No More Adsense Referrals :( Google Now Searches Flash :)

Today had some bad news and good news for Google users. First lets start with the bad, Google announced that the AdSense Referral program will be retired at the end of August. For those of you who don't know about this program, it adds a referral button (for a particular product) to a publisher's website, and when someone clicks on this button and connects to the product, the publisher earns money. Google noted during the release today that the Google Affiliate Network, which is basically the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Network, will replace the AdSense referral program. For any users that are running AdSense referral ads, they will run until the last week in August and any code on the respective website(s) should be removed before then. Google would not say why the program is scrapped, but chances are it wasn't a big cash earner.

Now for the good news. Google has developed a new algorithm for searching Flash files that contain text. To get an idea of how popular Flash is, approximately 98% of internet connected computers have Flash Player installed. The type of Flash files searchable include menus, buttons, websites, and banners. This is good news for web designers of Flash sites, since now they will be more easily seen by those search engine crawlers resulting in much better search results and more advertising money.

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day to all of you Canadians out there!! The things that I love about being Canadian are:

• Free health care
• Hockey, hockey, and more hockey
• CFL football
• Canadian bacon
• Canadian hard rock bands such as Alexisonfire, Sum 41, and Billy Talent
• Tim Hortons coffee
  
• Our laid back/relaxed take on life
  
• Maple syrup
• Polar Bears
• Moose (to watch, not eat)
• William Shatner
• Toronto Blues Jays (the baseball team)

These are just a few of the things that I love about Canada, there are many many more. I'm a proud Canadian eh!!

Google + Family Guy = This Doesn't Sound Right!!

It looks like Google is travelling down yet another avenue, this time web-only TV. It was announced today that Google and Seth MacFarlane, who is the creator of the extremely funny show Family Guy, reached an agreement to distribute web-only episodes of the series "Seth MacFarlanes Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy" which is being described as a "New York Cartoon but edgier." To promote the show, the service Google Content Network will be used, it's the first that I've heard of this service and is probably the same for a lot of you readers. The promotion works by using AdSense video clips of Calvalcade promos and then embedding them on web sites that Family Guy fans, who are typically males under 30 (I still fall in this group, yessss!), typically visit.

This deal is definitely going to make Google and MacFarlane a load of money. The average viewer is spending more and more time in front of the computer and less watching the TV (I just reduced my digital cable to basic), so it makes more sense to start airing web-only episodes and to have advertising with these. Hopefully the content will be as good as concept.

Google Roundup for June 21st - 28th

Since there is so much happening in the world of Google, I decided to start a summary called Google Roundup which mentions important Google news/products not mentioned in my blog. I'll usually post it sometime during the weekend.

• If your a NFL or MLB fan or just a fan of Google Earth, you should check out the website called EarthSwoop, which has 3D models of their respective stadiums. So far it is only for Windows, but by August other operating systems and browsers will be supported any anyone can contribute their own collection, the Argentine bridges is very cool.
• AdSense is hot in terms of online advertising, this week the 50,000 th person signed up to the English version of the AdSense help group. I'm one of them.
• Google loves mobile technology (check out the Android project), so much that they created the Google Mobile Community. This is a general discussion group where basically anything about mobile phones is discussed.
• Google also launched a site dedicated to the world of mobility; google.com/mobile. Once you find your phone type (I have a Motorola), free products can be easily accessed.
• If your a logged in user of Youtube, the personalized homepage that was only accessible to a small number of users is now accessible to all logged in users. I tried it out, the layout is OK, but the customizability is excellent.

Thats it for this week, check out the rest of my blog for more news/reviews.

Watching My Computer on the TV

There is a new gadget for Google Desktop called the Google Media Server. This is a Windows application and obviously requires Google Desktop which can search your computer for media files (audio, photos and video). The receiving end of this technology must be a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) device such as a PS3. So far this gadget has been given mixed reviews, with complaints about it not working with the XBox 360 and software problems.

IPhone Canada Pricing from Rogers

Here is a summary of the iPhone pricing from Rogers:

• 400 MB data, 150 min, unlimited weekends and evenings, $60/month
• 750 MB data, 300 min, unlimited weekends and evenings, $70/month
• 1 GB data, 600 min, unlimited weekends and evenings, $100/month
• 2 GB data, 800 min, unlimited weekends and evenings, $115/month

The prices seem reasonable, but my high student loan debt ($440/month in payments) combined with an ever rising price of oil (it hit $142 today) won't let me buy one for a very long time. For more information on Rogers iPhone Canada pricing check out this article.

My Five Favorite Things to do With Google Earth

Like a lot of people, I love using Google Earth , my five favorite things to do with Google Earth (free edition) are:

1. Calculate distances for potential bicycle rides using the ruler (Tools Menu) function, also examine elevation changes.
   
2. Looking at animations such as those released at Popular Science.
3. Using the flight simulator (Ctrl+Alt+A)
   
4. Exploring space with Sky (planet shape icon underneath menu), my favorite feature is planet animations.
   
5. Random exploring of the high resolution areas of the planet, especially those with streetview and with lots of topographic relief. I spend a lot of time circling the globe and looking at GigaPan images.
   

Google Earth is an excellent product, I can literally spend hours exploring my city or solar system and I am constantly discovering new features of this program. Go Explore!!!

GigaPan Image of the Golden Gate Bridge