The the spacecraft are about the size of a washing machine. The measurements they take are very precise, down to a couple microns (fractions of a hair). Each craft is also fitted with two video cameras (MoonKAM’s). The videos created (and the MoonKam cameras) are specifically designed for a public outreach program by NASA.

The videos created (and the MoonKam cameras) are specifically designed for a public outreach program by NASA. The missions two primary goals are to create lunar thermal imaging maps and to educate the public about the moon. The two GRAIL spacecraft were launched into orbit on September 10, 2011 at 9:08 am.

The spacecraft took about three and a half months to reach the moon after being launched and spent another 2 months getting synchronized for their gravitational measuring task. The project will take approximately 82 days to complete. NASA will continue to present video from the two GRAIL spacecraft as part of their public education program.

Frank Taylor writes on the Google Earth Blog, "Thanks to a some nice work by Michael Kosowsky of HeyWhatsThat.com, you can download a simple KML file that will let you use Google Earth Sky to view when and where tonight’s lunar eclipse will occur for your location."

"Fast, simple, and free! The KML file for Google Sky is simple to load, and it will automatically guess your location on the Earth by guessing the location of your IP address. Make sure you select the ‘Switch to Sky’ mode when Google Earth prompts you. Double click on the ‘HeyWhat’s That.com’ placemark to position your view on the moon."

Taylor says that based on your location, you will be able to view the green lines of a "planisphere" which illustrates your horizon in Google Sky. Taylor goes on to explain," Cardinal points showing north, south, east, west; the positions of the moon and planets; and a special symbol representing the Earth’s shadow relative to the position of the moon. Not only that, but the time slider will be visible and you can drag the slider to determine precisely when the eclipse will occur."

The last total lunar eclipse that could be visible from the United Sates happened on August 28, 2007. North Americans will have a chance to see the next total lunar eclipse on December 21, 2010.
 

Since I’m an optimist I try to imagine they do it mainly to encourage innovation and better solutions to the world’s problems both on and offline. Even if that’s not the whole story, it’s very feel good. It infuses a sense of fun and open-mindedness since they are always a bit quirky are aimed a broad age and range of people.

Contests can be a good way to get things done and you don’t have to fly people to company headquarters either. Guy Kawasaki got his book cover designed by running a contest.

Here is a list of some Google contests (feel free to fill me in on any I’ve missed):

• Google Highly Open Participation Contest
• Doodle 4 Google competition
• Google Moon Contest
• Build Your Campus in 3D Competition!
• Google Desktop Gadget Contest

Here’s another Google contest for college students who want to assist local businesses about online marketing. It’s called the Online Marketing Challenge.

Here are some details for the Online Marketing Challenge:

• It was developed with college professors around the world
• Students get $200 worth of free advertising dollars to spend on a campaign
• Groups of students find local businesses to run an internet marketing strategy
• Starts in February 2008 and participants run the campaign on a three week timeframe

If you teach a college course (this makes me want to actually) this is a great way to give students practical experience on Google’s dime. The contest winners get a trip to the Googleplex and get to meet the developers of Google AdWords. Probably some swag too. No cash, but a bit of fun.

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Participate appropriately, and your company will find "friends" interested in what you have to say (and sell). Cross the line and the mob may turn on you and reject your message. In this session you’ll learn to network and participate in an acceptable and effective manner.

Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land

Speakers: Cindy Krum, Senior SEO Analyst, Blue Moon Works

Dave McClure, Entrepeneur & Startup Advisor, 500Hats

Helen M. Overland, Director, Search Engine Marketing, non-linear creations

The second day of SMX Social Media New York starts with Danny Sullivan introducing the first speaker, Dave McClure, Entrepeneur & Startup Advisor of 500Hats who is here to talk about FaceBook.

Dave asks who uses FaceBook. Many hands are raised. Apparently, he is logged in and he shows us his updated status. Purpose is to show how FaceBook uses it to market by inserting URLs. The News Feed displays all shared activities between you and your online buddies. These include wall comments, applications used, videos etc. The real trick is setting up your network appropriately and then tagging to people who are relevant. Through this, you can meet new people and it helps you in making notable people include you in their network.

Tags show users who are tagged under photos, posts and videos. For eg” Videos. They get notified and this is a great way way to include them in your network. Also, a great way to show off your content. Photos- These can be changed to logos. Photos are changed regularly in profiles and logos can be added to it too. An important feature here is “Share”. Another feature in FaceBook called "mini-feed" displays all your FaceBook actions. There are lots of important people in FaceBook and you want to associate with them, tag them. This is a great way to get you or your brand ‘noticed’.

Start a group where you can form a community of people with whom you share common interests. Add and invite people to them. This further gives more visibility to your brand. Include links, videos, photos, content messages. These get picked up by the feed and spead across your network.

Next up is Helen M. Overland, Director, Search Engine Marketing, non-linear creations who will discuss marketing on LinkedIn. Hlen starts by asking if anyone in the audience uses LinkedIn for more purposes than just putting up or updating a profile. As LinkedIn is a professional network site, one can easily connect with colleagues and friends here. While you could connect with 11 million back in June, the number has now reached 15 million. The coolest part for LinkedIn is that the average salary is 140K.

One thing to note is the difference between volume of contacts or trusted contacts. The latter is better. Unlike FaceBook, you want to network where you can market your products and services. Something called "Linkedin Open Networkers" are making endeavors to make a lot of contacts. Select some, and connect so that you can get their first levels of contacts. This instantly boosts your contacts. LinkedIn helps to:

• Increase branding and visibility
• Generate sales
• Traffic and support SEO

LinkedIn Answers: This is where you can post your answers. Also helps in increasing your brand and your visibility. Also, you can show off your expertise and knowledge, inform everyone of new websites. However, take care to make your posts and announcements less spammy. If you can get people to recommend your products and services, your credibility improves a lot. Come to think of it, Barack Obama posted a question and received 1,500 answers.

Sales: To get direct sales, search and find potential clients and partners here. Take advantage of LinkedIn by answering to service requests like "Answers". On the other hand, use "I can help you out" and make someone refer you. LinkedIn’s links do not use ‘noFollow’. Employ LinkedIn "vanity URL" by adding keywords to your profile’s URL. Make your employees link back to your website.

Bottom line, LinkedIn helps you reach your targeted market in the best manner-for free!

Last speaker of the session is Cindy Krum, a Senior SEO Analyst, Blue Moon Works who will discuss the pros and cons of marketing in MySpace which she calles the "Whoas" and "Woes". Funny! MySpace, is a great way to reach an exclusive demographic.

First Example – Flying Dog Brewery.

The target is the "extreme sport" kinda person. MySpace is used to promote Flying Dog and its many products. Due to MySpace sales and traffic are booming. They altered their profile image in order to get attention and display ads for upcoming events, business etc. people who are invited can also RSVP to the parties via MySpace. Later, they can blog, post their comments and images about the parties. These images can easily be shared and passed around, hence leveraging their visibility.

Flying Dog’s MySpace profile has a higher ranking than that in WikiPedia

Second example: True, a Web-based dating community

The profile for True has quizzes, calculators, tools, fortune cookie widgets, and many other fun and interactive features that engage the community members. The website has a Date Search Engine and games like "Heart Beats," "Date-O-Rama" and "Create A Date". Not only are these fun but with this you stay for long in the MySpace page or head to the official website.

Cons of MySpace:

Westwood college wanted to connect with its students via MySpace in order to share all information from their website. It backfired because:

• You need to know, for instance CSS to make a profile which takes a very long time.
• Profile had to be updated frequently in order to make visitors return frequently.
• Needed unique content that was not available on the college’s official website.
• One has to manage and decide the ‘friends list’. Who to choose and who to not choose.
• Handle communications.
• Keep the visitors engaged- blogs, sending e-mails.
• Strategy to tackle negative feedback and comments.

Third example: Auto Europe

Auto Europe wanted a widget that would aid them in link while also being helpful to travel bloggers. The supposed widget was to run on all sites (MySPace included).

Now, if you want to create a widget, in the instance of FaceBook, Flash version 9 and Action Script version 3 works. However, links in Flash just will not work. Not all developers are capable of creating widgets. Either get a widget developer who understands MySpace widget development or wait for MySpace’s development platform.

IMAGE SOURCE: TOP RANK BLOG

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Updates include new content from the Apollo missions, along with embedded panoramic images, links to audio clips and videos, and descriptions of the astronaut’s activities during the missions. The site also added detailed charts of different regions of the moon for use by anyone simulating a lunar mission.

"NASA’s objective is for Google Moon to become a more accurate and useful lunar mapping platform that will be a foundation for future web-based moon applications, much like the many applications that have been built on top of Google Maps," said Chris C. Kemp, director of strategic business development at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

"This will make it easier for scientists everywhere to make lunar data more available and accessible."

Last week Google announced it was working with the X Prize Foundation for the Google Lunar X Prize, a contest for private companies to land a privately funded robotic rover on the moon. The grand prize winner that completes mission objectives will receive $20 million.

No, Larry’s not about to press his bare behind against the Google jet’s windows, but instead the company is continuing its space exploration kick.

First up, Google has announced a $30 million prize package to any one that can land a “robotic rover on the moon and beam back a gigabyte of images and video to Earth,” says AP.

The winning spacecraft must be tough enough to survive a landing and be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras. And it must be smart enough to trek at least 1,312 feet on the moon and send self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real-time videos back to Earth that will be streamed on Google’s Web site.

So, why might Google be so interested in sponsoring the video and photo capture of moon images? We’re glad you asked, because that leads us to the next Google announcement – they’ve added a kind of Street Views to their Google Moon site. Now you can see little space men all over the moon and zoom in to view detailed moonscape images.

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“This update brings higher-resolution map imagery, text search, and photos and stories from every Apollo landing,” stated Michael Weiss-Malik, a software engineer, on the Google LatLong Blog.

He then continued, “We even included Street View-style panoramas of the moon’s surface, taken by the Apollo astronauts … something you won’t see anywhere else.  And last but certainly not least, we tossed in scientific charts that are good enough for actual mission planning and science classrooms alike.”

Of course, that “actual mission planning” phrase is a reference to the Google Lunar X Prize, which was announced yesterday.  (A team from Carnegie Mellon University has already entered the competition.)  Anyone intending to use Google Moon for any purpose will need to show some patience, however, as the site doesn’t seem to be running as fast as it might.

In other Google- and space-related news, there’s been a great deal of discussion about the company’s use of NASA’s airstrip.  And given all these goings-on, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the Google Copernicus Center turned out not to be a joke.

Google Funds Race To The Moon

Any company that does land a rover on the moon will have to achieve mission objectives, including roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to Earth.

The grand prize winner that completes the mission objectives will receive $20 million, the second prize is $5 million and $5 million in bonus prizes. The deadline to win the grand prize is December 31, 2012, after that it will drop to $15 million until December 31, 2014, when the competition will end unless extended by Google and the X Prize Foundation.

Bonus prizes will be offered to those who complete additional tasks such as roving longer distances, filming equipment from previous moon visits, discovering water ice and surviving the lunar night.

"The Google Lunar X PRIZE calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all humanity," said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation.

"We are confident that teams from around the world will help develop new robotic and virtual presence technology, which will dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration."

SES – Mobile Search Site Creation and Optimization

This presentation provided a fascinating glimpse into the young realm of mobile site creation, compliance and optimization. I have a lot of information to work with here so to make this article a little more digestible I have broken it into two parts; one is the site creation and the second is the site optimization.

Mobile Website Design & Creation

During this presentation two very different lines of thought were noted regarding the best method for creating a mobile website, one from Cindy Krum and the other from Rachel Pasqua.

> Cindy Krum’s Presentation

Cindy Krum felt strongly that an existing website should pull double-duty as both the wired and the mobile version by using CSS to provide an alternative, mobile friendly version shown only to mobile users.

Cindy provided some great tips on how to create a hybrid mobile/wired website:

1. Ensure your website is 100% W3C XHTML compliant because mobile browsers are completely unforgiving when it comes to improper coding.
2. Follow strict XHTML accessibility guidelines to provide the best quality product for both wired, mobile, and those that require accessibility (i.e. the blind). She also noted that by following accessibility requirements any images that do not show up on the mobile browser will be defined in text format – a nice backup.
3. Avoid unnecessary code to minimize download times.
4. Ensure the site uses CSS to control content – this is critical to ensure the mobile version can have reorganized placement of content. (i.e. the menu might be at the bottom vs. the top)
5. Use external CSS files to provide maximum flexibility such as the ability to specify a different style sheet for each mobile browser.
6. Use the LINK element to attach style sheets because it is a much friendlier format for mobile browsers.
7. Use multiple style sheets. The minimum would be a style sheet called “screen” for regular wired visitors and a second style sheet (provided below the first) called “handheld”.
8. Use “display: none” to hide elements in either rendering. This is useful if you have page elements you do not want to appear to mobile users or vice versa. Using this method of hiding content is part of what makes Cindy’s hybrid approach feasible of using a single website for both viewing technologies (handheld, and wired).
9. These headers will help you identify the mobile device being used to access the content. HTTP User-Agent headers, HTTP Accept Headers, and UAProf.
10. Use the appropriate MIME type: “text/html” or “application/xhtml+xml”.

> Rachel Pasqua’s Presentation

At the opposite spectrum was Rachel Pasqua who firmly stated that offering your current website to users, reformatted or not, would likely provide a less than desirable user experience. She went on to explain that mobile users should see an entirely different, more time efficient version of your website because such users are task oriented. Rachel put her thoughts into excellent perspective when she stated that mobile search is “not surf media, it’s search media”. She also went on to state that iCrossing decided to proceed with the subdomain concept rather than a separate domain such as a .mobi. In this case their mobile site is located at mobile.icrossing.com; a sensible concept that retained the branding of the top level domain name without having to rebrand a new one (i.e. going with the .mobi version)


Rachel had some interesting metrics and tips to share with the group that were researched at iCrossing using focus groups and other research (sorry I don’t know the source but the report is due to be released soon I hear). Here are a few tidbits that I caught on paper:

1. Mobile searchers tend to utilize the same search engine they use when they are on their PC.
2. Only 10% of the estimated 234 million US wireless subscribers are active users of mobile search.
3. Searchers are task oriented, they tend to want to get their information and get out; mobile surfing is extremely uncommon.

My Take on Hybrid Sites Versus A Separate Mobile Website

Of the two beliefs I felt myself more strongly drawn to the concept of a separate mobile site. Why? I think the maintenance of a hybrid website is bound to be far more difficult because design updates will require designers to think in both realms which is likely to make updates laborious for the average business owner.

> Gregory Markel’s Presentation

Gregory Markel of Infuse Creative LLC, dropped a very intriguing bombshell at the beginning of his discussion when he noted that Google’s Voice Local Search just might take the world of mobile search in an entirely different direction. According to Gregory, his friends and network of mobile enthusiasts have been impressed by the results of using 800-GOOG-411 and conducting a free voice search; the results have been extremely relevant and Google immediately connects the user to their preferred result by phone. After this bombshell had sunk in, he went on to discuss many of the points already mentioned by Cindy but he had a few highlights definitely worth mentioning including this valuable tip: get into Google local for your area so that you can be found on Google’s Voice Local Search, it is free and easy to do. (Note, I wrote an article on how to do this a few months back called: Have Your Company Listed Free in Google Maps). Unfortunately, Google Voice Local Search is experimental and only available in the United States.

Highlights from Markel:

1. Mobile search adoption has been slower in the US than expected at only 19%
2. An excellent source of mobile statistics is the self-described authority on mobile metrics, MMetrics.com.
3. When users conduct searches, they are more likely to search using 2 or a maximum of 3 words.
4. Nokia has decided to try to simplify the process of searching by integrating it into its future line of cell phones.
5. Mobile devices require ultimate simplicity to ensure compatibility across the vast number of proprietary mobile browsers available.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this presentation brief on Mobile Site Optimization.

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Google Plays With Rocket Flight

All ten examples of the company’s levity look arranged, which is only to say that Lenssen is laughing with Google, and not at it. He did not, for example, poke fun at the company’s strange (but undeniably “neat”) purchase of a SpaceShipOne replica.

The first picture Lennsen posted is of a message that a Google engineer left for overeager users. “Give your mouse a break,” it reads. “It looks like you may have clicked the same link twice. Relax for a moment, give us a moment to respond to your first request, and then click your browser back button and try again. Thanks for your patience.”

Number two is, although well-known, still funny. As Lenssen puts it: “They display cheese if you’re at the highest zoom level on Google Moon.”

There’s a bit of self-promotion going on in the fourth example; Google employee Niniane Wang (or a mischevious coworker) apparently feels that “Niniane Kicks Ass!” Enter that phrase into Google Maps, and the service will lead you to the Googleplex.

Numbers seven and nine indulge the nerd in me. Seven demonstrates that a Google search about “the answer to life, the universe, and everything” reveals a tie-in to a Douglas Adams novel. And nine shows Google offers Klingon (from the Star Trek universe) as an alternative language for the search interface. (The Swedish Chef’s language of “Bork, bork, bork!” is also an option, as is “Elmer Fudd.”)

The rest of the Google jokes are available at Google Blogoscoped. A big hat tip to Lenssen (who directed a hat tip of his own to Toml) for posting them.

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