Google have partnered with the Wharton School to launch a brand new resource for Marketers to share and learn about the ever changing world of Marketing. The site is called Fast.Forward and is based as a YouTube channel. It features hundreds of valuable and informative videos from some of the world’s top marketing academics and leading experts including Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Lauder Professor at the Wharton School, Jerry Wind, Nancy Hill, CEO of AAAA.

“As consumers become more and more technologically savvy, businesses and marketers have worked quickly to keep up. As a result, many companies are left questioning what they aren’t doing that they should be, or what they should do next to stay in front of the right people, in the right place, at the right time, in an increasingly digital world.

To address some of these questions, we have partnered with The Wharton School to launch our Fast.Forward. Channel on YouTube, which highlights insightful perspectives from industry experts and academics on how marketers can stay ahead in the changing landscape. (You might have seen a similar site launched by our UK marketing team in partnership with London Business School earlier this year.)” Taken from the Google Biz Blog.

This is a great source of information which will only improve over time and is well worth a visit.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Google has launched a new online network which is set to simplify and speed up both online display ad publishing and advertising. Google has now officially acknowledged the launch and the new network which is set to shake up the existing display advertising community while promising to improving usability and accessibility.



“today we’re excited to announce the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a step towards creating a more open display advertising ecosystem for everyone. The Ad Exchange is a real-time marketplace that helps large online publishers on one side; and ad networks and agency networks on the other, buy and sell display advertising space.” Taken from the official Google Blog.

Google has set up three primary objectives for the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

1) Make the buying and selling of display advertising easier and simpler to use.
2) Delivering improved performance which can be directly measured by advertising agencies
3) Open up the ecosystem.

“These publishers and ad networks manage and represent large volumes of ads and ad space from lots of advertisers and websites. By bringing them together in an open marketplace in which prices are set in a real-time auction, the Ad Exchange enables display ads and ad space to be allocated much more efficiently. This improves returns for advertisers and enables publishers to get the most value out of their online content.” Taken from the Official Google Blog.

This is not a new idea, there are many existing and established ad exchange networks but what will be different is Google’s approach. The Double Click Ad Exchange will be simple to use and accessible to all levels of advertiser and publisher. Integration into the existing Adwords community is sure to set the foundations for the success of this product. We will have to wait and see how the network is received but it does look set to offer users a valuable alternative to the existing ad exchange networks.

Article by Creative SEO UK

A massive new multiplayer version of Monopoly has been launched in association with Google, the world is now your play ground, buy property on any street anywhere in the world!

On the 9th of September, Hasbro will launch Monopoly City Streets. This massive online version of the famous board game will only be available for a 4 month period but the good news is its completely free. The Free game uses Google maps or the open source Open Street Maps as the playing field. Hasbro claims it will be “the biggest game of Monopoly of all time” and players will be able to purchase almost “any street in the world”.

As with the traditional board game, the idea behind the game is to make as much money as possible through purchasing property from different location. The more property you have, the more rent you can earn, the larger your income.

Each new player will start the game with 3 million monopoly dollars. Once a player owns a street they can purchase, sell and rent properties. Streets can also be traded or sold to other players.

The Hasbro have also introduced a chance card, which allow players to sabotage rivals by building rubbish dumps, prisons or wind farms on their property to reduce the value of properties and rent on a specific street. Players can only remove a hazard by bulldozing a lot clean, but this again requires the appropriate chance card.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Google’s world famous logo has come under threat from a strange “Unexplained Phenomenon”. On Saturday 5th September a weird flying saucer appeared on the Google logo and appeared to abduct the letter “O” from the logo itself. A keyword search in Google.com for “Unexplained Phenomenon” revealed the UFO.



At this very same time Google Tweeted the following message.

“1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19”

Translated the message reads “All Your O are belong to us.”

Danny Sullivan, famous SEO and editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land received the following statement directly from Google about the incident.

“We consider the second ‘o’ critical to user recognition of our brand and pronunciation of our name. We are actively looking into the mysterious tweet that has appeared on the Google twitter stream and the disappearance of the “o” on the Google homepage. We hope to have an update in the coming weeks.”

At this moment in time we are unsure of what exactly Google has up its sleeve or weather this a real encounter with an internet entity.

Danny Sullivan is reported as believing he might have the answer.

“I twittered that I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of the letters disappear each day in some type of running logo changes, as Google’s done from time to time. That didn’t happen today, but Google Operating System notes that this type of series of change my occur related to H. G. Wells.
This is due to a Google Korea blog post that says to watch for the next in the series on Sept. 15 with things of “mystery,” “invisible” and “novel,” Google Operating System translates. The assumption is that this relates to the HG Wells work “The Invisible Man” and may celebrate his birthday. If so, then expect a further doodle on Sept. 21 — when Wells was actually born.”

We will just have to wait and see what happens next?

Article by Creative SEO UK

Yahoo has announced a new update to its search engine listings and results pages. The update is currently in the process of being rolled out. There is currently not a lot of information available but here is what Yahoo had to say on the official Yahoo blog.

“We’re rolling out a web index update over the next few days. During this process, you will see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index.”

It’s unclear as to the scale of the update, but you have to wonder if the new changes will be the first part of the Bing / Yahoo partnership? Are the changes going to be based on Bing technology, and will the new listings match or offer similar results to Bing?

As always we would appreciate your feedback on any changes you have seen to your sites. Please feel free to leave your comments below.

Article by Creative SEO UK