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Tuning in to TV data
May 6, 2009
This post is the latest in an ongoing series on
The Power of Measurement
. Previous topics have covered ways to make your website as successful as possible through tools such as
Analytics
and
Website Optimizer
. -Ed.
What if the ads we saw when watching TV were always just what we wanted to see? Well, we believe it
is
possible to make TV ads more relevant to viewers and to deliver more value to advertisers.
Television is becoming more like the web. Just as users click with their mouse to choose what's most relevant to them on the web, viewers send signals about what they want to see on television with clicks of the remote control.
Each week, Google analyzes data from millions of anonymized set-top boxes (STBs) to see which channels they were tuned to second by second. This data is provided by our partner, EchoStar. We're then able to use
tuning metrics
to provide our advertisers with
next-day reports
of how many televisions showed their ads nationwide and how the audience responded with their remotes.
We look at the various tuning metrics as signals from the audience about what they want to see and when. One of the metrics we've been exploring is the
% Initial Audience Retained
(%IAR). This is the percentage of the audience that was present at the beginning of the ad and then stayed tuned-in through the entire ad. If most viewers see an ad they like and decide to stay tuned-in, that ad would have a high %IAR.
Many factors affect audience behavior, including the nature of the programming, the time of day, the day of week, and, of course, the personality of each viewer. But ads themselves also have an impact. By identifying which factors affect tune-away, we can focus in on how the audience reacted to the ad itself.
Check out this video to learn what we found:
The chart below shows all TV commercials that aired on the Google TV Ads platform August through November 2008. Each dot represents an ad, and they are lined up from left to right in order of their %IAR as compared to what we'd expect given other factors (e.g., time of day, network, etc). The red dots on the left represent ads where more audience
tuned away
than expected. The green dots on the right represent ads where more of the audience
stayed tuned
than expected. The black dots in the middle are "normal," meaning there was no significant difference between the audience retention for those ads versus what you would expect based on historical data.
(Click on the image for a full-size version)
The next question we wanted to answer was how well this historical data could predict the future audience reaction. If we can use the past to predict the future, then we can get closer to putting relevant ads in front of TV viewers. So we selected one ad with relatively high audience tune-away (red dot) and one ad with relatively low tune-away (green dot) to run side-by-side on national television to test our findings. In the graph below, the diagonal line shows where audiences reacted the same to both ads. The points above that line represent airings when more of the audience stayed tuned to the ad that had previously retained audiences better. We learned audiences reacted predictably to the two ads.
(Click on the image for a full-size version)
Through our analysis of tuning data from millions of set-top boxes, we're getting closer to matching the right ads to the right television audience. It takes a lot of processing power to make sense of the enormous amount of data, but the insights to be gleaned are very powerful. Not only are we able to offer advertisers better measurement and more accountability for their TV campaigns, our goal is to also create a better viewing experience for TV audiences by showing viewers what they want to see.
Posted by By Dan Zigmond, Technical Lead for Google TV Ads
Reducing our carbon footprint
May 6, 2009
In June 2007 Google made a voluntary commitment to
become carbon neutral
. To honor this commitment, we calculated our global carbon footprint, purchased high-quality carbon offsets, and worked with a
third party
to certify our calculations and validate our offset portfolio. Through this process, we've neutralized all of Google's 2007 emissions, as well as part of our 2008 emissions. We'll continue to invest in offset projects until we reach carbon neutrality.
Offsets are only a small part of what we are doing to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. While offsets with strong
additionality
can achieve real emissions reductions in unregulated sectors at a relatively low cost, we view them as a short-term solution for Google, not as a substitute for other action. They provide a way for us to take responsibility for our emissions now, while we continue to advocate the development of utility-scale renewable energy. Current standards for offsets require a significant amount of work to evaluate the quality of each offset project and ensure that projects go beyond "business as usual." Stronger additionality standards -- that are more stringent, clear, and objective -- would also make it simpler for corporations like Google to use offsets as part of an overall strategy to neutralize emissions.
While we do plan to continue with the purchase of offsets to neutralize the emissions we cannot eliminate through efficiency or renewable energy, our green team will focus on what we do best -- engineering technology solutions. We've seen the success of transportation and IT efficiency programs like
RechargeIT
and the
Climate Savers Computing Initiative
, and the potential of renewable power and energy information initiatives such as
RE<C
and
Google PowerMeter
.
The best way to reduce our corporate footprint is to not use electricity in the first place. Google will continue to reduce our emissions directly by building and designing some of the world's most
efficient data centers
as well as using
on-site renewable energy
to power our facilities. Over the last five years, we have eliminated over half the emissions we would have produced in the absence of these critical measures. Offsets serve to neutralize the rest. In the future, we will continue to drive for improvements in energy efficiency and to find affordable sources of renewable energy.
Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar
Larry Page's University of Michigan commencement address
May 6, 2009
Over the weekend Larry Page delivered the commencement address at his alma mater and encouraged grads to "get a little crazy." Video of his speech was recently posted and we wanted to share it with our readers. You can also read the
full transcript
.
Posted by Susan Straccia, Google Blog team
Google Trends on your website
May 6, 2009
One thing we've noticed here at Google over the years is that the more popular something becomes, the more people search for it online. Our annual
zeitgeist
catalogs some of the more interesting trends we've seen in a year's worth of web search data. We also like to keep our eye out for more timely events, such as the
U.S. presidential inauguration
.
As we head into the last month of this season's "American Idol," we thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce our new
embeddable Google Trends gadget
to track your favorite trends, right on your own website. It's as easy as "cut and paste" to showcase the rising popularity of your own idols, even if they're not on a hit television show. You get to choose which trends you want to track.
I've been using
Google Trends
to follow my favorite "Idol" contestants for the past three years. It all started in 2006 when I was a
Chris Daughtry
fan. Looking at the search trends I could tell I wasn't the only one, and I felt pretty good about the odds that Chris was going to fare well against the other contestants.
Going into the final four, Chris had a lead on
Elliott Yamin
, and I was pretty confident he'd advance. But over the week leading up to the performance, Chris' lead began to diminish. Despite his early lead, Chris ended up getting eliminated. I was totally bummed, but wasn't all too surprised given that they were neck and neck on Trends days before elimination night.
Fast-forward to 2008. I was rooting for
David Cook
, and after each performance I'd check so see how he was doing on Trends.
I was excited to see him getting more and more popular each week, and each week I could rest a little easier when I found out that David was more popular than the other contestants. David ended up walking away with the crown that year, and I had finally picked a winner!
This year, I had the good fortune of attending an "American Idol" show in person. Not really knowing what to expect, I was completely blown away by the evening's final performance:
Adam Lambert
's rendition of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World." I could literally feel the building move under my feet from his powerful vocals and the roar of the crowd. Since then I have been an Adam fan all the way. And just when I thought that
Allison Iraheta
was closing in, Adam raised the bar yet again with his rockin' performance of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." Let's see what Google Trends has to say about Adam this week. And if after last night's show you're worried that your favorite "Idol" had a bad night and might not make it to the next round, see if you can
glean some insights
from the search trends.
Posted by R.J. Pittman, Director, Product Management
More tools and tricks for teachers
May 5, 2009
Hello teachers,
We hope that your desk was deluged with a bunch of shined-up apples this morning as a thank you from your students for all that you do for them every day. At Google, we'd like to thank you as well, and acknowledge that we wouldn't be where we are today if it hadn't been for the great teachers who mentored us through school.
In support of
National Teacher Day
, we'd like to announce that applications are open for our next
Google Teacher Academy
, which will take place in our
Boulder, Colorado office
on Wednesday, August 5th. The Google Teacher Academy is a free professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products, which will help you bring communication, collaboration and fun into your classrooms. Teachers will also learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.
Applications
are due Friday, July 3rd.
We'd also like to thank our cadre of Google Certified Teachers, who spread all kinds of professional development love every day. Specifically, we'd like to highlight GCT Jerome Burg, whose
Google Lit Trips
was recently awarded the
2008 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize
for Excellence in International Education in Media and Technology. Google Lit Trips uses the technologies of
Google Earth
and social networking to bring literature to life through virtual mapping. By placing markers on Google Earth tracking the journeys of characters from literature and populating those placemarks with a wide variety of supplemental resources, students can “ride along as virtual passengers” on the same journey the characters are taking. The site gives teachers access to previously constructed Google Lit Trips as well as the ability to interact and post new trips online. Congratulations, Jerome — you couldn't have made us prouder!
Update:
Corrected the application due date.
Posted by Cristin Frodella, Product Marketing Manager
More ways to share your Google Latitude location
May 4, 2009
A few months ago, we introduced
Google Latitude
, a new feature for mobile and iGoogle that lets you share your location with your friends. Since the launch, a lot of you have asked "What if I want to share my location with people who are not my Latitude friends?" Today, we're happy to release two applications that make that possible.
Google Talk location status (beta)
automatically updates your Google Talk or Gmail chat status message with your Latitude location. With this application enabled, all of your chat buddies can see your most recent city-level location. The
Google Public Location Badge
lets you publish your Latitude location on your blog or website. You can choose to show just the city that you are in or you can have your device's location detected automatically, using GPS, Wi-Fi, or cell tower ID, which provides a more specific location. To read more about these new features, visit the
Google Mobile Blog
.
If you're already a Latitude user, give the
new apps
a try. If you don't have a Google Latitude account, sign up and start sharing your location now. We take your privacy very seriously and you can read the privacy notice on the application pages for more information.
In the near future, we hope to offer a way to share your location in even more applications. If you have any suggestions or comments, please visit our
Product Ideas page
.
Posted by Rohan Seth & Chris Lambert, Software Engineers, Google Mobile
Mowing with goats
May 1, 2009
At our
Mountain View headquarters
, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard. This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we've rented some goats from
California Grazing
to do the job for us (we're not "kidding"). A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.
Posted by Dan Hoffman, Director Real Estate and Workplace Services
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