avin narasimhan

often rambling, but hopefully always interesting

Posts tagged google

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Video: What Is Google+ And Do I Need It?

Two months without a single post, so why not get back in with something nice and easy. Right? Right. Besides, I guess I have a good excuse- got married, went on an amazing honeymoon, and have spent most of my time since then trying to figure out what it is I do again.

Anyway, I figure many people are having similar internal debates abt Google+ now though I doubt it’s as entertaining. Good break for your afternoon.

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Filed under collegehumor google googleplus innovation socialweb whatsnext

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iPhone Fan vs PhoneMart Employee

Another hilarious production made possible by xtranormal. This is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while, and absolutely worth reposting. As much as I fall into Apple fanboy mentality sometimes, stuff like this is a good reminder to shake you back to reality of how annoying it can be to those who don’t buy into the madness (for more on that, see The Onion’s brilliant ‘Apple Friend Bar’).

And, the fact that this scenario probably isn’t too far from the truth in many situations is an amazing reminder of just how much people buy into this brand.

For better or worse.

Enjoy.

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Filed under android apple branding brands collegehumor google htc immaturity iphone mobile parody wtf? xtranormal

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Google Celebrates Father’s Day Without Being Cheesy

The latest in the generally great Search Stories series from Google. And another great example of the enduring power of film in creating and sharing stories. While I’m not a father and perhaps can’t relate exactly to the tension and emotion being conveyed, think it’d be hard not to feel something from this no matter who you are.

Well done, yet again.

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Filed under cocreation creativity film google innovation searchstories storytelling whatsnext

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Google Upgrades To A Decision Engine. Your Move, Bing

By now you may have seen that Google has begun rolling out a slew of new features and additions to it’s search functionality worldwide. Though they may have been in the works for a bit, timing wise it seems like a direct response to some of Bing’s claims of superiority. Personally I was never blown away by Bing to begin with, but given Google’s track record of innovation, I would expect this to be just the first in a string of updates.

Very curious to see how msoft responds (and what the response to the response will be).

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Filed under bing constantbeta decisionengine google googlelabs innovation microsoft mobile search technology whatsnext

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Google and the art of story telling

Not surprisingly, reaction to Google’s decision to air a spot during the superbowl have been polarized. My own initial reaction was mixed, and while I had seen the spot before and liked it, I immediately questioned the decision. While some estimates show the spot gained about 600K views overnight as a result, I really wondered why Google had broken from it’s past philosophy on TV advertising, and what exactly they thought they would really gain from this when they absolutely dominate the market for search.


(In case somehow you missed it before, during, or after the Superbowl, here it is for your viewing pleasure)

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But what got me to think about it a bit more closely was this justification of sorts last night from Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt:
If you watched the Super Bowl this evening you’ll have seen a video from Google called “Parisian Love”. In fact you might have watched it before, because it’s been on YouTube for over three months. We didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.

If you like it too, we hope you’ll watch the others. Enjoy.

While the more cynical may suggest (and perhaps rightly) that this may be an attempt to post-rationalize jumping on a media bandwagon, it put things into a different light for me. The spot itself was less about making a splash in this environment, and more just an attempt to share how search (and, obviously, Google) have become such an integral part of our lives that what really matters now is the story of search and not search itself. And to me, even though Google was front and center, the functional part of search moved to the background and the experience search enabled is what really mattered (take that, bing!). Whether you saw it before or during the superbowl, the idea was the same as were the company’s intentions. The fact that it wasn’t created specifically for the spectacle, in and of itself, raises the credibility of that logic somewhat in my eyes. This was about sharing a story with Google at the center, and not about getting the small percentage of people not yet using Google to join the party.

Airing it during the Superbowl ultimately still may not do a lot in the grand scheme (and I still wouldn’t recommend running a spot during the superbowl to any client of mine), but with an understanding of their intentions I sort of start to get why they did it. And, I’m clearly not alone in having appreciated the beauty of the story they wove.

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Filed under adagencydeathwatch branding brands community culture google sbads storytelling superbowl superbowlspots