A few months ago Google tried to predict the result of the Eurovision Song Contest by studying the number of searches on each contestant. The weird thing was that Google was right, correctly guessing the winner of the Eurovision contest before everyone else.

There is definitely a relation between the number of searches and the results of a vote (at least where entertainment is concerned). We can also use YouTube to see how many users saw contestants on video, although it is harder to geo targeted the result.

This technique is not alwyas… accurate, do you remember Susan Boyle (Britains Got Talent) was by far on top of YouTube viewings as well as the number of searches but at the end did not win.

Now lets see if Google/YouTube can give us the winner of the X factor 2009.

Based on Google insight (UK search only), the winner will be……….. Danyl Johnson, followed by Jamie Archer.

If we look at YouTube top watched videos we have once again Danyl Johnson but this time followed by Stacey Soloman.  

So based on the above, the next X – Factor winner is Danyl Johnson! Let see in few months if I am right…

Online Marketing, Search Engine 3 Comments September 28th, 2009

Google Suggest, a new form of search engine reputation management (SERM) issue has created a new form of entertainment….in which the creator is the victim!!!

Please find below the TOP 10 funniest Google suggestions about itself:

1. Google won’t search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don’t find Chuck Norris he finds you
2. Google hates Bambi
3. Google is not God
4. Google is rubbish
5. Google is running everything
6. Google is lame
7. Google killed Bambi
8. Google doesn’t remember me
9. Google says sorry
10. Google has gone too far

Let me know if you find some more

Online Marketing, Search Engine 1 Comment September 25th, 2009

This monday Google unveiled Fast Flip. Fast Flip is th new way of viewing the Google News results page. 

This innovation  will show you all the news pages relevant to a subject in a graphic version, more or less like Google Image results page. When you click on one page, you can read it like a newspaper and switch to the next results page via some links on the side. It is sort of like a news paper about one subject.

This new way of viewing the news is very impressive and easy to use.

The only bad thing about it is the limited number of sources available (although the BBC, FT and many others can be published on Google). We still don’t have all the sources like in the actual Google News.

Good innovations, but needs to cover more media…

Online Marketing, Search Engine No Comments September 15th, 2009

Few months after the launch of Jewish search engine Koogle (see my post about Koogle Search Engine),  ImHalal has shown-up. This new search engine has been deisgned with the Muslim community in mind, with specific filters on the search results. This filter makes sure that the result is acceptable to be view ed by a Muslim. For example the keyword ‘beer’ will return a warning message.

It is the second religious search engine in least that 3 months and proves that people are always looking for community specific tools online. Also this search engine solves a few legal issues for countries like India, South Arabia, ect.

On the technologies side of it, this search engine proposes some interesting results and seem to be pretty relevant.

It is a pretty good job done by ImHalal.

Search Engine No Comments September 11th, 2009

An Australian company is selling Facebook friends, Twitter followers and Digg votes for a price close to 20 cents each.

 Obviously this offer is for companies who want to promote their Facebook page or Twitter page or syndicate their content via Digg because today these social media websites are a very powerful marketing tool.

 
To be honest it is a pretty good idea, but why it is so important to have a large number of friends, followers or votes?

If you are a media agency working for a client, the number of Facebook and Twitter friends/followers can be one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and obviously more you have the better it is.

 
From a users point of view, a Facebook group or Twitter account with a lot of friends/followers is more attractive and will rank higher on Facebook internal search engine as well as Google.

 
A number of votes on Digg allows your subject (with a nice link to your website) to be on the home page (or main category pages) and will attract large number of user scurious to know why so many people ‘digg’ it.

 

It is sad but true that on social media websites everybody is a sheep who follows the mass… but it is also the fault to Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/Google who promote more the most viewed, top follower accounts.

 
I think that this company have developed a good business and will have lot of confidential clients pretty soon…

Online Marketing, Search Engine No Comments September 4th, 2009

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