I usually use firefox now, but I just used IE for something and noticed this:
It reads: “Firefox with Google Toolbar: tabbed browsing, safer surfing.” and has spreadfirefox.com in the url. This doesn’t really show much about the tabbed browsing feature. It also looks suspiciously like a banner ad.
“There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.”
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/about-aol-announcement.html
Of course they already have used graphic ads on their pages before, but they were less banner like. Danny Sullivan pointed this out late December 2005. It looks to me like this latest add is the most banner like so far - and is relatively new. Based on other posts I am guessing this happened a few days ago on 4/26. According to these reports the reason for the ad is to “help provide our users with a great search experience”.
Google’s Ten things Google has found to be true has changed from:
“Google has also proven that advertising can be effective without being flashy. Google does not accept pop-up advertising or rich media ads. Text ads that are properly keyword-targeted draw much higher clickthrough rates than flashing banner ads appearing randomly.” [emphasis added]
Internet Archive - June, 2004
to what it is today:
“Google has also proven that advertising can be effective without being flashy. Google does not accept pop-up advertising, which interferes with your ability to see the content you’ve requested. We’ve found that text ads (AdWords) that are relevant to the person reading them draw much higher clickthrough rates than ads appearing randomly.”
While it is debatable whether this ad is “evil” (I don’t think it is that evil), but this is EVIL:
The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google
“They’ll be released over the next 24 days, in the form of six different challenges at four difficulty levels, with enough variety that I think everyone will be able to find something they like and play it over and over — although if you’re in the U.S., you’ll want to try to complete all 24 and make it to the Final Challenge, where I hear there’s a pretty nice prize package awaiting the winner.”
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/can-you-crack-code.html
“One (1) new Daily Puzzle will be released via the Module (”Puzzle Release”) every twenty-four (24) hours along with Game Play Instructions for that particular Puzzle beginning on or about 1:00 p.m. EDT on April 17, 2006.”
http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicodequest/us/rules/
“Over a span of 24 days ending May 11th, you will encounter unique challenges. These daily puzzles will pull you deeper into the world of The Da Vinci Code. Answer all 24 puzzles correctly for a chance to win untold riches. ”
http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicodequest/
Now I like puzzles, and enjoyed reading The Da Vinci Code, but felt let down by it supposed facts when they were intermingled with almost all fictional details about history. Historical fiction is fine, but Dan Brown outright lies on the stuff he implies is true. However - it is a big selling novel - and I probably will see the movie.
My problem is this - this contest is misleading. You don’t have to solve 24 puzzles. You have to solve much more than that - and it is a blatant sales pitch for google, the movie, and the book.
The first puzzle, actually a fun Sudoku like puzzle, I solved and thought, “Well I don’t know if I will do this every day, but it seems fun enough - who cares about the contest.” Unfortunately, this site was slow as balls (Matt Cutts seemed to fine that description humorous for some reason.)
After solving the puzzle I get another puzzle, but this one isn’t fun. In fact it is just a way to try to make you read the story or visit the site about the movie. It is a picture of Tom Hanks from the movie with “Please name the symbol on Robert Langdon (pictured at left).” and a blank for you to type in the answer. It notes, “a visit to www.SoDarkTheConOfMan.com might prove fruitful.” That is just the website for the movie. It is much faster now, but before it was very slow and I could not find the answer (blade).
It is a shame to see Google attach its name to something so slow and pushy. It is much, much faster now, but I assume I am not the only one put off by the initial slowness and effort that needs to be put forth for a “contest”. Some people are spending some time on this:
“Jeez, I’ve been working on the Day 13 symbol challenge for an hour or two now and it is really giving me a headache, I have no idea on how to work this and I have never done Sudoku puzzles either can someone help me please, everytime I think I’ve got it right it says I’m wrong, the other ones were easier.”
and frustrated:
“THis stupid symbol game……..There is no such thing as yottagrams I have looked on every search engine I have heard of and haven’t found anything…………..”
“I am STILL stuck on #12!! I am so annoyed. I have the googlemap and have been clicking furiously, but nothing happens. I cannot load the image posted by Hungrytrash so nicely because it directs me to a site that says the image could not load.”
“Solved all the puzzles so far, but the geography puzzle never downloads. did anyone else have this problem??”
“This competiton is just an advertisment for themselves! All you have to do is google search all of the questions and the answer is there! sooo easy!”
“Okay… what do you use for search terms on day 10 on Google Video?? I tried a lot of things. Is it the movie trailer?”
“Post 273 is wrong….. use all your senses to get the answer to that one.
Has anyone gotten the conductance quantum times the magnetic flux quantum in zeptocoulombs?”
I could go on and on, but there are 479 comments in that thread as of now, and I only read about a third of them. You can see that is an attempt to get people to use Google more and learn about the book and movie. These are the things people are having trouble with - the information demands, and not the actual puzzles.
It is supposed to be a contest and not a time share sales pitch. The rules are long, but basically only one person wins anything of value ($30,000+ trip to France with a bunch of other stuff) and up to 10,000 people win “a limited edition Cryptex replica. ARV of each Finalist Prize is: $30″ which is part of the final puzzle challenge - and hopefully no one will have to go to the “original written essay on a subject related to The Da Vinci Code” tiebreaker (not joking).
I think it would actually be somewhat fun if they didn’t make you learn how to use Google’s products and more about the movie and book. They are getting way more in value than they are handing out.
) and that chess thing has the questions to provide the answers to which move to make..well, its pretty simple save for the symbles one (i know people that have no problems with that, but for me..it is a headache..meh).
Not that I think I’m a genius, but to be honest I have no idea why so many people are complaining in that thread- the puzzles aren’t terribly difficult. Maybe you just need to know how to use the internet as research tool? Could that be an explanation?
Left by Rowena on May 2nd, 2006