, 6. Colgate, 7. McDonald’s, 8. Nike, 9. BMW, 10. Samsung.

Also, Mercedes is no. 13 while Disney is no. 15. The brand power scores are based on consumer response regarding three key variables: “familiarity”, “really like”, and “advocacy.” According to the GfK, CocaCola lost the 1st place in 2007 and marks a decline for the American brands.

B. According to the Best Global Brands 2007 Report – Interbrands:
1. Coca Cola, 2. Microsoft, 3. IBM, 4. GE, 5. NOKIA, 6. Toyota, 7. Intel, 8. McDonald’s, 9. Disney, 10. Mercedes.

C. According to Google, the TOP10 most googled brands (June research) are:
1. NOKIA, 2. Toyota, 3. British Airways, 4. Krispy Krem, 5. Bank of England, 6. UPS, 7. Daewoo, 8. Prada, 9. Corvette, 10. Air France.

Conclusions:
- CocaCola marks the beginning of a decline for the American brands together with Colgate, McDonald’s, Nike and Pepsi.
- NOKIA is the only brand present in the 3 tops
- SONY Bravia and SONY Playstation really did their job.

NOTE:
- Nokia warned Tuesday that up to 46 million batteries used in some of its cell phones could be faulty and pose a risk of overheating – this will affect the brand (maybe in a good way – after all, calling back 46 million batteries can be a great PR campaign)

This is a top I’ve made using Google Zeitgeist By Country (june 2007 stats). I wanted to know which are the most Googled brands in the world and determine if there really are lovemarks

In this study, I’ve searched for the global brands that appeared in the top 15 keywords searches in the following countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iraq, Ireland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and Vietnam. I also took into account the internet users in the country and the presence of the brand in more than 1 area.

I’ve tried to avoid the “product oriented” searches and focus only on brands but the sad thing is that the list was quite short. Here are the Top10 Global Brands Googled all over the world:

10. Air France was no. 12 in France (with all the holiday coming up)

9. Corvette was no. 9 in Chile

8. Prada was no.5 in Ireland

7. Daewoo was second in Hungary

6. UPS was no. 4 in Canada

5. Bank of England was no. 4 in the United Kingdom

4. Krispy Krem Doughnuts were a big fuzz in Australia in June – it was the 2nd most looked-up phrase in Australia

3. British Airways was no.1 in Pakistan

2. Toyota was no.1 in Ireland

1. NOKIA was the only brand Googled in top 15 in more than one country. Nokia was no. 5 in Finland (no surprise here), no. 2 in Pakistan, no. 5 in Hungary, no. 9 in Taiwan and no. 12 in Mexico.

VERY IMPORTANT is the fact that NOKIA and TOYOTA are the only brands from Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2007 Report Top 10 (NOKIA no. 5 and TOYOTA no. 6).

MISSING from the Google Top 10 are: Coca Cola (no.1 Interbrand Best Global Brands 2007), Microsoft (no.2), IBM (no.3), GE (no.4), Intel (no.7), McDonald’s (no.8), Disney (no.9) and Mercedes (no.10).

CONCLUSION:
- NOKIA left indeed a lovemark in the world – this brand has a great potential and the advantage of the Internet is that people can google for certain specs on the NOKIA phones;
- iPhone was just a marketing campaign – iPhone was not Googled (sad news for the Apple fans);
- CocaCola is strange to Google because they still direct their bugets for traditional media – If CocaCola is the no.1 GLOBAL BRAND, IT SHOULD BE NO.1 in Google also!
- Google (no. 20 Interbrand Best Global Brands 2007) has to be the no.1 brand for the Internet users all over the world but we don’t know it yet

NOTES
Google Zeitgeist Explained
zeit·geist | Pronunciation: ‘tsIt-”gIst, ‘zIt | Function: noun | Etymology: German, from Zeit (time) + Geist (spirit) | Date: 1884 | Meaning: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.

After Microsoft Corp. announced this week that it has agreed to acquire AdECN, Inc. (an advertising exchange platform company based near Santa Barbara, Calif), there was another press release that made more sense and made me think: they announced the creation of the Internet Services Research Center (ISRC). This center is “dedicated to accelerating innovations in search and ad technologies and delivering them more rapidly to advertisers and customers” in other words, beating Google.

News update on Reuters: Web advertising leader Google Inc. said on Friday it will acquire DoubleClick Inc., a leading online advertising network, for $3.1 billion, consolidating Google’s grip on the Internet ad market.

The deal represents the largest acquisition in Google’s history and comes just six months after Google paid $1.65 billion to acquire video-sharing site YouTube. Terms of the deal call for Google to pay cash to DoubleClick investors. Full story…

Everybody can see now the famous Russian Typhoon class submarines on Google Earth (their nuclear warheads were once aimed at the United States) – this movie is maybe another example of how the Internet changed the way we think (the picture shown on Google Earth was considered “classified” by the Russian army a few years ago).

The North Atlantic was the Typhoon playground during the Cold War (as you can see, still is). This ship is the world’s largest submarine and was also one of the most feared weapons of the Cold War – each submarine is capable of carrying twenty long-range ballistic missiles with up to 200 nuclear warheads.

The movie below also shows Nimitz, Ohio and Iowa class battle ships.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, in January 2000 it was reported that three of six Russian Typhoon-class submarines would remain in active operation to test the new Bark-class strategic missiles, contrary to both the plans of the Co-operative Threat Reduction program and reports that Bark-class missiles had been cancelled due to design failures. The Russian Navy reportedly believes that 12 strategic nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles represent the minimum necessary force structure. According to media reports a classified presidential decree of 04 March 2000 established this force goal for the period through 2010.

01. Google Pool: 37°25′20.41″N 122° 5′6.00″W
02. Airplane: 50°12′47.26″N 8°52′7.31″E
03. Tent: 28°29′43.15″N 81°34′50.07″W
04. Indian 1: 6°42′51.37″N 42°11′42.82″E
05. Black Line & Fire on ice: 69° 3′7.72″N 41° 8′29.66″W
06. BAR: 39°49′21.77″N 3°28′44.50″W
07. Star: 37°24′1.66″N 116°51′58.85″W
08. Pyramid: 37°37′38.49″N 116°50′26.44″W
09. Eddie: 53°32′18.35″N 1°20′44.17″W
10. Nude Dutch People: 52° 4′43.34″N 4°19′58.12″E
11. Nude German Woman: 52°30′31.46″N 13°20′6.90″E
12. English Crop Circle: 53°31′54.33″N 1°21′24.93″W
13. Firefox-Logo: 45° 7′25.87″N 123° 6′48.97″W
14. Nazi-Building: 32°40′33.83″N 117° 9′28.36″W
15. Reversed Ship: 35° 9′18.21″N 129° 8′51.37″E
16. Bomber: 52°20′10.98″N 0°11′43.17″W
17. Indian 2 (with i-pod): 50° 0′38.19″N 110° 6′48.31″W
18. Donut Store: 25°57′0.25″N 97° 8′50.29″W
19. Giant of Tarapacá: 19°56′56.86″S 69°38′1.81″W
20. Italian Crop Circle: 44°40′52.79″N 10°19′6.39″E
21. Radar Station: 18°20′39.01″N 66°45′8.79″W
22. Sailing/Pirate Ship: 33°51′13.07″S 151°13′59.47″E

This is the new viral wave… maybe no. 23 will be a guy drinking a coke on a sunny beach or Bin Laden firing a gun

The software is just great but the NSA involvement in the project makes it quite a hoax for the real terrorists. The software is more like bait while certain areas of the globe are under electronic surveillance. Google Earth is an efficient tool in the war against terror because you can find out in real time what are the terrorists downloading. This combined with the intelligence gathered in the field, makes it a great gizmo.

Of course, the press around the world has the best promoting campaign: titles like “terrorists can use Google Earth in order to plan attacks” are just pure advertising and very fun to read. Imagine the Google Earth campaigns as electronic mouse traps and my opinion is that we should encourage them. In the old days, the agents were risking their lives in order to provide “good” maps to terrorists. It’s better to do this online – the great feature of Google Earth is that you can only use it online making it very easy to track.

Next on the news: “Terrorists all over the world bid on eBay for the best mass destruction equipment. Free shipment in 24h.”

They have their own tracking system (Neogen Monitor) but the service is not what they really want. Their direct competitor in Romania is Trafic.ro – the difference is that this one can track many providers (although the information is public only for the mother company) – at some time they needed the databases for targeted advertising and trafic.ro helped.

On the other hand, Google Analytics is the ultimate tracker – if compared, both trafic.ro and Neogen Monitor are in the stone age – their popularity is due to the ranking option but their future is uncertain as they’re not impartial and they use the strategic data in order to develop their own online projects.

I wonder if Google Analytics is a good tool for Neogen

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.
Read the full press release here…

Later edit | The movie presented by the YouTube founders and a very interesting comment below this movie on the official website: ‘Google didn’t buy YouTube, the US Goverment paid Google to aquire YouTube…’ – anyone care to comment? Was this a threat to homeland security?

Later that day, the most viewed movie on the YouTube, was this one:

Ted Turner (CNN founder) says he can’t pick sides in War on Terror

Imagine the wonders YouTube will make in the up coming presidential campaign…

If you don’t know it yet, Echelon is a global surveillance system. Till now, the system generated a few scandals regarding the US Intelligence vs. EU companies. Of course, the Europeans reacted and in a resolution of 5 September 2005 on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (Echelon system), the European Parliament recommended in particular devising measures at Community level to develop and manufacture European encryption equipment and software. At its meeting on 6 and 7 December, the Council reached agreement in principle with a view to a common position on the proposal for a directive on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in electronic communications.

I remember a few months ago we organized in Romania a workshop about Echelon and human rights. At that time, I had my team gather facts and articles from media archives. I recall that when I entered “echelon” on Google, I received all the juicy stuff on the first page. Now after the new security issues imposed by the White House in “the battle against terror” this is the second keyword “blurred” by Google – the first was regarding the Guantanamo bay pics. Because of this, probably Google is the favorite search engine of the Bush administration.

Don’t be so happy that the Google censorship affects only China – you are also a victim here in Romania.

Yet, Google RULZ and maybe this is the price to pay for our security and way of life. In a recent interview George Bush told Matt Lauer (you can see it below) he is not willing to talk about the methods the US government uses in order to protect its people – Google censorship is a method as we all are sure that the terrorists already now how to use the Internet and a search engine.

In this role he will work with the company’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to define the mission and strategic goals of Google’s philanthropy. Dr. Brilliant is a founder and director of The Seva Foundation, a Policy Advisory Council Member at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, and a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Kleiner-Perkin’s Pandemic and Bio-Defense Fund.

Google is the reason why the Echelon is a great tool for the American Intelligence and as you can see, they have a new approach on special operations (called now “philanthropy”).

Facts about electronic surveillance as presented by Google Watch: 

In the past, discussions about privacy issues and the web have been about consumer protection. That continues to be of interest, but since 9/11 there is a new threat to privacy – the US federal government. Google has not shown any inclination to declare for the rights of its users across the globe, as opposed to the rights of the spies in Washington who would love to have access to Google’s user data.

The privacy struggle, which includes both the old issue of consumer protection and this new issue of government surveillance, means that the question of how Google treats the data it collects from users becomes critical. Given that Google is so central to the web, whatever attitude it takes toward privacy has massive implications for the rest of the web in general, and for other search engines in particular.

Larry Brilliant is not the first person connected to the US intelligence as a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Kleiner-Perkin’s Pandemic and Bio-Defense Fund. Also Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency and as we speak Google hires more people with security clearances, so that they can peddle their corporate assets to the spooks in Washington.