New Training Curriculum: DS Personal Trainer

Are you new to DoubleClick Search (DS) and need to get ramped up?  Do you have a lot of new hires on your team that need to learn the ins and outs of DS?  Then DS Personal Trainer is perfect for you!

DS Personal Trainer is a self-paced training curriculum, composed of numerous Help Center articles and videos, that allows you to go through all of the major components of DS3 (admin set-up, campaign management, reporting, and bid management) as well as complete quizzes for each section and take a final exam.








Upon completing the course, you’ll receive a nifty DS3 certificate of completion that you can hang up in your cube and brag about to others, displaying your DS3 knowledge.  This training is mainly geared towards new DS3 users, but  any user can participate. 








Please note:  DS Personal Trainer is currently only available in English in North America.

Simply register for Personal Trainer through the training registration page here, and once registered you’ll receive the link to access it and get started!

Posted by the DoubleClick Search Team

Fab Friday is getting ready for I/O

Google I/O is around the corner, and I’m really looking forward to all the great sessions and meeting many of our great developers. There are ten sessions scheduled scheduled for Google Maps, plus three codelabs. OK, now I’m getting nervous thinking about everything that has to be done before then!



Anyway, the whole Google Maps Developer Relations Team will be there, as well as several engineers, product managers, and at least one vice president. For those of you who will be there, please introduce yourself, we love meeting Maps developers. If you can’t make it to Google I/O, you can still participate through Google I/O Extended, and all the sessions will be recorded.  OK, now it’s time to get ready!



To help warm us up for Google I/O, on Tuesday, Susannah Raub and Marcelo Camelo from the Google Maps API team in Sydney will join me in the next Google Maps API Office Hours. Susannah is the tech lead for the Google Maps API, and Marcelo is the tech lead for the Place API. The three of us will talk about our upcoming sessions at Google I/O and answer your questions. For more information, check out our Google+ Post. Susannah and Marcelo are fun so it should be a great conversation. I look forward to having you there.



Speaking of Office Hours, Yesterday I sat down with Thor Mitchell and Chris Broadfoot for our latest Google Maps API Office Hours, at a Sydney friendly time. Chris and I talked with Thor about his favorite subject, the Google Maps API. We had a wide-ranging conversation about the Google Maps API V3, the coming end of the deprecation period for V2 and general thoughts about the future of Google’s mapping technologies. You can check out the video here:





Posted by Mano Marks, Google Maps Developer Relations Team

How To Recover From Google's Panda Effect

Google Panda is Google's latest search algorithm. Introduced last year, the algorithm was created to a draw a line between awesome sites and not-so-good sites. This update ranks all websites according to the quality and quantity of the quality content on present on them. So, lets say you had a website about gorgeous girls, it will obviously get more hits and thus be considered a hit by Google Panda. On the same end, if you had a website about how sexy George W. Bush is, it wouldn't get as many visitors as you'd like and be ranked below-the-belt website (!).

Where the update itself needs a little bit of getting used to, it actually is pretty handy. For one, the big companies won't be listed at the top of the search just for their unbeatable SEO tactics. Secondly, quality content will be prioritised and show on the top of the search engine driving more traffic into your website.

Now, Google Panda is going to kick your butt out of its community if you have:

1. Copied or Duplicate Content

2. Outdated or Idiotic Content which the Users find Irrelevant

3. Grammatical and Spelling Mistakes

4. Automatically Generated Content

5. Frivolous SEO Content

6. Over Optimization

Make one mistake and your website is going to be penalized for it now. You have entered the Rabbit's Hole and it goes much deeper than you think. This, I would like to think, is a plus for quality bloggers. We feel sorry for all the spammers out there who had dreams to make it big through copying someone else's content and posting outdated material thinking it didn't matter as long as they got paid.

Alright, lets get to the "Fixing and Fighting" part of Google Panda. We have a few solutions for you regarding your page ranking and Google Panda. Let's check them out below:

-Release The Demon Inside: 'Copy and Paste' Trend Won't Work Any more:

Give your brain a little nudge, or perhaps a light pinch, doing this could be sufficient to reduce the numbness that you have provided it with for so many years. If that doesn't work to wake it up, then might as well give up your dream to become a successful blogger. Unleash the dragon and write with your mind and heart. Produce quality content and write it in your own (intelligible) words. Make your posts interesting, worth-the-while, grammatically correct, spelling mistakes will not be tolerated (yeah, we are back to grade school).

Keep the above suggestion in mind and write at least every once a week. Update your blog/website and make sure all your links are in working condition. Do not leave your site dormant. It will bring you down where all the sucky sites reside.

Write lengthy content, add videos, images, etc to make it more attractive and easy-to-understand to your readers and followers. Know what your followers are looking for and give them exactly that and more.

-Speed Counts:

Optimize your website to higher, more desirable speeds. Make it user-friendly and relevant to your topic. Google likes websites that are in tune with their soul.

-Duplicated Content in a BIG 'NO':

The concept is that when you duplicate or copy some content you are technically 'stealing' it. Google Panda is working very well against the theft or original content so you should remove all the data you have ever stolen from someone and vow never to do it again because the punishment to doing so wont be a few spanks, it will be being dragged down the page ranking chain. If you know what you want to write, then write it the way you feel like it should be written. Don't be a sore loser.

-Use Relevant Keywords:

We can not impress this point enough, you need to know that the keywords you use can either bring you to the top of the food chain or get you eaten brutally and spat out by a bunch of no-good wannabes. Use the most relevant keywords according to your website and your blog. It will help you get the most traffic from the internet users. If you don't know how to use keywords to your benefit, please follow this link.

-Link You Blog/Website to the Social Media (Twitter, Facebook etc):

By using these social websites, you will drive more traffic into your website. Your followers/subscribers will follow your posts and in return, Google will start considering you a legit blogger. If you don't know how to drive traffic to your website through Twitter, please click here.

-Offer Free Promotions:

People like free stuff, we all know that. All website owners should take advantage of this weakness of mankind. Offer free stuff like ebooks, music and video downloads etc and you will instantly drive more traffic into your website.

These suggestions may look tough and most of you must be thinking about getting out while you still can but trust us, if you really are serious about what you do then this is the only way to beat the Panda Effect. You need to start working on your website, give it time, pamper it, love it and Google Panda will give you the results.

Until then, Happy Panda-Kick-Ass-ing Everyone! :)

Re-imagining classic ads for the mobile age

It’s no secret that users are spending more and more time on their mobile and tablet devices, and the trend will continue to scale. Mobile devices drive 10% of total Internet traffic, up from 4% just 18 months ago, and an astounding 29% of U.S. adults now have a tablet or e-reader -- up from 2% three years ago. This opens up many new opportunities for advertisers to connect with consumers. However, with this new opportunity comes new challenges to create rich ad experiences that engage and delight viewers; experiences that leverage unique features of the devices and environment in which they’re seen.



To see what mobile ads of tomorrow will look like, we’ve re-imagined four iconic ads from the 1960s and 70s in Project Re: Brief, an experiment we launched earlier this year. Today we’re releasing the Android app for Project Re: Brief, which lets you play with these new ads on your phone and tablet devices. Built on the latest platform for mobile rich media, these ads try to push the boundaries of what can be done with today’s technology.



Coca-Cola: “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” (mobile ad)

The mobile ad lets you send a free Coke with a text message to a stranger across the world, who can receive it on special vending machines. The recipient can then record a message from the machine and send it right back to your phone. The ad uses the phone’s GPS location to show a customized video of your message flying through clouds, Google Maps and StreetView images.



Volvo: “Drive it like you hate it.” (tablet ad)

This ad lets you follow the unique story of Irv Gordon, a loyal Volvo owner who's on his way to putting three million miles on his 1966 P1800s. You can watch relevant videos and hear audio clips about stories from his journey so far, follow his Google+ feed, see his mileage and location in real-time, and explore features of the latest Volvo cars. The ad shows different copy and video based on the tablet app in which it is seen. Simply swipe the screen left or right to see how the ad behaves in different apps.



Alka-Seltzer: “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” (mobile ad)

You can follow Ralph on the day “he ate the whole thing” through a series of 1970’s sitcom-like episodes that are customized to the viewer based on the device, app, time, weather and location. From the ad settings menu, you can select various options to see how a video might be customized to a viewer based on this information. Then, simply tap the display ad to launch the customized video.



Avis: “We try harder.” (tablet ad)

A user can write about his or her experiences with Avis rental cars in natural language, i.e. spoken English, provide some details about the rental car, and within seconds, his or her story is turned into a one-of-a-kind film, which can be shared on the web - all within the ad. The pre-roll animation of the ad changes based on the app. Swipe the screen left or right to see how the animation varies in different apps.



If you don’t have an Android device, you can play with the desktop versions of these ads on projectrebrief.com, and watch videos of the mobile versions. We’re also working hard on an app for your iOS devices.



These are just some examples of what can be done with mobile ads, when you marry big creative ideas with the latest technology platforms. We hope they inspire the advertising community to create even more beautiful mobile experiences.


Posted by Aman Govil, Product Marketing Manager, Display Marketing

In-Product Help: Finding Help in DoubleClick Search Just Got Easier

DoubleClick Search makes finding help easier than ever before with the release of our new In-Product Help tool. Benefits include the following:

• Searchable in-product help is now just a click away, letting you quickly search our Help Center without leaving your current screen.


• Contextual help shows the most relevant Help Center articles, based on your current page in DoubleClick Search.


• Replaces the ‘Contact Support’ link in the lower left, making it easier to reach our world-class support team. The new “Contact Us” link in the Help pop-up sends DoubleClick Search Support all the information they need to address your inquiries even faster.

To get your DoubleClick Search issues resolved through In-Product Help, click the Help link in the upper righthand corner of the UI.

To learn more about this feature, visit our Help Center.


Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Announcing new UK advertisers

We’re excited to let you know that 30+ UK advertisers have recently launched affiliate programmes with Google Affiliate Network. For publishers with UK audiences, these programmes represent a new opportunity to earn incremental revenue for your website.



Just a few of our newly-launched advertisers include:

• Travel: Olotels


• Entertainment: Netflix


• Gifts: Moonpig


• Apparel & Accessories: Radley


• Finance: Baines & Ernst

Follow these steps to apply to UK programmes:

1. Log in to your account (or apply to join our network)


2. Go to the Advertisers tab


3. On the left-hand navigation, click 'Relationship status' and choose 'Available'


4. Click ‘Countries’ and choose United Kingdom


5. Apply to programmes

If you’re an advertiser interested in starting an affiliate programme with Google Affiliate Network, please contact us.



Posted by: Tony Nelan, Head of Google Affiliate Network for Europe

The Mobile Landscape: What Creative Agencies Need to Know

Join us on Tues, June 19th at 4pm ET/1pm PT, for a 45 minute LIVE conversation with Wook Chung and Nate Racklyeft of Google's Mobile Product Team!



Wook and Nate will discuss the key technology issues around Mobile and strategies for creatives to drive success now.



Creatives worldwide can join Hangout on Air: youtube.com/creativesandbox



There's a special opportunity for a maximum of 8 leading creative agencies who have done work in Mobile or are planning a special push in the arena, to reserve a spot on screen in the Hangout with Wook and Nate, available on a first come basis. Contact Jeff Sundheim to check availability.






Posted by Jeff Sundheim, Creative Platform Strategies