Official Google Australia Blog

Five Myths of Viral Video

2012-01-27T11:57:00.011+11:00

This blog post was initially published on AdNews

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who couldn’t name at least one example of how a viral video has launched a person or company into fame (Justin Bieber ring any bells?). From talking twin babies to Rebecca Black or Aussie video-blogger Natalie Tran, viral videos have become a part of our pop culture.

The success of these videos clearly demonstrates YouTube’s ability to build a brand. However they’ve also created a dangerous misconception among businesses — the myth that you need a viral hit to be successful on YouTube. A little known secret is that the most successful businesses on YouTube have never had a viral hit.

While this may seem counterintuitive, we’ve seen this play out time and time again. This goes back to the underlying principle of smart marketing: know your audience and the context in which they are interacting with your brand. YouTube has a global, diverse audience, with 800 million unique users visiting YouTube every month. 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute. If you’re trying to reach the YouTube audience in its entirety, that’s a lot of noise to break through.

Successful businesses understand they don’t need to connect with the whole YouTube audience. They just need to engage with the right audience. If you’re an online travel agency like Ecruising, for example, you care about people who are interested in travel or holidays.
This means that you don’t need to create a video that has mass appeal. You need a video that has personal appeal to people you want to talk to and who are interested in what you have to say.

To get you started in thinking about how you can use online video to promote your business, here are a few common myths I’d like to debunk:

1) You need a viral hit to have a successful presence on YouTube. For smaller businesses, the most successful videos are often the ones you’ve never heard of. Let’s revisit the Ecruising example. When specialty travel agencies began to close their doors, Ecruising had to shift sales online, and video has been vital to helping customers visualise a cruise holiday before booking. YouTube is now one of the main source of web traffic for Ecruising and 1-out-of-4 clients come directly through YouTube. While none of their videos have gone “viral”, their YouTube strategy has helped them create a flourishing business.

2) Only humorous videos are popular. Shoes of Prey, a 17-person company that lets you design your shoes online, uses YouTube mostly to educate customers on how to use their design engine, the materials they use and what shoe designs are most popular. Their instructional videos have generated more than 360,000 views and boosted sales significantly -- proof that videos don’t need to be humorous to sell a product. Instead of focusing on being clever, focus on being relevant. Videos that engage your audience by showcasing product features or explaining a difficult concept can have much more impact.

3) YouTube is just for young people. With millions of people visiting YouTube every day, the site has a broad base of regular viewers. For example, 55 percent of all women aged 18-54 are on YouTube. When you run an advertising campaign on YouTube, you can focus on reaching the specific audience you care most about. Similar to search engine marketing, you can also optimise your videos by tagging them with keywords you want your video to show against.

4) People only watch YouTube for entertainment. Videos need to be interesting, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be educational. In fact, there are more than three times as many searches for “how to” videos than there are for “music videos” on YouTube. For example, the most viewed videos on Canon Australia’s YouTube channel are videos about how to getting started with their EOS camera.

5) Videos need to be professionally produced to gain views. Many small businesses shoot and produce videos themselves in-house, using tools as simple as a handheld camera and the video editing features in YouTube. Since you can focus on reaching people that are most interested in your topic, content and relevancy trump production value. Orabrush, a U.S. business that sells tongue cleaners, produced and posted their first video with just $500 and the help of a local marketing student. After spending tens of thousands of dollars trying to launch their brand with an infomercial and other traditional marketing techniques, their small investment in online video helped them sell over a million Orabrushes online, and caught the eye of retail giant Walmart.

Today, more Aussie businesses than ever use YouTube ad formats like TrueView or promoted videos to drive sales, generate leads and build brand awareness. But it’s still not too late to be early in video marketing. Online video is growing at a rapid pace, and as smartphone sales continue to grow, even more people will be watching video on the go.

Posted by Karen Stocks, Head of YouTube & Display, Google Australia

Picture perfect: Welcome customers into your business on Google Maps

2012-01-27T09:24:00.004+11:00

When we initially announced the Business Photos pilot program, we wanted to give business owners an easy way to get customers in the door online using interactive, high-quality, 360-degree images of places on Google Maps and on Google Search results. With thousands of businesses under our belt — from cafes to hotels— we’ve been hearing the same question again and again from both business owners and photographers alike: How can I participate?

Well, with the overwhelming success of the first pilot, we’ve decided to unveil a complementary initiative that will help us reach more interested business owners, more quickly: Trusted Photographers.

Click and drag to view the inside of Yuki’s at The Quay

It’s simple. Visit our new website and search for a Google Trusted Photographer in your area. Either email or call a photographer in your area to schedule a time and agree on a price that you will pay the photographer for a photoshoot of your business. This self-serve model makes for easier scheduling and quicker turnaround, while also supporting the local photographers in your community. During the hour it should take for the shoot, you can collaborate with the photographer about how best to display and capture your business. When finished, the photographer will upload the images to Google, and shortly thereafter, you’ll see 360-degree panoramic views of your business on Google.com.au, Google Maps and on your Google Places listing.

See how Business Photos has helped Toy Joy of Austin, Texas.

Trusted Photographers are available in 14 U.S. cities, as well as in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and France. Don’t see a photographer in your area? Let us know, as that will help us determine where more Trusted Photographers are needed.

Posted by Gadi Royz, Product Manager, Google Maps

Google Earth 6.2: It’s a beautiful world

2012-01-27T07:27:00.002+11:00

This is a cross-post from the Google LatLong blog.

We're taking bird's eye view to a whole new level with the latest version of Google Earth, released today. With Google Earth 6.2, we’re bringing you the most beautiful Google Earth yet, with more seamless imagery and a new search interface. Additionally, we’ve introduced a feature that enables you to share an image from within Google Earth, so you can now simply and easily share your virtual adventures with family and friends on Google+.

A seamless globe

The Google Earth globe is made from a mosaic of satellite and aerial photographs taken on different dates and under different lighting and weather conditions. Because of this variance, views of the Earth from high altitude can sometimes appear patchy.

Today, we’re introducing a new way of rendering imagery that smoothes out this quilt of images. The end result is a beautiful new Earth-viewing experience that preserves the unique textures of the world’s most defining geographic landscapes—without the quilt effect. This change is being made on both mobile and desktop versions of Google Earth. While this change will appear on all versions of Google Earth, the 6.2 release provides the best viewing experience for this new data.

Grand Canyon before and after

Sri Lanka before and after

Share your explorations with Google+
Google Earth is a great way to virtually explore the globe, whether revisiting old haunts or checking out a future vacation spot. With the Google Earth 6.2 update, we’ve added the option to share a screenshot of your current view in Google Earth through Google+. If you’ve already upgraded to Google+, you can share images of the places you’ve virtually traveled to with your Circles, such as family, friends or your local hiking club. To try this new feature, simply sign in to your Google Account in the upper right hand corner of Google Earth and click “Share.” Images of mountains, oceans, deserts, 3D cities, your favorite pizza shop on Street View—you can now experience all these amazing places around the world with people on Google+.

Search improvements
We’ve also made some updates to the search feature in Google Earth. Aside from streamlining the visual design of the search panel, we’ve enabled the same Autocomplete feature that’s available on Google Maps. We’ve also introduced search layers, which will show all the relevant search results (not just the top ten), so now, when looking for gelato in Milano, you can see all the tasty possibilities. Finally, we’ve added biking, transit and walking directions, so if you’re itching for a change of scenery or looking for a new route for your regular commute, you can now use Google Earth to generate and visualize all your options.

Biking directions in Google Earth

Download Google Earth 6.2 and start exploring and sharing today!

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth

Android Developer Labs Coming to Australia

2012-01-23T14:10:00.002+11:00

Our Android Developer Advocates are kicking off 2012 with new events to get out and meet Android developers around the world. First stop: Australia & New Zealand!

Android Developer Labs (ADLs) will be taking place in Melbourne (Tuesday 31 January), Sydney (Friday 3 February) and Auckland (Wednesday 8 February). ADLs are aimed at accomplished Android developers who want to learn the best practices for building truly world-class Android apps. Ideally, developers will enter an ADL with a good app that has already garnered some success, but leave with a great app that will appeal to Android users everywhere.

In these sessions, we’ll cover the following topics:
Latest advances in Ice Cream Sandwich
Utilising cloud services in Android apps
Designing polished and immersive user experiences
Building rich apps for both smartphones and tablets
How do I participate?

Registration is open to everyone, but we will sift through the applications by hand and select the most qualified developers. In choosing attendees, we’re primarily looking for developers who have already released a successful app on Android Market but want to improve its overall quality, fit and finish.

Other prerequisites include a laptop with the Eclipse & Android SDK (API 15) installed and configured, an Android device(s) for debugging and a solid understanding of Android fundamentals (activities, layouts, app life cycle, etc). If you’re selected to attend, you’ll receive an invitation up to 48 hours before the event.

Visit the Android Developer Lab website for more information and submit your application.

Think fast in the first Think Quarterly of 2012

2012-01-20T14:09:00.005+11:00

In the amount of time it takes you to read this blog post, roughly 382 Android phones will be activated, 250,000+ words will be written on Blogger and more than 48 hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube. The world is moving faster than ever before, bringing us instant access and split-second connections to people and information.

Speed is important in technology, but equally essential in business. Consumer expectations are rising as we learn to take speed for granted; today’s email is tomorrow’s snail mail. In our hyper-real-time world, nanoseconds matter—which means we need to question old assumptions. How will we respond to consumer expectations as the demand for instant access to everything intensifies? How will we keep pace in a world that moves at web speed?

The new Speed issue of Think Quarterly explores these questions and more. Don Meij, CEO of Domino’s Pizza in Australia, comments on what it means to be first to market on mobile. Moving fast into mobile has allowed his business to differentiate against a crowd of competitors. By integrating mobile early Don claims that they made a step change in providing the fastest, most convenient ordering process possible.

The current issue also features Bom Kim, CEO and founder of Korean deals site, Coupang, who explains that it’s more about being the best at responding to the market than being the first to do something. Google’s SVP of Engineering Urs Hölzle shares our efforts to speed up the Internet, while Astro Teller, Director of New Products at Google, dreams about the amazing inventions these improvements will unleash.

We hope you enjoy the issue. Let us know what you think.

Posted by James Toepfer, Marketing Manager, Google Australia

Ask your question in the 2012 Google Science Fair

2012-01-17T12:19:00.003+11:00

Are human beings born curious, or can curiosity be nurtured through environment, competition or a good teacher? Everyone’s got a question—that’s ours. But we’re sure you’ve got tons of questions, too. So we’re inviting students around the world to pose their most pressing questions and answer those questions through scientific inquiry as part of our second annual Google Science Fair.

Along with our partners CERN, The LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, it’s the largest online science competition in the world. Open to students ages 13-18, students (either individually or in teams of up to three people) pose a question, develop a hypothesis and conduct science experiments to test it.

Last year, we received entries that strove to solve a wide variety of needs, from “How can I cure cancer?” to “Can I teach a robot to learn English?” to “Can I build a faster sailboat?” The breadth and depth of these projects was incredibly impressive, and this year we hope to see even more entries from the next generation of brilliant young scientists.

From the entries we will recognise 90 regional finalists before our judges select the top 15 finalists, who will be flown to Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, for the Google Science Fair event on July 23, 2012. At the finals, a panel of distinguished international judges (like Vint Cerf, Sylvia Earle, and Nobel Laureates David Gross and Ada Yonath) will select top winners in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18).

In addition to satisfying your curious mind, your project can also help to win you some pretty cool prizes, like a US$50,000 college scholarship from Google, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer or an internship at Google or any one of our partners.

We’re also introducing a new category for this year’s competition—the Scientific American Science in Action award which will see the winner earn US$50,000 and a year-long mentorship to make their project a reality. We were so inspired by 2011 finalist Harine Ravichandran’s project, which attempted to solve energy surges in rural villages, that this year we decided to recognise an outstanding project that addresses a social, environmental or health need.

The Google Science Fair will accept submissions until Sunday, April 1 at 11:59 GMT.

Google itself was founded through experimentation and with the Google Science Fair, we hope to inspire scientific exploration among the next generation of scientists and engineers, celebrate scientific talent, create scientific role models and unite students around the world in the quest for learning.

Visit google.com/sciencefair and ask your most burning questions.

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Posted by Cristin Frodella, Google Education Team

Introducing our Sydney Community Manager, Anna Kricker

2012-01-05T08:59:00.004+11:00

(Cross-posted on the Google Places Community Blog)

Hey Sydneysiders,

My name is Anna and I’m the new Places Community Manager for Sydney. What does that mean? It means I’m here to make sure you get the most out of Google Places and don’t find yourself sighing,

“Where should we eat tonight?”
“How can I find a good gym whilst travelling interstate?”
“Does anyone know of a nearby bike shop?”

I’d like to let you know a little bit more about myself. I am my happiest (apart from being part of the Google Places team) when cranking my 29er mountain bike around a track, reading Margaret Atwood or drinking my first morning coffee -- as Murakami stated -- coffee as ‘hot and strong as the devil at midnight.’

I love taking videos with my GoPro whilst planning my next caffeine hit or out on adventures with my FJ40. I am passionate about good food and about accessing the beautiful, yet unforgiving, Australian bush. You can also find me on Twitter having a chat about car restorations with the FJ40 community.

After a long road trip or bike ride, nothing but the most satisfying food will suffice. I love Das Kaffee Haus in Manly for german schnitzels and Weissbier or Steki Taverna in Marrickville for spanakopita and meat dolmas. When I have interstate visitors I always head to Fratelli Paradiso for rice porridge and rhubarb breakfasts. "Blessings on him who invented…the food that appeases hunger"(Cervantes)

Having grown up in both Sydney and Melbourne, I am fascinated by the complex, yet mutually beneficial, food relationship these cities have. I have entered many a passionate debate about the superiority of a Sydney style latte versus the Melbourne. My favourite caffeine burrows in Sydney involve anything roasted by the team at Allpress and if a cafe is near a Berkelouw Bookshop , even better. When in Melbourne my favourite battleground cafes are Pellegrini’s and Ici Cafe.

Ask me about my favourite food genre and there is no hesitation in answering… Japanese. Long time Sydney favourites are Uchi lounge, Kintaro and Sydney’s best Japanese supermarket, Tokyomart.

You can often find me seeking out a burger for lunch after racking up the kilometers cycling Manly Dam . Currently the best spots to hit up are The Cooks Larder or Cafe Splat with a glorious Sydney water view as bonus.

Through planning user meetups, foodie contests and giveaways I want you to experience and share Sydney at its best. I look forward to hearing from foodies, outdoor adventurers and dog lovers about everything that makes you L-O-V-E- this Emerald City as a marvellous place to live, work and play!

Follow us at @googlesydney and get ready to join me for some very cool activities.

Posted by Anna Kricker, Sydney community manager

Rebecca Black, Cone-ing and Gotye: 2011 in review on YouTube

2011-12-21T08:20:00.001+11:00

YouTube contains the largest and most diverse set of videos ever assembled, but in amongst the one trillion playbacks on YouTube this year, there are some videos that draw us all together. These videos capture the imagination as we watch them over and over and share them with our friends and family.

Today we reveal the top 10 videos watched by Australians on YouTube. The lists show that we were obsessed with Australian musician Gotye as his song became second most watched music video in 2011. Aussies were quite diverse with their musical tastes as Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars and Jennifer Lopez also made the cut.

Rebecca Black and her song Friday became a viral sensation over the year ensuring her song took out top spot for most watched YouTube community video in Australia this year.

A Melbourne prank called “cone-ing”, which involves ordering a soft serve cone at a fast food restaurant’s drive-through and then grabbing hold of the ice cream upside down, was amongst the most watched YouTube Community videos. Showing how YouTube can be the incubator of Aussie talent, Alki Stevens, the person behind the video has given up his day job to concentrate on his comedy career and YouTube Channel.

Also making the list: a short video by Network Ten in which a newsreader responds to an on-air comment about how “something so small can be so impressive”. Labelled “an awkward moment” the YouTube video has been watched more than 7 million times globally.

Australians also came to YouTube to keep informed on the latest news events. The top searches reveal we came online to find footage of the floods in Toowoomba and about Osama bin Laden’s death.

Bizarrely, Aussies were amongst some of the 52 million people who watched “Nyan Cat”, an animated video of a cat propelled across the sky by a rainbow.

To see more of the year’s most popular and influential YouTube videos from across the world, visit youtube.com/rewind. And for more lists, see YouTube Trends and the YouTube blog.

Most Watched YouTube community videos in Australia:

Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Ultimate Dog Tease

An Awkward Moment

Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton)

Songify This - Winning - a Song by Charlie Sheen

Nyan Cat [original]

The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters)

Nice Guys

CONE-ING IS THE NEW PLANKING!!!!! (AlkiStevens)

Nicki Minaj - Super Bass By Sophia Grace Brownlee

Most Watched music videos on YouTube in Australia:

LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)

Nicki Minaj - Super Bass

Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor ft. Pitbull

LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It

Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song [Official Video]

Jessie J - Price Tag ft. B.o.B.

Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

Adele - ''Someone Like You''

LMFAO - Champagne Showers ft. Natalia Kills

Fastest Rising search terms on YouTube by month in Australia

January toowoomba

February born this way

March friday rebecca black

April party rock anthem

May bin laden

June e3

July moves like jagger

August it girl

September stereo hearts

October mistletoe

November skyrim

December christmas songs

Posted by Johnny Luu, Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Google Australia

What we’ve learned while Getting 27,000 Aussie Businesses Online

2011-12-14T12:30:00.008+11:00

When Getting Aussie Business Online launched in March of this year in partnership with MYOB, our goal was to help 50,000 businesses get a free website. Now we’re over halfway there and happy to see that more than 27,000 businesses the likes of Cakes by Nadia, Shoalbay Sportsfishing Tours and Friends’ Cafe have come online and are reaching customers like never before.

We’ve also learned a few things along the way about the business owners that have signed up. First we found out more about who they are: the majority of businesses were either sole traders or small businesses with less than 5 employees. We also noticed that these businesses were likely to be relatively new, with over 50% having been founded within the last two years.

We also learned where they were. Using Google Fusion Tables we plotted the 27,000 businesses on the map and saw that they had signed up in geographical clusters. For example, in Bendigo there are 22 businesses that have come online, and they’re all within 6km of each other. This could either mean that businesses close to each other are directly spreading the word about being online or it could mean that they’re aware of the activities of neighbouring businesses and are trying to keep up with the competition.

For instance, Dallas Hall in Bendigo set up a website for his business Cornerstone Landscaping this year. A sole trader, he says, “We found the website really effective and we now have a good hit rate and clients are finding us. The site is easy and straightforward to do -- it took me 10 minutes to get online. People can see from the map that we’re located in Bendigo and we get around 5 to 6 phone calls a week from people who have seen our website.”

Next year we’ll continue to help businesses get a free online presence and to spread the word that getting a website doesn’t have to be difficult.

Posted by Richard Flanagan, Head of SMB Marketing, Google Australia

Experience the tsunami-affected areas of Japan through Street View

2011-12-13T13:24:00.003+11:00

Back in July, we announced our initiative to digitally archive the areas of Northeastern Japan affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Today, we’re making good on that promise—after driving more than 44,000 kilometers through the affected regions, 360-degree panoramic imagery of those areas is now available through the Street View feature in Google Maps. The images can also be viewed via a special website called “Build the Memory,” where you can easily compare before and after shots of the towns changed by these events.

A virtual tour via Street View profoundly illustrates how much these natural disasters have transformed these communities. If you start inland and venture out toward the coast, you’ll see the idyllic countryside change dramatically, becoming cluttered with mountains of rubble and debris as you get closer to the ocean. In the cities, buildings that once stood proud are now empty spaces.

View Larger Map

In the bottom left corner of each image you’ll also see a month and year that tells you when a particular photograph was taken. When looking at images of the magnificent cities side-by-side with images of the ruins left in their place, this additional context demonstrates how truly life-changing this tragedy has been for those who live there and witnessed the destruction of their homes, neighborhoods and even entire districts. This timestamp feature has been the most requested Street View feature for the last few years, and it is now available on Street View imagery worldwide. Professionals such as historians, architects, city planners and tourism boards—as well as regular users including travelers and home-buyers—can now get a sense of how fresh the online photos are for a locations that interests them.

In the case of the post-tsunami imagery of Japan, we hope this particular digital archiving project will be useful to researchers and scientists who study the effects of natural disasters. We also believe that the imagery is a useful tool for anyone around the world who wants to better understand the extent of the damage. Seeing the street-level imagery of the affected areas puts the plight of these communities into perspective and ensures that the memories of the disaster remain relevant and tangible for future generations.

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long blog)

Posted by Kei Kawai, Senior Product Manager, Street View

Exploring ancient ruins in 3D with Google Earth

2011-12-09T11:10:00.001+11:00

(Cross-posted on the Inside Search Blog)

Searches can become stories. Some inspire us, others change the way we see the world or just make us smile. This is the latest in a series of videos about people who have used Google to discover or do something extraordinary.

The field of archaeology has changed much over the years. New modes of transportation have made even the most remote sites accessible, while cameras simplify how a historical record is created and shared with the world.

Spurred on by these innovations, researchers are also embracing technology as a creative way to aid their research and explore ancient sites. To conduct archaeological studies in the Middle East, Professor David Kennedy of the University of Western Australia turned to Google Earth.

From his office chair in Perth, Professor Kennedy has remotely identified thousands of archaeological sites without having to step foot on Saudi Arabian or Yemeni soil. Historically it has been difficult to undertake ground surveys and aerial photographs of these areas are seldom available for research, making the countries some of the least explored archaeologically. By carefully studying satellite imagery of the Arabian peninsula in Google Earth, Professor Kennedy has unearthed an enormous record of archaeological sites, from ancient geoglyphs to stone Wheels to Pendant-shaped tombs and animal traps called kites that could be up to 9,000 years old.

Watch Professor Kennedy’s Search Story video to see how Google Earth aided his search for these ancient sites across the Middle East.

Professor Kennedy isn’t the only archaeologist to discover the potential in using satellite imagery to aid traditional field methods. Visit www.OneWorldManyStories.com to discover how the scientific community has used Google Earth to uncover ancient relics, find a new hominid ancestor, identify hidden forests, and put craters on the map.

Do you have a great Google Earth story? Share it with us.

Posted by Vicky Homan, Google Earth Product Marketing

“Wineweekplus” on Google+

2011-12-07T12:17:00.001+11:00

In the last few weeks, I’ve found a lot of interesting people talking and sharing about wine on Google+. I spotted a blogpost about what it really takes to be a sommelier, I’ve found loads of video interviews with winemakers, and I’ve seen stunning photography that makes me want to book my next trip to the McLaren Vale right now. Google+ is also how I found +Stewart Noble from +Wine Without BS. I met up with Stewart and we hit upon the idea of creating a whole week of wine-related activities on Google+ that would make it easy for people in Australia (and anywhere, really) who love wine to find each other.

So we’ve declared the week of December 12 to be “wineweekplus” on Google+, and we’d love for anyone who loves wine, talking about wine, or learning about wine to join us. Here’s how you can get involved:

share circles of great people and pages you find talking about wine (here are some)
host your own Hangout -- a group video chat for up to 10 people
create posts that are designed for conversation, like “here are my tips for getting the best out of a sommelier...what are yours?” or “here’s what I’m drinking this Christmas...what am I missing?”
keep an eye on this schedule of events. we’ll be updating it regularly as we hear about more people planning to do hangouts or Q&A sessions on their pages at certain times. to tell us about your “event”, fill in this form, or drop us a message on Google+.

To get you inspired, we already have a few events on the schedule:

A hangout about food & wine matching with +Ryn & Cordie
All about the McLaren Vale with +Damien Smith of +Chapel Hill Winery
Best wine for Christmas with +Lisa Johnston of +WineMuse
A hangout about international wines and how to navigate a wine list with +Stewart Noble from +Wine Without BS

Here in Sydney, we Googlers are going to be doing some wine tasting this afternoon, and you can join us for the fun via Google+. Visit +Google Australia at 5pm EDT to join our Hangout.

You may also have seen that today we announced the lists of the hottest search terms on Google in Australia in 2011. Want to know what search trends reveal about our taste in wine?

Shiraz is roughly three times more popular than cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, and sauvignon blanc in Australia. And not surprisingly, we conduct the most wine related searches in the run-up to Christmas -- just in time for #wineweekplus.

Posted by +Courtney Hohne, Google Communications and pinot noir lover

A Year of Curiosities: Australia’s Top Google Searches 2011

2011-12-06T23:34:00.001+11:00

Today we’re releasing our annual Zeitgeist lists: this year’s hottest search terms on google.com.au. These lists offer a unique glimpse into the big events, memorable moments and emerging trends that captivated Aussies throughout 2011.

Topping the list of fastest rising search queries - those that saw a spike in interest in 2011 - were the rumoured iPhone 5, Cyclone Yasi, the video game Minecraft, planking and British songstress Adele.

Our love affair with cooking shows and celebrity chefs also influenced our search queries this year, with red velvet cupcakes, macaroons and pork belly among the Top 10 most popular food searches. “Cake pops” popped onto the food list this year at number 2 -- if you’re wondering, they’re little balls of cake, frosted and decorated and popped on a stick.

Among the top news searches were world-captivating events in Libya and Japan, right alongside Justin Bieber, Charlie Sheen, and Qantas. We also saw YouTube on the list of top news searches, which could be due to the number of breaking news events being recorded on smartphones and uploaded to the web.

What questions did we ask Google this year? We asked “what is love” as well as “what is culture” and “what is globalisation”. We also asked for DIY help with wedding invitations, computers, and solar panels as well as the definition of justice and ethics.

We looked for travel ideas, with many locations in Queensland retaining their popularity after the state took a beating from the weather; Hamilton Island tops the list. We searched for jobs, with “government jobs” and “mining jobs” competing for the most popular search in various states; there was also a big spike this year in searches for “ethical jobs”. And if you were asking Google about cosmetic surgery options, you weren’t alone; apparently otoplasty -- plastic surgery of the ear -- is getting quite popular.

Here are our top search terms in Australia for 2011 -- we’ll be posting our global search terms next week, and we’ll tweet and post on Google+ to let you know!

Fastest rising searches 1. iPhone 5 2. Minecraft 3. cyclone yasi 4. planking 5. Adele 6. angry boys 7. royal wedding 8. rugby world cup 9. iPhone 4s 10. Rebecca black	Top food searches 1. red velvet cupcakes 2. cake pops 3. macaroon 4. massaman curry 5. anzac biscuits 6. pork belly 7. quinoa 8. pizza 9. ice cream sundae 10. scrambled eggs
Top celebrity death searches 1. Amy Winehouse 2. Ryan Dunn 3. Osama bin Laden 4. Princess Diana 5. Steve Jobs 6. Zyzz 7. Marco Simoncelli 8. Hugh Hefner 9. Elizabeth Taylor 10. Jackie Chan	Fastest rising news searches 1. iPhone 5 2. Libya 3. Cyclone Yasi 4. youtube 5. Japan 6. Super Rugby 7. Qantas 8. Charlie Sheen 9. Justin Bieber 10. Facebook
Top searches for “what is?” 1. what is love? 2. what is energy? 3. what is planking? 4. what is culture? 5. what is electricity? 6. what is ph? 7. what is depression? 8. what is java? 9. what is globalisation?	Top DIY searches 1. wedding invitations 2. computer 3. solar panels 4. kitchen 5. superannuation 6. fencing 7. baby 8. painting 9. tiles 10. wardrobes
Fastest rising cosmetic surgery searches 1. Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons 2. My Free Implants 3. Cellulite Cream 4. Thailand breast implants 5. Double eyelid surgery 6. Otoplasty 7. Dermal Fillers 8. Botox 9. Liposuction 10. Varicose veins	Fastest rising shopping searches 1. ASOS 2. Costco 3. Zara 4. Manheim 5. Vans 6. eBay America 7. Victoria’s Secret 8. eBay Australia 9. etsy 10. Lorna Jane
Top movie searches 1. breaking dawn 2. dogma 3. final destination 5 4. spy kids 4 5. paul 6. red dog 7. the secret circle 8. mean girls 2 9. true grit 10. tangled	Top travel destination 1. Hamilton Island 2. Hawaii 3. Byron Bay 4. Blue Mountains 5. Port Douglas 6. Hayman Island 7. Great Barrier Reef 8. Uluru 9. New York 10. Las Vegas

Posted by Johnny Luu, Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Google Australia

A fine day for a ride

2011-12-06T11:45:00.001+11:00

I’ve always been a fan of cycling to work. For me it’s by far the most efficient way to get around Sydney. So when National Ride to Work Day came around this year, I leaped on the chance to show other Googlers just how convenient it is.

Ride to Work Day is an annual national initiative that hopes to promote cycling as an alternative form of transport. Luckily here at Google, we’re a fan of alternative transport and we’ve got many things to make cycle commuting more convenient: lockers, showers and somewhere to lock our bikes. We even have our own bikes for Googlers to borrow and use to get into the city for meetings and errands.

So getting Aussie Googlers to take part in the Ride to Work Day wasn’t such a hard task. On October 12th, 70 Googlers rose to the challenge and pedaled their way into work. Each rider was made to feel like a rock star when they rolled into work and were greeted by their very own cheer squad complete with party poppers on their arrival. Couple that with a table full of pastries and fresh juice and you have the perfect reward for cycling to work.

In the end we won the award for the largest percentage of staff riding to work in NSW in workplaces with more than than 250 employees. Not bad for just getting into work!

Posted by Lu Fearnside, Ride to Work Day Coordinator, Google Australia

Androidland opens in Melbourne

2011-12-02T10:32:00.007+11:00

Today we were in Melbourne for the opening of Androidland, a special Android-themed zone in Telstra’s flagship store on Bourke Street.

Designed by Telstra in collaboration with Google and handset makers Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG, Androidland features displays and games that will help shoppers learn about Android phones and tablets.

This is “the spaceship”, where customers can Androidify themselves, fly through the world with Google Earth, and play with apps on a giant touchscreen.

And here’s where you can have a look at all the Android handsets and tablets that might make a good gift.

Did you know that Australia has gone from lagging to leading the worldwide smartphone revolution in the last year? We estimate that each month hundreds of thousands of Aussies are buying a smartphone -- so chances are they’re on the Christmas list of someone you love. For the record, we’re ok with the “one for me, one for you” school of Christmas shopping.

If you stop by Androidland to get some ideas and tips, let us and Telstra's Androidland know on our Google+ pages what you think!

Posted by Lachlan McGrath, marketing manager, Google Australia

Google+ Pages on Getting Aussie Business Online: a new way to connect with your customers

2011-12-01T18:58:00.005+11:00

Earlier this year we launched our Getting Aussie Business Online program to help small businesses in Australia get an online presence. So far we’ve seen over 27,000 businesses sign up for a free website and to benefit from the digital economy. But getting online is just the first step. The more ways you’re connecting with your customers, the better. That’s why we’re adding a new and free way for small businesses to talk to their clients to Getting Aussie Business Online: Google+ Pages.

Google+ Pages help you connect with people in a number of different ways. People can recommend your business across the web with a +1 and add you to a circle so they follow your updates on Google+. They can also chat with you via video conversations called Hangouts. For example, you can now answer your clients’ questions in-person without ever needing to leave your office. Or give your most loyal customers a behind-the-scenes peek of your latest product or your team in action.

One final tip (for now): add the Google +1 button to your website. All your +1s across the web will be connected directly to your official Google+ Page and may help increase the visibility of your brand in Google search rankings. After all, people want to hear about recommendations from other people that they trust.

If you want to learn more about Google+ Pages, join the webinar with one of our Google+ experts this Friday, 2 Dec, at 3.30pm AEDT. Topics covered include setting up and promoting a Google+ Page for your business as well as improving the performance of your ads with +1 annotations.

Posted by Bora Toska, Small Business Marketing Manager, Google Australia

Learn with Google how to grow your business online

2011-11-30T12:17:00.008+11:00

Many small business owners have asked us for one central place to go to get smart about Google products like AdWords or Google Analytics before diving into the digital unknown. That’s why we’re introducing Learn with Google. Whether you’re looking to grow your business or just to be more productive, these short videos, handouts, and resources will arm you with tips that you can use right away. No login, registration, or payment required--it’s free and regularly updated.

On the site, you’ll learn about:

Online Fundamentals: Learn why having a website is critical for growing your business even if most of your sales comes from foot traffic and how to create an online marketing plan.
Marketing Your Business Online: Master the basics of online marketing and search advertising to get more for your money. Learn how to choose the right keywords, write compelling ads copy, and optimise your advertising spend.
Running Your Business Online: Learn how the ‘cloud’ and tools like Gmail and Google Docs can make your team more collaborative and your business more efficient.

We also know that sometimes a conversation can help. When you’re ready to advertise on Google with AdWords, we’d love to hear from you directly. Our experts can work with you to create a campaign that fits your budget, and ensure that your new ads are seeing results. You can call us on 1800 988 571 during business hours to get started. Once your AdWords account is up and running, we’re eager to make sure that you’re getting the most from Google. There are various ways to contact us, so keep in touch! Of course, we don’t charge for these phone consultations but your mobile operator may charge for the call.

With these new tools and support services, we hope that you’ll look, listen and learn how Google can help you grow your business.

Posted by Richard Flanagan, Head of Small Business Marketing, Google Australia & New Zealand

App Engine Down Under

2011-11-28T15:45:00.001+11:00

Earlier this month the Google App Engine team celebrated coming out of preview to become a fully-supported Google product.

With this major milestone we would like to showcase the Sydney App Engine team who have been working hard on App Engine for more than three years.

App Engine, Google’s cloud application platform, enables developers to build and host web apps on the same systems that power Google applications. That means anyone can quickly develop and deploy web applications with simple administration and no need to worry about hardware, patches or backups.

App Engine serves over 2 billion pages a day and powers not only popular apps like the the official Royal Wedding website but also Australian businesses like Ray White and Shoes of Prey.

The Australian App Engine team includes software and site reliability engineers, developer relations and product and technical management. We work on new features, keep the platform running smoothly and support and engage the developer community.

Members of the Sydney App Engine Team

For all those that haven’t built a web application using App Engine before, you can see how easy it is by following our Getting Started Guide.

Posted by Cayden Meyer, Google App Engine Product Manager, Sydney

Searching spree...then shopping spree? Insights on the 2011 Christmas retail season

2011-11-24T09:33:00.008+11:00

Earlier this month, we shared a few early insights on retail search trends for this year’s Christmas shopping season. And from what historical data tells us, over the next five weeks shopping-related search traffic is really going to accelerate.

Over the previous few years, searches for "Christmas" specific questions have climbed fast starting the third week of November. Thus far searches are up year over year in all major retail categories. This year’s big winners include mass merchant retailers (searches up 47%), food and drink (+31%), and toys (+28%).

Over the past few years, a distinctive search pattern has evolved around the Christmas season:

During the first week of December, shipping windows for international online retailers traditionally close and searches for domestic online retailers rise.

Two weeks before Christmas, searches for store names plus ‘trading hours’ or ‘location’ begin to rise dramatically. Last year, searches for trading hours grew nearly 250% in the last two weeks before Christmas. This year, such searches are already up 37% year over year -- and over a third of these searches now comes from a mobile device.
Around December 16th, the last day Australia’s online retailers can guarantee delivery before December 25 and the last in-store retail weekend before Christmas, you can see another big spike in searches for store name plus “hours” and “location”.

Here are three tips from Google for retailers who are reviewing their online ad strategies for the holidays.

1. Review your search ad budget & timing: Santa brings a big increase in shopping search traffic -- make sure you don’t run out of search ad budget too early in the day. Last year, some Google advertisers used up their daily search ads budgets only 1/3 of the way into the Christmas trading day because their daily ad budgets were the same as the middle of the summer. That’s like forgetting to put your most popular product out on shelves during the busiest season of the year.

2. Anticipate key shopping days: Try to anticipate when your customers will be researching and buying gifts online and when they’ll be looking for stores. For example, if you’re a large retailer you may want to focus your search ads on e-commerce queries until mid-December and then shift to ads featuring in-store promotions, maps, and trading hours thereafter.

3. Be ready for mobile: Mobile shopping searches have risen 220% year over year. All retailers should be ready with mobile-friendly websites that prominently display store hours and locations to accommodate people looking for their stores on mobile. Already, over 30% of such searches come from mobile, and we expect that number to rise further during the crucial last 14 days.

Posted by Ross McDonald, Head of Retail, Google Australia & New Zealand

Google Engage: helping agencies help small businesses

2011-11-23T14:55:00.001+11:00

Over the past year, thousands of Australian small businesses have recognized how the Internet can help them market and grow their business. Through our Getting Aussie Business Online program alone we’ve seen over 25,000 businesses sign up for a free website. But getting online is just the first step -- and fortunately there are hundreds of developers, designers, and agencies around Australia who can work hand in hand with small businesses to create and manage their online presence and help with their online marketing.

Last year we launched the Google Engage program to provide educational resources and training to help these organisations serve their clients better. Over the last two weeks more than 300 advertising, web design, and creative agencies attended our Google Engage for Agencies masterclass series to learn new techniques for helping their clients succeed in the digital world. At sessions held around the country in Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney, we brought the latest updates on Google advertising products like AdWords.

We opened the day with insights into the online behaviours of Australians, pointing out the explosive growth in mobile devices as Aussies access the internet while they’re on the go. Today only one out of five businesses with a website having a mobile-friendly version. Agencies can help small businesses ensure that their websites load properly on smartphones and tablets, make use of click-to-call links, and include critical info like store location and operating hours.

David Booth, a Google certified trainer from US-based digital agency Cardinal Path, then took the podium to share his more than 10 years of experience running an agency that manages online marketing campaigns for SMBs. He shared practical tips for how to improve a client’s return-on-investment from their advertising budget and gave advice on how to run your agency more efficiently.

We also introduced the audience to the brand new Pages for Google+ offering, which is a way for organisations to connect with other people, brands, and businesses online. Google Engage agencies including Reload Media and Eminent Online Marketing have been quick to start taking advantage of Google+, as well as small businesses such as DUGG, a mens underwear retailer.

Armed with new tips and tricks, the attendees are ready to go help Australian small businesses become even more effective in their online marketing. Going into 2012 we’ll be taking some of our training events to Hangouts on Google+ to speak with our Engage participants more frequently. Watch this space for updates.

Posted by Richard Flanagan, Head of Small Business Marketing, Google Australia & New Zealand

Every search tells a story

2011-11-23T10:45:00.002+11:00

We’re constantly inspired by our users and how they rely on Google products to achieve the extraordinary. Today I want to share three amazing Australian stories.

A New/Old Prosthetic
Seven years ago Hobart motorcycle mechanic Mark Lesek lost his arm in an accident. Unhappy with the prosthetic he was given, Mark used Google Search to find patents and designs -- from the early 1900s -- to build a new one.

Neighbours in Need
As the waters moved in and destroyed countless homes during the Queensland floods helicopter pilot Mark Kempton and his team rescued 43 people from roof and treetops. With streets and landmarks submerged, Mark turned to Google Maps on his mobile to find people in distress. The heroism of Mark and his team has recently been recognised with a Pride of Australia award.

Ancient Ruins
Professor David Kennedy from the University of Western Australia uses Google Earth to scan thousands of square kilometers in Saudi Arabia and Jordan to discover ancient ruins. Most recently he uncovered thousands of prehistoric man-made stone structures across the Arabian peninsula -- without leaving his desk.

You can see more inspiring search stories from other people around the world on Search Stories.

Posted by Lucinda Barlow, head of marketing Google Australia and NZ

Our Mobile Planet - a new resource for mobile marketers

2011-11-16T15:15:00.007+11:00

A few weeks back we highlighted some of the most interesting statistics about how Australians use their smartphones, including the fact that Australia has the second highest smartphone penetration in the world.

Today we’re making it possible for anyone to dig through the thousands of data points that we collected, to come to your own conclusions, with Our Mobile Planet. This new website features an interactive tool that anyone can use to create custom charts that will help them understand the mobile consumer better and make the right decisions on their mobile strategy.

We encourage you to explore the site yourself, but in the meantime, here are some highlights on how you can use it:

Extensive data: See the penetration of smartphones across 30 markets, where and why people use smartphones, and what they do when they’re using them. Also get stats on mobile commerce behavior and perceptions of mobile advertising.
Powerful comparisons: Easily select multiple statistics and multiple countries to compare with one another.
Easy graphs: Once you’ve selected your data points and countries, it’s just a click of a button to create an image to embed in a presentation, or to download the data into a spreadsheet.
Segmentation: Cut the data by age, gender and/or intensity of internet usage.

To get started, visit www.ourmobileplanet.com.

Posted by Ryan Hayward, Product Marketing Manager, Asia-Pacific.

Doodle 4 Google winner doodles for “My Future Australia”

2011-11-16T10:22:00.001+11:00

In July we announced our latest Doodle 4 Google competition, in which we asked school students across Australia to draw their own version of the Google logo, inspired by the theme “My Future Australia.”

Now, 4500 doodles later, we can announce the winning doodle!

Congratulations to Timothy Winkels of Padua College Mornington in Victoria, whose winning doodle displayed his hope that a future Australia will have more National Parks and a cleaner, protected environment. “Sometimes nature is such a good refuge that I escape my own self,” wrote Tim about his work. “The environment saves me, so I am responsible enough to save it.”

His doodle was chosen by the original Google doodler Dennis Hwang, who appreciated the doodle’s skill and creativity, as well as the optimistic message and tone. “The longer you look at it, the more things you discover within it, which is not always easy to pull off,” he said.

Timothy’s doodle will be featured on google.com.au early next year.

Three of the age group winners spent yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Damian, Timothy and Christina were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the of the gallery and exhibitions and had their very own special portrait taken by the gallery’s multimedia expert and resident photographer Mark Mohell. The young doodlers also saw their work in a special digital display of the 32 doodle state and territory winners.

The day was not without drama when one of our age group winners, Ineka, missed the morning tour due to an earlier emergency appendectomy. But proving that you can’t keep a good doodler down, she came directly from hospital to accept her trophy in the afternoon. The NPG will arrange her own personal tour of the gallery when she’s up and about.

Thank you to all our thousands of doodlers from across Australia, and look out for Timothy’s doodle on our homepage.

Posted by Leticia Lentini, Event Marketing Manager, Google Australia.

2011 Christmas retail search trends: Santa’s got a smartphone

2011-11-10T12:22:00.005+11:00

While Christmas Day may be 6 weeks away, the Christmas shopping season is already in full swing, and everyone wants to know what’s in store for the millions of businesses, shops, and retailers looking forward to a very busy Christmas. We may not have a crystal ball, but we do have a good sense of what Australia’s Christmas shoppers are searching for online. So we started crunching the numbers to see what we could learn about how people are searching and shopping this year.

We discovered some interesting facts. First of all, 2011 is retail’s biggest year yet online--even bigger than the record-setting online shopping season driven by the strong Aussie dollar last year. Year over year, shopping-related searches are up 29%, making it more important than ever for businesses who want a piece of the action to get online.

However, it looks as though this year’s true Christmas miracle is mobile. While retail has posted impressive gains over last year’s season, the number of shopping queries coming from mobile devices increased 220% year on year. In fact, one quarter of all Christmas shopping-related Google searches this year now come from mobile devices.

This growth may be dramatic, but it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. As we revealed in September, Australia has the second-highest smartphone penetration in the world. And by the end of this year, more than 50% of Australian adults will own a smartphone--just in time for Christmas. They’re using those smartphones to research gifts and contact local businesses. 1 in 5 sometimes even bypass the PC to make online purchases directly via their mobile phones.

So what does this mean for retail? To start with, it means that more people are looking for them, in more ways, and in more places: on the bus, from the train, even from the sofa while watching TV. At the same time, it means Australian businesses can’t afford to ignore mobile--without mobile-friendly websites, they’re invisible to the shoppers who’re trying to find them.

The good news is that it’s fine to keep it simple--there’s no need to rush to build complicated mobile e-commerce websites or expensive mobile apps. 49% of the Australians we surveyed had used their smartphone to research and then call local businesses, while 45% visit a local business they’ve found using their smartphone. That means that most businesses can start by making sure their location, contact information, and opening hours are accessible on mobiles.

The Christmas season is a marathon that ends in a sprint, and there’s lots still to be learned from how people search. So stay tuned for updates as the shopping season unfolds.

Posted by Ross McDonald, Head of Retail, Google Australia & New Zealand

Creativity & Technology: Better Together, Especially with Cocktails

2011-11-09T18:09:00.003+11:00

Last night at the CarriageWorks in Sydney, Google Australia hosted Creative Sandbox. We wanted to celebrate the intersection of creativity and technology by bringing together people who excel on both sides of that equation: creatives and planners from Australia’s top agencies, big thinking advertisers, and developers with awesome skills in areas like mobile, HTML5, social, local and gaming.

More than 400 people came to the event to discover how Google technology can bring creative ideas to life. They played with creations like helicopter view for Google Maps, the new eBooks offering, and the Android-based game We Draw on a Google TV. There was plenty of interactive fun at the demo zones. Visitors interacted with our green screen to become part of YouTube classics like Beached Az, Tipp-Ex, or Volkswagen’s “The Force”. They could also get Androidified and take home a postcard souvenir.

New York-based Aussie and Google marketer Ed Sanders took the stage to share his golden rules for amazing creative campaigns: Know your users, know the magic of your product, and connect the two; innovation doesn’t require invention; real stories are better than fake ones; show don’t tell; and fast is better than slow.

The Communications Council also announced two new initiatives that bring your creativity to technology, developed in partnership with Google. Show & Tell is a gallery-style YouTube channel curated by AWARD, which will showcase the best creative work from Australia and New Zealand. They also shared an early demo of Trapeze, a web platform designed to help developers and creative types connect and collaborate.

For more from Google’s Creative Sandbox, put this page into one of your circles on Google+.

Posted by Kathryn Apte, Agency Marketing Manager, Google Australia & New Zealand

January	toowoomba
February	born this way
March	friday rebecca black
April	party rock anthem
May	bin laden
June	e3
July	moves like jagger
August	it girl
September	stereo hearts
October	mistletoe
November	skyrim
December	christmas songs