Google reveals Mother’s Day searches: Mom’s the Word

With Mother’s Day coming up fast, a look at searches conducted on Google.com.ph shows that the Internet is the go-to destination for Pinoys looking for information and gift ideas.

As this Google’s Insights for Search graph shows, searches for for ‘mother’s day’ and ‘mother’s day 2012’ rose in sync as people went online to make sure they didn’t accidentally miss the all important date. Searches for ‘bouquet’, ‘gifts’ and even ‘tiffany’ — a brand famed for sterling silver classics and a new line up of Mother’s Day-themed trinkets — also rose as family members looked out for the perfect way to say “thank you” to mum.

 

Top tips for the budding online marketer

With Mother’s Day coming up fast, it’s no wondering that Pinoys are turning to the internet to ensure they get the date right and track down the right gifts for their mothers. A look at Insights for Search shows that searches for ‘Mother’s Day 2012’ and ‘Mother’s Day’ rose, as did searches for ‘bouquets’ and ‘balloons’.

Clearly, Filipinos are looking to give their mothers something to remember the day by. So what can a business to do reach this audience? Why not tap on the power of the internet? The web offers savvy marketers the opportunity and free tools to help grow their business. Whether big or small, firms can easily leverage these free tools to successfully run and reap the benefits of an online marketing campaign. Here are five key questions and tips to help you plan and execute your online marketing campaign like a pro.

 

Visit global landmarks with photo tours in Google Maps

Every year, millions of people pack their bags and head to far-off places to enjoy sites and cultures different from their own. While there, they snap photos to document their trip and share their excursions online. Yet none of these individual photos captures the experience of actually being immersed in a specific location. With today’s introduction of photo tours, a feature of Google Maps that guides you through a 3D photo scene, we’re one step closer (video).

Photo tours are available for more than 15,000 popular sites around the world, from famous landmarks such as St. Mark’s Basilica in Italy to scenic treasures like Half Dome in Yosemite. They can be initiated from Google Maps in two ways. First, when you search for a place, such as Trevi Fountain, the results in the left panel will indicate if there is a photo tour available: click either the thumbnail image or the link to start the tour. Alternatively, if you’re browsing the map and click on the label for a particular landmark, the info window that appears will indicate if a photo tour is available.

 

Doing homework with Google’s help

Gone are the days when Filipino students struggle to search for answers to their school assignments from textbooks and libraries. With the evolution of Internet search, students now have access to unlimited information, be it the definition of geography to the achievements of Filipino scientists. Where before they would crack open an encyclopedia or purchase an almanac, Filipinos are now turning to the Web to get the answers they need.

Google search trends show what Filipinos consistently search for during a given period. Not surprisingly, searches in June reveal what goes on in Filipino students’ minds as they work on their school assignments with the help of Google Search. It also gives unique insights into how our country’s education curriculums are structured, and how our teachers introduce new topics to their classes.

 

Google Invites Pinoys to “Map Your Precinct” on Google Map Maker

Google is inviting Filipinos across the country to map their voting centers via a “Map Your Precinct” tool that will help voters get to their assigned polling station on Election Day, May 10, 2010. The “Map Your Precinct” campaign relies on the volunteer efforts of Filipinos who are encouraged to tag the locations of the voting centers they are familiar with on Google Map Maker, Google’s online map-editing tool. The tool can be accessed at http://www.google.com.ph/intl/en/landing/elections2010/.

The tool started out as a 20% project by Dan Delima, a Filipino Google engineer who has seen firsthand Filipinos’ enthusiasm in using Google Map Maker. Having heard that designated polling stations may change for many voters this year due to precinct clustering, Dan decided to build a tool that harnesses the knowledge of the Pinoy community to make voting center information more accessible to Filipinos.