Google Airs Super Bowl Ad

theodp writes "CNET's hunch that Google might run a Super Bowl ad entitled 'Parisian Love' proved to be well-founded. The ad just ran (did you know that you can search the Internet using Google?), and Apple certainly doesn't have to worry about losing its claim to having produced the best Super Bowl ad ever. In fact, you might want to check out the spoof 'Parisian Love' apparently inspired — 'Is Tiger Feeling Lucky?' — if you want to see a better pitch for Google."

Comments

First Polanski

[Ethanol-fueled]

Here are the searches from the commercial, in order:

• "study abroad paris france"
• "cafes near the louve"
• "translate tu es tres mignon"
• "impress a french girl"
• "chocolate shops paris"
• "what are truffles"
• "who is traffaut"
• "long distance relationship advice"
• "jobs in paris"
• "AA120"
• "churches in paris
• "how to assemble a crib"

Did anybody else find that kinda...creepy? Like some Roman Polanski just met a possibly underage girl* in a chat room and now he's going to stalk her* while fantasizing about moving near her*, gettin married*, and having a kid* all while he dosen't even know French*.

* the "girl", "AA 120" airline, "jobs", "church", "crib", and "translate" searches; respectively.

Re:First Polanski

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been described as seriously cynical and highly lacking empathy. Hell, even my girlfriend calls me souless. But I nearly cried at the end.

Brilliant ad.

Re:First Polanski

[Anonymous Coward]

No, actually. Would never have crossed my mind.

I think you just have issues.

Re:First Polanski

[poormanjoe]

No I didn't find it creepy. I was very impressed with the commercial. It instantly came to me near the end that they were illustrating they're long term commitment to excellent searches. Google has been in business now (if your a 20 something) for over half our lives, and this was a sped up version of what an "average" person may have Googled over their lifetime. It has always been there for you. It has always got you what you wanted to know. The top result is always what you wanted. All this was illustrated very elegantly and effectively. Unlike most technology commercials that have a very busy, and annoying feeling with people who are nothing like "you."

Re:First Polanski

[sakdoctor]

• Buy cafes near the louve on ebay
• Buy impress a french girl on ebay
• Buy long distance relationship on ebay
• Buy churches in paris on ebay

Re:First Polanski

[lyinhart]

Well, of course, there's supposed to be a passage of time in between each search, but they do a pretty bad job of showing that in the ad. They should have shown the Google home page on a monitor while the backdrop changes after each search, and provide some indicator of how much time has past in between in each search (e.g. a calendar, a window showing the weather of the season and location).

The way I figure it, the next logical search after the last one would been:
"ashley madison" :P

Re:First Polanski

[dwillden]

Hmm, when I saw it the flight was DL1820 not AA, the rest was the same.

Perhaps they targeted the markets, I do live near a major Delta Hub.

Re:First Polanski

[sakdoctor]

There were technical inaccuracies in the advert.

The cursor moved, which in reality triggers that bullshit, javascript fade thing.
The google SERPs page only looks like that to an adblock user.

Re:First Polanski

[Trepidity]

I really do get a similar result for your 3rd example:

Buy long-distance relationship at Amazon! Qualified orders over $25 ship free

Re:First Polanski

[biryokumaru]

I would presume that the people who work at Google would use adblock. I know I would.

Re:First Polanski

[Anonymous Coward]

*Didn't watch the commercial*

Re:First Polanski

[russotto]

It's just you. Any idiot could see the story: An American guy went to study abroad in Paris, went to a cafe, met a French girl who told him he was cute, bought her some chocolate, found out about her favorite films, and eventually moved to Paris to be the handyman to her and her husband.

Re:First Polanski

[CecilPL]

It's so touching knowing that a soulless, multinational, 100 billion dollar company thinks you should integrate it into every part of your life.

But yeah, I almost cried too. Kinda scary how easy it is to manipulate our emotions for commercial gain.

Re:First Polanski

[PeanutButterBreath]

Google has been in business now (if your a 20 something) for over half our lives, and this was a sped up version of what an "average" person may have Googled over their lifetime.

If you're a 20 something, WTF do you think you know about an "average" lifetime?

At best, this was Google shorthand for the plot of some hackneyed romantic movie.

Re:First Polanski

[poormanjoe]

This being Slashdot, I understand how this might seem confusing to some readers, but that's actually the way some romances happen. A guy meets a girl, likes her, tries to impress her, and amazingly, it works.

Look! I found the guy who this applies to!

Maybe if you didn't have peanut butter breath you would have found love during your not-so-average elitist lifetime =D

Re:First Polanski

[CaptainStacks]

That's exactly how I felt, I thought it was a great commercial.

Re:First Polanski

[Stiletto]

Maybe they should have showed a big spinning clock, or a caption at the bottom of the screen that says "IN CASE YOU CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT, TIME WOULD ACTUALLY BE PASSING BETWEEN EACH SEARCH!! GET IT?"

Re:First Polanski

[IntlHarvester]

They should have shown the Google home page on a monitor while the backdrop changes after each search, and provide some indicator of how much time has past in between in each search

Good point. For example, they could have had the Google logo change, which it actually does on a regular basis.

Re:First Polanski

[Sebilrazen]

Buy cafes near the louve on ebay

Unlikely. It would spelled correctly.

I love that a post complaining about spelling has such horrible grammar.

Re:First Polanski

[Anpheus]

The one on Hulu was different from the one on Youtube. I suspect this is the case elsewhere.

Re:First Polanski

[sortius_nod]

That's why people are employed in that industry. Neural programming is a funny art, the best at it usually work in advertising.

The key is to catch yourself feeling a "foreign" emotion.

Re:First Polanski

[Jurily]

Superbowl. I only watch it because there's an article on Slashdot about it.

Re:First Polanski

[Anonymous Coward]

He accidentally a word.

Re:First Polanski

[djupedal]

If you live in France and write crib assembly documentation for a living....you don't need Google - that's what the ad says to me.

Google is just a bridge to content. Want to give some credit? Give it to the people that create the content.

Re:First Polanski

[Shin-LaC]

I'm a man and I find it hard to fathom that someone could be moved by that ad, let alone to tears. In fact, I'd say I felt nothing at all, unless cheese is an emotion.

Re:First Polanski

[u38cg]

I think most of /. will miss the point of this ad. We all treat Google like a very low transaction cost oracle: any time we have the stupidest of queries, we throw it in, no matter how inane or silly our question. A lot of people, however, treat a Google Search like something that requires capital letters and a cup of tea. I've seen people make notes of their search results before clicking on something. I think a large part of the intent of this ad (besides simple brand cementation for us lot) is to encourage that freewheeling approach.

Re:First Polanski

[operator_error]

Well, Parisians are not allowed to use www.ashleymadison.com, which only operates within the USA. All non-US IPs see on the web page is:

LIFE IS SHORT, HAVE AN AFFAIR.(TM)
We are unable to process your request due to your present location.

Re:First Polanski

[VShael]

It's just you. Any idiot could see the story: An American guy went to study abroad in Paris, went to a cafe, met a French girl who told him he was cute, bought her some chocolate, found out about her favorite films, and eventually moved to Paris to be the handyman to her and her husband.

Ah to be the handyman in a Parisian family... you have all the sex with the Mrs, but none of the responsibility of raising/paying for the children.

Re:First Polanski

[delinear]

Here are the searches from the commercial, in order:

• "study abroad paris france"
• "cafes near the louve"
• "translate tu es tres mignon"

[SNIP]

Ack, dude, spoiler warning, spoiler warning!

Re:First Polanski

[AbRASiON]

Interesting how we read that differently, I assumed he found a way of telling her that he thought she was cute.

Re:First Polanski

[Anonymous Coward]

Well... at least he didn't accidentally the whole thing...

Re:First Polanski

[ChienAndalu]

You are seriously cynical and highly lacking empathy.

Re:First Polanski

[0100010001010011]

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

Re:First Polanski

[gaggle]

Sorry, I like all things interesting but your intepretation is incorrect. Why would he search in French? No he googled for what she wrote/said and then activated Directive Omega (i.e. Win Over French Girl)

Re:First Polanski

[tecnico.hitos]

Kinda scary how easy it is to manipulate our emotions for commercial gain.

Isn't it awesome. Those companies amaze me with their abilities of amazing me.

But, seriously, the whole industry of entertainment is based on this. We often pay for having our emotions manipulated.

I should throw away my emotions on the nearest garbage bin, but I don't feel like doing it. Oh well, I would end up as a drone without motivation and unable to get satisfaction anyway...

Re:First Polanski

[AbRASiON]

You're right actually, I wasn't thinking.

Re:First Polanski

[evan_arrrr!]

The idea that Google is trying to convey is simplicity. Google's approach to Internet searches has ALWAYS been simplicity. That's why the interface has hardly changed in the 12 years it's been operating. I imagine the simplicity of the advert was meant to convey that same sort of simplicity that Google has always been known for.

Re:First Polanski

[blueg3]

The google search engine results pages page? What the hell is that?

Re:First Polanski

[cayenne8]

Who Dat?!?!?

Damn...the party was still going on in the Quarter at 6am this morning....not many people at work this morning, but, I made it in.

Re:First Polanski

[Zordak]

Well played, sir.

Re:First Polanski

[Fractal Dice]

hmm ... I thought the point of the ad was "hey advertisers/government agencies, we have peoples' whole lives encoded in our database of their searches, come get it".

Re:First Polanski

[Blakey Rat]

Oh yah it's so emotional when people who don't exist but were invented by a giant corporation in a bid to get more of your money get married and have kids in France apparently.

I will say this: considering the ad's budget was so low, it was effective. No actors, no props, no locations, no dialog, no ADR... hell no camera, probably.

Re:First Polanski

[TheSpoom]

I really liked the ad. I think whether or not it touched you probably depends on whether you've been in a long distance relationship... and I just got married a couple weeks back to my fiancee from another country.

Plus, I think a lot of that ad was primarily intended to show people that yes, searching does work, despite what kgb would tell you. In this mission, I think it unquestionably succeeded.

Re:First Polanski

[slimjim8094]

Wow. Sucks to be you.

I'm dead serious.

Re:First Polanski

[brufleth]

As a man who is too lame to care much about football I thought the Google ad was stupid (as did my wife) found it telling that virtually none of the ads (only one phone ad sticks out) used sex appeal despite the target audience being men. Either ad makers are stupid or something I've always assumed is pretty basic concerning advertising has changed.

Re:First Polanski

[fyrewulff]

I imagine that was more related to not wanting to give any company a free ad inside the ad :P

Re:First Polanski

[b4dc0d3r]

Sitting on the couch yesterday, my gf asked when is the Stupid Bowl. So I put in a natural language query (sans quotes of course:)

when is the damn super bowl motherfucker?

The first result was "Super Bowl XLIV - New orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts. Sunday, Feb. 7 2010 -6:25 pm ET on CBS" with a link to nfl.com. Each team name was a link to their team website.

I don't think they could have done a better job on the first result than that.

We wandered around the house, got bored, eventually turned on the Stupid Bowl and watched most of it. I know, cool story bro, and disqualified because none of us have gfs in real life. But I do have the screenshot of search results.

Re:First Polanski

[quotes]

Hourglass.

Re:First Polanski

[Maxo-Texas]

It's the the total package. Pay attention to the music next time you watch it. Pretty classic emotional button pushing chords.

I thought it was a great commercial.

Re:First Polanski

[mitch_feaster]

Ditto.

Re:First Polanski

[Quikah]

The point of the ad was "holy shit, Bing is actually getting some traction, better start reminding people to use google."

Re:First Polanski

[DutchUncle]

EXACTLY! And that's the point! They managed to fit a typical romantic comedy movie into a 30-second "elevator pitch" without even stating anything directly! Look at it as a short story - a MICRO-story - and think of how much story they compressed into it - because it's just references, so viewers are really making up the whole story in their own heads.

Re:First Polanski

[hrimhari]

Actually, he's on to something. The Google logo could have changed between queries as they usually do on special occasions. Maybe they thought about it but preferred to KIS to the S.

Re:First Polanski

[omfglearntoplay]

You missed half the point if you only looked at the final search result. Especially on the last one, where they had the dramatic pause on "how to".

But first the church thing throws you off:
CHURCHES
churches chicken
churches of christ
churches for sale
etc.

CHURCHES IN
churches in las vegas
churches in vegas
etc.
then you get
Churches in

Even though you had a good idea of what was going to happen with the church thing (you've only known for sure for a split second), they throw you off a little again with relationship type stuff:

HOW TO
How to tie a tie
How to kiss
How to get pregnant
How to lose weight

HOW TO A
How to ask a girl out
How to ask for a raise
How to ask a guy out
etc.

Bigger hint:
How TO ASSEM
How to assemble wedding invitations

Then the realization and the culmination of what has happened to lead up to this (if you don't have a wife/husband and kid(s) you might not really get it yet):
How to assemble wedding invitation
etc.

How to assemble a crib.

But honestly, the music, the word placement, recommended search place, and the pacing combined really made it cool. It was very touching. Even more so if you've married someone from overseas like I have. Simple yet great fucking work on Google's part. Loved it.

What?

[stonecypher]

Major company runs television ad during profitable sports event.

Gasp. Newsworthy indeed.

Re:What?

[daveime]

Searching for Superbowl Ads for your iPod ? There's an app for that !

Re:What?

[elashish14]

For a company that doesn't advertise very much (all that they have so far is that stupid Chrome browser commercial that still barely makes sense to me), and a company that's pretty closely tied to the /. community, I think it's pretty newsworthy. And let's not forget that they didn't just crawl into the advertising realm - their first major ad on TV airing during the Super Bowl? That's pretty significant. And besides, it suggests that Google is starting to acknowledge some competition from Bing. They never had any reason to advertise much before, but it shows that they acknowledge that things are starting to change.

In any case, for a night full of silly car ads and tasteless beer commercials, I thought it was delightfully refreshing. I'm glad to see a story like this making waves.

Re:What?

[MoriaOrc]

Seems obvious to me what the YouTube linked ad is about. It's showing how google's browser is lightweight and free of clutter as well as giving a basic feel for the actual interface. And it does that with a bit of an Arkanoid parody/inspiration (oblig wikipedia).

I was a little supprised to see a Google ad in during the game since they've never been much for TV advertising, although I have seen quite a few of those search stories ads on Hulu recently, as well as some other Chrome ads. It was definitely one of the better ads among the Super Bowl fare this year.

Also, you forgot "Doritos" in your last paragraph. (Does that mean it worked, even if I don't want any?)

Re:What?

[WeatherGod]

And let's not forget that they didn't just crawl into the advertising realm - their first major ad on TV airing during the Super Bowl? That's pretty significant. And besides, it suggests that Google is starting to acknowledge some competition from Bing. They never had any reason to advertise much before, but it shows that they acknowledge that things are starting to change.

What I was particularly surprised about was that MS *didn't* advertise Bing during the Super Bowl. Given how much effort MS has put into the Bing marketing campaign, for them to not make an appearance while Google does speaks volumes.

Re:What?

[Shawndeisi]

"tasteless beer commercials"

Did you mean the beer was tasteless, the beer commercial was tasteless, or both?

Wait...

[Nemyst]

Searches on Google about lacerations and blood stains and no mentions of raptors?!

Man, where is the world going...

Re:Wait...

[Arancaytar]

Exactly. Someone needs to make an ad revolving around how Google can help you in case of Raptor attack.

(Hint: Not at all. Nothing can.)

Re:Wait...

[hrimhari]

Haha! You almost got me, faking that you haven't seen neither the ad nor the parody! Oh wait...

France? Football? Google?

[theodp]

Jeff Jarvis: "Disappointed Google didn't make a new commercial appropriate to the Super Bowl. France? Football? Google?"

I see how you might be confused

[Anonymous Coward]

This being Slashdot, I understand how this might seem confusing to some readers, but that's actually the way some romances happen. A guy meets a girl, likes her, tries to impress her, and amazingly, it works.

Re:I see how you might be confused

[nicknamenotavailable]

That is utter nonsense.
There must be some mathematical equation or perl or ruby script involved somewhere.

Re:I see how you might be confused

[sentientbeing]

begin; while {tits36c} find tits; end;

Re:I see how you might be confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Be careful. Some of the male readers here might be caught by that.

Re:I see how you might be confused

[robot256]

begin
while (tits.size < "36c") find tits;
end

FTFY

Re:I see how you might be confused

[bertoelcon]

You could just try import tits or yum install tits (using the yum tool for obvious reasons) on one who can run the rest of the body.

Re:I see how you might be confused

[MichaelSmith]

Infinite loop detected

Re:I see how you might be confused

[jollyreaper]

This being Slashdot, I understand how this might seem confusing to some readers, but that's actually the way some romances happen. A guy meets a girl, likes her, tries to impress her, and amazingly, it works.

Maybe it's just me but I was also expecting to see searches for "lotion," "skin," and "hoses."

Re:I see how you might be confused

[kai_hiwatari]

you forgot python and shell script

Re:I see how you might be confused

[nicknamenotavailable]

No,No,No...
Snakes make most girls run away.

Re:I see how you might be confused

[azenpunk]

everyone knows women are programmed with Brainfuck

Re:I see how you might be confused

[MrHanky]

And?

Re:I see how you might be confused

[pock3ts]

Amen.

Re:I see how you might be confused

[AVee]

That's just wishful thinking.

Re:I see how you might be confused

[sentientbeing]

I did add an operator but Slashcode garbled it...

Re:I see how you might be confused

[robot256]

figures. took me a bit of googling to find the appropriate html tags. and no, i was not thinking about tits at all when i wrote that. i usually save that for after slashdot time.

Interested in something else.

[Asadullah Ahmad]

Forget the ad, I want that Internet Connection.

Re:Interested in something else.

[nicknamenotavailable]

Try google DNS.

No, I'm not joking.

I upgraded everything, but still found that it took very long to begin loading a page.
A heavily 'ad-laden' page has to make many DNS queries before the page even starts to appear.
Google DNS is an order of magnitude faster than the one provided with my Bell WiMax.

But make sure you test it first. Your ISP's DNS might not be as bad as mine.

Re:Interested in something else.

[Asadullah Ahmad]

Doesn't ABP blocks any hostname queries of ad serving domains?

But I do use OpenDNS already, which is a bit faster than my ISP's servers. And I would have to be a lot less paranoid to start using GoogleDNS.

Re:Interested in something else.

[maxume]

You use OpenDNS because you are paranoid!?

That's like smoking some crack rocks to help with your insomnia.

Re:Interested in something else.

[Asadullah Ahmad]

No no. I don't use GoogleDNS because I am paranoid :)

Re:Interested in something else.

[jimthehorsegod]

Google pretty much *is* DNS When was the last time you instructed someone to 'open your browser, and in the address bar enter: www.xyz.com' and they actually did that, rather than entering it into one of the seven or either toolbars they have installed? Since nobody seems to understand that concept of URLs, why bother with them? Everyone searches (usually 'googles') for damn near everything anyway, so might as well do away with DNS for websites entirely and just use google + IP addresses...

Re:Interested in something else.

[ImprovOmega]

Which is like having insomnia and avoiding caffeine before bed while you're smoking crack rocks.

Re:Interested in something else.

[hrimhari]

Psst... don't tell anyone, but I actually added some common and annoying ad names to my "hosts" pointing to 127.0.0.1.

Even more interesting

[rinoid]

Try this in your Google Suggest enabled search field (Safari, Firefox, Google home page):
Just type the word "Why" ...

First suggested results:
Why do men have nipples
Why is the sky blue
Why is my poop green
Why are black people so loud


Recently bumped off the top list of suggested search results: "Why does my vag smell"

What would we do with out such an enormous cultural asset such as Google?

Re:Even more interesting

[Asadullah Ahmad]

I don't blame Google that much for this, it is just showing what most users are wondering [out loud].

Re:Even more interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell are these not legitimate questions? What is wrong with trying to find out more about the world, as opposed to staying willfully ignorant of topics that might seem vaguely uncomfortable?

Re:Even more interesting

[Trepidity]

Well, some of these are introduced through deliberate organized campaigns to get funny and/or offensive things to show up as autocompletes for common terms. Not Google's fault per se in that case either, but it does mean that Google's presenting the user with not-very-useful information, as they've failed to filter out ungenuine searches.

Re:Even more interesting

[JackieBrown]

Are you sure that your results are not based on your personal search history :)

Re:Even more interesting

[retchdog]

This was even in the ad and it made me chuckle:

"how to assemble a crossbow"

I think consciously they left it in as a nod to the asocial male geek set.

Re:Even more interesting

[Asadullah Ahmad]

They need a pretty big recoding to filter out non-genuine results completely.

Re:Even more interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Vaguely uncomfortable, eh? Like "why can't i own a canadian"?

Re:Even more interesting

[The Wooden Badger]

Well count me in with the "Why can't I own a Canadian?" group.

Re:Even more interesting

[Bloopie]

I get the exact same suggested search results. Doesn't their appearance there signify that they are the most frequent Google searches starting with "Why . . ."? Of all the millions of Google searches that are performed?

Isn't that a bit . . . strange, for some reason? You don't think so?

Re:Even more interesting

[mkiwi]

Go to google, type "Why" and you'll also get:

"why can't i own a canadian"

I guess in some places that's a pretty legitimate question...

Re:Even more interesting

[bertoelcon]

Not really, the first two are fairly reasonable questions that many have probably asked growing up anyway. I admit the last two in that list are a little wtf.

Re:Even more interesting

[Bloopie]

So you're not surprised that "Why do men have nipples?" is the most frequent Google search of all the searches that begin with "Why?" The most frequent one? Boy, people here are more bizarrely weird than I thought.

I can imagine a bunch of Slashdotters sitting alone in their basements saying, "No, seems perfectly normal, dude."

Re:Even more interesting

[elashish14]

Yeah, it was interesting the suggestions that they chose to include and remove. I think the one that stuck out to me was their suggestion for 'How' omits 'How I met your mother' on the commercial. I'm sure that there are other examples. Shouldn't raise any eyebrows really, but obviously they wanted to hold back from appearing to endorse anything through their suggestions

Re:Even more interesting

[bertoelcon]

Boy, people here are more bizarrely weird than I thought.

This is the internet, may I ask what it is that you were expecting?

Re:Even more interesting

[Bloopie]

I guess you do have a point there.

Re:Even more interesting

[wizardforce]

It's referring to various biblical/torah passages that seemingly condone slavery. Many religious people use old testament/torah passages as justification for homophobia and this "can I own a Canadian?" un-sourced letter in particular was a response to that sentiment.

Re:Even more interesting

[neoform]

How about this: http://www.irreligion.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/BL3Lo.gif I confirmed this was the case, and until a week ago, it was still like that. For a good month the Google suggest tool was being censored.

Re:Even more interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Even funnier when you start with:

"How do I get my"
"Why does my"

These give better results in when you reside in US. Luckily I can replicate them in Safari's google search box (but not in google.fi page):

"How do I get my sister/mother to sleep with me"
"How do I get my mom to spank me"
"How do I get my mom to stop drinking"
"How do I get my boyfriend to kiss me"
"How do I get my boyfriend to propose me"
"How do I get my cat to stop peeing everywhere"
"How do I get my dog to stop eating poop"

"Why does my belly button smell"
"Why does my dog eat cat poop"
"Why does my dad beat me"
"Why does my mom fart so much" ..etc..

Re:Even more interesting

[DriedClexler]

Vaguely uncomfortable, eh? Like "why can't i own a canadian"?

Um, you *can* own a Canadian, if you're an American. See the Bible

Re:Even more interesting

[BikeHelmet]

My first result is "Why can't I own a Canadian" :/

Re:Even more interesting

[Nathrael]

Porn.

Re:Even more interesting

[shutdown -p now]

I've tried "how to ...". It's much more benign, though it's notable that "how to roll a joint" is there (but then again, I'm in Canada).

What I do find interesting is top 3 by results. The second one is "how to kiss", 115 million. But the one at the top is, "how to download youtube videos" - 160 million.

I think we solved the overpopulation problem.

Re:Even more interesting

[camcorder]

Are you aware that Google harvest results based on your previous web history and personal profile?

Re:Even more interesting

[stephanruby]

What would we do with out such an enormous cultural asset such as Google?

Why do men have nipples? is a humor book. It's a New York Times Bestseller.

If you don't like that query, blame the New York Times, or blame the author of that book. Don't blame Google. The same goes for the rest of those queries, you can probably blame the rest of those queries on TV Quiz shows, or on people trying to game the system. In any case, "why" is a super-vague query, most people enter quite a few more meaningful keywords. Judging Google on that criterion alone just tells us more about you than anything it tells us about Google.

Re:Even more interesting

[selven]

This is the internet, may I ask what it is that you were expecting?

The Spanish Inquisition.

Re:Even more interesting

[eharvill]

This is the internet, may I ask what it is that you were expecting?

The Spanish Inquisition.

Lies, lies and more lies! NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Re:Even more interesting

[crazycheetah]

Well. There IS a book called "Why do men have nipples?" that in a quite limited sample of the general population (being the people I know) is a rather popular book. One that I keep coming across someone deciding to read at least once a year or more. It's bizarre, and it's filled with such random questions. However, it gives a damn good reason why that one would come up on top of others...

Re:Even more interesting

[deebug497]

My Google Suggest starts with those two:

- Why is there a dead pakistani on my couch
- why won't my parakeet eat my diarrhea

The first is absurd, the second one I find quite disturbing.

Re:Even more interesting

[ianalis]

You should realize that Google suggestions are customized to each user. It's very likely that you are logged in or has cookies stored in your browser. Now, tell us, why do you think those were the suggestions you got? :)

Re:Even more interesting

[rinoid]

You should realize that Google suggestions are customized to each user. It's very likely that you are logged in or has cookies stored in your browser. Now, tell us, why do you think those were the suggestions you got? :)

Nice try ... it's the first thing a colleague said when I pinged him with this tidbit.

Re:Even more interesting

[JakeD409]

I want to see the TV quiz show that asks "Why are black people so loud?"

Re:Even more interesting

[ztransform]

Are you sure that your results are not based on your personal search history :)

How embarrassing for that poster! I did a google search with cookies stripped, as I have a habit of doing, and didn't get any of those questions appear.

Re:Even more interesting

[rinoid]

relax francis ... it was a joke.

Re:Even more interesting

[rinoid]

are you aware that searching in a blank browser not on any computer i've ever touched produced these results? just saying.

Re:Even more interesting

[rinoid]

I believe .... that it's true there is a serious effort to not criticize Islam.

Like a few of the commenters don't you know this only reflects you, your thoughts, and what you search!? I don't believe this however since my search was done on a public computer with no history and no Google accounts signed in... I get the same results on many computers so unless Google has secretly installed sense-aware keyboards on every computer I might come across this list a result not of my own search history but of something else entirely.

Re:Even more interesting

[rinoid]

Not embarrassing for me at all. The algorithm for Google Suggest is not completely known but it does not appear to be based at all on personal search history. I did this search on a public, non-cookie, non google account machine and the same results came up.

Thoughts are the suggest algorithm are based largely on current trending topics.

Here is an interesting test: http://www.fathomseo.com/blog/index.php/using-the-massachusetts-senate-race-to-show-that-google-auto-suggest-is-a-search-popularity-contest/

Re:Even more interesting

[Hognoxious]

What questions should be the most asked questions instead of these ?

how is babby formed?

Am I the only one...?

[thatseattleguy]

...who thought this ad was pretty damn brilliant? Low-key, sure, but also sweet, memorable, and focused on the product/service itself rather than hype and glitz? I thought it promoted the both the company's values and the value of what they provide to their customers extraordinarily well.

Maybe I'm just not cynical enough, but it sure gets my vote. /tsg/

Re:Am I the only one...?

[friedmud]

My wife and I thought it was well done as well. We've also recently gone to Paris... and it brought back good memories for us.

I think it did a beautiful job of showing the service off... and reminding people that Google still works and is extremely efficient. It didn't need to be all in your face and loud... unlike other search engine adds. (Yaaaaaaaaaaahooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I'm sure it will get ripped apart here on Slashdot... but it definitely wasn't aimed at the Geek crowd.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[retchdog]

It was a great ad on many levels. For one, its emotional content countered the Bing! attack (of claiming more relevant results), without appearing to be defensive.

If you want to be cynical, point out how the slashdot summary is pandering to its own stereotypes and in so doing missing the point entirely.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[biryokumaru]

I beg to differ. In fact, the majority of comments here appear to be overwhelmingly positive. Maybe we're just a little more soft-hearted than you give us credit.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[penguinchris]

I thought it was excellent as well. Why I even watched part of the game I don't know, but I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed this ad. I don't even remember any of the others, and I was actually watching them, not getting a sandwich (saved that for the actual game). Others have pointed out what's brilliant about it already.

It struck a personal chord for me, since I fell in love overseas recently myself and am at a certain point in the relationship that's covered in the ad, and it makes me hopeful that it will work out as in the ad... advertising is about getting into people's heads, and I think that even if one hasn't been in a similar situation that this ad really succeeds. It's a great fantasy (especially for nerdy types!) and the ad made a touching story.

It's an effective short film... the kind of thing someone might make as art. Keep in mind that like any good slashdotter, I loathe advertising - even other Google-related advertising - and I still feel this way about this ad.

The poster is a little deluded to think that everyone is going to think this was a dumb ad - I suspect that even among the slashdot crowd most people will like it. Seems typical of slashdot... strong opinions get posted in the summaries and it's worded in a way that makes it seem like you'd have to be an idiot to not agree, and then it turns out 95% or more of slashdot disagrees. Well, it gets the comments rolling, anyway.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[willutah]

Agreed! I thought that Google's commercial showed a plausible series of interactions with a customer and how his/her life could be improved because of them. Lots of other companies could learn from that model.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[bertoelcon]

Google could bend you over and give it to you up the ass and you would tell us what an amazing experience it was.

Your thinking Apple.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[TooMuchToDo]

If you watch all the Super Bowl ads through Hulu (AdZone), they show the aggregate ratings people gave to each ad (like/dislike). The Google ad has the highest like rating so far.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[microbee]

No you are not the only one. I think it's very sweet and touching.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[thatseattleguy]

At the time of my post, there were only ~10 comments, and many (including the article summary itself) were not positive. Glad to know that others share a good opinion of it.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[electrosoccertux]

If you watch all the Super Bowl ads through Hulu (AdZone), they show the aggregate ratings people gave to each ad (like/dislike). The Google ad has the highest like rating so far.

and how many people that use hulu don't know both Google's slogan and their IPO date and the names of the 2 founders and....

Slightly biased sample there.
But yet is was good.

What confuses me is....why.....
I guess it creates good feelings, but who doesn't already use google?
It's gotten to the point where we could probably replace "Internet Explorer" with "Google" and people would call the internet "the google".

Re:Am I the only one...?

[mb1]

My thinking Apple!

Re:Am I the only one...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, it was pretty well done and also works great without sound (watching in the office) which is pretty clever in itself, as it gets the message over even if you're talking over the ads (or if, as they do over here, they double the volume of the ads compared to the programmes to try and force you to pay attention but actually just causing you to mute them). I loved the simplicity, as you said it didn't need glitz, it didn't need fashion or big name stars, and it really makes you think about how integral this little service is to everyday life. I can still remember when I first started using search engines, there was always a disconnect between me thinking "hmm, I wonder how to do x" and then "I know, I'll search for it". Now firing up search is the first instinct.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[Lorien_the_first_one]

I thought it was a great ad because of the way the ad illustrated the simplicity of using Google. I still remember the last line about the crib.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[Sancho]

It was a love story in 30 seconds told through Google search queries and results. It was absolutely brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.

Re:Am I the only one...?

[AncientPC]

It's fun breaking down the ad stats on Hulu. I'm not sure why the two numbers don't add up to 1.00, but males like it 0.75/0.34. Females like it 0.91/0.28.

The highest rating is the 25-29 age group and decreases until the 65+ where it jumps up particularly high.

I loved the ad.

[Labarna]

It was well done. It described what many people use Google for.

Actually, I liked it.

[moosesocks]

Actually, I thought it was simple and to the point (something you don't see very much in Super Bowl ads).

I didn't watch the Superbowl (cable's out), and so far three friends have called me to tell me to watch this ad, while I haven't heard a peep about any of the other ads that aired. I'd qualify that as a pretty significant success.

Also consider that the ad's simplistic nature can be thought of as a reflection of Google's products. Apple's used same strategy very successfully while marketing the iPhone, albeit from a somewhat different angle.

I also wouldn't list Apple's '1984' as a particularly good ad. It was expensive, confusing, and made absolutely no mention of the product being advertised. My favorite super bowl ad is still the E-Trade monkey ad.

Re:Actually, I liked it.

[DJRumpy]

"I also wouldn't list Apple's '1984' as a particularly good ad. It was expensive, confusing, and made absolutely no mention of the product being advertised."

Yet here we are, still talking about it years later. It is the definition of a good ad. It evokes curiosity, and people talked about it. They told two friends, and so on. The end of the ad basically said that Apple would be releasing the Mac. That was pretty much all that was needed.

Re:Actually, I liked it.

[bertoelcon]

Might have an old TV that doesn't have a digital tuner. Many people who have cable didn't bother buying boxes at all.

Re:Actually, I liked it.

[moosesocks]

Indeed. I don't have an ATSC box. I'll likely be getting an antenna and box one of these days, and hopefully canceling the cable.

Re:Actually, I liked it.

[kimvette]

My favorite is the "shooting gerbils through the O in outpost" ad - for its blatent disregard for political correctness, its originality, and its appreciation for humor.

1984 wasn't all that great - to get much out of it you had to be somewhat familiar with George Orwell's book.

Re:Actually, I liked it.

[jabbathewocket]

I think that people calling their slashdot reading geek friend to ask/tell about the "tech" ad they just saw on the superbowl is not saying much about the success or failure of the commercial.. it says far more about you and your friends than about the commercial

Re:Actually, I liked it.

[delinear]

There are still a few of us people that aren't in great signal areas, too. Even with a big signal booster the reception is pretty terrible on the three channels I can actually pick up at all for me, and ditto my mobile phone which has almost zero coverage. Cable is pretty much a godsend for me, although it's all the more painful for it when it does occasionally drop out.

Re:Actually, I liked it.

[geoff2]

"so far three friends have called me to tell me to watch this ad"

Perhaps they know you're the type to post on Slashdot and therefore think that you might be interested in Google's first-ever Super Bowl advertisement.

As for your other points, I think most people in this world have an inkling that Google has some kind of search service. In fact, it's the most popular search service in the world. Makes me wonder what the point of the ad is. "Gosh, I think I'm going to use Google to search on the internet from now on, instead of Alta Vista!"

Re:Actually, I liked it.

[moosesocks]

I live in a big city, so hopefully this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

That said...where have all of the ATSC tuner boxes gone? After posting that comment, I started researching my possible options, and discovered that there basically were none. Almost all of them have been discontinued, particularly if you want HDMI outputs.

Strip clubs in Paris

[SlappyBastard]

ATM machines in Paris

How to make quick cash in Paris

Where is the consulate in Paris?

How to say "I am broke" to French airline official

Homeless life for foreign nationals in paris

What can I say? I would have made better use of the weekend in Paris than this dude did.

Best Ever?

[fm6]

Apple certainly doesn't have to worry about losing its claim to having produced the best Super Bowl ad ever.

Oh gawd. That ad was based around a lame, confusing reference to a certain novel — a novel that the makers obviously had not read. It doesn't make sense to anybody who doesn't already think that Apple products are Destined to Save the World. Anybody who thinks this is "best ever" needs to get out more.

Re:Best Ever?

[fm6]

Jeez, I didn't expect to get modded up. Is everybody feeling OK?

Re:Best Ever?

[ToasterMonkey]

Oh gawd. That ad was based around a lame, confusing reference to a certain novel -- a novel that the makers obviously had not read. It doesn't make sense to anybody who doesn't already think that Apple products are Destined to Save the World. Anybody who thinks this is "best ever" needs to get out more.

What was the computing industry like back then? I've always wanted to hear from someone familiar with the industry at the time to explain what that ad was getting at.

You mean get out less, right?

Re:Best Ever?

[Hurricane78]

You must be new here (in the Apple reality distortion bubble). ^^

Re:Best Ever?

[fm6]

You've heard of the novel "1984"? I don't think I've ever met anybody who didn't. Executive summary: big mean people run the world, control people's minds with lies, propaganda, and general meanness. There's a lot more to the novel than that, but that's usually all anybody cares to know about, along with conflating the imaginary dictatorship in the novel with whatever government you like least — the commies if you're an anti-commie, or the U.S. government if you're pissed off about red light cameras.

So Apple came out with a wonderful new product in 1984, and that proves that the novel was wrong. No more to it than that.

No, I did mean "get out more", hopefully to interact with non-geeks.

Re:Best Ever?

[fm6]

I guess I just don't know how to think different. BTW, does anybody know what model Mac the Mahatma used?

Re:Best Ever?

[jo_ham]

The same one used by Miles Davis, Kermit the Frog and Einstein.

Ok, so it was Jim Henson, but unless he was typing one handed, Kermit was doing some button pressing.

Holy shit, Google knows everything about him!

[Dr. Spork]

So the ad is telling us that some horny dude knocked up some chick in Paris and was looking for a church to confess his sins, and they told him that he can't leave the country or Jesus will zap him, and that he better buy a crib, but he's so poor that he has to build it instead, and next he'll probably search for "best suicide method" ... so thank God for Google, the benign giant who knows every minute detail of his pathetic life.

Re:Holy shit, Google knows everything about him!

[electrosoccertux]

So the ad is telling us that some horny dude knocked up some chick in Paris and was looking for a church to confess his sins, and they told him that he can't leave the country or Jesus will zap him, and that he better buy a crib, but he's so poor that he has to build it instead, and next he'll probably search for "best suicide method" ... so thank God for Google, the benign giant who knows every minute detail of his pathetic life.

"You're right, it would be better if he killed the baby" --Planned Parenthood

Re:Holy shit, Google knows everything about him!

[slashdotjunker]

Scene: the office of Joe the 60 year old congressman. Alice: Hey Joe, some computer activists are asking us to look into regulating a company called Google. The do internet search stuff. Joe: Google? I've heard of them, but isn't that mostly used by geeks to search for Star Wars quotes? Alice: Hey Joe, some computer activists are asking us to look into regulating a company called Google. The do internet search stuff. Joe: I saw their ad. Powerful stuff. Let's have Bob look into this.

Re:Holy shit, Google knows everything about him!

[slashdotjunker]

I really liked the ad. I think it clearly shows the power of search engines to help people accomplish tasks by stringing together a set of simple search queries. Unfortunately, it also clearly shows the power of Google to collect those time ordered search queries and reconstruct a story that is intimately private. This ad could really backfire on Google.

Scene: the office of Joe the 60 year old congressman.

(before the Google super bowl ad)

Alice: Hey Joe, some computer privacy activists are asking us to look into regulating a company called Google. They do internet search stuff.

Joe: Google? I've heard of them, but isn't that mostly used by geeks to search for Star Wars quotes?

(after the Google super bowl ad)

Alice: Hey Joe, some computer privacy activists are asking us to look into regulating a company called Google. They do internet search stuff.

Joe: I saw their ad. Powerful stuff. Let's have Bob look into this.

I Don't Get It

[pipingguy]

Is a super bowl some kind of large toilet?

Re:I Don't Get It

[biryokumaru]

Yes, and all the major corporations throw their money into it.

Re:I Don't Get It

[jayveekay]

That flushing sound you heard is as if a million shareholders cried out in horror... and were suddenly silenced.

Re:I Don't Get It

[azenpunk]

for culture, yes.

Re:I Don't Get It

[jellyfrog]

I don't know, I wouldn't have called it sudden. More like a long drawn-out suffocation from the smell.

Re:I Don't Get It

[mgblst]

No, it is a very distinguished bird, sheesh I though everybody new that.

Suberb Owl!

Re:I Don't Get It

[notaspy]

They don't throw the money into the bowl. Major corporations are people. The kind that eat souls and crap money.

Re:I Don't Get It

[npsimons]

Is a super bowl some kind of large toilet?

No, you parsed that wrong: it's supposed to read "Superb Owl". What this has to do with kicking the inflated skin of a pig through something that symbolizes an erect bifurcated penis, I cannot fathom.

Undertones

[dougmwne]

I detect a big Googly brother undertone. Anyone remember the accidentally released Yahoo searches that told the story of people's personal lives through their search queries?

Re:Undertones

[FrancoisHarvey]

it was AOL ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_data_scandal )

Why not Chrome?

[Nightspirit]

Doesn't everyone already use google search? Wouldn't they have gotten much more bang for the buck with a Chrome ad?

Re:Why not Chrome?

[LordLucless]

They weren't looking for more exposure. They were looking to get people to associate Google with warm fuzzies.

Re:Why not Chrome?

[demonlapin]

You use it. I use it. Normal people don't use it like you and I do.

They don't realize that Google will correct their misspellings, show them maps, translate languages, define words, track flights, and show them street views with reviews of places. My mother in law is the target of this ad, because she's one of the millions of people who don't realize what all this amazing technology will do for us. (And it is amazing.)

Autocomplete Search Results

[antdude]

Did anyone freeze frames on those search autocompletes? I saw one that said "Who is the antichrist?" I was hoping to see some more nasty stuff, but they were censored out. Sopmeone should compare the TV ad. and the real search engine results. [grin]

Re:Autocomplete Search Results

[Sopmeone]

Sopmeone should compare

Who the fuck is Sopmeone?

Yeah, hi. Sopmeone here. I did compare the results but you won't be interested. Nice meeting you.

Re:Autocomplete Search Results

[JakeD409]

That's going to be difficult to do, as they change frequently (and the fact that these ones were in a Superbowl commercial will probably make them change even faster).

Re:Autocomplete Search Results

[antdude]

Haahaha, sorry to mention you. I meant to say "Someone". :)

Re:Autocomplete Search Results

[antdude]

True, and probably censored for television/TV too. :(

I thought it was sweet.

[Orp]

I thought it was a sweet ad. At the end, though, I had him googling "divorce lawyer."

Re:I thought it was sweet.

[jollyreaper]

I thought it was a sweet ad. At the end, though, I had him googling "divorce lawyer."

There are going to be a metric shit ton of parody ads following this format, more than mac/pc even. Googles divorce, sees the cost, googles bodies -- the disposal of, etc.

The ad was cute

[symbolset]

I don't know why Google needs to advertise - their domain name is the verb "to inquire". But the ad was cute. I was entertained for 30 seconds. Not moved, not inspired, entertained. They went with the mini-movie boy-meets-girl trite story theme in a search engine context and it worked for me. The next time I search for information I'll use Google - not because of the ad but because it's a reliable solution to that need, until it's not.

And it didn't have Bill Gates shaking his butt in my face, which is nice. That was bad enough in standard def, but I was watching this one in HD.

I did study abroad in france!

[dawilcox]

Those were my Google searches! I just recently built that crib!

Those who ask, receive!

[fibrewire]

Haven't you heard of Google TiSP?

http://www.google.com/tisp/

I wonder why they didn't advertise this - everyone already uses google search.

And for those wondering, Clearwire is just a franchise of Google TiSP

Re:Those who ask, receive!

[Asadullah Ahmad]

Don't you think its a bit early to be posting old April fool jokes?

Re:Those who ask, receive!

[Sebilrazen]

or just really, really late.

Ads

[yoshi_mon]

Googles ad was one of the better ones imo. Only a few other standouts and both of them were beer commercials. Course ymmv on what you consider good.

On a side not I was pleased to see that CBS did at least reach a compromise with their...lets say selective censorship and only ran a very short Tim Tebow ad as opposed to something longer and more dogmatic.

Disclamer: I'm a Florida Gator, I like Tim a lot, I'm also a (weak) atheist who is pro-choice.

Re:Ads

[Blakey Rat]

I don't get the issue over that ad.

Is your political position really *so weak* that you have to engage in a legal battle to prevent someone who honestly feels the opposite way from talking about it for 30 seconds? Seriously, is the pro-choice movement run by 5-year-olds? Adults usually are ok coping with people who have other opinions.

I'm pretty neutral in the debate, being single and male.

Re:Ads

[yoshi_mon]

I'm sorry for the very delayed reply.

Is your political position really *so weak* that you have to engage in a legal battle to prevent someone who honestly feels the opposite way from talking about it for 30 seconds? Seriously, is the pro-choice movement run by 5-year-olds? Adults usually are ok coping with people who have other opinions.

First of all you engage in some serious straw man. Second you seem to misunderstand the point of what happened.

1) CBS allowed a very dogmatic ad to be shown while at the same time censoring another dogmatic (gay) ad.
2) These ads during the Superbowl are not evidence or precedent in any sort of legal standing. They are a means to an end by those who contract them.
3) Via point 2 there is no real battle here, only political points. Since abortion is something that sways a bloc of voters the intent is pretty clear. I honestly think that most people would love to put aside their own political views such that they could watch the Super Bowl with anyone but it was not the Pro-Choice movement that made this a political issue.

Perl and Ruby script

[electrosoccertux]

it goes like this:

Guy: "Hi, you're very pretty to me, here are some PERL earings. Will you go out with me?"
Girl: "...."
Guy: "I even got you this RUBY hairpin, will you go out with me now?"
Girl: walks away
Guy: "..."

There's really no need to automate this, seeing as there are no unpredictable branches in the pipeline. You're going to get the same result every time. You might as well write "GOTO 5" and be done with it.

Re:Perl and Ruby script

[inKubus]

if($self->isNerd())
{
    if($girl->isNerd())
    {
        if(rand(0,999999)==1 && !$girl->isLesbian())
        {
            $self->chance=.99;
        }
    }
    else($girl->isHot())
    {
        if($self->isRich())
        {
            $self->chance=.5;
        }
        else
        {
            $self->chance=0;
        }
    }
    else if($girl->isUgly())
    {
        $self->chance=.75;
    }
}

if($self->chance

Re:Perl and Ruby script

[selven]

Guy: Here's a python.

Re:Perl and Ruby script

[hrimhari]

+++NO CARRIER

inKubus: "Damn! No wonder I never find anyone!"

Re:Apparently google doesn't know about it...

[emurphy42]

That's because that page hasn't been updated for four years. *goes to suggest they do so*

Re:Someone at Google is WEIRD.

[Tacvek]

This was one of the company's many April 1 jokes.

Condescending post

[rockNme2349]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=why+can%27t+i+own+a+canadian

Re:Someone at Google is WEIRD.

[Anpheus]

It's one of their many April Fool's releases.

Surprise! They fooled you.

Google's Superbowl Ad

[david clark]

Since I'm a Saints fan and we just made Peyton Manning piss his pants,I'm in a really good mood. The Crown Royal helped....The Google ad painted an exceptional picture of just how well connected we are to the Web. You mean there are other search engines - other than Bing? Now about the Saints- you guys drive on down to New Awlins Tuesday. Sign up for Parting 501. Yeah,its a grad course.

Re:Google's Superbowl Ad

[demonlapin]

Parting 501

Must have been a lot of Crown Royal. Or was it K&B brand? ;)

Mod parent funny/insightful

[turing_m]

Infinite loop detected

Sure it terminates. It's a trivial task, all he wanted to do was "find".

Re:Mod parent funny/insightful

[IBBoard]

No it won't - "tits" is never assigned to, so the loop will either have an initial/default value "36c" and loop for ever, or "tits" will be null and crash out with a null pointer (assuming a Java/C#-like language) or potentially show undefined behaviour (most other languages).

Re:Mod parent funny/insightful

[Your.Master]

Hard to say for sure. Perhaps in this language, the construct "find " will modify , which in this case happens to be tits. This is certainly what I would assume.

Alternatively, perhaps "tits" is intentionally not thread-safe, and therefore this is essentially a spinlock.

Re:Mod parent funny/insightful

[Ginger Unicorn]

at any point in this conversation were either of you ever thinking about tits?

Re:Mod parent funny/insightful

[AVee]

Perhaps "tits" is intentionally not thread-safe, and therefore this is essentially a spinlock.

Like, you could get out of this endless quest, but only if somebody else finds you some tits?

The next killer app

[turing_m]

Hack some face recognition software to recognize body shapes, allow the AI to be trained on the user's personal porn collection, integrate it with wget and a bittorrent client, and you will have the firefox add-on to end all firefox add-ons.

Re:Silly Americans

[Archon-X]

Google just confirmed: date an american, and it's all over in 52 seconds.

Re:Someone at Google is WEIRD.

[sopssa]

You hear that whooshing sound over your head? It's not a package delivery through the sewers!

"Why are black people so loud"

[justinlee37]

That was my fourth suggestion. My sixth suggestion was "why can't I own a Canadian"

Terrible super bowl ads...

[aceofspades1217]

The super bowl ads this year were horrible. I remember like 2 years ago the Super Bowl ads were these insane ads in which were hilarious and had great actors in them. This year they weren't much better than normal ads.

The Google ad however really stood out. Heck it even made me feel emotional.

I welcome our new Google overlords!

It's not just Bing...

[celerityfm]

It's not just Bing that lit the fire under Google that helped make this happen, Facebook is actually their most potent threat - wrote about it here. They're challenging Google for ad revenue, for search, for email, the list goes on. I saw some pretty compelling discussion on Twitter speculating about how long till Facebook comes out with their own browser.

So the question I have is, will we see a Facebook superbowl ad next year?

Re:It's not just Bing...

[miffo.swe]

Facebook and Myspace isnt exactly something new outside the US. Several alternatives have come and gone throughout the years. Its a fad that will subside in time just like blogging and the like. Most of the services like facebook has tried to transform into their own universe/internet and imploded on itself.

More Search Stories

[Paaskonijn]

There are six more of them here: http://www.youtube.com/searchstories It's a really good campaign. Most of the videos have the awww factor and it shows off Google's services very effectively.

What are you smoking

[argent]

The "Paris" ad was sweet and thoughtful, the "Tiger" ad was just nasty and mean-spirited.

That ad is fucking awesome

[blind biker]

I don't get the criticism of the Google ad, I thought it was just perfect.

It has a story.
The story is not offensive, but rather personal and endearing.
There is a positive message.
There is a happy end (since we're expecting a baby any day, I am quite biased on this one).
And google is there, from the very beginning, like a faithful, useful, reliable friend.

I think this ad has genius written all over it.

Re:That ad is fucking awesome

[slimjim8094]

And most importantly, it doesn't come off as outlandish. I could realistically ask those questions, and realistically get those answers. So many ads are just ridiculous - everybody knows that brand new SUV won't be going through the wilderness or around hairpin turns on a mountain.

The fact that this ad could realistically be a video of a single person's searches (combined over time, of course) significantly improves it.

Telling a story vs. setting a mood

[davide marney]

Interesting how so many ads were trying to put the viewer into a desired mood, and then associate it with a product (the TV ads, the car ads, Coke, etc.), while Google's ad was just a straight-forward story. The Google sequence of search terms were exactly like frames of a comic, where the viewer fills in the storyline inferred by the sequence. (Having just read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, I now know that technique is called "closure" -- thanks, Scott.)

Telling a story instead of setting a mood really highlights the Google esthetic: function, always function, before form.

 

I saw it on Google

[AlpineR]

It's gotten to the point where we could probably replace "Internet Explorer" with "Google" and people would call the internet "the google".

I have heard that already. Some people get the impression that anything you reach through Google is on Google. And I've heard people complain when they find Google "hosting" a site with offensive material.

I liked the commercial. It tells people that Google is still doing very cool and useful things with simple text instead of pretty pictures and vast advertising campaigns (Bing). And it reminds people that Google still does search. With all the Google-branded phones and software, I'm worried that Google is going to get a black eye from one of them and spoil the entire brand.

Re:I saw it on Google

[electrosoccertux]

It's gotten to the point where we could probably replace "Internet Explorer" with "Google" and people would call the internet "the google".

I have heard that already. Some people get the impression that anything you reach through Google is on Google. And I've heard people complain when they find Google "hosting" a site with offensive material.

I liked the commercial. It tells people that Google is still doing very cool and useful things with simple text instead of pretty pictures and vast advertising campaigns (Bing). And it reminds people that Google still does search. With all the Google-branded phones and software, I'm worried that Google is going to get a black eye from one of them and spoil the entire brand.

Microsoft may have something going though, lately I've grown bored with the bland google page. I kinda like that there's nice scenery on bing.

Re:I saw it on Google

[AncientPC]

Isn't that what iGoogle is for? You get to customize it with themes and all the widgets you want, as well as get a search engine.

http://autocompleteme.com/

[tresstatus]

I was watching and waiting for something funny to pop up in the autocomplete so I could post it on http://autocompleteme.com/

8)

Eric Schmidt YOU LIED

[PHPNerd]

Before the Superbowl, Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) tweeted:

"Can't wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said "Hell has indeed frozen over.")"

It was a nice ad (very touching), but...SERIOUSLY??? I did NOT watch that ad and say "Hell has indeed frozen over"! In fact, thanks to his silly hype, I was left incredibly underwhelmed. Thanks alot, Schmidt.

Chuck Norris

[ndavis]

All these comments and no one noticed that when they did the search for Church one of the queries that came up when they had only typed 'Chu' was 'Chuck Norris' Which makes this the coolest ad and now the Google employees better watch out for roundhouse kick related incidents.

Re:Chuck Norris

[ImprovOmega]

Or if Chuck Norris actually *did* endorse it then they better build up infrastructure for the dump trucks full of money about to be delivered to them.

Also, if I were a Chinese hacker, I would be surrendering now just to be safe.

Response...

[Dausha]

This is Google's response to both Bing and KGB.

But, does this mean the age of the DotCom Superbowl Commercial is back?

And, what about the political advertisements? We had one about debt (we pay .5 billion per day, mostly to foreign investors) and one on pro-choice.

Re:It's a P.R. mistake.

[slimjim8094]

It was April 1, when they linked it from the homepage. If you can't tell that it's a joke, you're pretty stupid.

"commode-based TiSP wireless router", or "largely sanitary process -- provided you follow these step-by-step instructions very, very carefully.", or "our Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs)", or the professional installation "which dispatches an army of factory-trained, sub-contracted nanobots from the TiSP Access Node. The nanobots travel with exhilarating nano-speed through the sewer system and into your home to perform the installation service, which should be complete within 15 minutes. Note: For your own physical safety and emotional well-being and in consideration of the nanobots' working conditions, please make absolutely certain that your toilet is unoccupied at the scheduled appointment time."

Foolish PR? Yes, I suppose there are plenty of stupid people around who might be fooled by the obvious joke. Frankly, I don't care - and apparently Google doesn't either.

Translation from Spanish to English

[jluzwick]

I found it funny that google believes you want to translate spanish to english when you type in "translate tu es tres mignon" Google Return: Translation for tu es tres mignon: Spanish English tu es tres mignon - you're very cute translate.google.com

It's a P.R. mistake, #2.

[Futurepower(R)]

"If you can't tell that it's a joke, you're pretty stupid."

You have made the issue an occasion to act out your anger, instead of considering the underlying circumstances.

That is not a way that a big corporation should present itself. It's the kind of unfunny "joke" that only someone who is socially challenged would think is funny. Corporations must communicate with everyone, not just a backward few.

You said, "Frankly, I don't care..." That's obvious.

I care. I don't like seeing Google doing less than its best, even though I don't do consulting for them.

Re:Screw the fact that Google made a commercial

[Khyber]

To the moron moderators that modded me redundant:

Do a ctrl+F and do a search on the term KGB - any and all mentions are AFTER my post, by one day.

Me saying it first means it is not redundant. Everyone else saying it after me is. Try again, fools.

Re:Try this --- even more poignant !

[Psyborgue]

Works with politicians too. Try typing in "obama is" or "bush is".

They've been running ads like this in Japan

[Armage Bedar]

They've been running ads like this in Japan for several months now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro0dc4sMku4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msWY2Lt3dFE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNf6HYl6r5E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oblhekZd-tA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzelkn9lvF0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmYE_58jNvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLJYFkkAIas ...mostly likely because their market share here is around 35-40%, less than Yahoo! Japan's 50%.