An interesting partnership has developed between Yahoo and Nectar which enables the user to benefit by gaining a Nectar point for every two searches made and rewards them with 100 points for the initial download. This an interesting concept as it gives the user personal benefit for choosing to use Yahoo for their searches.

This may work out quite well for Yahoo if the word gets out as any money savers, reduced isle people, or supermarket point collectors may see this as an easy way of earning points and would probably download this just for the inital 100 points – I already have. Time will tell how many people use this as their everyday search engine tool and not just make a random 100 Yahoo searches as a quick method of earning the maximum 50 points each month – I’ve already done this and still have Google as my default. Will any success stories come from this?

http://www.nectar.com/collect/toolbar/home.points?offer=ES100YAH01

So a quick thought for Friday; oranges, mandarins, clementines, tangerines or satsumas, which to have, what’s the best?  Me, I’m a clementine or satsuma person, but what are other peoples thoughts?  Dan apparently likes oranges, but which would you choose.

This decision puts me in mind of the funny but factual stand up comedy of Eddie Izzard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh5a0ucs8kQ

Share your thoughts, which fruit, questions on fruits, any random Friday fruit thought you might think of.

Another quick random thought: how many of your five a day can fruit cake account for and does it  work out that the more slices you have the more it accounts for?  hmmm

With video now being readily available online the use of searching for information on sites such as You Tube has inevitably gone up.  Only the other day I searched You Tube for instructions to some DIY job where instead of just reading a 10 step how to guide, I was able to watch a 3 minute video clip showing the whole process start to finish. 

You Tube has now begun the presence of promoted videos giving you the control of when your ads can appear on the site.  Much in the same way of managing your keywords and ad text for activity in the search engines it is now possible to manage your ads on You Tube.  The natural listings and sponsored listings on You Tube appear in the same order as you would expect to see on a classic search engine layout with the added thumbnail image next to your ad text.  The positioning of the ad also works in much the same way using an equation of quality score and your bid level.  With online video becoming readily available I feel this will hold some great potential for some clients, using the powers of sight, sound and motion to educate and engage with the users driving brand awareness and increasing conversions.

The other week I engaged in a conversation which brought back a flood of memories.  The conversation started with me and a friend in that all too well known situation of sitting and watching the telly but being too lazy to turn the channel having of course lost the control (which I later found I was sitting on). 

After a great viewing of ‘Sponge Bob Square Pants’ we were faced with some very lame children’s programs.  The topic which inevitably followed was a comparison of today’s children’s telly against the stuff we remembered back from our childhood.  Of course the stuff we remembered was far better with some brilliant programs we that we managed to recollect. 
Favourite 5 were:
Fraggle Rock
Trap Door
Danger Mouse
Thundercats
Gummy Bears

This then brought us onto the best characters from these programs.
Penfold- Danger Mouse
Morph- Hart Beat
Odie- Garfield
Snarf- Thundercats
Gorden Gopher- Childrens BBC

I believe that’s a pretty good list but I got to say I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten some good other ones (like Roland Rat that has just sprung to mind!).  Feel free to add to the list and help prove things were better ‘back in t’day’.

Google Street View has now covered over 100 cities world wide but has had lots of concern.  Lots of complaints have been made such as a couple from Pittsburgh who lost their court case claiming Google Street View was a reckless invasion of their privacy. 

Recently Google has agreed to re-shoot the cities in Japan with lower angled cameras after many privacy complaints. 

On Tuesday Greece’s data protection agency banned Google from expanding its service pending additional privacy guarantees on top of the blurred faces and number plates that Google already offers.  Britain has seen Google’s camera car get blocked in by residents of Milton Keynes in April as it was taking pictures of their houses, and heard such stories as a wife filing for divorce after finding a picture of her husband’s car parked outside another women’s house.  Britain’s Privacy Watchdog has rejected calls to shut Street View down but have said the Greeks’ decision would set a precedent for other nations.

I myself have enjoyed the embarrassing and sometimes weird pictures caught of alien phenomena ( ET phone home!), crime in process, and blokes just exiting their local adult store.  Some people were even ready to pose as the car drove past as you will find in Putney with the ‘Where’s Wally’ character (I won’t tell you where in Putney as it might ruin the fun for you)…. All rather amusing I think.  Yes, some images such as car accidents and indecency have been found to appear on it but can be removed once reported to Google.  I find the tool most useful, especially during my search for a house where I was able to scope out the local areas without leaving my front door.

I’m sure there’s a lot more to come on this topic though as a lot of people don’t share my view.

ET Phone Home!

 Break In?

 Where’s Wally!