Feeling Sick? Google “Flu Trends” Tool Smarter Than The CDC

A new study in Clinical Infectious Diseases shows that Google Flu Trends can predict surges in hospital flu visits more than a week before the Center for Disease Control (CDC). For the study, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researchers compared Baltimore-specific data from the Google Flu Trends website, which estimates influenza outbreaks based on online searches for flu information, to ED crowding and laboratory …

Favorite Commercials: The muppets join a social network – hanging out in Google+

I must say that I am impressed with Google’s marketing efforts lately. The commercial about Search Your World/Walking on the Internet was impressive and now the Muppets! For more on their complete campaign, including retired basketball stars: Google accelerated advertising for its social network by showcasing Jim Henson’s The Muppets in a new commercial about …

Favorite Commercials: Search your world (Google) with people walking on the internet

I love this commercial for the sheer amount of props they add in. It starts out with your basic webpage upon which they tape a piece of paper. Next they drop a clothesline across the page to hang photos and paper books. Then they cut loose and let people and dogs walk all over the …

The most interesting man in the world…on Google+

Whenever I watch those Dos Equis commercials about the ‘most interesting man in the world,’ I can’t help but imagine the real person. I’m sure we’ve all encountered several of them in our lives. Well it turns out that I’ve found one in a social networking site. His name is Trey Ratcliff and I consider …

Photos of the Google Street View car, snowmobile, bicycle, and push-cart

The cameras behind Street View from Google have covered large parts of the globe and even many indoor locations. But, have you ever wondered what the vehicles carrying those cameras look like? Cars

Winter watercolor – a beautiful illustration of a pretty girl

Pen, ink, watercolor. Winter inspired ink drawing for the cold days that have dominated our December. This drawing is based on one of my student assistants. It is a relatively quick portrait sketch. The fun part is working with a model that has large expressive-eyes. The addition of a “fur” neck-warmer seemed to balance out …

Is it true that Facebook sells my name and contact info to make money?

When I last logged into Facebook there was a big info box called “About Ads.” I clicked on it and found this: Is it true that Facebook sells my name and contact info to make money? No. Facebook does not sell your personal information. Facebook makes its money from showing you ads. In other words, …

Dave Matthews Band – free live albums on Google Music

Found from an ad (on my own site) are these two free Dave Matthews Band albums. Irving Plaza (live), 1994 Live on Lakeside, 2011 Both are from Google Music which means you can listen online forever or download for your own collection.

Adsense funds creativity – big time! – Online advertisers spending 100s of millions

I pay attention to advertiser spending because it’s how I make my living. It’s also how Google has come to dominate the world, making $3 billion a month on advertising. Which makes it all the more interesting to see who is funding all this. Here is the top ten list, in millions. The top spender …

Why does Mark Zuckerberg hate “beta” development?

You know how everything Google does is launched in a “beta” mode. They know that their products are most likely going to break, fail, or simply invade your privacy. Google is so obsessed with beta releases that they often leave them in perpetual beta. So why is Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg so against beta? This …