Great overview of AdWords

In this day and age, I’m really surprised at how many people don’t quite understand the internet. Sometimes, it can be tough to explain, in detail, what Google AdWords is, and how I can help them leverage this advertising medium.

This is compounded by the fact that I’m somewhat of a geek, and sometimes it can be tough to relate “nerd talk” with layman’s everyday reality.

Fortunately, I was browsing the net today, and came across this brilliant video. I don’t know exactly who produced it, but it’s very nicely done. I was really impressed at how simple it was to understand, and the depth of topics covered.

For anyone reading this blog who doesen’t quite understand the AdWords business model just yet, I’d strongly reccomend watching. It’s really quite educational. So have a look and let me know what your thoughts are.

You can view it here:
http://www.vsocial.com/video/?d=203879

Attention Developers: The API is fixed

WARNING: This might be a bit advanced for most of my readers. So you’ll have to please excuse me for nerding out and alienating a few readers.

Remember those 502 errors you were all getting on your Adwords applications? Well Google has identified the issue and successfully resolved it. So from now on, the API should be working fine again.

And thank goodness for that.

Google AdWords being used as a political tool

I’m always impressed at the new and innovative ways that people use technology. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. Sometimes it’s efficient, but sometimes it’s overcomplicated.

More and more, you’re starting to see activists buying up searches of company names in order to interfere with the corporations’ business activities. With such low prices, it can be an attractive way to place yourself between a company and it’s online customers.

I’m not sure about the legal ramifications, but this seems to be some uncharted territory that could potentially cause a lot of damage before the law steps in and sets some clear ground rules.

A prime example of this is the recent labor dispute between Marks & Spencer, and the Unite labor union.

Britain’s biggest union, Unite, has launched a “virtual” assault (cyber sabotage – cybertage anyone?) on Marks and Spencer, to highlight what it says is exploitation of agency staff.

Unite says it placed an ad with Google so anyone searching for the term ‘Marks and Spencer’ today would be confronted by a message urging them to “look behind the label”. The stunt was being carried out in addition to its conventional campaign against the high street chain.

I just recently did a search, and the ad doesn’t seem to be running here in Canada. I also tried an anonymizer service and was unable to see the offending ads.

Next time you hear about a local labor dispute, load up Google and check the ads. I think this’ll be a new recurring trend.