Many B-to-B bloggers have a problem: Most of their readership disappears on the weekends. Who wants to read industry news and analysis when they could be skiing, golfing or going to the beach? One blogger bucked that trend with a content strategy that reflects the spirit of the weekend, and traffic is up 400%. Leads for the company have increased, and they’ve solidified their position as a thought leader.
Special one-day offers are a staple for retailers, but many merchants don’t get the most out of their websites and email lists on those shopping days. See how a eretailer/manufacturer tested three offers and watched revenue jump 102% and conversions 29% for a Cyber Monday rollout.
[From time to time we invite guests to blog about initiatives of interest, and are very pleased to have Mr. Kennedy join us here. – Ed.]
In 1810, Thomas Jefferson wrote to a contemporary, “No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government.” Almost 200 years later, Google provides us all with unprecedented access to the world’s information. In Appalachia, nonprofit organizations are using that information in innovative new ways to reveal the destruction caused by mountaintop removal coal mining, and to demand for the people of Appalachia the “free and good government” that Jefferson envisioned.
If the American people could see what I have seen from the air and ground during my many trips to the coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia: leveled mountains, devastated communities, wrecked economies and ruined lives, there would be a revolution in this country. Thanks to Google Earth, you can now visit coal country without ever having to leave your home.
Every presidential candidate – and every American – ought to take a few seconds to visit an ingenious new website created by nonprofit organizations in Appalachia that lets you tour the obliterated landscapes of Appalachia. By entering your zip code into this amazing new website, you learn how you’re personally connected to mountaintop removal. Americans from Maine to California can see these mountains and the communities that were sacrificed to power their home. This puts a human face on the issue by highlighting the stories of families living in the shadows of these mines.
The site uses Google Maps and Google Earth as interfaces to a large database of power plants and mountaintop removal coal mines. A November 15, 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the site as one of the most cutting-edge uses of these powerful tools. And today, the Google Earth Outreach program is launching a featured case study about this project, along with additional resources for nonprofit organizations, in order to help spread the word and make these tools even more accessible to the public.
Each day coal companies detonate 2500 tons of explosives – the power of a Hiroshima bomb every week – to blow away Appalachian mountaintops to reach the coal seams beneath. Colossal machines then plow the rock and debris into the adjacent river valleys and hollows, destroying forests and burying free-flowing mountain streams, flattening North America’s most ancient mountain range. According to the EPA, 1,200 miles of American rivers and streams have already been permanently interred, leaving behind giant pits and barren moonscapes, some as large as Manhattan Island. I recently flew over one 18 square-mile pit – Hobet 21 – which you can now tour in Google Earth.
We are literally cutting down the historic landscapes where Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett roamed and that are so much the source of American’s values, character and culture.
Mountaintop mining poisons water supplies, pollutes the air, destroys hundreds of miles of North America’s most ancient and biologically diverse hardwood forests and permanently impoverishes local communities. For too long, this devastation has been hidden in the remote poverty-stricken communities of Appalachia. This new website finally exposes this national disgrace for every American to witness. Wherever you live, you have a connection – and a responsibility.
What Yahoo! and Microsoft can learn from IBM about staying relevant
Relocating for a new job comes with a special set of concerns. If the employer isn’t willing to meet your terms, you should think again
You have to watch what you do and think about what you say at all times because of the effect your behavior has on your team
To build a truly great, global business, business leaders need to adopt a global standard of ethical practices
Since its inception in 2005, our Open Source Programs Office has been responsible for maintaining license compliance within Google. And over the past three years, our mission has grown encompass even more activities that we hope are useful to our colleagues in the open source community: project hosting, releasing Google created code and funding open source development. We’ve also continued to get students involved in open source, recently debuting the Google Highly Open Participation Contest for secondary schoolers as a complement to our university program, Google Summer of Code.
When you have this much good news to share, you just have to create your own blog –so we did. Come check out the new Google Open Source Blog for regular updates on all of the above and, if you like what you see, subscribe.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, we announced a partnership with Nokia that will bring Google search to millions of Nokia phones. There’s more detail on the Google Mobile Blog.
From time to time, people share stories with us that are too good to keep to ourselves. Here’s one that an iGoogle user named Heather recently shared about how Gadget Maker helps her connect with her boyfriend Christopher.
“My boyfriend lives in Memphis and I live in Manhattan. We’ve each created a custom gadget for each other that we update every morning. Generally it’s a compliment, or song lyrics, or something related to an inside joke. It takes us 2 minutes to update every morning and helps us to stay connected in a small way every day. We also both have a countdown gadget on our homepage, which counts down the days until our next visit with each other. Thank you for helping ‘keep the magic alive’ with my boyfriend, even if he’s not here in person!”
As Valentine’s Day approaches, we wish Heather and Christopher the best. May their countdown go extra-fast this week. Heather shared one of her gadgets with us:
If you’re part of our gadget developer community, perhaps hearing about interesting and unique ways people are using gadgets will help spark some creative ideas. But whether you are HTML-savvy or not, and you want to show your sweetie how much you care, it’s very easy to be able to create gadgets. Just visit the Google Gadget Center or Gadget Maker and give it a try.
