Browsing: Google

Opinion
Pop-ups, personalisation and privacy: is ad blocking software a blessing or a curse?
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Back in the early days of the internet, pop-up ads started, well, popping up. Originally, they were seen as a way for advertisers to fight against the early stages of banner blindness and get in front of users without being directly attached to the content of a website. But readers found them intrusive and annoying and, eventually, technology was developed to block them. And it’s happening again as Ad Blocking software grows in popularity. So are the supposed evils of online advertising worthy of drastic action? Or is it another unfair stake in the heart of publishers already dealing with a digitally-inspired existential crisis?

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Larry Page hasn’t lost his sense of humour
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Since Google was first launched, Larry Page has shown his inner prankster through quirky doodles, elaborate April Fools’ jokes and a slew of Easter Eggs. And, despite the seriousness of his latest message on the launch of Alphabet, it still came with a sneaky touch of Google’s humour.

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Won in translation
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Belting out La Bamba is practically a rite of passage in this country. But what does it all mean? Thankfully Google is here to help non Spanish speakers.

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Beans & ‘shaghetti’ – Wattie’s turns R-rated
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Providing Kiwi families with everything from baby food to its classic tomato sauce, Wattie’s has a place in the heart of many New Zealand families. However, with its latest Google ad, it appears that Wattie’s has slightly changed its marketing strategy and is prepared to launch a new R-rated product.

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Google’s faux pas blocker
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Google has unveiled an ‘undo send’ browser extension that users can activate to give them ability to delete a recently sent email within five, ten, 15 or 30 seconds of sending it. To initiate this godsend, users simply need to click on the cog icon, head to settings and then activate the option.

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Google puts the spotlight on transgenderism
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Given the recent media focus on the transgender community, Google has shown its support through a moving ad that provides a glimpse into the life of Jacob, a transgender man who finds a gym where he can safely exercise without the fear of being ostracised (or worse). The spot tracks Jacob’s journey through a series of archived YouTube clips and shows how hard the transition has been both physically and emotionally.

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Reach vs. revenue, smiles vs. sadness: a look at the latest newspaper numbers
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Last week, after a few months of subscribing to the print version of The Herald, my wife decided to cancel it (despite my initial reservations given we have access to the internet, I actually quite enjoyed getting the paper version). With the circulation declines in recent years, this certainly wouldn’t have been an unusual conversation for those in the subscriptions department, but she said they sounded quite sad when she told them the news. And while there are a few areas of positivity in the latest readership numbers, putting a smiling man on the first page of the Nielsen readership report might have been overly optimistic.

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Google Consumer Barometer shows Kiwi habits in the evolving online and smartphone market
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It’s no secret that smartphone usage has proliferated rapidly over the course of the last few years. The rectangular glow of these devices provides ambient lighting for virtually every stretch of our nation. And while the ubiquity of these devices is evidenced by their presence in the pockets of Kiwis of all ages, this anecdotal observation doesn’t provide enough accuracy to drive media decisions. This week, Google released its Consumer Barometer report, which provides a breakdown of the media consumption habits of people across the world. And contained within this report was a section dedicated specifically to the Kiwi market.

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Google: the untold story
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ClickHole is, as Slate attests, the best thing on the internet. And while there have been many stories written about Google, its amazing offices and its innovation-centric culture, none of them have been as good as this journey to Mountainview, where we get thrust into the beating heart of Silicon Valley.

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The digital hunt for Nessie
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Google is always looking for creative and enticing ways to get people using its services, and its latest initiative is to give amateur paranormal investigators the power of Google Maps to search for the Loch Ness monster from the comfort of their homes.

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Brands unleash April Fools’ Day trickery—UPDATED
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Every year, brands tend to jump on special occasions with the enthusiasm of a cat attacking a red dot on a kitchen floor. And without fail this sees consumers inundated with promotional material related to Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day and pretty much any other day that has even slight significance to someone. So, in what has come to be an annual tradition, here’s a rundown of how various brands—including Google, Campbell Live, GrabOne and BMW—attempted to trick gullible consumers this year.

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Clicks and mortar
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E-commerce brands like Airbnb and Net-a-Porter are launching magazines. Media companies are opening cafes. And now Google has opened its first bricks and mortar retail store in the UK to compete with its High St rival, Apple.

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Android’s unlikely friends
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2014 was Android’s biggest ever year, with one billion handsets shipped around the world (Apple shipped 193 million and made more on app purchases). It has a big focus on growing that number and getting its phones into developing markets. So, it’s done the logical thing and embraced the power of animals in advertising as part of its ‘Be together. Not the same’ campaign.

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Out with the old and in with the new
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Two weeks ago, Google announced it would stop selling its Google Glass Explorer, which went off the market on January 19. And this news coincided with an announcement from Microsoft on the release of a prototype of Hololens, a PC headset that runs on Windows 10.

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The top ten ads on YouTube in 2014, according to Kiwis
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Google has released the leaderboard of the ten ads that were the most popular among Kiwi viewers over the course of 2014. And this list, which is determined through an algorithm that factors in paid views, organic views and view rate (how much of a video people chose to watch), provides an interesting glimpse at some of the key viewing trends in the online space over the past year.

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Facebook and YouTube give a rundown of everything that went viral in 2014
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Facebook and YouTube have released respective top ten lists of topics and content that proved most popular over the course of 2014. And to accompany the publication of these summaries of virality, the new media juggernauts have also launched a pair of retrospective videos that give viewers a glimpse at what got the masses clicking over the course of the last year.

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Clicking for Hobbits
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​​Google’s Chrome experiments are generally cause for nerdish celebration as they push the browser to strange and creative places. And now, as The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies gets sets for launch, it’s updated the interactive map of Middle-Earth it launched around one year ago with a host of new tricks.

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.99 and LBC turn doing nothing into doing good with search for a cure
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Earlier this year, Pedigree and Colenso BBDO tried to monetise slacktivism with Share for Dogs, a campaign that, as the name implies, asked people to watch videos of cute dogs and send them on so that a portion of the profit generated from the pre-roll advertising on each video could be shared with the charity. Now, extending a test campaign it ran last year, .99 and the Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand have also created a way for Kiwis to help by doing, rather than paying.

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