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Yesterday Google announced their release of Lively - "a 3D virtual experience that is the newest addition to Google Labs."

It seems this is Google's version of Second Life, but the rooms you build can have YouTube videos running on virtual TVs and photos scrolling in virtual picture frames.

It is Google's hope that Lively "will help people experience another dimension of the web." Lively should "help people express [themselves] with and without words, and do this in the places [they] already visit on the web.

Google apparently worked with Arizona State University to develop Lively.

Unfortunately to run Lively you have to have a Windows system.

Do they really use Windows at Googleplex?? I would think a 3D world would look a lot more impressive on a Mac.

Here is another great explanation of Lively.

A Video from the Official Google Channel on YouTube:

Last Wednesday I attended an Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association meeting entitled-- Search Marketing: Finding the Value Beyond the Online Click to Conversion. Moderating the talk was John Cattarulla Director, Strategic Accounts, Yahoo! The panelists included:

Ron Belanger
VP of Agency Development, Yahoo!

Roku Coryne
Senior Metrics Consultant, Google

Jason Fisher
Group Director, 360i

Ron Belanger from Yahoo! began by explaining that when employing search marketing we want to put products in the path of search behavior.

He did a great job of looking at Search in an nontraditional way. I was prepared to hear a little more about search engine optimization tips, but he talked more about using Search in a social media/public relations sort of way. I think this is a good indicator that the delineation of business, marketing, advertising and public relations is blurring more every day.

Belanger discussed the need for organizations providing its customers' support online. He calls this a post-purchase opportunity to maintain a relationship with the customer. When your customer has a question about your product they will likely turn to the Internet to research the answer. You want your organization to be first with the answer. What a great way to convey your organization's messages first and upfront.

He also discusses a case study from Hellmann's Mayonnaise. They partnered with Yahoo! and used search in a campaign to change the perception of mayo. They wanted to banish the bad rap of mayonnaise (particularly Hellmann's) and educate their public that mayo is in fact a "real food" with "real ingredients." When one searches "real food" in Yahoo! Hellmann's Yahoo Real Food Group appears at the top of the search results (paid and unpaid). It is a social network that allows users to trade recipes, discuss health topics, and view videos. I can't remember the exact numbers, but overall it was a very successful campaign.

Raku Coryne's presentation was very entertaining! She attributed many of her ideas to Avinash Kaushik, and likened bounce rate to scent. Scent in the way a bloodhound finds its prey. If a bounce rate is high it has no scent. It doesn't have the stickiness factor to retain visitors, and then you have a problem.

She also said Kaushik likes to compare Web analytics to Angelina Jolie. "Web Analytics is like Angelina Jolie: It’s sexy, it kicks butt, and is a goodwill ambassador!"

Coryne said that she liked to compare Web analytics to Oprah. She said bounce rate is like Oprah because it can tell a good story.

She also explained the importance of two numbers: 4 and 25.

4 words= average number of words in a search engine query
25% of search in Google each day have never been searched before

From this she explained Chris Anderson's Long Tail.

She also said Web analytics were useful in eliminating the HIPPO. The Highest Paid Person's Opinion. She said the HIPPO often makes decisions based on his/her opinion, and that Web analytics eliminated this. One cannot argue with the information and statistics gathered from Web analytics. If the HIPPO likes one landing page, but users liked the other (tracked with Web analytics) the right answer is obviously the landing page that actually worked.

I found it very useful to think about search in a creative way. You must have a general idea for how it works if you are using it in a campaign, but it has many applications other than just "being number one." I also like how Coryne presented metrics as non-intimidating. It really helps to know that the simplest metrics can be the most telling and actionable.

For more information and pictures, check out Dan Greenfield's post about the meeting. I came upon it after doing a search on the meeting's topic-- how appropriate.

How often do you use Google (the search engine and its products) during your day? For me, the number is pretty ridiculous.

Will Google execute its master plan and take over the world continue to dominate search forever? Reports liken search and Google to advertising and television. Before cable TV there were a couple major networks that dominated the advertising dollars. Then cable created niche networks and gave viewers more choices. Advertisers loved it because they could focus their campaigns and viewers loved it because they had a choice.

Not to say searchers don't currently have alternative search methods, but as search is expanded and refined I think the little guys can collectively chip away at Google's market share.

Speaking of refined, alternative search methods, here is a list of engines I'm keeping an eye on:

Results Displayed Visually

Quintura

This search engine allows you to visually refine your search. I like that you can narrow your search down then glance at the narrowed results, and then if you don't like what you see you can just move the mouse, and your original results reappear. In other words you don't have to navigate away from the results page to refine your search results.

Kartoo

Kartoo also allows your to visually refine your search, but it shows screen shots of the sites as you rollover a result. The results are visually displayed as a map that is linked together by the terms that refine them. Their mascot also "surfs the web" as your results are being generated.

Searchme

Searchme also displays your results visually, and allows you to refine by vertical search category (images, movies, web). The results are displayed in a "stack" and if you like the stack you can save it to peruse later.

Viewzi

Viewzi allows you to choose how to display your results. They have several views to choose from. The site information view provides a lot of useful site information about the site you query, but I'm not sure how accurate some of the data is. Nonetheless it is an interesting approach to search.

Niche Search Engines:

Truila-- Real Estate

Healthline-- Healthcare

Like.com-- Shopping

Globalspec-- For engineering, industrial and technical communities

Spock-- People Search

Blinkx-- Rich media search engine. From their website, "Unlike other multimedia search engines that attempt to re-purpose technology built for the Text Web, blinkx uses a unique combination of patented conceptual search, speech recognition and video analysis software to efficiently, automatically and accurately find and qualify online video. Today, blinkx is the world’s largest single index of rich media content on the Web, delivering more content from a broader range of sources than either Google or Yahoo!"

Community Search/Human Edited-Search:

Del.ici.ous

The idea is for you to search other people's bookmarks. You are basically searching others' favorite results of the query.

Squidoo

Members create a "lens" about something they are an expert on. You can search the database for entries that match your query.

Wikipedia

Anyone can add, edit, or contribute to the encyclopedia's entries.

Sproose

From their website, "How Sproose works...Machine Calculated Results => Sproose Users Vote Websites => User Improved Results"

Mahalo

Mahalo actually builds search results pages themselves. From their website, "Search results built internally by our full time staff are checked by other Full Time Guides and our editors. We also have a place on every page where you, the public, can report problems or errors with our pages. Our Guides then check these errors and correct them. Additionally, we have a dead link checker which helps us remove links that are no longer functioning and a full time team watching the news to make sure that every hot search term or news item is updated quickly."

ChaCha

I personally use this service a lot. There are a couple of ways to use it.

• Dial 1-800-ChaCha
• Ask a question after the beep
• Receive a text message with the answer. (It is human-powered, so someone is actually looking up the answer for you)

• Go to ChaCha.com
• Type your question in their graphic mobile phone
• Add your phone number
• They will text you the answer (again, human powered)

I don't have an iphone so I love using this service. I'm sure they will have to think of ways to adapt as more and more people have their internet on their cell phones, but I think it is a very useful service while I have my simple cell phone.

All of my friends previously called Auburn's Foy Student Center where they will answer any question you may have, any question. But I think ChaCha is a great alternative to bothering the folks at Auburn.

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I don't think there will be any new search engine (any time soon) that could really threaten Google, but collectively I think there is a chance to take away some of Google's dominance. On the other hand, if any search engine begins to pull away from the pack they may just get Google-gobbled up. Obviously Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion, but they also have acquired smaller search engine types.

Google bought Israeli Search Engine Orion.

Google bought Kaltix, a three-month-old, three-man Stanford startup that's working on personalized and context-sensitive search.

Google acquired a key player in face and image recognition biometrics, Neven Vision.

With a background (this word is a bit of an overstatement because I haven't even graduated yet) in public relations I tend to see the world through a communicator's lens. Since this is my first blog post I am stating my "background" as a sort of disclaimer.

I monitor a lot of interactive communications bogs. Recently, Karen Russell, a PR professor at the University of Georgia used her "Teaching PR" blog to ask professionals what they wish their new employees knew.

This was obviously very interesting to me because I just started my job here at Plexus. At Plexus, my job isn't solely public relations related, but the skills are definitely a part of my day to day. Here are a few of the responses to Dr. Russell's question that I found interesting. Even if you didn't just start your job, these can serve as a motivating reminder. What do you think Plexus? Are these things you wish new employees inherently knew?

Todd Defren from SHIFT Communications says:

I wish my new employee knew that the beginning part of a career is usually a slog. It’s not all Social Media fun & games, sorry. To be effective & accountable strategists, we need databases, research, detailed reports. That’s how everybody starts out, even the rockstars.

I wish my new employee knew that “eagerness is everything.” If you’re eager; if you’re leaning forward; motivated, I’ll lie on the train tracks for you. If you’ve got a dark cloud over your head, its shadow casts a pall over the entire office. That includes my office.

Office Politics 101 from Colin McKay:

Acronyms are not your friend. Not when you don’t understand them, and not when you throw them around trying to look intelligent.

Read up on learning styles. The way a person collects, interprets and processes information affects how they behave in a conversation with you, how they interact with others in meetings, and how quickly and violently they will try to shoot down and bury your cool new idea.

Most PR people don’t write well. This includes old flacks who’ve been around since Adam announced his snappy new fig leaf attire. If you can explain complicated situations or argue positions in writing, you’ll leapfrog ahead of your peers. Really. Make this a priority.

5 Things all PR Students Should Know About Their Career Choice from Steven Silvers

You don’t have exclusive access to this line of work. There are a lot of people who come to the field from journalism, law, marketing, psychology, business, catering, investor relations, event management, human resources, finance, administration, politics or on the advice of their parole officer. Your degree is worth only what your applied skills and intuitiveness make out of it.

Grunt work and details get you promoted. It’s nice that many PR students study the Tylenol crisis. But most of you will have less dramatic introductions to the profession. You’ll spend your day doing routine research, stuffing envelopes, proof-reading someone else’s material and taking notes at meetings. The sooner you prove that you don’t make mistakes or let things fall through the cracks, the sooner you’ll get thrown into the more interesting deep end. Invest your time in getting good, because most of your peers won't.