The web is what you make it

Here is a clever video for Google:

The video tells the story of G. Rajendran, an artist from Southern India who used Google AdWords to revive the dying art form Tanjore, becoming a successful business man in the process. 

Here is a video for Google Maps:

A giant cube replica of New York city was placed inside a gyroscope to show how Google Maps can provide live traffic updates, bus maps and GPS navigation.  All with an extremely cool low-fi, Rube-Goldbergesque quality.

Google Video in real life

Here is an ambient ad for Google Video:

The outdoor campaign included see-through billboards against a background of real-life action which showcased these Google search terms in real life: 

A crowd of tourists, people waiting, traffic signs changing, busy airfield, people eating fast food, people getting into cabs, people going up and down, people crossing the street.

2011 was a year of ...

Here is the Google Zeitgeist 2011 video, a year of search:

Chrome makes your bots go faster

Here's an ad from the UK for Google Chrome:

The little toys speed up every time it passes through the Chrome frame, showing how everything runs faster in the Chrome browser.

A moustache-filled video resume

It's a competitive job market out there.  What do you do if you have your heart set on working at Google?  Here's one bloke who created this video resume:

It was a bit of a let down when he took of his delicious mustache. But he does keep it mustachlicious on googlepleasehire.me

Great stuff from Google

This first Google spot has so many things I like.  1)  Anthropomorphized things.  2)  Miniaturized things. 

This tiny little bakery finds itself sandwiched in between two mega shoplexes, with none of the heavy foot traffic heading over in its direction.  So the bakery whips out its laptop and starts a Google AdWords Express campaign, and pretty soon people searching on their Android-powered smart phones are visiting this lovely little organic, anthromorphosized bakery.  Google saves the day!  

This second spot is an Email Intervention: 

I have often wanted to this in real life.  I am very much a drinker of the Gmail kool-aid, and I don't understand why people hesitate to switch over.  I hear your arguments of how you value your "data" and the old argument of ...'well, my people know this as my email address, I don't want to switch now.'   Stuff and nonsense.  Changing over to a hep email address will communicate how you're "with it" instead of clinging onto that @DinosaurDomain.com email address, exposing how out of touch you are to modern technology.  As far as your precious data is concerned, #GetOverIt. 

The Email Intervention video has an associated website, which gives the step-by-step process of how to send the Gmail Intervention video to people in your Gmail contact list who have no idea about the joys of Conversation View, Priority Inbox, Gmail Keyboard shortcuts [just keep hitting "J" -- Woohoo!  You've read all the important messages in your inbox]

Google SLAM dunk

Here are some spots from the Google Demo slam series, testing Google products in interesting ways:

Chubby Bunny:

These kids have taken the Chubby Bunny game onto another level as they test their marshmellow-stuffed mouths using the Google mobile search app to see if each participant is enunciating Chubby Bunny well enough.

Extra Spicy:

Using Google Translate, these girls phone order two sides of batsmati rice, fish curry and six samosas.  In Hindi.  

Realtime Karaoke:

These rockers use Google search's realtime Twitter search feed to create an impromtu song around the search term "babe."

Route 66:

Using Google Street View, these virtual roadtrippers project their journey along historic route 66.  Some nice touches include the crew actually stopping at a street-view red light and pulling over for burgers.

Rushmore:

Using Google Goggles, they use the image search app to determine if Google's technology could recognize a humanized mini-replica of Mount Rushmore.

There are more Slam tests on Google's YouTube page.

Allow Google Voice to pronouce that for you

The OOH campaign for the Google Voice mobile search app in the UK includes billboards with pronunciations of London Underground tube stops as well as things people search for on their mobile while out and about:

Taxi Numbers (tak-see num-buhz)

Travel Updates (trah-vuhl up-deyts)

Ticket Reservations (ti-kit reh-zer-vey-shunz)

 Latest Scores (ley-tist skohrz)

Restaurant reviews (res-tront ree-vyooz)

 FTSE 100 (foot-see wun-hun-dred)

 

 Exchange Rates (eks-cheynj reyts)

Cinema Times (si-neh-mar tymz)

Some Google adverts along the Tube included:

Leicester Square (les-tuh skwair)

Marylebone (mar-lee-boan)

Oxford Circus (oks-fuhd sur-khus)

Piccadilly Circus (pih-ka di-lee sur-khus)

 Covent Garden (koh-vunt gar-duhn)

The billboards get your attention because of its minimalistic design and the fact it's just a bunch of gobbledygook thrown on a wall.  The tag "say it to get it," instructs the viewer to say it out loud, and it does take a few seconds to figure out the ad.  But it doesn't take too long where the viewer starts to lose interest.  Figuring out what the ad says is an interactive game in a sense.

What do you use Twitter for?

Overall, I like this Twitter advert.  They have a hodgepodge of celebrities/experts showing why and how they use Twitter.  But the pace of the video is a bit slow and it goes on a little too long. 

Considering the brand is a real-time, fast-paced environment, this advert seems contradictory to the product.  The astronaut part is interesting, in the fact you can tweet from outer space.  I wonder if @Astro_Paolo has checked in.  But seriously, this ad clocks in under 3 minutes, which [once again] goes against the whole Twitter brand of nano-communication.  But I guess they're focusing on the connection that can occur on this channel.

The copy being typed in to the box is a little too reminiscent of Google's better advert, which has a focused, developed storyline:

 

I wonder about the musicians they have chosen to highlight in the video.  I am a big fan of @Yelle but 1) don't follow them because they're not a grand Twitter tour de force.  It's interesting they didn't choose to highlight some of the people who have made Twitter a phenomenon, such as Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, Justin Bieber*... etc. [Twitter has servers devoted to 3% of their Justin-Bieber-related content].

But I guess they're trying to make the Twitter brand a wholesome environment filled with discovery rather than the noisy marketplace it is.  They have inadvertently showcased what the Twitterverse is truly like: a bunch of people yakking in less than 140 characters with no real story behind it. 

Let's chromercise!

Here's a video for Chrome that is really clever.  

It is a bit long.  They could have shaved a minute off and it would have probably been more effective.  Maybe the part about mom's email?  It took me a while to figure out the Chromercisers were doing finger spinning [delayed reaction: oh those are mini bikes] and the remix neon colors bit could have been cut.  The C-H-R-O-M-E sweatbands* are hilarious.  And the shower scene at the end was great. 

*phalanges bands?