Yes.

The whole location of the Garage Geek party is quirky but that is exactly what makes it so unique. So yes, look closly, Marissa Mayer - VP Search Products & User Experience @ Google is standing on a fork lift while giving a speech.
And if you look a little closer Yossi Vardi is on her left, standing in as stage master, looking concerned…making sure Marissa doesn’t take a tumble ( ’cause in the spirit of Israeli improvisation he is to blame she is up there in the first place )
You might think Marissa could be ticked off at the settings but I got the feeling she ‘connected’ with the garage groove.

      

This is a call for all you early adopters who like to ‘check out stuff’. I downloaded Yoomba before the weekend to see what the buzz is about.

I should take some of the blame for what happened but in this day and age there are some basic trust rules between users and service providers. Tricks are Passé.

I’m what you call a ” Next-next-next-launch” guy. Except that with Yoomba, before I realized it, my whole contact list got spammed with invitations to start talking with me. What an embarrassment! I accepted pulling my contact list info because it helps. What I don’t agree with is that when you accept “Start Chatting with Friends now” the immediate result is a 500 emails blast! I humbly believed it means…start using the service.

By the time I noticed what had happened the emails had been sent. I tried to stop, quit…uninstall… but nothing helped, it was too late.

Since I uninstalled the app I can’t even write a negative software review. What is more important is that User Experience and marketing wise they failed miserably. A cheap ‘product’ trick to instigate viral market backfired big time. Beware!

      

I’d like to present a different take than proposed by Aner below. When I think of the effectiveness of this new marketing channel I look at the wider perspective of the platform and user habits. To pinpoint the discussion further I’d like to address the action that leads to the ad being served. Google’s definition of a mobile ad is as follows:

“Mobile ads are shorter text-based AdWords ads that appear on mobile websites or when users search Google from a mobile device. When users clicks on your mobile ad, you can send them to your mobile webpage or offer them the option to connect to your business phone.”

The issue that I would like to focus on is the fact that content discovery and search habits are COMPLETELY different when it comes to mobile browsing. As such, I believe ‘copying’ a successful ad model on the ‘pc web’ does not guarantee success in the mobile world.

Mobile web browsing is much more focused. You hardly ever start in one place and ‘wander’ to the next or discover new services and information based on advertising and hyperlinks. Its usually a much more focused action. You are ‘on the go’ you look up ’something’ - news, sports –> these are served via direct links in the Operator’s portal or your own bookmarks - done. There is no (or hardly any) plain search. If there is, its in the context of a use case such as maps, music or video search and that usually happens within a specific service (HooQs ).

In his MEM2007 insights post Aner mentioned (point #9) users tried Google mobile search and didn’t like it. I did too, and didn’t like it. Not because of Google but because content is scarce and the chance of random discovery which is part of the Internet’s main ‘wonders’ doesn’t [yet] exist in the mobile web.

I’m willing to agree Google’s drive is positive. If anyone can start some kind of drive that will motivate mobile content to be created thus leading to an eco-system that is able to sustain ads based on that content…it’s Google. Google’s mobile ads are basically an experiment that will hopefully lead to more mobile content and probably also lead to a change in the ad model.

One of the greatest killer apps for mobile search will be the integration of location based with search. Not on a country level, on the neighborhood level! If I want to buy flowers for my wife - Go to Google, search “Flowers” –> results = near by flower shops, with link to number and a map. That’s effective and thats the kind of “fused” service I am looking when it comes to using my mobile for search.

For now, the level of service is basic. The action is welcomed but execution not focused enough on leveraging mobile use cases.

      

Google’s mobile version of AdSense is finally in beta. After months of second hand rumors, these news now seem substantiated as Google has put together a mobile ad FAQ page. Ads are available in 13 countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, China, Ireland, India, Russia and Australia. Advertisers can choose between 12 and 18 characters per ad.

The pricing and clearance processes are similar to the ones already established on the web with one major exception. In the mobile version, the user can actually place a call to the published business. If this doesn’t drive mobile click through price up then I find it hard to know what will.

Will this work? Absolutely! I believe this is exactly what the industry needs to kick-back. Banners are limited and the collective user patience for them is exhausted. Useful, contextual information on the mobile phone can actually add value to the browsing session.

      

This post is basically public bug reporting but I just feel compelled to report out loud.

Last night I was emailing a buddy and attempted to attach a file that happened to be stored in my Google Docs account. It never occurred to me that there will NOT be an option to browse and attach my online docs through Gmail!

Do you realize that there is no connection between the two? I looked hard for such a link but couldn’t find it. The only attachment option is to upload an attachment from your local PC. Of course, separate login into Google docs and “sharing” is possible but why should I be able to go one way and not the other??? The classic user experience is to start with the email –> text –> attachment. Not send email based on the attachment (the Google Docs route)
Anyway - its a hitch. An annoying one and it should be fixed

If I am wrong please correct me and show me where the he@#$ that “Google Docs attach” link is hidden.