Author: Giovanni Aureel

A little chat about twitter

If I wasn’t working in an IT-Company I probably wouldn’t have joined twitter and I have to admit, so far I’ve not twitterd very much.

But I frequently check what my colleagues are up to and what sort of information they are sharing with the world. Looking at a twitter history of a colleague recently, I was reminded of my early days of online communication. I checked other twitter accounts too and found that a lot of twitter users display nothing more but simple chat conversations, put online for the rest of us to read…

I wonder what I and million others would have done if Yahoo (my chat software of choice from 1998 till late 2002) would have stored our conversations back and made them public to everyone. How fun would it be to look back at those conversations, when I used to spend up to 14 hours of my weekend at the campus in chat rooms, talking to people all over the world (doing that at home would have cost me a fortune). By 2004 I had lost complete interest in that sort of conversation. I don’t even know why, I just grew tired.

But I get the impression that this kind of conversation is having a come back. People are sitting in front of the computer, typing away their short twitter messages and wait for response. Even more important these days, typing in a message in their I-Phone or other cell phones and waiting what others have to say.

If I look at it this way, I started twittering and blogging in 1998, long before those two words where even in the minds of anyone, but to go to a chartroom is sooo 90ties – let’s call it twittering and it is an up and coming new trend 😉

A weekend in London

Just got back from a excellent weekend in London. The weekend included watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on a 3d Imax screen (very impressive), going to the Royal Haymarket Theater for the play “Waiting for Godot” with Patrick Stewart and Ian Mc Kellen (I even got two autographs by Sir “Gandalf” Ian Mc Kellen himself!).

But after this superb weekend I think Lufhansa actually deserves a little bragging!

I was booked on a flight to London from Linz via Frankfurt on Friday. Around 9 am  I was informed via SMS that the flight was cancled, but after a short phonecall I was booked on a different flight via Munich instead. Eventually had to leave two hours later from Linz and actually arrived at the same time in London as initially planned.  The original flight would have included a 2,5 hour stop over in Frankfurt that I wasn’t looking forward to anyway. After I checked my luggage at the airport in Linz I even got a free lunch from the Lufthansa staff. Very nice way to start the trip to London!

But it even got better today when I arrived in Frankfurt! My flight to Linz was overbooked and Lufthansa looked for people who would fly via Munich instead. Without any hesitation I volunteered and got a 250 Euro cheque that I can cash in anywhere in the world. The delay was only minor and I got to Linz about 1,5 hours later then originally planed as.

So to sum it up: The Lufthansa flight was about 30 euro more expensive than Ryan Air would have cost me – not counting in the fact thats its much cheaper to take the Picadilly line rather then the not so cheap Stanstead Express. Considering the service I experienced the past few days, that was more then worth it :-)!  I’ve heard horror stories what can actually happen if Ryan Air cancel your flight, but when Lufthansa cancels a flight it puts a  big grin on my face :-)!

Oh and finally: a very big “Thank You” to Michael and Sally, my wonderfull hosts for the past few days!

Back from agencies@google in Dublin!

I just returned from Ireland! I, as a represantativ for my company, was invited by Google to be trained along other agencies from across Europe to improve my knowledge on E-marketing and Website optimization.  It was all on very short notice, I only got the invitation about 1,5 weeks in advance. Needless to say I had my flights and the hotel booked in no time.

My first day started with signing a two page confidential agreement and a meeting of my contact person at Google, that I had previously only known via phone. We started the day with a coffee at the Google Cafeteria and a little chit chat about how my company deals with clients and how tourism works in general in Austria. Then I headed for my first Seminar about Quality Score and Bid management for Google Adwords . The quality of the presentation was top top-notch and very helpful in terms of understanding how Google works. Their philosophy in simply words –  Deliver what the costumer is looking for and you will be successful, try and trick him into visiting a site that is not what he/she is looking for and you will fail. Common Sense which, in my opinion, is the secret behind the success of Google.

My next seminar was about Advanced Optimization, such as using season events to increase profit and how to improve the performance of your website by analyzing how your visitors react to your content.Then came lunch – and if the seminars weren’t already impressive enough – their food was absolutely astonishing. It looks like an ordinary canteen at an university but it tastes like in a restaurant – Sushi, Pizza, fantastic salad, you’ll name it – and on top of all – its free for Visitors and Google Workers alike. Rumor has it that after you start working there you’ll gain about 7 kilos in the first few weeks.

Then came the afternoon seminars – which was kind of hard to follow after the superb lunch, but nonetheless, very interesting. The first one was about ROI Tools and an in depth look on how to improve Return of Investment as well as a “How to Guide”. We ended the day with an Agency Round Table where we where asked how Google could improve and increase support for agencies as well as our opinion on a platform provided by Google for potential clients to choose which agencies fits them best.

Our day ended at the “Ocean”, a bar close the Google headquarter. One guy actually ended up swimming across the Grand Channel after being challenged to do so by the others – Hilarious!

The second day started with a look at the Content Network and how it can be used to promote and get awareness for products that have just been introduced to the market. This seminar was followed by an outlook on the developments of social media and mobile search for the next couple of years. Its kina scary how fast this markets are developing. In the afternoon I got the chance to take a stroll around the Google complex and the official part ended with a workshop and in-depth analyses of my current projects. At night we made a pub crawl around Temple bar, again with the Google Staff. Needless to say I enjoyed a few pints of Guinness…

My final day at the Google Headquarter was dedicated to Google Analytics and its new features such as the Internal site search, Advanced segmentation and Motion charts (still haven’t figured that one out but it sure looks great). Overall I was very excited to go to Dublin and get a little insight on “Google”, but my expectation where actually by far exceeded!