Google Instant Search vs Billy Joel – Can it keep up?

Arcade Fire – The Wilderness Downtown

This interactive music video for Arcade Fire by those Google chaps shows some of the more amazing stuff possible with HTML5. And it all takes place in your hometown.

Really worth a look.

Editors replaced by robots

Must find CONTENT!

An astounding story that’ll make any editorial person’s blood run cold. A remorseless algorithm scours Google for search data and spews out an endless stream of editorial ideas. The ideas are turned into content by a global army of low-cost freelancers, who will soon be pumping out the equivalent of four English-language Wikipedias per month, according to Demand Media, the company behind this dark vision of the future. Click here for more.

Google Pac-Man costs 4.82 million productivity hours in one day

When Google launched its playable Pac-Man 30th anniversary Google Doodle last Friday, they thought it might be popular, but not quadruple visit times!
RescueTime, makers of productivity tracking and optimisation software found the following…
• 4,819,352 hours of time lost. This is above the 33.6 million man hours of attention Google gets on a regular day.
• More than $120 million in lost productivity, assuming the cost of the average Google user is $25 an hour (that’s pay plus benefits).
• For that same cost, you could hire all 19,835 google employees, from Larry and Sergey down to their janitors, and get 6 weeks of their time.

Thanks Kotaku

Creative Directors self-Google too!

When five top advertising Creative Directors Googled themselves, they got a message from this guy asking for a job. Could $6 worth of Google Adwords really work?

Everything you ever wanted to know about Google in one MASSIVE infographic

That was the Google year that was

The 2009 Year-End Google Zeitgeist is here spurting out details on our searching habits during the last 12 months. Here are some of the global and UK highlights. The full list is here. Tesco Direct as the number four global food and drink search is a surprise. Stunned that there are no references to more grubby search terms too.*

GLOBAL SEARCH TRENDS 2009

Fastest Rising Searches (Global)
1. michael jackson
2. facebook
3. tuenti
4. twitter
5. sanalika
6. new moon
7. lady gaga
8. windows 7
9. dantri.com.vn
10. torpedo gratis

Fastest Falling Searches (Global)
1. beijing 2008
2. euro 2008
3. heath ledger
4. barack obama
5. amy winehouse
6. kraloyun
7. dailymotion
8. bebo
9. wii
10. emule

Fastest Rising Entertainment Searches (Global)
1. michael jackson
2. transformers
3. eminem
4. naruto shippuden
5. beyonce
6. peliculas id
7. paranormal activity
8. anime online
9. natasha richardson
10. poker face lyrics

Fastest Rising Food & Drink Searches (Global)
1. acai berry
2. picnic
3. クックパッド
4. tesco direct
5. senseo
6. peanut butter recall
7. nespresso commande
8. habibs delivery
9. mocktail
10. masterchef australia

UK SEARCH TRENDS 2009

Fastest Rising Searches (UK)
1. facebook
2. jogos
3. ebay uk
4. yahoo mail
5. hotmail
6. bbc iplayer
7. hi5
8. stephen gately
9. bing
10. spotify

Most Popular Searches (UK)
1. facebook
2. bbc
3. youtube
4. hotmail
5. games
6. ebay
7. news
8. google
9. yahoo
10. bebo

Hottest news searches (UK)
1. swine flu
2. susan boyle
3. jade goody
4. robert pattison
5. rihanna
6. michael jackson
7. google maps
8. twitter
9. stephen gately
10. iran

Hottest tickets searches (UK)
1. lady gaga
2. michael jackson
3. taylor swift
4. whitney houston
5. pixies
6. jls
7. beyonce
8. green day
9. tinchy stryder
10. u2

*Come on, let’s be honest with ourselves.

The history of Google in two lovely minutes