Search Engine Land has a row of buttons atop every page, and today I noticed the last button in the row:
The button links to this page, also shown in the screenshot in an inaccurately composited way, hints towards some sort of cool new column or feature. I just found the link funny.
What do you think it’s gonna be?
Check out this website, another one of those Flash things where a huge fight breaks out. I just wish there was some easy way to record the Flash animation and put it on YouTube. Check it out and enjoy.
Did you watch the last episode of The Sopranos last night? Certainly, millions and millions did, and Google Hot Trends shows what people are looking for in the aftermath.
If you are avoiding spoilers, stay off the internet. I won’t give away anything major, but there are little details here that will annoy you. All numbers given are the highest rankings on Google Hot Trends I’ve seen over the last few hours:
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At number six: Arthur Nascarella, the guy who plays Carlo. You remember Carlo last night? Well, maybe you couldn’t find him. Also, Carlo Gervasi is number 13, and “Carlo Sopranos” at number 23, and “Carlo from the Sopranos” at number 73.
At number nine: Jamie Lynn Sigler, who plays Tony’s daughter, Meadow.
At number 11: the Barque of Dante. Why? A theory put forth on this season of The Sopranos is that it follows the nine circles of hell from Dante’s The Divine Comedy. This leads up to the fact that there have been similarities pointed out “between the Eugene Delacroix painting “The Barque of Dante” and the Annie Leibovitz promotional image on the season five DVD set”.
At number 14: Sopranos creator David Chase.
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At number 17: Sopranos ending. Not surprisingly. Related searches: sopranos ending spoiler, sopranos sucked, sopranos ending sucked, sopranos ending review, sopranos finale sucked. Also at 32 is Sopranos finale.
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At number 21: Nikki Leotardo. Who doesn’t know to use a parking brake. Nicky Leotardo is 36.
At number 48: James Gandolfini, good old Tony Soprano.
At number 52: Edie Falco, Carmela Soprano.
At number 53: Emily Wickersham, who played AJ’s gal pal Rhiannon in a certain “hot” scene last night.
At number 59: Sopranos final scene. You know the one where ____________
At number 62: Phil Leotardo, who made sure to watch his head.
At number 69: Paolo Colandrea, owner of Paul’s Penndel Pizza, from the ____ ending.
At number 73: Sopranos reviews.
At number 82: Sopranos movie.
At number 85: Meadow Soprano.
At number 86: Sopranos Season 5 DVD.
At number 87: Patsy Parisi, a soldier in the Soprano crew.
At number 88: “Don’t Stop Believing lyrics”. From the Journey song I’ve been listening to non-stop since yesterday.
At number 90: Louis Crugnali, who played the deceased Carlo Renzi. Probably a lot of people being mistaken at the wrong Carlo.
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At number 95: Soprano characters and number 100 “Sopranos cast“.
Google has launched a mobile capability for Google Checkout, letting merchants who use the payments service upgrade to be able to process payments from mobile phones. This could be a pretty useful feature if a store utilizes it properly, though I don’t remember the last time I was tempted to buy something from my phone. However, in theory it could be used for ringtone, wallpaper, and mobile game sales.
Also, worth noting that the details of what Google Checkout will cost next year have been released. While Checkout processing fees have been waived for all of 2007 (meaning Google isn’t making one dime off the service), starting in 2008 Google will charge processing fees of 2% commission plus 20 cents per transaction. However, Google will continue to use Checkout as incentive for AdWords advertising spending, gifting advertisers with free use of Checkout at ten times their ad spend (in other words, $10 of AdWords spending gives you $100 free off Checkout).
How does that compare to PayPal? In almost every case, Google is cheaper:
| Monthly Sales | Price Per Transaction | |||
| $0.00 USD-$3,000.00 USD | 2.9% + $0.30 USD | |||
| $3,000.01 USD-$10,000.00 USD | 2.5% + $0.30 USD | |||
| $10,000.01 USD-$100,000.00 USD | 2.2% + $0.30 USD | |||
| $100,000.00 USD | 1.9% + $0.30 USD | |||
In every tier, Google is cheaper except the last one, with a 2% commission. In the last tier, Google is cheaper on transactions below $100, while PayPal is cheaper on transactions over $100. However, if you use Google AdWords, you can save a lot of money, so it isn’t all clear cut. Still, Google should consider a more tiered pricing structure.
Google appears to actually be running ads for Checkout, as Philipp found, with a radio ad advertising a Father’s Day 5% off offer. It’s possible the ads were actually used by the store making the offer, but it sounds professional enough to be a Google ad. Google commercials are rare if not avoided at all costs, so getting to hear one is a strange thing indeed.
Adobe Labs has released a plugin for Photoshop CS3 Extended that lets you work with Google’s 3D warehouse, its repository of 3D models for Google Earth created in Google Sketchup. The plugin, available for both Macs and PCs, lets you search the 3D Warehouse from within Photoshop. Find the model you want, load it into Photoshop, and you will be able to rotate it within Photoshop and edit all of its textures. I imagine this would make it real easy to take photos of a building and get those photos to work exactly right as textures on your building, and that’s just groovy.
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