It’s a beautiful day for some baseball...searches, that is
These days, thanks to the movie “Moneyball,” everyone is talking about evaluating baseball through the lens of data and statistics. As the World Series matchup between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals begins, we thought: why not take a look at what the search data says about the players, managers and other aspects of the 2011 baseball postseason?
Let’s start with the teams themselves. The Cardinals are more popular in search than the Rangers. Perhaps that’s because the Redbirds—not your typical underdogs with 10 World Series titles and 18 pennants—were 10 games back from the NL Wild Card in September, and have since overpowered the regular season’s best Phillies, then their division mates the Brewers to win the NLCS last weekend. The Rangers are in the World Series for the second year in a row, still without a title to their name; yet searches were higher in the last months for the team they defeated in the ALCS, the Detroit Tigers, who saw an even steeper increase in search interest than the Cardinals.
The Cards are known first and foremost for their hitting, but Chris Carpenter overtook first baseman Albert Pujols for a period earlier this month after the former pitched a complete game against Philadelphia to advance his team to the NLCS.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals’ breakout star, hometown hero and NLCS MVP David Freese is (as recently as our data goes) an underdog in search—outpaced in the first half of the month not only by Pujols and Carpenter but by other slugging teammates like Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday.
On the AL side, searches for the Rangers’ Nelson Cruz were below those for teammates Adrian Beltre, Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton until October 11, when he hit the first-ever postseason walkoff grand slam, took his team to an early lead in the series against Detroit and himself to the lead in searches (for a while) as well as the MVP title.
Matching up the Rangers and Cardinals top players, we find that Albert Pujols is the subject of nearly double as many searches as Josh Hamilton. And as of October 12, Nelson Cruz had double the searches of David Freese—we’re guessing that’s changed a bit since Freese was named MVP on Sunday. We have our eye on the data to see how these player matchups go over the course of the series.
Famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa, who had an entire book written about his shrewd game strategy back in 2005, is more searched for than Texas manager Ron Washington, who’s been at the helm since the 2007 season. But neither is as popular in search as Texas owner and Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan.
As always, there were some twists during this year’s playoffs, starting with the rally squirrel—a big hit in St. Louis. The rally squirrel made two live appearances during the Phillies/Cards series, including one in which he (or she) ran across home plate and distracted Phillies pitcher Roy Oswalt. The Cardinals ended up winning, and the rally squirrel’s likeness has since shown up in the stadium on T-shirts, towels and homemade signs. Perhaps the squirrel had a hand in helping the Cardinals overpower the Brewers and their “beast mode,” too.
While the World Series is on our mind, we’re also starting to plan our Halloween costumes. Luckily, we can recycle from last year: Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants—the 2010 MLB champions—is still a hot Halloween costume choice.
Finally, although starting tonight all eyes will be on the Rangers and the Cardinals, neither team appears on the list of most-searched teams in 2011 so far. According to search data, fan favorites this year were the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves. The Yankees and Phillies went out in the first round of the playoffs, while the Braves and Sox both failed to claim hold of a wild card spot in waning days of the regular season.
With sunflower seeds in hand, we’ll keep our eyes out over the next few days to see which of these two World Series teams will finally get their chance in the national—and search—spotlight. Having spent summers traveling up to Busch Stadium for games, I know who I’ll be rooting for!
(Cross-posted on the Inside Search Blog)
Let’s start with the teams themselves. The Cardinals are more popular in search than the Rangers. Perhaps that’s because the Redbirds—not your typical underdogs with 10 World Series titles and 18 pennants—were 10 games back from the NL Wild Card in September, and have since overpowered the regular season’s best Phillies, then their division mates the Brewers to win the NLCS last weekend. The Rangers are in the World Series for the second year in a row, still without a title to their name; yet searches were higher in the last months for the team they defeated in the ALCS, the Detroit Tigers, who saw an even steeper increase in search interest than the Cardinals.
The Cards are known first and foremost for their hitting, but Chris Carpenter overtook first baseman Albert Pujols for a period earlier this month after the former pitched a complete game against Philadelphia to advance his team to the NLCS.
On the AL side, searches for the Rangers’ Nelson Cruz were below those for teammates Adrian Beltre, Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton until October 11, when he hit the first-ever postseason walkoff grand slam, took his team to an early lead in the series against Detroit and himself to the lead in searches (for a while) as well as the MVP title.
Matching up the Rangers and Cardinals top players, we find that Albert Pujols is the subject of nearly double as many searches as Josh Hamilton. And as of October 12, Nelson Cruz had double the searches of David Freese—we’re guessing that’s changed a bit since Freese was named MVP on Sunday. We have our eye on the data to see how these player matchups go over the course of the series.
Famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa, who had an entire book written about his shrewd game strategy back in 2005, is more searched for than Texas manager Ron Washington, who’s been at the helm since the 2007 season. But neither is as popular in search as Texas owner and Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan.
As always, there were some twists during this year’s playoffs, starting with the rally squirrel—a big hit in St. Louis. The rally squirrel made two live appearances during the Phillies/Cards series, including one in which he (or she) ran across home plate and distracted Phillies pitcher Roy Oswalt. The Cardinals ended up winning, and the rally squirrel’s likeness has since shown up in the stadium on T-shirts, towels and homemade signs. Perhaps the squirrel had a hand in helping the Cardinals overpower the Brewers and their “beast mode,” too.
While the World Series is on our mind, we’re also starting to plan our Halloween costumes. Luckily, we can recycle from last year: Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants—the 2010 MLB champions—is still a hot Halloween costume choice.
Finally, although starting tonight all eyes will be on the Rangers and the Cardinals, neither team appears on the list of most-searched teams in 2011 so far. According to search data, fan favorites this year were the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves. The Yankees and Phillies went out in the first round of the playoffs, while the Braves and Sox both failed to claim hold of a wild card spot in waning days of the regular season.
With sunflower seeds in hand, we’ll keep our eyes out over the next few days to see which of these two World Series teams will finally get their chance in the national—and search—spotlight. Having spent summers traveling up to Busch Stadium for games, I know who I’ll be rooting for!
(Cross-posted on the Inside Search Blog)
Mo-mentum: what’s new with mobile search advertising
Mobile search helps people find what they need in a snap. Whether they’re choosing between two restaurants, shopping for a new watch, or buying a movie ticket, people make better decisions when they have access to more information. Search ads are information—answers—and on mobile devices, they’re able to connect people and businesses in new, useful and relevant ways.
Today, we’re unveiling new mobile search ad formats and some new details about the ways many different businesses are benefiting from mobile advertising.
Search ads, meet mobile apps
We’re bringing the worlds of search and apps together with mobile advertising in a few ways:
Local search ads—so hot right now
Building local context into mobile ads makes them more useful both for both consumers and businesses. Here are a few specific examples:
The exciting thing for mobile users and businesses is that the possibilities for mobile search advertising are nearly endless. We’re looking forward to helping businesses and consumers alike take advantage of this brave new (mobile) world.
Today, we’re unveiling new mobile search ad formats and some new details about the ways many different businesses are benefiting from mobile advertising.
Search ads, meet mobile apps
We’re bringing the worlds of search and apps together with mobile advertising in a few ways:
- Search ads in mobile apps: Lots of mobile apps give people the ability to search for information—like an app that lets you search for a restaurant nearby. Today we’re announcing Custom Search Ads for these apps. These ads provide useful and relevant answers, for people searching within a mobile app. Custom Search Ads will also help app developers earn more money to fund their apps and grow their businesses on mobile.
Custom Search Ads in mobile apps - Click to Download: Not surprisingly, many people use Google to search for information about mobile apps. This ad format helps consumers right when they're searching for information about an app, linking them directly to the App Store or Android Marketplace to download. We’ve recently enabled app developers to include app icons and information about the app in their ad unit so that people can make more informed decisions about whether they want to download the app.
- Mobile App Extensions: This new, beta ad unit enables businesses to use mobile search ads to direct someone to a page within a mobile app already installed on their phone. For example, if someone searches for sneakers on a mobile device, they might see an ad that takes them directly into a cool shopping app they’ve installed on their phone.
Local search ads—so hot right now
Building local context into mobile ads makes them more useful both for both consumers and businesses. Here are a few specific examples:
- Click to Call: We introduced these ads for high-end smartphones less than two years ago and they're now driving millions of calls per week to hundreds of thousands of businesses around the world. Click to call ads have been very effective in generating leads for businesses of all sizes, across many verticals—more people can call an Enterprise Rent-A-Car near them for rentals and more potential customers can connect with ADT Security for alarm system expertise, for example.
- Hyperlocal search ads: Launched a year ago, these search ads contain useful local information like phone numbers, driving directions, a number to click and call a business directly, and also show people how far they are from specific business locations. Roy’s Restaurants’ efforts with this format led to a 40 percent increase in call volume—and lots more full tables!
- Proximity as a factor in mobile search ads ranking: The distance between a person and an advertiser’s business location is now a factor in mobile search ads ranking. This means an ad for a business with a physical location close to to a consumer may perform better in AdWords—driving more mobile traffic at a lower cost. The feature will be effective only when consumers opt in to share their device location for mobile searches. It will make our hyperlocal format more useful for businesses and users—advertisers can get started with this by creating Location Extensions for their mobile campaigns. Particularly this holiday season, when consumers are using their mobile phones to find a nearby store for last minute gift purchases, this new feature will help connect customers with storefronts.
- Circulars: We began testing this new ad format with Best Buy and Macy’s earlier this month. When someone clicks on a search or display ad (on desktop, mobile or tablet devices), they may see these engaging ads which contain photos of relevant products and special offers. With a few simple clicks, people who are at their desk can email that circular to their mobile phones, and later walk into their local store, flash their phone and redeem the offers.
Macy’s Circular ads on mobile
The exciting thing for mobile users and businesses is that the possibilities for mobile search advertising are nearly endless. We’re looking forward to helping businesses and consumers alike take advantage of this brave new (mobile) world.
Some more thoughts about the little girl
Blog picture changed to the photo of Yue Yue in the hospital. Here some more words just getting out of the net right now:
quote from DAILY MAIL UK:
Hopes fade for little Yue Yue: Doctors confirm girl, two, ignored by 18 people after being run over is brain dead
A critically injured Chinese toddler left to die in the street after she was run over twice is brain dead, doctors said today.
The parents of two-year-old Yue Yue – which translates as Little Joy in Chinese - may now face the agonising decision about when to turn off the life support machine keeping their daughter alive.
The Chinese Government's state news agency Xinhua quoted doctors as saying Yue Yue 'is in a deep coma and clinically brain dead'.
It appears her condition has deteriorated, despite showing signs of some recovery earlier this week.
'We cannot give any information,' said a hospital spokesman this morning.
Her parents, who are poor migrant workers, have been keeping millions informed about their daughter's condition via a specially created website.
Yesterday they posted that Yue Yue was showing signs of recovery and said medication had been reduced.
Reports claimed her heart beat had stabilised and she had regained the ability to take weak breaths and some feeling in her arms.
But as of Wednesday evening Beijing time, no update had been posted.
There were initial reports this morning that Yue Yue had died, but these appear to be unfounded.
The shocking incident was caught on CCTV and has stunned millions in China, with many saying their society – which has enjoyed 30 years of rapid development – is rotten and immoral.
It also sparked global outrage after more than a dozen people can be seen in the footage walking or driving past the stricken girl as she lay in the street in Foshan city, Guandong province.
The case is quickly becoming a political issue and it is feared Communist Party officials have called for tighter controls over the reporting about the incident for fear of a public backlash.
President Hu Jintao is in his final year of office and his main policy and slogan has been to build a 'harmonious society'.
But millions are using Yue Yue's tragedy to highlight all that is wrong with modern China and claim their society is anything but harmonious.
Public anger is festering over rampant corruption in politics and business, lack of the rule of law, pollution that is seeing cancer rates soar and the widening rich-poor gap, with many of the 'spoilt' siblings of the political elite – so called princelings – being singled out for extra criticism.
Both drivers who ran over Yue Yue have been arrested, but claimed not to have seen the little girl in the 'dark' street.
Chinese media reports that one of the men had allegedly just broken up with his girlfriend and was on his mobile phone when he hit the girl.
The Shanghaiist claims one driver called Yue Yue's father to offer him money just before he was arrested.
It claims he said: 'You saw that girl on the CCTV footage, she didn't see where she was going, you know.
'I was on the phone when it happened, I didn't mean it.
'When I realised I had knocked her down, I thought I'd go down to see how she was.
'Then when I saw that she was already bleeding, I decided to just step on the gas pedal and escape seeing that nobody was around me.'
Authorities in Foshan presented Chen Xianmei, a rubbish collector who went to Yue Yue's aid, with $1,570 as a reward.
Another company in the city has also offered to donate $7,500 to her family and rescuer.
Many people in China are hesitant to help people who appear to be in distress over fears they will be blamed.
High-profile law suits have ended with good Samaritans ordered to pay hefty fines to individuals they sought to help.
The incident has also sparked a series of soul-searching articles in Chinese newspapers, including the Guangzho Daily and People's Daily Online.
UNQUOTE
AND THEN BE AWARE OF THIS:
Concern Communist Party officials have called for tighter controls over reporting the incident for fear of a public backlash.
Personal comment:
Yes it is a very tragic accident ! Many questions:
1)
Why the first driver did not stop after hitting the girl first and at least try to help ? How shameful his action just to drive away and hurt the girl again ? He was talking on the mobile ............?
Anyhow in prison you do not need a mobile anymore !
2)
Why nobody call the police / ambulance - as this is a very narrow alley - a lot of people (even not on the CCTV) have already watched the first hit !
3)
All the passers-by nobody even dare to call an ambulance or move the girl away from the driving lane ? All shall rot in HELL ! What would they think if it was their own kid ?
4)
The 2nd truck - what kind of driving is this ? You just roll over a body down there on the street ?
5)
All this is making the government so nervous that they are trying to minimize reporting about that "incident". It would be better to use this case for "education purposes" which seems urgently needed for a big part of China's population !
quote from DAILY MAIL UK:
Hopes fade for little Yue Yue: Doctors confirm girl, two, ignored by 18 people after being run over is brain dead
A critically injured Chinese toddler left to die in the street after she was run over twice is brain dead, doctors said today.
The parents of two-year-old Yue Yue – which translates as Little Joy in Chinese - may now face the agonising decision about when to turn off the life support machine keeping their daughter alive.
The Chinese Government's state news agency Xinhua quoted doctors as saying Yue Yue 'is in a deep coma and clinically brain dead'.
It appears her condition has deteriorated, despite showing signs of some recovery earlier this week.
'We cannot give any information,' said a hospital spokesman this morning.
Her parents, who are poor migrant workers, have been keeping millions informed about their daughter's condition via a specially created website.
Yesterday they posted that Yue Yue was showing signs of recovery and said medication had been reduced.
Reports claimed her heart beat had stabilised and she had regained the ability to take weak breaths and some feeling in her arms.
But as of Wednesday evening Beijing time, no update had been posted.
There were initial reports this morning that Yue Yue had died, but these appear to be unfounded.
The shocking incident was caught on CCTV and has stunned millions in China, with many saying their society – which has enjoyed 30 years of rapid development – is rotten and immoral.
It also sparked global outrage after more than a dozen people can be seen in the footage walking or driving past the stricken girl as she lay in the street in Foshan city, Guandong province.
The case is quickly becoming a political issue and it is feared Communist Party officials have called for tighter controls over the reporting about the incident for fear of a public backlash.
President Hu Jintao is in his final year of office and his main policy and slogan has been to build a 'harmonious society'.
But millions are using Yue Yue's tragedy to highlight all that is wrong with modern China and claim their society is anything but harmonious.
Public anger is festering over rampant corruption in politics and business, lack of the rule of law, pollution that is seeing cancer rates soar and the widening rich-poor gap, with many of the 'spoilt' siblings of the political elite – so called princelings – being singled out for extra criticism.
Both drivers who ran over Yue Yue have been arrested, but claimed not to have seen the little girl in the 'dark' street.
Chinese media reports that one of the men had allegedly just broken up with his girlfriend and was on his mobile phone when he hit the girl.
The Shanghaiist claims one driver called Yue Yue's father to offer him money just before he was arrested.
It claims he said: 'You saw that girl on the CCTV footage, she didn't see where she was going, you know.
'I was on the phone when it happened, I didn't mean it.
'When I realised I had knocked her down, I thought I'd go down to see how she was.
'Then when I saw that she was already bleeding, I decided to just step on the gas pedal and escape seeing that nobody was around me.'
Authorities in Foshan presented Chen Xianmei, a rubbish collector who went to Yue Yue's aid, with $1,570 as a reward.
Another company in the city has also offered to donate $7,500 to her family and rescuer.
Many people in China are hesitant to help people who appear to be in distress over fears they will be blamed.
High-profile law suits have ended with good Samaritans ordered to pay hefty fines to individuals they sought to help.
The incident has also sparked a series of soul-searching articles in Chinese newspapers, including the Guangzho Daily and People's Daily Online.
UNQUOTE
AND THEN BE AWARE OF THIS:
Personal comment:
Yes it is a very tragic accident ! Many questions:
1)
Why the first driver did not stop after hitting the girl first and at least try to help ? How shameful his action just to drive away and hurt the girl again ? He was talking on the mobile ............?
Anyhow in prison you do not need a mobile anymore !
2)
Why nobody call the police / ambulance - as this is a very narrow alley - a lot of people (even not on the CCTV) have already watched the first hit !
3)
All the passers-by nobody even dare to call an ambulance or move the girl away from the driving lane ? All shall rot in HELL ! What would they think if it was their own kid ?
4)
The 2nd truck - what kind of driving is this ? You just roll over a body down there on the street ?
5)
All this is making the government so nervous that they are trying to minimize reporting about that "incident". It would be better to use this case for "education purposes" which seems urgently needed for a big part of China's population !
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