TV Networks unite to Stand up for cancer

Stand up for cancer search get wide-spread public attention, and showed up on the 12^th top line of the searched for July 30, 2008.

Stand Up To Cancer is really unique collaboration between the three major broadcast networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC) to simultaneously broadcast a fundraising telethon for cancer research on September 5.

"Stand Up To Cancer is an unprecedented collaboration uniting the major television networks, entertainment industry executives and celebrities, and prominent leaders in cancer research and patient advocacy in a major new initiative to move groundbreaking cancer research out of the lab and into the clinic," wrote the AACR in a statement on its website.

Since May 28, the campaign is attracting public attention, and on July 29 the organization finally revealed its current star studded lineup. The performers list includes Casey Affleck, Danica Patrick, Jennifer Aniston, Fran Drescher, Sallie Field, Christina Ricci, Lance Armstrong, Kirsten Dunst, Brian Williams, Elizabeth Edwards, Salma Hayek, Scarlett Johansson, American Idol David Cook, Meryl Streep, and other celebrities.

Interesting is that Fox that was also invited to participate in the telethon declined. It called the telethon worthy but said it was focusing on "the global outreach of ’Idol Gives Back,’" its charity effort tied to its hit singing contest "American Idol."

Additional Reading:

http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/2008/07/stand-up-to-cancer-telethon-set-for.html

http://kdka.com/health/Stand.Up.Cancer.2.783538.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/917553/stand_up_to_cancer_unites_television.html

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117989719.html?categoryId=3192&cs=1

What to do during and after an earthquake

Yesterday, July 29, 2008, all the leading searches were related to the recent earthquake in the Southern California. Being far north, I learned about from the phone call from my worrying friend, who was calling from Europe.

At 11:42 am on Tuesday, July 29, 2008, the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area experienced its largest earthquake in years as a magnitude 5.4 event occurred 8.5 miles beneath the Chino Hills. This earthquake was felt across much of southern California, and as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada. There have been no reported injuries and media reports said the quake was felt as far south as San Diego and as far east as Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since earthquakes in this area are sad inevitable reality, we should note, what should be done during and after earthquake. There is a list of tips of what to do in an earthquake situation:

If indoors

• DROP to the ground; take COVER by getting under a sturdy table or other piece of furniture; and HOLD ON until the shaking stops. If there isn’t a table or desk near you, cover your face and head with your arms and crouch in an inside corner of the building.
• Stay away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and anything that could fall, such as lighting fixtures or furniture.
• Stay in bed if you are there when the earthquake strikes. Hold on and protect your head with a pillow, unless you are under a heavy light fixture that could fall. In that case, move to the nearest safe place.
• Use a doorway for shelter only if it is in close proximity to you and if you know it is a strongly supported, load-bearing doorway.
• Stay inside until shaking stops and it is safe to go outside. Research has shown that most injuries occur when people inside buildings attempt to move to a different location inside the building or try to leave.
• Be aware that the electricity may go out or the sprinkler systems or fire alarms may turn on.
• DO NOT use the elevators.

If outdoors

• Stay there.
• Move away from buildings, streetlights, and utility wires.
• Once in the open, stay there until the shaking stops. The greatest danger exists directly outside buildings, at exits, and alongside exterior walls. Many of the 120 fatalities from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake occurred when people ran outside of buildings only to be killed by falling debris from collapsing walls. Ground movement during an earthquake is seldom the direct cause of death or injury. Most earthquake-related casualties result from collapsing walls, flying glass, and falling objects.

If in a moving vehicle

• Stop as quickly as safety permits and stay in the vehicle. Avoid stopping near or under buildings, trees, overpasses, and utility wires.
• Proceed cautiously once the earthquake has stopped. Avoid roads, bridges, or ramps that might have been damaged by the earthquake.

If trapped under debris

• Do not light a match.
• Do not move about or kick up dust.
• Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or clothing.
• Tap on a pipe or wall so rescuers can locate you. Use a whistle if one is available. Shout only as a last resort. Shouting can cause you to inhale dangerous amounts of dust.

Cuil Search Engine challenges Google

Checking the popularity index for yesterday, Monday, July 28, 2008, searches I was quite surprised that the news about getting on the market new Google competitor, Cuil was not on the first lines. Cuil captured line 17 among the top 100 search items, cuil search - 22, and cuil.com - 63.

Cuil Screen

It is not a first time since era of Google domination begins, when new rivals are trying to challenge the “Big One” leadership. This list might include startups like Teoma (whose technology became the backbone of Ask.com), Vivisimo, Snap, Mahalo and, most recently, Powerset, which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. this month.

However, even after investing heavily on search, both Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. been gradually losing ground to Google. Through May, Google held a 62% share of the U.S. search market followed by Yahoo at 21% and Microsoft at 8.5%, according to comScore Inc.

What makes Cuil different from his predecessors? May be, it is the fact that, for the first time, the competitor’s product is compiled by the former Google employees. May be, it is the overconfident claims that the search engine will ultimately challenge Google market share?

Rather than trying to repeat Google’s approach on ranking the quantity and quality of links to Web sites, Cuil’s technology drills into the actual content of a page, according to the company’s president Anna Patterson. Also, Cuil’s results will be presented in a more magazine-like format instead of just a vertical stack of Web links. Cuil’s results are displayed with more photos spread horizontally across the page and include sidebars that can be clicked on to learn more about topics related to the original search request.

While I tested the new search engine today, the results were quite mixed, with bringing more quality content from Google than from Cuil. Also, Google interface and approach is so familiar through the years together, that it is not easy to be non-judgmental testing another interface approach. Observers also note that some of the well-known pages seem to be not index at Cuil (such as Wikipedia, for example). However, if you take in an account that the site was released just yesterday, the results are quite good. Work is still needed, but it looks promising. Google, beware!

Access main page: http://www.cuil.com/

Additional Reading:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/28/technology/cuil.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cuil_good_but_not_good_enough.php

Frank O'Hara - Meditations In An Emergency

The first line in the list of the most popular searches for yesterday, Sunday, 07-27-08, captured meditations in an emergency.

What is it?
Mediatations in an emergency is a famous poem written by Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), considered as being one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century. Let's read the poem:

Am I to become profligate as if I were a blonde? Or religious
as if I were French?

Each time my heart is broken it makes me feel more adventurous
(and how the same names keep recurring on that interminable
list!), but one of these days there'll be nothing left with
which to venture forth.

Why should I share you? Why don't you get rid of someone else
for a change?

I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.

Even trees understand me! Good heavens, I lie under them, too,
don't I? I'm just like a pile of leaves.

However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of
pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of
perverted acts in pastures. No. One need never leave the
confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes--I can't
even enjoy a blade of grass unless i know there's a subway
handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not
totally _regret_ life. It is more important to affirm the
least sincere; the clouds get enough attention as it is and
even they continue to pass. Do they know what they're missing?
Uh huh.

My eyes are vague blue, like the sky, and change all the time;
they are indiscriminate but fleeting, entirely specific and
disloyal, so that no one trusts me. I am always looking away.
Or again at something after it has given me up. It makes me
restless and that makes me unhappy, but I cannot keep them
still. If only i had grey, green, black, brown, yellow eyes; I
would stay at home and do something. It's not that I'm
curious. On the contrary, I am bored but it's my duty to be
attentive, I am needed by things as the sky must be above the
earth. And lately, so great has _their_ anxiety become, I can
spare myself little sleep.

Now there is only one man I like to kiss when he is unshaven.
Heterosexuality! you are inexorably approaching. (How best
discourage her?)

St. Serapion, I wrap myself in the robes of your whiteness
which is like midnight in Dostoevsky. How I am to become a
legend, my dear? I've tried love, but that holds you in the
bosom of another and I'm always springing forth from it like
the lotus--the ecstasy of always bursting forth! (but one must
not be distracted by it!) or like a hyacinth, "to keep the
filth of life away," yes, even in the heart, where the filth is
pumped in and slanders and pollutes and determines. I will my
will, though I may become famous for a mysterious vacancy in
that department, that greenhouse.

Destroy yourself, if you don't know!

It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so. I
admire you, beloved, for the trap you've set. It's like a
final chapter no one reads because the plot is over.

"Fanny Brown is run away--scampered off with a Cornet of Horse;
I do love that little Minx, & hope She may be happy, tho' She
has vexed me by this exploit a little too.--Poor silly
Cecchina! or F:B: as we used to call her.--I wish She had a
good Whipping and 10,000 pounds."--Mrs. Thrale

I've got to get out of here. I choose a piece of shawl and my
dirtiest suntans. I'll be back, I'll re-emerge, defeated, from
the valley; you don't want me to go where you go, so I go where
you don't want me to. It's only afternoon, there's a lot
ahead. There won't be any mail downstairs. Turning, I spit in
the lock and the knob turns.

Why is that?
Don Draper reads Frank O'Hara's poems, "Meditations in an Emergency" in the first episode of the second season of the AMC's drama "Mad Men" (10 pm Sunday).

Additional Reading:
http://www.frankohara.org/
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Frank-OHara/845
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2008/07/mad_men_for_those_who_think_yo.html

Google Trends comes to Web Sites

Google has launched a major addition to Google Trends named Trends for Web Sites. Trends for Web Sites extends Google Trends by enabling you to search for web site addresses, as opposed to just searching for trends by keyword.

R.J. Pittman, Google's Director of Product Management, told me that by entering a domain name into Google Trends, Google will return traffic, search, and geographic visitation data for that site. Trends for Web Sites will show sites related to the domain name you entered. It will also show searches that are correlated to the domain name, and if you are logged into Google, it will show the estimated traffic for that site. In addition, you can enter in up to five domain names and Google will plot line graphs for all the domains you entered in.

For example, this screen capture shows the web site trends for seroundtable.com. As you can see, it plots "unique visitors" on the bar graph. This number is an estimate in the search volume for this site for all regions over "all years." Here is the screen capture:

Google Trends for Web Sites

Under the unique visitors chart is additional data. The "regions" data is something brought over from Google Trends for keywords, which shows how popular your site is by searchers in specific regions. The key new data here is "also visited" and "also search for..." data. The "also visited" data shows sites that searchers also visited based on correlated search data Google has. The "also search for..." shows other searches the searcher searched for that is related to this site. Google will show up to ten data points per section, but often might show less data than ten.
You can also compare sites to other sites. For example, here is a screen shot of a comparison of searchengineland.com to seroundtable.com:

Google Trends for Web Sites

One thing that jumps out to me is that more people who visit searchengineland.com are likely to search on [smx advanced] than those who visit seroundtable.com. Why is that? SMX Advanced is a show that Search Engine Land's parent company, Third Door Media, hosts.
How is this useful? From an SEM's perspective, not only is this a great way to find some great keywords, but it can be a great tool for find great resources. Matt Cutts explained to me that he used it to find other sites that offer similar services for a service he was looking for. Matt's example was yousendit.com, a service that lets you give people a URL to a large file for them to download. Matt wanted to find other services that were similar to yousendit.com. So he typed it in and found sites such as sendthisfile.com, mailbigfile.com, sendit.com, and so on. Very useful, indeed!

Now, if you think like a link builder, you can use this tool to find sites that are within your "neighborhood" or industry. So if I want to find link partners for the Search Engine Roundtable, I enter in seroundtable.com, look at the related sites, and ask all of them for links. Then I go to all of those sites and see who is related to them. You can, theoretically, keep expanding that list, as far is it makes sense.

The useful applications for a tool like this is pretty extensive. One thing you should keep in mind is that this tool bases its data off Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. In addition, the search volume numbers are estimates and Google only shows ten search phrases for a domain name.

Trends for Web Sites is a global product, available in the US and worldwide, but the only supported language is English. In any event, I am personally very excited to play with this new product. I am even more excited to hear about new features that will hopefully be launched in the upcoming months.

Author: Barry Schwartz
Source: http://searchengineland.com/080620-131900.php

The most surprising and funniest trends from Google

Trendsnap.com is website dedicated to collecting, reviewing, and analyzing the most interesting, most surprising and funniest Google Trends, as collected by our site visitors.

Here, you can read, discuss, and rate for the most interesting, most surprising and funniest trends, associated with Google Search statistical results. Trendsnap.com is not affiliated with Google Inc in any way, and approach to the topic is completely different. They do not target providing the most complete and updated information as Google Trends does. They just review the trends that can be of some sort of interest to the site readers.

Users choose one of the three categories and submit the trend they have noticed for review:

• Most Interesting Trends.
• Most Surprising Trends.
• Funniest Trends.

Site represents some kind of social community, where people can discuss the search trends related issues. It cannot be used for a serious research.

Access the Web Site through the link: http://www.trendsnap.com/

Google Trends and Hot Trends

The main website that will be used in the blog post preparation is Google Trends and Hot Trends. With Hot Trends, users can see a snapshot of what’s on the public’s collective mind by viewing the fastest-rising searches for different points of time. Users can access a list of today’s top 100 fastest-rising search queries in the U.S. The site is updated hourly to provide the most accurate information.

You can also alter the date of inquiry and select a deferent date in history to see what the top rising searches were and what the search activity looked like over the course of that day.

Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches - the most popular and the most used Search Engine - to compute how many searches have been done for the terms that was the matter of inquiry, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. Then you are shown a Search Volume Index graph for comprehensive results.

With Google Trends, another part of this Google services website, you can compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over time. Google Trends also shows how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most.

At the moment, Google Trends are only available in English and in Chinese, and Hot Trends are only available in English.

Pixie Hollow from Walt Disney's World

The two most popular searches yesterday, July 27, 2008, were actually related each other. They were pixiehollow.com and pixie hollow. So, let’s review, what this fuzz about.

Pixie Hollow is Walt Disney’s creation of MMOG, based on their Fairies Franchise. For those who are new for the World of online gaming, the MMOG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Game. Users play the game on the Web and compete against other online players.

The software for the game is available for free but users can buy items to receive extra credits in the game. Players can bring a fairy and her surroundings to life simply by clapping in Disney Fairies’ Pixie Hollow Home Tree Playset. Adorned by swings, furniture and a flower picnic table, a beautiful 3.5" fairy and her fairytale surroundings await the sound of claps to spring to life.

There is a Disney description for the theme:

Imagine the most beautiful, yet tiny world you have ever seen - with startlingly rich colors and breathtaking scenery. Add an infinite number of pocket size fairies clad in clothing made from colorful flower petals and shimmering spiderwebs. Sprinkle the scene with the illuminating sparkles of Pixie Dust.

That is the world of Disney Fairies - a world that you can share with your child using a little imagination and these great ideas.

At PixieHollow.com, there are games and activities, books, and movies. One of the main reasons for the site development is also promoting Disney’s new movie Tinkerbell to be released in October 2008. You can even see the Tinkerbell Movie preview on site:

Tinkerbell Movie preview

Note that this business model is mostly focused on girls’s ages 8 to 12 years. This fact highlights the fact that the internet is increasingly becoming an engaging medium for practically all age groups.

Additional Reading:

http://www.techbanyan.com/618/disney-pixiehollowcom/

http://glambamm.com/49/pixie-hollow/