If I could do IT again

I often talk about getting married again, well, not getting married to a different man...the same man, I love John, and I couldn't imagine my life without him.



But if we could do our wedding over again, what I would do differently... you know I'd hire a photographer, I've talked about that before.



But what about what I would wear?



Definately not WHAT I ACTUALLY wore... because that was anything but timeless... can you say helllllllllloooooooo 80's!



I mean, big, everything...

I'd probably be a two dress bride.

Maybe?

A galaxy of your own

Last December, we wrote about our immersive Google Earth environment, Liquid Galaxy: eight 55-inch LCD screens showing Google Earth in a unified, surround view.

Liquid Galaxy at TED 2010

Since then, we’ve taken it to a lot of conferences, built Liquid Galaxies in Google offices all over the world and even put one in the Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif. We love watching people try it for the first time. Almost everybody wants to see their own house first; but then they start to explore, and we can never guess where they’ll choose to go next.

But we just couldn’t bring it to enough people—we could only go to so many conferences, and only friends and family of Googlers could try out the Liquid Galaxies in our offices.

So we decided to put the features that make Liquid Galaxy possible into the latest release of Google Earth, and open-source all the supporting work, from our Ubuntu sysadmin scripts to the mechanical design of our custom frames.


Not everyone will have the know-how to network computers together and get view synchronization working, but we tried to make it as easy as possible. If you think you’re up to the challenge, check out our Quick Start page. You can also contact our supplier End Point if you’d rather buy than build (or just need some professional assistance). Here’s a video they made that shows Liquid Galaxy in action:



Liquid Galaxies don’t have to be made from eight big LCD screens; the view sync features scale just fine from two to dozens of screens. And they can run more than just Google Earth; we’ve had success playing video in sync in our Liquid Galaxies, and even modified a Free Software video game for after-hours fun. We’ve daydreamed about making panoramic movies, head tracking or even real-time video from distant panoramic cameras. Read more on the Liquid Galaxy page at earth.google.com, and show off your creations in the liquid-galaxy discussion group. We’re excited to see what you come up with!

Posted by Jason Holt, Software Engineer, Liquid Galaxy 20% Team

Reaching for the top spot? "Estimated Top Impressions" now available in the Bid Simulator

A year ago, we launched the Bid Simulator, a feature that allows you to see how different keyword-level bids may have impacted your advertising results. Using data from the past seven days, the bid simulator re-calculates the number of clicks and impressions your ad could have received with different maximum CPC bids.

Today we’re announcing a new metric in Bid Simulator, “Estimated Top Impressions,” which shows you how many times your ad appeared above the search results in the past seven days and how this metric could have changed had you used different keyword level maximum CPC bids.

Access the Bid Simulator by clicking the icon next to your maximum CPC bid.

click for full size image

Whether you carefully manage a handful of valuable keywords or simply want users to see your ad as often as possible, Estimated Top Impressions can be a useful metric. Ads that appear above the search results are more visible to users and tend to receive more clicks than ads that appear along the right side of the search results page.

Let's look at an example of how to use the Estimated Top Impressions column:

click for full size image

In this table, the current maximum CPC bid of $1.07 captures most of the impressions that a higher bid of $1.93 could have captured (7,520 vs. 7,930). However, when we look at the ‘Estimated Top Impressions’ column, we see that the current bid of $1.07 only captures a fraction of the top impressions (4,780 vs. 6,380). Increasing the bid to $1.93 would have placed the ad at the top of the search results page for many more queries, resulting in more users seeing the ad and clicking through to the site (591 vs 662).

If one of your goals is to appear in the top position and you’ve been focusing on the ‘average position’ of your ad to gauge how prominently it’s displayed to users, Estimated Top Impressions may be a better metric for you to focus on. While average position indicates where your ad is appearing in relation to other ads on the page, it doesn’t indicate whether your ad is appearing above the search results or on the right side of the page.

Note that past performance does not guarantee future results, and simulations will only be provided if there is enough traffic on a given keyword to conduct a meaningful analysis. Additionally, top of page impressions are counted only for impressions on Google, since other sites within the Search Network may display ads differently. Estimated Top Impressions data is currently only available in the Bid Simulator, and we’re working to incorporate this metric into more AdWords reports.

For an in-depth look at bidding, check out this tutorial from Hal Varian, the Google Chief Economist: Bidding Strategy Overview.

Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

This Week in Product Updates, September 30, 2010

Every week we’ll be providing a brief update on the latest Google product and feature updates relevant to our agency partners. To see past updates, look for the “This Week in Product Updates” label.

What happens when you give creative minds a video camera? A one-of-a-kind album launch that brought together up and coming performers with the world renowned band, Weezer -- and separately, 125 exceptional online video talents vying for a place at the Guggenheim Museum. Read on for creative inspiration, as well as critical updates on the Keyword Tool and Bid Simulator, additional holiday planning resources, and details of Google Health’s new look.

Tip of the week

• Being in the holiday spirit (is it really only September?), we'd like to share that the videos from this summer's ThinkHoliday event are now on YouTube. Take a peek for tactics and learnings to help you prepare for this year's holiday shopping season.
  

Search

• New Keyword Tool Update: We’ve discontinued access to the previous version of the Keyword Tool in favor of the new Keyword Tool. The new version contains a number of additional benefits including Search-based Keyword Tool functionality, flexible search options, and enhanced filtering. It is the default keyword tool in the AdWords interface, and is also accessible outside of AdWords.
• New Bid Simulator Metric: We will soon be adding a new metric to the AdWords Bid Simulator called "estimated top impressions,” representing the estimated number of impressions your ad would have received in the top position above the Google.com search results (vs the right hand side of the page) had you used different bids. For more information, success stories and more, please refer to the Help Center.
  

Display

• YouTube Homepage & Promoted Videos: Clients big and small can now get their time in the spotlight with ads on the YouTube homepage with Promoted Video Ads. A few days each quarter, we open up the YouTube homepage to Promoted Video advertisers. With homepage exposure of roughly 45 million impressions and 18 million unique visitors a day in the U.S., you and your clients can make a big splash. Be sure to read up on all the ways your ads can show up on the homepage, should the opportunity arise.
• Behind the scenes of Weezer's new album launch: Guest blogger Ben Patterson of DashGo gives us a behind the scenes look at how Weezer creatively used YouTube for its new album launch, and the reach of this campaign.
  

TV

• Fall line-up for Google TV Ads. Episode 1: Reaching more potential customers: For the next 4 weeks, the TV ads team will be sharing tips and resources. In this week's episode - Generate demand for your brand and drive online actions with Google TV Ads. In conjunction with online campaigns, Google TV Ads enables you to run a highly efficient, fully integrated marketing campaign, reaching your offline audience with ultimate precision. See how Gotham Direct increased traffic to ooVoo.com by 500% with Google TV Ads.
  

Did You Know?

• This Week in Search, 9.17.10 Edition: Check out This Week in Search to see recent enhancements when searching for media, such as director and cast links in movie search results, the Google Beat and more.
• Google Heath, the Power is Yours: As consumers look to take control over their heath, Google Health has become a central place online to store and share medical data. Based on your feedback, we are proud to announce the Google Heath redesign, including an easier-to-use dashboard, more focus on wellness goals and more. We’ve also formed new partnerships with device and mobile apps developers so there’s nothing holding you back!
• Shortlist for YouTube Play announced: Earlier this year we announced YouTube Play, a joint initiative with YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum, in collaboration with HP, to discover and showcase exceptional online video talent. We received 23K submissions from 91 countries, and narrowed the field down to 125, 20 of which will be selected for display at the Guggenheim Museums in NYC, Berlin, Bilbao and Venice from October 22-24, 2010, as well as on the YouTube Play channel. Be sure to check out the shortlist here.
• New security feature for orgs using Google Apps: In order to increase the security of the cloud, we announced a free, two-step verification process for Google Apps Premier, Education and Government Edition users. We'll be rolling this out to all Apps users in the coming months. Visit the Google Enterprise Blog for the complete announcement.
  

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team

Explore the world with Street View, now on all seven continents

(Cross-posted with the Google Lat Long Blog)

Update 12:01PM: To clarify, the Street View imagery for Antarctica includes panoramas of an area called Half Moon Island—such as this view of penguins and this one of the landscape. The blue dots you see throughout the continent when dragging the pegman are user-contributed photos.

We introduced Street View back in May 2007, enabling people to explore street-level imagery in five U.S. cities. We were excited to share a virtual reflection of the real world to enable armchair exploration. Since then, we’ve expanded our 360-degree panoramic views to many more places, allowing you to check out a restaurant before dining there, to explore a neighborhood before moving there and to find landmarks along the route of your driving directions.

Three years later, we’re happy to announce that you can now explore Street View imagery on all seven continents, with the addition today of Brazil, Ireland and Antarctica. You can now see images from around the world spanning from the beaches of Brazil, to the moors of Ireland, to the icy terrain in Antarctica.

We often consider Street View to be the last zoom layer on the map, and a way to show you what a place looks like as if you were there in person—whether you’re checking out a coffee shop across town or planning a vacation across the globe. We hope this new imagery will help people in Ireland, Brazil, and even the penguins of Antarctica to navigate nearby, as well as enable people around the world to learn more about these areas.

For example, as summer winds down here in Mountain View, Calif., the famous beaches of Copacabana, Brazil are an enticing virtual travel destination.

The Ring of Kerry in Ireland, with its picturesque rolling landscape, is another favorite new place in Street View.

Speaking of travel, my wife BethEllyn and I embarked on the Minerva for an expedition to Antarctica in late January. We enjoyed stunning vistas, and I found that any minute not spent on deck was a spectacular view missed. Fortunately, we’d planned to take some Street View photos, and are now able to share with you the incredible visuals from Half Moon Island, Antarctica.

Here is a group of Chinstrap penguins we saw on the island.

And this is one of my favorite views. You can see part of the crescent shape that gives the island its name.

I’m very proud of the worldwide Street View team and thrilled that everyone can now see places from all seven continents, including the amazing landscapes and natural beauty I saw in Antarctica, through the street-level images in Google Maps and Google Earth. To see more highlights from Street View around the world, visit the Street View gallery and start exploring!

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps

If you can make it there...you can see us at booth 325

We'll be at SMX East in New York City from October 4-6, 2010. Our booth (number 325!) will include representatives from Google AdWords, AdSense and Analytics, Mobile Ads, TV, YouTube and Webmaster Tools.

In addition, we have speakers in 9 sessions or workshops, including:

• Othar Hannson, Senior Staff Software Engineer, on "Google Instant’s Impact On SEO & User Behavior"
• Jeremy Hylton, Software Engineer, on the panel "The Real Time & Social Search Landscape"
• Jesse Haines, Group Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads, on the panel "Mobile Search Ads"
• Baris Gultekin, Group Product Manager, Google AdWords, on "Google's Keyword Research Tools"

Be sure to enter the discount code smx10google to save 10% on the cost of your event pass.

Posted by Amanda Matuk, Events Team

Halloween Inspired!

Halloween is always so fun around here at MasterPiece Weddings! Its great to feel inpired by a fun and silly tradition of witches and goblins.



What do you think of Lizzie's inpired Halloween Board?

Dresses, Invitation, Table Decor, Pumpkin, Drinks, Cookies

Veni, Vidi, Verba Verti

Update on 10/1/2010: Confused? Learn more on the Google Translate Blog.

Ut munimenta linguarum convellamus et scientiam mundi patentem utilemque faciamus, instrumenta convertendi multarum nationum linguas creavimus. Hodie nuntiamus primum instrumentum convertendi linguam qua nulli nativi nunc utuntur: Latinam. Cum pauci cotidie Latine loquantur, quotannis amplius centum milia discipuli Americani Domesticam Latinam Probationem suscipiunt. Praeterea plures ex omnibus mundi populis Latinae student.

Hoc instrumentum convertendi Latinam rare usurum ut convertat nuntios electronicos vel epigrammata effigierum YouTubis intellegamus. Multi autem vetusti libri de philosophia, de physicis et de mathematica lingua Latina scripti sunt. Libri enim vero multi milia in Libris Googlis sunt qui praeclaros locos Latinos habent.

Convertere instrumentis computatoriis ex Latina difficile est et intellegamus grammatica nostra non sine culpa esse. Autem Latina singularis est quia plurimi libri lingua Latina iampridem scripti erant et pauci novi posthac erunt. Multi in alias linguas conversi sunt et his conversis utamur ut nostra instrumenta convertendi edoceamus. Cum hoc instrumentum facile convertat libros similes his ex quibus edidicit, nostra virtus convertendi libros celebratos (ut Commentarios de Bello Gallico Caesaris) iam bona est.

Proximo tempore locum Latinum invenies vel auxilio tibi opus eris cum litteris Latinis, conare hunc.

Jakob Uszkoreit, Ingeniarius Programmandi

Maky Soler (Galeria 1)

Fotos:
Revista H para Hombres

Otras fotos:

Maky Soler (Galeria 2)

Maky Soler (Galeria 3)

Yabba Dabba doodle!

As a young kid, I drew a lot of dinosaurs. My dad would bring home reams of dot matrix printer paper from work, which I'd take, fold into stapled booklets, and then fill with dinosaurs doing what dinosaurs did—eating, leaping about, facing off in epic combat on top of spewing volcanoes. What I didn't know was that dinosaurs were also quite handy. A brontosaurus tail made an excellent water slide, you could walk up a row of plates on a stegosaurus' back like a flight of stairs and the triceratops’ horns were actually cutting-edge can openers. For these paleontological insights into Stone Aged innovation, I have the Flintstones to thank.

The Flintstones may have lived in the prehistoric town of Bedrock, but their technology was on par with much of what we use today. Everyone drove human-powered vehicles (zero emissions!), composted scraps in a dinosaur under the kitchen sink, and even wore solar powered watches—that is, if you count sundials. In short, Bedrock was the modern city of the past... and I wanted to live in it! Unfortunately, that didn’t quite pan out, but to be able to pay tribute to one of my favorite childhood TV shows in the form of a Google doodle is easily the next best thing.


On the 50th anniversary of its first airing, we gladly salute “The Flintstones” for inspiring our imaginations and encouraging us to think outside of the box, even if it means taking a look back now and then. I hope you’ll join the rest of us here at Google in a little nostalgia to mark this fun occasion!

Oh, and if you know any saber-toothed tigers looking for an internship as a hole puncher, give me a buzz.

Posted by Mike Dutton, Google Doodler

Fly through your Instant search results with keyboard nav

Our aim with Google Instant is to make search faster and easier, and this week we’re rolling out two enhancements to take that a step further. First, we’ve introduced keyboard navigation to help you explore your Instant search results using just your keyboard, with no need for a mouse or touchpad. We’re also making Instant available within many of the search features in the left panel of the results page including Videos, News, Books, Blogs, Updates and Discussions.

Check out our quick video to learn how to use these new features:

Google Instant is already available in domains for seven countries and today we’re excited to announce that it’s rolling out in the domains for 12 new countries, for signed-in users in Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine. We’ll keep improving your search experience and make Instant available in more places internationally in the weeks ahead.

Posted by Jonathan Effrat, Product Manager

New for the Google Display Network: Show ads related to demographic categories

In March 2009, we announced a beta test of interest-based advertising, which included remarketing and interest category marketing, to help you reach people on the Google Display Network who are most likely to be interested in your products and services.

Early results show that interest-based advertising is helping deliver better ads and offers for your potential customers, more effective campaigns for you, and higher returns for website publishers. Remarketing was recently launched to everyone, and interest category marketing has continued to grow.

To help you better reach your customers, and to give users more control over which ads they see, we're adding some new categories that will enable you to show ads that relate to demographic categories, such as age and gender. This works exactly the same way as interest category marketing works today - Google associates categories with a particular browser by looking at the types of Google Display Network sites visited and compares that information with aggregated survey data on site visitation. For example, if someone frequently visits sites that have a majority of female visitors, we may associate her browser's cookie with the “female” demographic category. With this information, you can choose to show more ads that are relevant to women as she browses sites across the Google Display Network, exactly the same way you can currently show ads related to other categories like sports or gardening.

As with interest categories, users may view and edit demographic categories or permanently opt out of receiving interest-based ads entirely with the Ads Preferences Manager. Because the interests and inferred demographics associated with a particular browser are based on recently visited sites on the Google Display Network, and not on user data, these categories may change over time. As one of a number of companies offering ads based on inferred interests and demographics, we remain committed to providing users the highest level of control and transparency.

We're still beta testing interest category marketing (including the new demographic categories), but will be working to help more advertisers run campaigns over time.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Multicultural Spotlight: Reaching US Hispanics

Cristina is a person who interacts with media all day long. In the morning, she browses beauty sites before biking to work. Over lunch, she reads a Colombian newspaper to check in on the results of the presidential elections, and then texts her friend about dinner plans from her iPhone. She searches for restaurant recommendations, meets her friends at the restaurant, and finally goes home to watch her favorite telenovelas. Connected with technology and her culture, Cristina is a modern Latina, proud of being Hispanic and American at the same time.

Why should marketers care about Cristina, and others like her? Hispanics are the fastest growing US population, and their buying power is projected to reach $1.4T by 2013¹. Hispanics are also coming online extremely quickly: the total time Hispanics spent online grew by 6.9% in 2009², 3.9 times faster than the general market rate.

To connect with Hispanics like Cristina online, it’s important to understand a few key myths about the market.

Myth #1: I need to have a Spanish-language website in order to market to Hispanics.
While 22% of Hispanics speak only Spanish and another third prefer it, most US Hispanics are comfortable with English³ and feel that English sites are more comprehensive⁴. While a Spanish-language website can be an asset, it won’t make or break the success of your campaign so long as you think carefully about your message and present a compelling value proposition on your site.

Myth #2: The return on investment from Hispanic marketing isn’t big enough.
Hispanic advertising campaigns are often more cost-effective than main-market campaigns. Online CPCs and CPMs tend to be much cheaper due to low competition, and Hispanics are actually more likely than their general market counterparts to take action based on search and banner ads⁵. Moreover, over half of online Hispanics complete a purchase at least once a month⁶, so direct response marketers can engage as deeply as brand builders can.

Myth #3: My general market campaign covers the Hispanic market.
Hispanics may be comfortable with English content, but marketers are missing the opportunity to win Hispanics’ loyalty if they use their general market campaign as a catch-all. Hispanics value their identity, and 66% of US Hispanics appreciate being marketed to in a culturally relevant way⁷. A recent campaign by Ford demonstrated how bilingual marketing can improve sales: Ford’s marketing team doubled the incremental lift of their English creative when they rolled out dual-language, culturally relevant creative⁸ in a recent direct mail campaign.

Interested in learning more about Hispanics in the US? Email multicultural@google.com to stay in touch, and keep an eye out for fresh primary research in Q4 and Q1.

Posted by Meghan Sherlock, US Hispanic Specialist

[1] Selig Center for Economic Growth, Terry College of Business, The University of Georgia. "The Multicultural Economy 2008." January 2009.
[2] Comscore, April 2009. “U.S. Hispanic Internet Audience Growth Outpaces Total U.S. Online Population by 50 Percent.”
[3] Juan Tornoe. “Hispanic Marketing Is Not Spanish Marketing.” http://nglc.biz/2010/07/22/hispanic-marketing-is-not-spanish-marketing/. July 2010. http://advertising.aol.com/sites/default/files/webfm/research/HispanicCyberStudy-2010.pdf.
[4] AOL Hispanic Cyberstudy. 2010.
[5] “Search ads”: ARAnet Adfusion survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, provided by eMarketer, March 16 2009. “Banner ads”: eMarketer. “US Internet Users Likely to Read And Take Action After Viewing Banner Ads, by Race/Ethnicity.” June 2009.
[6] RTO Online, Hispanic Internet Usage Report, February 2009.
[7] Alvaro Cabrera, Executive Director of Integration at Diest, Inc. June 25, 2009. “10 Things You Should Know About US Hispanics.” http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2009/06/10-things-you-should-know-about-us-hispanics.html.
[8] Deliver Magazine. August 2010. “Talk, Don’t Translate.”

Transform your AdWords account and win cool prizes - sign up by October 3

There’s still time to sign up for the the AdWords Train & Gain challenge which kicks off October 4.

click for full size image

Once signed up, you’ll receive four weeks of free advice for improving your AdWords account. At the end of the four weeks, you’ll have learned lots of different ways to improve your account performance. If you complete all the steps and answer a short questionnaire to let us know what you learned, you could win an Android Phone. Or even a free consultation with an AdWords expert — in Sydney, Australia.

Check out the Train & Gain site for more details about the challenge, who’s eligible to compete and how we’re selecting winners. Full terms and conditions can be found here.

Sign up for AdWords Train & Gain now

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew

What does the future of display advertising look like?

This afternoon, we gave a keynote address at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Conference in New York, entitled “Display 2015: Smart and Sexy.”

As you know by now, we’re investing significantly to make display advertising better for users, advertisers and publishers. Display advertising really is at the heart of what we’re doing at Google these days. 99 percent of our top 1,000 clients are now running campaigns on the Google Display Network. And last year, they increased their spending on display advertising by over 75 percent.

Today, we explained why we think display advertising is about to go through the biggest and most important revolution in its history. We made seven predictions about where display advertising will be in 2015:

• 50 percent of ad campaigns will include video ads bought on a cost-per-view basis (that means that the user will choose whether to watch the ad or not, and the advertiser will only pay if the user watches). That’s up from very little today.
• Today, advertisers are starting to deliver ads that are tailored to particular audiences. Many are using real-time bidding technology, so that they can bid on the ad space that they think is most valuable. In 2015, 50 percent of these ads will be bought using this real-time technology.
• With smartphone growth skyrocketing, mobile is going be the number one screen through which users engage with advertisers’ digital brands.
• Today, the “click” is the most important way that advertisers measure their display ad campaigns, but it’s not always the best measure—especially if an ad campaign is designed to boost things like brand awareness or recall. With new measurement technologies emerging, in five years, there will be five metrics that advertisers commonly regard as more important than the click.
• Just like most news articles on the web today can be commented on, shared, discussed, subscribed to and recommended, in 2015, 75 percent of ads on the web will be “social” in nature—across dozens of formats, sites and social communities.
• Rich media formats work. They enable great creativity and interaction between users and advertisers, but today they only represent about 6 percent of total display ad impressions. That will increase to 50 percent, for brand-building ad campaigns.
• All the investments that are making display advertising smarter and sexier will help publishers increase their revenues. Display advertising is going to grow to a $50 billion industry in five years.

We also wanted to visualize the face of the display advertising revolution, so we demonstrated four exciting new technologies:

• We demonstrated some new video ad formats we’ve been testing on YouTube that we’re calling “TrueView.” These will roll out later this year. These ad formats give people the option to skip an ad if they don’t want to watch, or to choose from multiple ads the one they want to watch. Importantly, advertisers only pay if the user chooses to watch their ad.
• We showed some of the things that are becoming possible with our new Teracent technology. This technology can dynamically alter the creative elements of an ad in real-time to make it more relevant and effective, depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website and the time of day.
• You might be familiar with Google Goggles, a way to search the web on mobile devices just by taking a picture. We gave a preview of some experimental uses of Google Goggles that could one day enable advertisers to deliver great display ads to users. Imagine pointing your phone’s camera at an ad for a car in a magazine, and having the car appear in 3D in your mobile device. Or pointing at a movie poster and having the movie trailer play in the device, right in your hand. No QR codes, no downloads!
• We even showed a fun example of what rich media can do—our speech was broadcast live in a number of expandable ad units across the web, and was updated with tweets in real time.

We think that display advertising has a pretty exciting future and we’ll continue our work to make it even better. Thanks to everyone who came along to watch in New York, or who tuned in online. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, our speech will be available here later today.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management and Barry Salzman, Managing Director of Media & Platforms - Americas

Play Nice in the Creative Sandbox

Software development often occurs inside a sandbox, defined as a confined virtual environment in which one or several developers can freely and safely experiment with untested code and new technologies. Just like children making castles inside a playground sandbox, software developers are able to build, tear down, and start all over again, without worrying about harming existing stable tools and platforms.

Many of the teams at Google have applied the sandbox mentality to advertising experimentation, encouraging agencies, marketers, and ourselves to think beyond what's expected. While this can sometimes be a daunting task, we've found that regularly communicating new technologies and platforms to our partners, with the goal of inviting experimentation, can produce wondrous results. We've just released a video version of Creative Canvas, our annual compilation of the best, most innovative awesomeness in marketing. The video celebrates exciting work created by a broad spectrum of agencies and clients, utilizing the YouTube API, Google Maps, Google Moderator, and much more. Many of these campaigns are the result of a fervent and enduring commitment to experimentation and risk-taking.

You can't build a castle if you're not willing to roll up your sleeves. So get in there, just play nice.

Posted by Janine Gianfredi, Agency Marketing Manager

Updated Keyword Tool: Out of Beta

In early August, we announced that the updated Keyword Tool was nearing the end of its beta phase. Today, we wanted to let you know that we’ve fully launched the updated Keyword Tool.

What does that mean for you? It means we’ve combined the best features from two previous keyword tools into one. The previous Keyword Tool and Search-based Keyword Tool are no longer available in AdWords. The updated Keyword Tool is now the only Keyword Tool available in AdWords, so you can now simply call it “The Keyword Tool.”

The Keyword Tool’s benefits include:

• Flexible search options: Search by any combination of keyword, website/URL, and category (where available) and receive a single set of results.
• Easy Keyword Refinement: Filter results by word or keyword match type.
• Negative keywords: Easily add keyword ideas as negatives right from your keyword list. Just click on a keyword and use the drop-down menu to select and save your negative keyword.
• Advanced options: View statistics for mobile search and use data filters based on local searches, search and ad share, and more.

In addition to these improvements, we’ve also changed how we calculate Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches. Statistics in these columns are now based on Google.com search traffic only. Previously, they also included traffic from search partners. We've updated these statistics based on advertiser feedback, and hope you find them more helpful for keyword selection.

While we recommend using the Keyword Tool while signed in to AdWords, you can also access the tool without signing in. We hope you like the new streamlined version of the tool and we look forward to bringing you more features soon.

Posted by Alexandra Kenin, Product Marketing Manager

Beatboxing flute — Video

The Girl who Cries Blood

Photo by BARCROFT MEDIA

This is the girl who has baffled top doctors because she spontaneously BLEEDS from her pores up to 50 TIMES a day.Twinkle Dwivedi, 14, has strange disorder which means she loses blood through her skin without being cut or scratched. Terrified Twinkle has even undergone transfusions after pints of it seeped through her eyes, nose, hairline, neck and soles of her feet. More images and video after the break...

Photo by BARCROFT MEDIA 

Spontaneously

Dr George Buchanan, a leading haematologist who has worked in Britain, travelled to India to look into the startling case. The teenager from Lucknar, Uttar Pradesh, has been suffering the frightening episodes up to 50 times a day for the last three years. She said: "I bleed from my eyes, my hands, my head, from everywhere. From my ears, nose and eyes as well. "It doesn't hurt when the bleeding starts. But it makes me tired and sometimes I have headaches." Dr Buchanan, an American paediatric blood specialist, visited Twinkle's family at the Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai where he observed her bleeding.

 Photo - Link

He said: "I've never seen a case of someone who bleeds spontaneously from their scalp or their palms, or read about it in medical history.

"I was interested to see if I could help Twinkle."

The doctor was called to the family's hotel room to witness bleeding which began from her hair parting.

He was shocked to find no signs of cuts, bruising or redness.

Dr Buchanan said: "It doesn't seem physically possible for blood to seep through intact skin.

"But I saw no signs of cuts or bruising anywhere on her body."

Dr Buchanan and his team carried out a series of tests including cutting Twinkle's skin to time how quickly the bleeding stops.

Tests show she may have a mild form of a clotting disorder, which means her platelets do not stick together properly. But this is not enough to explain the spontaneous bleeding.

Dr Buchanan is also investigating whether Twinkle or her mum cause the bleeding themselves.

Twinkle, a Hindu, said: "I am not causing this. Why would I want to make myself bleed?

 Photo - Link

"I don't want to be like this. I want to go to school and have a normal life."

The unlucky girl has missed at least two years of education after two schools banned her from classes because of the bleeding.

The mysterious case of Twinkle's bleeding is fully examined in a new BodyShock documentary next week.

It also shows Twinkle's family visiting a local mystic, being examined by a Christian bishop for stigmata, and bathing in the River Ganges.

The Girl Who Cries Blood is on Tuesday night at 10pm on Channel 4. 

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Shruti Hassan at Lakme Fashion Week

Actress Shruti Haasan, daughter of actor Kamal Haasan, scorched the ramp of Lakme Fashion Week Winter Festive September 2010 for a popular designer in an outfit from his tarot collection. Shruti Hassan was dressed in a blue-toned silk sari with a dazzling border and long sleeved black net choli. Check out 12 more images after the break...

Who's there on the Bridge

Who's there on the bridge ? Find the answer after the break...

Here is the perfect example of how a moonlight stroll can go horribly wrong.Two young goats that wandered onto the thin ledge of a 60ft railway bridge had to be rescued by a crane after two days high above a remote highway.The poor animals' plight was only discovered when a passing motorist contacted a local charity and alerted them to the situation.Rimrock Humane Society called the police, who then enlisted the help of a local coal mine to bring in a crane and pluck the animals to safety near Roundup, southern Montana.

The young female animals, weighing about 30lb each, mostly stayed on the angled ledge - even though there was a wider surface area on a pillar just a few feet away. Rimrock Humane Society president Sandy Church said: 'The whole time, we thought they were going to fall off. These guys are just babies.' Ms Church said it wasn't clear how the nimble-footed animals got into the predicament, but she speculated they wandered onto the ledge at night and then froze after the sun rose and they discovered where they were. She said that the goats sometimes stepped to the pillar but returned to the narrower ledge, where they tried to rest their tired legs by tucking them under their bodies for a few seconds at a time.

Authorities were called on Tuesday, when the goats were first spotted. But confusion about the location delayed the rescue until another caller alerted the humane society yesterday. The sheriff's office, Ms Church and Cory Freeman, a humane society volunteer who runs the Animal Edventures Sanctuary, enlisted the help of officials at Signal Peak Energy, which operates a nearby coal mine. Mine boss John DeMichiei volunteered a mining crane with an arm high enough to reach the stranded goats that eventually moved to the pillar. Both animals were thirsty and tired but have recovered well after their ordeal - and are undoubtedly giving late-night walks a miss for the time being.

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Top 10 Cities in China with the Most Beautiful Women

This post features the top ten cities in china where you can find the most beautiful women. Women’s beauty should not be intimidating, but beautiful women make men lose self-control. Beautiful women flaunting their intractable personality, is not passive but charm that can destroy men’s rationality. Often, when beautiful women formed into a group, they will intimidate men with great pressure. Take a look at the beautiful cities with beautiful girls of motherland.

1. Dalian
B0ld but graceful
Score: 95

Girls from northeast of China always have the reputation of being light skinned and tall. Dalian girls are undoubtedly the cream of the crop among girls in the northeast of China. Compare with women in southern China, Dalian girls might not be as graceful, but they are more bold and prideful; Compare with women in other northeast China and other inland cities, Dalian women added more elegance. For example actress Dong Jie is a typical representative of the girls in Dalian. More after the break...

2. Chongqing
Warm like fire
Score: 94

Maybe it’s because Chongqing is a city in the mountains, Chongqing girls are climbing the hills ever since they were young their long legs are therefore beautiful and sexy. Girls at Chongqing are full of personality, full of charm and warm hearted like fire. Recently red hot actresses Jiang Qinqin ( Yu Na) and Singer Chen Lin  are all products of Chongqing.

3. Chengdu
Pure as the eye solution
Score: 93

Chengdu girls have delicate and white skin and they do not seem to like the heavy make-up. Whether she is a working class, or a school girl, they are mostly light on the make-ups, but the natural beauty is truly amazing. Chengdu girls are like the city, vaguely reveals a faint, lazy, leisure scent. Their beauty is like a soft kitten. Maybe the only drawback of Chengdu girls is that they are not very tall. But it can also be a good thing if you appreciate the petite style. Therefore, if you want to have a romantic story, it is best to find a girlfriend in Chengdu. No wonder that foreign men in Chengdu all have the same sigh “Married too early”. In picture: Actress Xie Na.

4. Suzhou & Hangzhou
Pretty girl of humble birth
Score: 92

Suzhou is the most girly city in China. Some say more than half of the beauties of southern China are in Suzhou. They all have admirable pretty hands. Needless to say, Suzhou girls are most suitable to be kind, considerate and desirable lovers. Suzhou and Hangzhou are known to produce beauties, is indeed well-deserved reputation. In picture: Han Xue.

5. Changsha
Beauty of blandness
Score: 91

Changsha girls have both the body frame of northern China girl and the face of southern China girl. Famous actress Qu Ying and host Li Xiang are the representatives of Changsha. Qu Ying has been voted for “Changsha’s city flower”.

6. Nanjing
Delicate, free and natural
Score: 90

Being the ancient capital for six dynasties, Nanjing-born pretty girls naturally formed their Delicate and unconventional graceful beauty. Nanjing actress Mei Ting  gives the feeling of gentle and quiet. she is always  simply dressed, with simple languages but leaves a very deep impression.

7. Shanghai
Fashionable and exquisite
Score: 89

Almost all Shanghai women think they are the women of women. They love fashion, perfumes, cosmetics… just like they love their own bodies. Shanghai is a stylish city, destined to create a different temperament of beauties. Actress Betty Sun  is such a representative. With a pure and beautiful appearance, we are all attracted by her petite body with a pair of big beautiful eyes. Her extraordinary refined temperament is unforgettable.

8. Beijing
Aristocrat of the century
Score: 88

Ubiquitous opportunity for profound historical and cultural heritage, Beijing girls grew very fast, they are capable, smart, intelligent and savvy. They make themselves more beautiful through many ways. Grew up in Beijing, Xu Jinglei was an actress first then became a director. She not only showed people Beijing girls’ beauty also demonstrated their “aristocratic temperament”.

9. Hong Kong
Fashion Pioneers
Score: 87

Hong Kong has been leading the main stream fashion of China and East Asia. Despite Hong Kong girls maybe not be outstanding looking but their fashion sense is no match for the other cities. Michelle Reis and Maggie Cheung  are the representatives of the city.

10. Guangzhou
Soft inside and hard outside
Score: 86

Someone once said Guangzhou has no pretty girls, and it is hard to find real beauty that is actually from the city. However there are still a lot of beauties in Guangdong province. For example, Athena Chu and Chen Hui-Shan  are beauties of Guangdong province.

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