Using Google’s Android? That’ll Be $10 a Year, Thanks!

How are you enjoying that free Android software that powers your iPhone-competing smart phone? I hope you like it enough to reimburse Google $10 a year, because that’s what Google CEO Eric Schmidt is hoping to get out of each Android user: “If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?” Schmidt asked rhetorically. All it would take, he said, is $10 per user per year. Did you just feel a small pain in your wallet? OK, relax. Google doesn’t want you to actually hand over ten bucks a year to use Android, but that’s the nominal amount it says it needs to earn from each user, in order to add a nice supplement to its search engine revenue. That could come from any kind of distribution deal or premium apps that you might pay for. And any amount it can earn from Android would certainly help it to finally cast off that “ one trick pony ” tag that appears to be relentlessly applied to the search giant. And, based on the number of people that tweet to me about their love of their Android phone, I suspect that Google has a good shot at getting the income from Android it so dearly craves.

Chart: Each Google Employee Worth $1.4M

Back in 2008, we reported on the atonishing revenue Google was generating per employee: $210,000 per year! It appears that revenue has turned into a nice little stockpile of cash for the search giant. If you were to divide up all the cash Google has in its coffers, each employee would walk away with $1.4 million!

Facebook Rolling Out Questions Feature

People ask a lot of questions. It’s natural and it makes sense. It’s the only way we can acquire information that we don’t currently have. The biggest problem with any question is finding the best source to ask. We have friends and family but they can only go so far in many cases. We have search engines but sometimes you need something else, right? Enter Facebook Questions which was announced yesterday in the Facebook blog and is being slow rolled out to the Facebook community at large. Today we’re introducing Facebook Questions, a beta product that lets you pose questions like these to the Facebook community. With this new application, you can get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics. Since we like to develop products carefully over time with your help, Facebook Questions is available to a limited number of people right now, and we’ll be developing it rapidly based on their feedback. We’re aiming to bring this product to all of you as quickly as we can. Here is the box you will see when you are included in the effort It’s an idea that can certainly be of interest if you feel that you can trust someone that you have never met before and have no idea if they are real or not. In other words, there will be value here but how it fits for you will depend on your willingness to trust. Here are some examples given in the blog Facebook Questions helps you tap into the collective knowledge of the more than 500 million people on Facebook. For example, if you’re vacationing in Costa Rica and want to know the best places to surf, you can use Facebook Questions to get answers from nearby surfing enthusiasts. Because questions will also appear to your friends and their friends, you’ll receive answers that are more personalized to you. It appears as if the whole privacy thing has certainly impacted everything Facebook does since this is stated in the post as well. Keep in mind that all questions and answers posted using the Questions application are public and visible to everyone on the Internet. If you only want to ask a question to your friends or a specific group of people, you can still pose it as a status update on your profile targeted to those people. You will be able to set up polls and post photos of things that you are asking questions of as well. Sounds interesting but it is something that should be used with caution considering that you are asking the entire community a question thus opening yourself up to everything else that can come along with that kind of exposure. So my question to you is, do you think that you would use Facebook Questions to find your answers to the things you are curious about? What kinds of questions would you ask to everyone and what others might you not be so public with? For me, I’ll stick to a status update to my friends only for now. However, some people find that even family recommendations need more verification. In this new world order, it is important to weigh the risks of of jumping into the ‘personal crowdsourcing’ waters. You never know what sharks may be lurking. Your thoughts? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Old Spice Reaps Rewards of Viral Campaign

Sometimes an ad for a product is so clever that you remember the ad but not the product. Not so with Old Spice’s new “Smell Like a Man, Man,” campaign which went viral earlier this year. According to a Nielsen report which was noted in Brandweek , sales of Old Spice Body Wash have jumped 55% in the past three months and 107% this past month. “Gary Stibel, CEO and founder of The New England Consulting Group, said his data also shows a lift for Old Spice. “We think that Old Spice is up. We don’t think it’s up in the double digits, but it’s up meaningfully, and we think it’s driven 100 percent by marketing.” What’s not measurable is how much help the campaign had from the news coverage it received. Type “Old Spice” into Google news and you’ll find more than 2,000 articles have been written by everyone from Business Week to MTV to. . . us. If P&G had bought ad space on all of these publications, the cost would have been astronomical, but now they’re a part of advertising history and that is, to quote another ad genius, priceless. The “Old Spice Guy”, Isaiah Mustafa, is now on his way to becoming a movie star with a role in Jennifer Aniston’s new movie. Now that’s how you breath new life into an old brand.

Search Engine Strategies San Jose is No More

I have good news and bad news. First the bad news: Search Engine Strategies San Jose is no more. Sucka! That’s cos the good news is that the event has been renamed SES and the location changed to San Francisco! I so got you with that one, didn’t I? Well, there’s more. SES is now part of the broader Connected Marketing Week which runs from August 16-20 at the Moscone Center in San Fran. Connected Marketing Week features five full days of themed subjects on search marketing, micro-blogging, social media, international online marketing, ad networks and exchanges, and much more. Each day will include panels, events, and networking opportunities for all involved. In addition to SES, the week also includes a half day  ClickZ BlogworkZ forum featuring discussion panels on the latest trends in blogging and a specific panel on how bloggers are impacting the reputation of multi-million dollar businesses. You’ll find me hanging out at Connected Marketing Week. On Monday , I’m on a ClickZ panel will Robert Scoble–the first time I believe we’ve been on the same panel together. And, later in the week, you’ll find me at SES– teaching you how to manage your Google reputation . So, are you coming? The early bird discount ends on July 30th and Marketing Pilgrim readers can get another 20% discount by using the code SPGSF20 See you there! Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community