ZIP to local on GoogleNews

Google released a new "experiment" yesterday. So far, it's only available in English. If you go to Google News and scroll down you'll find a search box where you can enter your ZIP code. When I tried it just now for 85224, it brought up four Arizona Republic items with links to azcentral. I would love to see it access many more sources, including very small publications -- and maybe it does and I just haven't seen them yet; I should try more ZIP codes. And, of course, many very small publications don't even have a shovelware presence online yet. Much as I know news sites like to decry Google, I think there's revenue opportunity here. More and more people from outside the geographical region are likely to pull up azcentral -- or wherever -- stories. It allows for topical ads. While the popular wisdom is that mom-and-pops will suffer from this, there are some who could take advantage of different sorts of advertising, something that plays up something distinctive about what they have to offer. I am so tired of one-size-fits-all chain merchandising and branding that it would seem like a relief to me. But I digress. There's an excellent post on Google local at Journalistopia where Danny Sanchez talks about the growing importance of geocoding stories. More about that anon.

Cue the scary music

I was just about to Googlemap "hairdresser" and my ZIP when I decided to take a look at this video first. So maybe my hair will stay shaggy a bit longer...

Late nights and a busy May

I just investigated the "Web History" feature in Google and discovered a great way to rediscover lost links -- as well as a strange sort of diary left by my tracks in cyberspace. The chart here is from clicking on "trends" and it shows the "all time" results of when I searched -- other options are available, like the past seven days, 30 days, etc. These are Google searches only (those I did on other computers or through other engines are not included) and I'm assuming these have only been tracked since I gained a google e-mail address, which I rarely use but which tracks me all the same. May shows a lot of activity because I was working on a book then and in early June. Interesting stuff.

Google launches Australian election package

I was clued into this multimedia reporting package by Alan Mutter's Newsosaur. Here's what he has to say:

Google is road-testing a major initiative capable of hijacking a good deal of the web traffic the mainstream media ordinarily would get during the 2008 election in the United States.

There are Google Map mashups of voting districts (with satellite views), collections of YouTube candidate videos, and ready-made search buttons. It makes so much sense. See what you think.

Google cuts right to the news chase

Danny Sanchez, who writes Journalistopia, has a nice package about Google's announcement it will carry AP and other news service material and link directly to pages dedicated to that service. In the past, Google directed searchers to various news Web sites (newspapers, broadcasters) that were AP (etc.) members. As he points out, this is significant.

New! Easier! Google Mashups!

This just in from Professor Steve Doig who was kind enough to show us the Google mashup technique recently:

Colleagues: Some of you were interested in the Google Maps mashup I made a couple weeks ago showing faculty/staff addresses. But doing that requires some familiarity with html, databases and geocoding.

However, Google has just created a new easy way of doing those, if you're willing to enter your points of interest individually. You can play with it yourself at http://maps.google.com. Click on the "My Maps" tab on the left rail, and go to "create a new map." After that, it's just point and click.

Also, take a look at some of the examples under "Featured Maps", like the locations of all the major league baseball parks. A nicely academic use is the "America's Highway: Oral Histories of Route 66" link. There you see not only the route but also photos and interviews and videos along the way. I can see lots of application for things like that.

Steve