“Hell froze over” when Google decided to actually pay for an ad during the Super Bowl in the United States this year. The ad however was  an ‘oldie’, a video called ‘Parisian Love’ in which searches on Google were shown. It was a nice video which had some response to it. But Google now decided it was gonna do more with that video and gave users the opportunity to create one of those videos themselves. They created Google (YouTube) Search Stories.

By simply putting in search terms, choosing where the search should go (images, web, blogs etcetera) and choosing the music you can make your very own ‘Parisian Love‘. Something which many now have done over the past few days. And so have I…

I decided to play around a little with the functionality and create my own video. You can find the result here:

What do you think? I must say it was pretty easy to create the actual video, but there were a couple of things I didn’t like. You don’t really have much control over it. Google decides which way the ‘camera’ rolls,

what you get to see and how long it shows the results. Plus because I didn’t like the results right away I kept re-doing it over and over so in the end it still took quite some time…

Plus, you can only see Google results (I know, the reason for Google doing this is to create more attention to searches, but still…).

So… I decided to take a shot at it myself using Camtasia. I used only one ‘take’ so sorry for the less quality in video, the ‘beauty mistakes’ and some typos. But in the end it took me less time than doing the Google story. Here’s the result:

So, what do you think, am I up for an Oscar? Guess not… but it does show that with a little bit of effort you can do stuff yourself which Google hands you. But then again, if you are ‘lazy’ things like Google Search Stories can be quite handy .

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

[lang_nl]Twitter mag dan in Nederland niet bij het ‘grote publiek’ erg hot zijn, het is wel een dienst waar de ene na de andere ‘mash-up’ voor verschijnt. Met een ‘mash-up’ wordt het samenvoegen van twee diensten bedoelt.

De nieuwste mash-up is er een van twee diensten die zeer veel gebruikt worden voor mash-ups: Google Maps en Twitter. Het onderwerp is deze keer de Amerikaans verkiezingen.

Hieronder zie je de Google Maps die weergeeft wat er in de VS op Twitter besproken wordt over Super Tuesday. Ook zijn Live Resultaten van de uitslagen te zien.

Kijk op Google Maps voor de volledige kaart. [/lang_nl][lang_en]Twitter may in Holland not be  ‘very hot’ with the general public, it is a service where one after another ‘mash-up’ appears. A ‘mash-up’ is the joining of two services.

The latest mash-up is one of two services which are very much used for mash-ups: Google Maps and Twitter. The subject this time is the US elections.

Here you see a Google Map which shows what is discussed on Twitter in the US discussed about Super Tuesday. Also Live Results can be seen.

Look at Google Maps for the full map. [/lang_en]

[lang_nl]Het gebruiken van mash-ups kan je website een extra stimulans geven. De diensten zijn vaak gratis dus het enige wat je moet doen is het combineren van de gegeven mogelijkheden. Voor een technisch ingesteld persoon is dit heel makkelijk. Voor een iets minder technisch persoon is het even wat uitzoekwerk maar ook goed te doen. [/lang_nl]
[lang_en]The use of mash-ups can be an extra incentive for your website. The services are free so the only thing you need to do is to combine the given opportunities. For a technical person that is very easy. For a little less technical person it’s a bigger effort, but it can be done. [/lang_en]
 

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer