Google | David Chan

Anatomy of a Google Plus Hangout

September 18th, 2011 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

Anatomy of a Google Plus Hangout

Google Plus Hangout is a Google product that allows groups of people to “hangout” over the Internet. Google Plus Hangout may very well be a parent’s best friend, especially if you are the parent of teenage kids who like to sneak out at night to hang out with their friends in the park. Oh, but, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The purpose of an online, planned or unplanned hangout makes a lot of sense. How many times have you wanted to chat with a group of your colleagues or friends but didn’t have any way to do this because of distance or a central place to meet? After all, we are social animals and have a need for human interaction.

Google Plus Hangout is a great start for that central hangout location. Think of it as Skype on steroids. With a Google Plus login and password, Internet connection and a now ubiquitous computer with webcam, you are ready to interact with friends and colleagues far and wide. Today’s limitation is that Google Plus Hangout can only support up to 10 real-time connections … that’s you and 9 of your friends or colleagues.

I had the opportunity to try out Google Plus Hangout with one of our clients, Grammy winner Patti Austin. The first live event was With Patti singing in a studio to a live audience of 9 fans. Woo Hoo! The quality of the video and audio was surprisingly good, especially considering that we were using a laptop computer hooked up to a high definition webcam. Both the artist and the fans LOVED the concept and wanted more.

Just a scant 2 weeks later, we gave them more. This time we decided to make a full on production out of this event. Not only did we have a Google Plus Hangout session, but we also had a live audience in studio with Patti Austin. And, because of the 10 person limitation of Google Plus, we decided to run 3 concurrent sessions. This was going to be sensational!

And so it was. There were a few glitches, of course. 1st, one of the laptops we were using for the event crashed the Google Plus Hangout session. Our conclusion is that the laptop just did not have enough processing power / memory combination. It was a Mac after all. The other 2 sessions on laptops with at least 4 gigs of memory ran like a charm.

Since we lost one of the hangouts we decided to stream it live on one of the other laptops on Ustream. This also added to the “cool factor” of this event. Now, we were not limited to just 27 people, but anyone with the Ustream URL could view the live concert with Patti Austin and “friends.” Over Facebook, we updated everyone in real time about the live Ustream feed.

Now, this type of production is not for the weak of heart. Not only did we have a live audience in studio, but also a live audience only IN ADDITION to a professional 3 person camera crew filming the whole event. Needless to say this set up was a thousand times more complex than most people will ever get in their own hangouts.

Back to Google Plus Hangout being a parent’s best friend. If you can convince your teenage kids that it’s better and SAFER to hang out with your friends virtually rather than in the park at 4am in the morning, you’re guaranteed to sleep much better at night.

Web Site Advertising for Local Businesses

January 17th, 2010 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

Web site advertising is the most efficient and cost effective option for small businesses these days. This is especially true for businesses who want exposure within their local market, city or county. Examples of local businesses include: real estate brokers, chiropractors, insurance agents and retail shops, to name a few.

There are a number of reasons why web site advertising is so effective. The most compelling reason is that the way people find businesses today has shifted dramatically over the last few years. It’s estimated that 70% or more of people now search for local businesses through online search engines, rather than the traditional methods.

Previously, people searched local listings in the newspaper and the yellow pages. These forms of discovery used to be very effective, especially since there really wasn’t much competition. However, the Internet and search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have changed the game dramatically. These changes are not just about a local company listing, but also about the company’s listing in context to another company’s listing.

Here’s an example of context-related web site advertising for local businesses. Someone looking for a “Turkish restaurant in NYC” would likely key that phrase into one of the major search engines. Google might display 7 or more restaurant profiles matching those criteria. But, in addition to the restaurant profiles, there would likely be links to their websites, restaurant reviews, and perhaps even 3rd party websites offering discount coupons. This is an example of how the search engines provide substantially more value than a static “print” advertisement.

Website advertising for local businesses also has the distinct advantage of precise marketing analytics. Small, local businesses don’t have the luxury of wasting advertising dollars guessing which of their campaigns was successful. With website advertising, every click and ultimate purchase can be tracked right down to the exact wording that drove the customer to the company’s website. In addition, company’s can rotate ADs to determine which one motivates the most number of people to “click through.”

By now, many people have heard of the phrase “getting on the first page of Google.” Statistics suggest that 80% of people searching on the Internet do not go past the first page of search results. These results include both the “paid” advertising slots and the “free” or what is typically called “organic” slots / results.

Just as in the traditional advertising world (print, radio, TV), website advertising for local businesses requires a thoughtful approach to strategy. For example, in the old cable TV world, one might ask “How large of an audience will see my AD?” or “Can I target only three metro cities, instead of the whole county?” The same thought process is necessary for website advertising. The differences; however, are mind-boggling.

For example, with website advertising you can literally put an AD up “on demand.” No more back and forth negotiating or proofing / re-proofing with the cable company. You can precisely target your ADs to a county, city or even zip code. And, you can turn an AD on or off in seconds.

This is just a primer on why website advertising for local businesses is so compelling. There are a thousand more examples of the advertising power of this new channel. The $64,000 question is “Are you ready for the Internet?”

Preparing for H1N1 Swine Flu the Google Way

September 3rd, 2009 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

I recently stumbled upon a site called, www.Google.org, while searching for something completely unrelated. What I found led me to an amazing discovery of how Google is leveraging its enormous data to help us prepare for H1N1 Swine Flu and many other diseases and possible pandemics.

We all know that data turned into useful information is a powerful tool for projecting population growth, tracking the trajectory of hurricanes and even predicting pandemic outbreaks. And what company has the pulse of global data collection better than Google?

Google is clearly on to something big with www.Google.org. The tagline on this website reads “Google.org aspires to use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age.” Essentially, Google is taking the data that people key into their search engine to map out where outbreaks of diseases are occurring. This is an effort to help people prepare for H1N1 swine flu and other infections. This, in essence is the Google way, indeed.

Let’s take a simple chart from their Flu Trends tab. Google believes that certain terms keyed into their search engine could be “good indicators of flu activity.” Armed with this data they can estimate flu activity up to two weeks faster than the old, traditional ways. Google has compared their results with those of traditional surveillance systems and found a precise correlation between them.

On this page from Google.org, http://www.google.org/flutrends/intl/en_us, US flu activity is shown as minimal in most of the US, except for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alaska, where the flu activity is registered as low. This same interactive chart also allows you to drill down state by state. This data, of course, will become increasingly more populated as the flu season gets into full swing.

Interestingly, this page, http://www.google.org/flutrends/intl/en_nz/, shows New Zealand as having a high flu activity, with a higher concentration of flu in the North Island. The Ministry of Health has recommended seasonal influenza immunization.

Now preparing for H1N1 swine flu the Google way is really more than just charts, graphs and pretty numbers. The purpose of the Google.org organization is to provide grants to people with innovative ideas in the area of disease control, green initiatives and much more. One of the recipients of a grant from Google is HealthMap. Among other things, they’ve launched an iPhone app called “Outbreaks Near Me.” This free app allows you to see what outbreaks have been reported near your neighborhood, work place or vacation destination.

Imagine the implications of this data collection and representation to the end users? This type of collaboration is one of the keys to building a better informed and prepared population. Of course, there are also other preventative measures against H1N1 swine flu, such as washing hands, eating right, and keeping your hands away from your face. But, who knows … preparing for H1N1 Swine flu the Google way just might keep you from venturing into an infected region in the first place!