TimeWarner and Google Launch Life Magazine Online Photo Archive
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint effort of LIFE and Google. The images will be free to use for personal and research purposes but will be digitally watermarked to prevent unauthorized or unlicensed commercial uses. There is an option to purchase each image for commercial use.
According the announcement on the official Google blog, “Only a very small percentage of these images have ever been published. The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints. We’re digitizing them so that everyone can easily experience these fascinating moments in time. Today about 20 percent of the collection is online; during the next few months, we will be adding the entire LIFE archive — about 10 million photos.”
The Images are being hosted by Google here.
Google Launches On Demand Indexing Feature in Site Search
Google today launched On-Demand Indexing, a new feature for Google Site Search that allows businesses to quickly incorporate new pages and important site updates into search results on their websites. On-Demand Indexing ensures that site visitors have access to a site’s freshest content, and that businesses have the flexibility to share news, product releases and promotions as they happen.
With On-Demand Indexing:
- Site owners get an “Index Now” button to quickly and easily update their site search results with new and updated content.
- New pages are searchable within hours – taking no longer than a day to appear within site search results.
On-Demand Indexing has allowed Adobe to easily keep their new online Adobe Community Help up to date, creating a dynamic resource that combines Adobe’s in-depth help centers with the most current resources available online. With Google Site Search, Adobe can selectively index the most relevant results from across their entire online community, and expose these resources directly to their Creative Suite customers – creating a unique tool that spans from the desktop into the cloud.
“On-Demand Indexing was essential for our recent launch of Adobe Creative Suite 4, the biggest software release in the company’s history,” said Tanya Wendling, senior director for Learning Resources at Adobe. “Google Site Search made it easy to implement search across our Creative Suite product line and online sites, and we are now able to index thousands of new pages and make them available to millions of users worldwide within hours.”
Google Site Search, is a cloud-based search solution for business, helps thousands of organizations harness the power of Google.com, and fully customize search to suit their website. Along with the greater control of On-Demand Indexing, site owners get the same ease of use and fast results of Google Site Search, including:
- Set up that takes minutes and results returned in less than a second
- The ability to promote new or certain types of pages at the top of results
- Full customization controls over the look and feel of search
- A range of options for phone and email support
For more information about On-Demand Indexing, please visit Google’s blog post.
TapSlide and GWE Announce Strategic Partnership To Develop iPhone and Google Android Mobile Applications
Partnership to Deliver TapSlide Created Mobile Games and Applications for the Apple iPhone and Google Android Platforms, Based on GWE’s Broad Portfolio of Licenses and Brands
Tapslide and Global Wireless Entertainment (GWE) announced a strategic partnership to explore the development of mobile games and applications for the new generation of touch screen phones based on the iPhone and Google Android platforms. As part of the partnership GWE will research its broad stable of licenses and brands under management and identify which ones will be best suited for TapSlide to develop into mobile applications and games. TapSlide will extend the GWE portfolio of licenses and brands into the new realm of touch screen phones running the latest operating systems from Apple and Google. The partnership will focus on building, marketing and deploying games and applications that utilize the Apple iPhone and Google Android mobile platforms, with a focus on touch screen mobile phones.
“We are very excited to be working with GWE in creating mobile applications for some of their brands,” said Mike Stemple, CEO of TapSlide. “Paul and his team at GWE bring a wealth of knowledge and connections to TapSlide and we look forward to some very exciting developments from this partnership.”
“Mike Stemple is an industry visionary and has proven that he can create successful products and companies,” said Paul Buss, CEO of GWE. “I was so impressed with his last company Skinit.com and the revenue creation it brought for our licenses and brands that we purchased it and made it a part of GWE.”
Specific TapSlide/GWE mobile games and applications will be announced in the coming months.
About TapSlide Inc.
TapSlide (OTCBB: TSLI) is set to become the world’s leading publisher of iPhone, Android, and Symbian mobile applications. The company combines the industry’s best mobile application developers with in-depth technical knowledge of touch-screen application development and a highly creative team of designers specializing in the creation of applications for the advertising and promotions industries. TapSlide specializes in private labeled mobile applications and application publishing services for the new breed of touch screen mobile phones. TapSlide’s senior management team has created numerous past successes providing white-label technology solutions to Fortune 500 companies. The list of past successes reads like a who’s-who of the technology, automotive, and publishing industries and includes (but not limited to): HP, Dell, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, iRobot, Nokia, Samsung, Archos, Volvo, Mini Cooper, Thule, Nalgene, Maxim Magazine, Blender Magazine, Tiger Beat & Bop Magazines, SoBe Beverages, Americas Top Model TV Show, Best Buy, RadioShack, and Blockbuster. For more information about TapSlide please visit: http://www.TapSlide.com.
About Global Wireless Entertainment / Skinit, Inc.
Global Wireless Entertainment is the parent company to San Diego-based company Skinit, Inc. Skinit is the market leader in mobile consumer electronics personalization with its unique offering of customized, branded (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, Collegiate, Disney, Warner Bros, Lucas Arts and many more) and graphic stock designs that total over four million SKUs. Skinit provides leading OEMs, wireless carriers, MVNOs and distributors with turnkey personalization platforms that increase product differentiation, sales velocity, margins and brand impressions. For channel partners, Skinit offers unparalleled capabilities in on-demand manufacturing, fulfillment, supply chain, image portfolio and product line extensions. On the business-to-consumer end, Skinit offers the ultimate in personalization with its Customizer program, enabling end-users to upload, customize, and create their own skins. Skinit’s photo quality removable skins made from exclusive 3M Scotchprint® graphics are customized to fit consumer electronic devices including mobile handsets, MP3 players, desktop and laptop computers, gaming consoles, routers, and monitors. To learn more about Skinit, please visit http://www.skinit.com.
Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement
Copyright Accord Would Make Millions More Books Available Online
The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google today announced a groundbreaking settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search. The agreement, reached after two years of negotiations, would resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by five large publishers as representatives of the AAP’s membership. The class action is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the Web. The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.
If approved by the court, the agreement would provide:
- More Access to Out-of-Print Books – Generating greater exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online;
- Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books – Building off publishers’ and authors’ current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;
- Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online – Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world’s most renowned libraries;
- Free Access From U.S. Libraries – Providing free, full-text, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries; and
- Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works – Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.
Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million. The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees. The settlement agreement resolves Authors Guild v. Google, a class-action suit filed on September 20, 2005 by the Authors Guild and certain authors, and a suit filed on October 19, 2005 by five major publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP); Pearson Education, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO); John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb); and Simon & Schuster, Inc. part of CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). These lawsuits challenged Google’s plan to digitize, search and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the explicit permission of the copyright owner.
Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.
Libraries at the Universities of California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Stanford have provided input into the settlement and expect to participate in the project, including by making their collections available. Along with a number of other U.S. libraries that currently work with Google, their significant efforts to preserve, maintain and provide access to books have played a critical role in achieving this agreement and, through their anticipated participation, they are furthering such efforts while making books even more accessible to students, researchers and readers in the U.S. It is expected that additional libraries in the U.S. will participate in this project in the future.
Google Book Search users in the United States will be able to enjoy and purchase the products and services offered under the project. Outside the United States, the users’ experience with Google Book Search will be unchanged, unless the offering of such products and services is authorized by the rightsholder of a book.
“It’s hard work writing a book, and even harder work getting paid for it,” said Roy Blount Jr., President of the Authors Guild. “As a reader and researcher, I’ll be delighted to stop by my local library to browse the stacks of some of the world’s great libraries. As an author, well, we appreciate payment when people use our work. This deal makes good sense.”
“This historic settlement is a win for everyone,” said Richard Sarnoff, Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. “From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, together with the authors, publishers, and libraries, we have been able to make a great leap in this endeavor,” said Sergey Brin, co-founder & president of technology at Google. “While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers. The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips.”
For more information about this agreement, including information about whether you may be a class member, please visit http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders. Class members include authors (the Author Sub-Class) and publishers (the Publisher Sub-Class), and their heirs and successors, of books and other written works protected by U.S. copyright law.
A teleconference for the media will be held today, Tuesday, October 28, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. To participate, reporters in the U.S. should dial 877-340-7913, and reporters internationally should dial 719-325-4845. Please tell the operator you would like to join the “Authors, Publishers and Google” call.
About the Authors Guild
The Authors Guild, representing more than 8,000 authors, is the nation’s largest and oldest society of published authors and the leading writers’ advocate for fair compensation, effective copyright protection, and free expression. For more information, visit www.authorsguild.org.
About the Association of American Publishers
The AAP is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities. For further information, see www.publishers.org.
About Google Inc. and Google Book Search
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Google Book Search was launched in 2004, and today enables the full text searching of more than a million books online. More than 20,000 publishers and 28 libraries around the world currently work with Google to market their books through the service. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com and books.google.com.
The Author Sub-Class and the Authors Guild, Inc. are represented by Michael J. Boni and Joanne Zack of Boni & Zack LLC, Bala Cynwyd, PA, 610-822-0200, www.bonizack.com, bookclaims@bonizack.com.
The Publisher Sub-Class, the Association of American Publishers, Inc., The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Pearson Education, Inc., Penguin Group (USA) Inc., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Simon & Schuster, Inc. are represented by Jeffrey P. Cunard and Bruce P. Keller of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, New York, NY, 212-909-6000, www.debevoise.com, bookclaims@debevoise.com.
Google and WPP launch Marketing Research Awards Program
Google and WPP team up to endow research into how online media influences consumer behaviour
Google and WPP announced today that they will jointly fund a grant program to support research into how online media influences consumer behaviour, attitudes and decision making.
WPP and Google will contribute up to $4.6 million over three years to endow the Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program, which will immediately begin reviewing grant applications.
The program will be overseen by Professor John Quelch, Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School and a non-executive Director of WPP; Dr. Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist; and Professor Glen Urban, former Dean of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This committee will work with WPP and Google to decide which grant proposals will be funded and ensure the integrity, delivery and impact of the research.
“We want to encourage more research about how online and offline media work together to influence consumer choices. We think that such research will contribute to more effective and more measurable advertising performance,” said Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist and a co-director of the grants program. “I’m excited that we’re teaming up with WPP to fund these activities.”
“We’re very pleased to be working with WPP to encourage new insights into online advertising,” said Tim Armstrong, Google’s Senior Vice President and President of Advertising Operations for the Americas. “As it becomes more challenging to reach consumers through any one medium, we hope programs like this will help drive a deeper understanding of how marketers can engage consumers, both online and offline.”
Mark Read, CEO of WPP Digital and WPP’s Director of Strategy, said, “We are thrilled to join Google in supporting this research program. The industry, our clients and our companies will benefit from the application of some of the world’s finest academic research minds into how online media influences consumers. The digital age raises many complex and critically important questions for marketers and media owners. The meshing of the business and academic worlds puts us on the path to providing robust answers.”
Eric Salama, CEO of Kantar, WPP’s insight, information and consultancy division, added, “The industry needs a much better handle on how offline and online media interact with each other and how that interaction shapes consumer attitudes and behaviours. This initiative will be a critical part of that solution.”
In addition to funding, WPP will provide access to BrandZ — the annual study of brand perceptions published by The Kantar Group — and the media data and research generated at GroupM. Clients of WPP and Google will be able to volunteer to provide case studies and data for research being conducted by grant recipients.
In the first year, the Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program will aim to award up to a dozen grants.
For more information about the Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program, please visit http://research.google.com/university/marketingresearchawards/.
Voting Made Simple
Filed under: Launch Resources, Site Launches, Tech News, press release
It’s hard to find an excuse not to vote this election season.
For the first time, technology companies, election officials, and organizations on both sides of the political spectrum are working together to ensure that voters have easy access to election information online and on their mobile phones.
In partnership with state and local election officials, the Voting Information Project (http://www.votinginfoproject.org) and the League of Women Voters (http://www.lwv.org/Election2008/index.html), Google has released US Voter Info (http://maps.google.com/vote), an effort to simplify and centralize election information. With a few clicks, voters can find where to cast their ballots from now until Election Day.
Any group or individual with a website can make voting information available by embedding a simple search box on their site (http://tinyurl.com/6lgmxc). You can also get similar results on your mobile phone by going to m.google.com/elections or searching for the word “vote” with your address on Google Maps for Mobile.
Find more details about our efforts to get out the vote on the Official Google Blog.
Google Rolls Out a Major Upgrade to Google Analytics
Today at eSummit Metrics In Washington, D.C. Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist, unveiled the new functionalities that represent a major upgrade to Google Analytics. According to Avinash Kaushik “With these features, gradually being released in beta in all accounts, you’ll gain much richer insights into your website traffic, and it’ll be even easier to discover, create, and access the metrics important to you.”
Video demos of the new features can be seen at this YouTube playlist).
More enterprise features
Google Analytics now makes the features that experts demand easy to use for everyone. Gain rich insights into your website traffic with Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reporting, Motion Charts, and more.
Improve your online results
Learn more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site. You’ll get the information you need to write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. Learn more about the benefits. Google Analytics is free to everyone, whether you are an advertiser, publisher, or site owner.
Test your website and increase conversions.
You can now use your Google Analytics login to access Website Optimizer. Find out which page designs, headlines, and graphics convert the most visitors.
Google Quotes launches a 5 Year Quote Index
Google first launched quote extraction in Google News in April, offering you a way to browse quotations extracted from the past 30 days of news. While a great tool to see what people are saying on important topics and how they compare, it was missing something.
According to Google’s Official Press Release today they have announced the launch of a 5-year quotes index with expanded coverage that lets you explore what Governor Palin said before she was a VP nominee, or Senator Obama before he was a presidential candidate. The InQuotes lab page is also much improved and now provides comparisons over time on issues like the economy or the war in Iraq. You can even create your own custom quotes page. Read more here GOOGLE BLOG
T-Mobile Unveils the New T-Mobile G1 in High-Tech Fashion With Star Studded Events in New York and Los Angeles
Molly Sims, Mischa Barton, Nick Cannon and Many More Joined T-Mobile on Both Coasts to Celebrate the Launch of the World’s First Android Powered Phone
This week, T-Mobile USA, Inc. brought together Hollywood’s hottest stars and New York’s elite tastemakers to celebrate the highly-anticipated launch of the new T-Mobile G1, the world’s first Android(TM)-powered mobile phone in partnership with Google. At the exclusive, invite-only launch events, held in the hip SoHo neighborhood of New York on October 16 and at a private studio in the heart of Hollywood on October 17, celebrities such as Rosario Dawson, Mischa Barton and Anthony Anderson turned out to get the first look at the much-talked about device and socialize with friends at the hottest bash on both coasts.
To celebrate the debut of the T-Mobile G1, T-Mobile created a special event that brought to life the device’s unique technology and applications. Stars like Juliette Lewis and Brittney Snow were amongst the lucky guests to get hands-on experience with the T-Mobile G1 and experience some of the internet’s most popular destinations including Google Maps and YouTube.
At the interactive event, guests were treated to a larger than life environment to traverse and explore complete with vivid cityscape projections emulating the experience of Google Maps Street View, where Nikki Reed and Perez Hilton visited some of their favorite destinations from the palm of their hand. At the nearby ShopSavvy exhibit, fashionistas checked out items on their shopping list and used the T-Mobile G1 to find where the items are sold before heading to the on-site Famima store to stock up on imported gourmet snacks. The popular YouTube video confessional booth also kept party-goers busy. They took time-out from dancing at the T-Mobile G1 turntables DJ request area to create personal video clips that were uploaded onto the video-sharing site and viewed on the T-Mobile G1.
The parties were highlighted by a special live musical performance from The Raconteurs, led by Jack White of White Stripes fame, who traveled coast-to-coast to play hits such as “Steady as She Goes.” New York club-staple DJ Cassidy kept the East Coast’s elite, such as Erika Christensen going all night, while in Los Angeles LA-based DJ Vice had Stacy Keibler and Bonnie Somerville, dancing throughout the evening. The A-list crowd also helped choose the night’s music, using the turntables display to select songs and the T-Mobile G1 to text their requests straight to the DJ booths.
“Combining the best of a mobile phone and the Internet, the T-Mobile G1 with Google provides everything you love about the Web in a pocket-sized phone,” said Andrew Sherrard, vice president, product innovation, T-Mobile USA. “The T-Mobile G1 will connect friends and families, while placing the benefits of mobile Web at their fingertips.”
The T-Mobile G1 delivers a premium, easy-to-use mobile Web and communications experience in one device. The phone’s vibrant, high-quality screen slides open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, great for communicating with friends online or using the phone’s e-mail, IM and mobile messaging capabilities. The T-Mobile G1 comes equipped with a convenient trackball for more precise, one-handed navigation. The first phone to offer access to Android Market, the T-Mobile G1 hosts unique applications and mash ups of existing and new services from developers around the world. With just a couple of short clicks, customers can find and download a wide range of innovative software applications - from games to social networking and on-the-go shopping — to personalize their phone and enhance their mobile lifestyle.* For more information, please visit http://www.t-mobileg1.com/.
About T-Mobile USA, Inc.
Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile USA, Inc. is the U.S. operation of Deutsche Telekom AG’s Mobile Communications Business, and a wholly owned subsidiary of T-Mobile International, one of the world’s leading companies in mobile communications. By the end of the second quarter of 2008, 125 million mobile customers were served by the mobile communication segments of the Deutsche Telekom group — 31.5 million by T-Mobile USA — all via a common technology platform based on GSM, the world’s most widely used digital wireless standard. T-Mobile’s innovative wireless products and services help empower people to connect to those who matter most. Multiple independent research studies continue to rank T-Mobile among the highest in numerous regions throughout the U.S. in wireless customer care and call quality. For more information, please visit www.t-mobile.com. T-Mobile is a federally registered trademark of Deutsche Telekom AG.
Google, Android, Google Maps Street View, Google Talk, Gmail, YouTube are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.
*Additional charges may apply.
Source: T-Mobile USA, Inc.
Travel Marketing Professionals Vie for New Award From Google
Award Recognizes Top Marketing Campaigns Submitted During 2008 HSMAI Adrian Awards
The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and Google have partnered to recognize an integrated marketing campaign that exemplifies the best brand impact and consumer appeal with a new specialty award at the HSMAI Adrian Awards Gala, Jan. 26, 2009, at the New York Marriott Marquis. The Google award is a new addition to HSMAI’s annual Adrian Awards, a competition that honors the “best of the best” in travel and hospitality marketing in the categories of advertising, public relations and web marketing.
Five powerful integrated marketing campaigns will be selected from the 2008 Gold HSMAI Adrian Awards winners and then judged by a panel of travelers and HSMAI members, whose vote will determine the favorite. The lucky winner will receive a trophy, bragging rights for a year and recognition from the traveling public and industry peers.
“Google is committed to providing the best possible online experience, driven by the needs and opinions of the internet user,” said Rob Torres, managing director of travel for Google. “Google is enlisting the knowledge of relevant users to determine the winner.”
The Google award is new to the lineup of specialty awards presented at HSMAI’s Annual Adrian Awards. The Departures Magazine Luxury Marketing Achievement Award recognizes the best award-winning print advertising campaigns produced for the luxury travel market, and the TravelCLICK eMarketer of the Year honors the best integrated eMarketing program in the hotel industry.
Winners will be recognized at the annual HSMAI Adrian Awards Gala, January 26, 2009, at the New York Marriott Marquis, featured in an HSMAI Marketing Review article, and online in the Adrian Awards Winners’ Gallery. For more information, visit www.adrianawards.com.
About HSMAI
HSMAI is an organization of sales and marketing professionals representing all segments of the hospitality industry. With a strong focus on education, HSMAI has become the industry champion in identifying and communicating trends in the hospitality industry, and bringing together customers and members at annual events, including HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings(R). Founded in 1927, HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprising more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. For more information on HSMAI, contact the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, Va. 22102; (703) 506-3280; fax (703) 506-3266, or visit the website at www.hsmai.org.
Source: Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International
Web Site: http://www.adrianawards.com/
http://www.hsmai.org/