Recently in Low Cost Green Marketing Category

Google's YouTube video caption feature was developed in 2008. In November of 2009 Google released auto-captioning for a small, select group of partners. Auto-captioning combines some of the speech-to-text algorithms found in Google's Voice Search to automatically generate video captions when requested by a viewer.

The video owner can also download the auto-generated captions, improve them, and upload the new version. Viewers can even choose an option to translate those captions into any one of 50 different languages -- all in just a couple of clicks.

Google is now opening up auto-captions to all YouTube users.

There will even be a "request processing" button for un-captioned videos that any video owner can click on if they want to speed up the availability of auto-captions. It will take some time to process all the available video, so here are some things to keep in mind:

• While Google plans to broaden the feature to include more languages in the months to come, currently, auto-captioning is only for videos where English is spoken.
• Just like any speech recognition application, auto-captions require a clearly spoken audio track. Videos with background noise or a muffled voice can't be auto-captioned. President Obama's speech on the recent Chilean Earthquake is a good example of the kind of audio that works for auto-captions.
• Auto-captions aren't perfect and just like any other transcription, the owner of the video needs to check to make sure they're accurate. In other cases, the audio file may not be good enough to generate auto-captions. But please be patient -- our speech recognition technology gets better every day.
• Auto-captions should be available to everyone who's interested in using them. We're also working to provide auto-captions for all past user uploads that fit the above mentioned requirements. If you're having trouble enabling them for your video, please visit Google's Help Center: this article is for uploaders and this article is for viewers.

For content owners, the power of auto-captioning (AND translation) is significant.

With just a few quick clicks your videos can be accessed by a whole new global audience. And captions can make is easier for users to discover content on YouTube.

Twenty hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Making some of these videos more accessible to people who have hearing disabilities or who speak different languages, not only represents a significant advancement in the democratization of information, it can also help foster greater collaboration and understanding.

Google search capabilities have changed and increased significantly over the past year, and more computer users and mobile device users are using Google and other search engines more than ever.  It's just so ... easy!  Much easier than playing telephone tag to ask a knowledgeable friend or expert a question... and that's the search engine's secret sauce. Ease of use...availability...and always having an answer, even if it takes a bit of shoveling of fertilizer to find the right connection or information.

The searching action has become part of the "media" of today. And online search is growing much faster than other methods of information distribution.

Google Leads the Search Pack

It's always fascinating to glimpse the collective consciousness of Google users.

Beyond search queries rising for Michael Jackson, swine flu, Twitter and Lady Gaga, what else did Google searches reveal last year?

• Proportion of Google users in the United States making more than one query per day:
  7 out of 10
• Proportion of Google users in the United States making more than 10 queries per day:
  1 out of 7
• Fraction of Google queries, duplicates excluded, never seen before: More than 1/3
• Fraction of Google queries, duplicates included, never seen before: More than 1/5
• Country with the greatest increase in Google web search traffic in 2009 vs. 2008: Indonesia*
• Approximate percentage of Internet users in Indonesia: 11.1%*
• Average amount of time it takes a user to finish entering a query: 9 seconds
• Average amount of time it takes Google to answer a query: Less than 1/4 second
• Number of search quality improvements made by Google in 2009: 540, ~1.5 each day
• Proportion of Google result pages that show a map in search results: 1 in 13
• Average increase in driving distance on weekends vs. weekdays on Google Maps: 11km
• Median distance from a user's location to ice skating rinks found on Google Maps: 30km
• Median distance from a user's location to ski resorts found on Google Maps: 300km

Posted by the Google Search Team

Where's the beef? Well...meeting value, that is.

Architect Scott Simpson described a concept KlingStubbins called a team structure and the industry now calls Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). The concept is key for a collaborative project approach, but its importance is more universal. The phrase that stuck with me was "decision-ready information".

Decision-ready information consists of the key facts required for a meaningful, final decision about a subject to be decided.

In an IPD project, major decision-makers are expected to attend every meeting, so that decisions made in the meeting have meaningful buy-in and closure. These meetings can be intense, not to mention very expensive.
 

It's the responsibility, therefore, of each team member to bring decision-ready information for the decisions on the agenda.

Wouldn't this information design approach make meetings more valuable...and engaging!

The green marketing opportunity here is to demonstrate the sustainability, incentives, and cost saving attributes of your green solution.  Manufacturers can arm their representatives with decision-ready information.

Think about what information -- what key metrics and performance demonstration --  about your product might drive project decisions, and make sure it's available in an easy format for your representatives to bring to the table.

Read more at BuildingProductMarketing.com

Do you have (or know of someone who has) a company producing green, sustainable, or high performance solutions?

We are launching a "green directory with a difference" -- you get a real opportunity to tell your green solutions story in the listing!  Up to 600 WORDS...and your listing can be included in FIVE categories. 

We also include BOTH Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer categories.  IF we don't have the right category for your solution -- let us know and we'll seriously consider adding it.

The SolutionsforGreen.com site is highly "search engine optimized" and the listings will probably appear higher on Google searches than your own company's listings for key word phrases.  We work hard at building a robust platform of sites to help drive traffic to the directory.  We're serious about greening our world...and want to help others who are also serious about the challenge facing us.  And who have solutions!

We would  love to have your company, nonprofit organization...or even public agency list your green products, green services...and green programs.  You don't have to be in the commercial market.  You just need SOLUTIONS!  Employee programs.  Festivals. Innovator groups. The broader the variety of solutions, the better! 

"Necessity is the mother of invention"...my mother taught me.  And we have necessity.  Now it's time to implement some great, innovative solutions.

And then get the word out for replicating good results.  So add your listing, already :-)

SolutionsforGreen.com

Sun Marketing

GrEEnCollarEdu.net, a service of HVACReducation.net

Mercier Corporation

Carlstrom Productions, Inc.

Green Mary

Orangehalo

Republic Flag

Community Environmental Services, Inc. (CES)

Native Springs Nursery

Oster and Associates

Macus Trade

Atlas Embroidery

Echo Paper Store

Green Career Tracks

Starting Up Green

Cliff Allen Consultant

Michael Lemke Consulting

HVACR Education

FACT: Adults 21-29 are very interested in music as a cultural language.
FACT: Birds sing for mating during their prime years.

CONCLUSION:  Music is a mating language!

But we know that music is a language of far more than mating in the human species.

We don't usually think about popular culture's role in our very physical heritage... instincts and species behaviors -- but many of our behaviors are primal.   Music is one of them.

We have wisdom passed down such as "music soothes the savage beast",  lullaby baby, love songs, and music to dance to.  All these uses of music are primal, are very human.  Part of green marketing is helping people solve a need, a hunger, and helping our communities and customers in wholesome ways.

Music can do that.  Music for the sake of community, that is.

When the lyrics are deliberatly infused with commercial messages to reach the subliminal parts of the brain and other body parts --- well, that's not very sustainable, responsible or respectful.  But music as part of life's festival, relaxation, community building and enjoyment of our ability to sing and dance and listen to melody and beat and poetic expressions -- that can be a powerful way to contribute beauty and joy and strength to your community.

Here's singin' with you!
Caroly

AOL is figuring out the future of magazine web publishing on the web. And it's doing so without Time Warner's content assets.

The web magazine publishing model goes something like this:

Find a vertical with an audience attractive to advertisers, brand it (Daily Finance, Asylum, Lemondrop, Politics Daily), hire five to seven people to run it and plug in AOL's traffic fire hose. Repeat.

The notion of thin-staffed online publications is sweeping the industry. MySpace launched celebrity site DailyFill earlier this year. Last year MSN launched Wonderwall, created by the same team that earlier launched the Yahoo version, OMG. Break Media, owner and operator of guy-centric video site Break.com, hired a few Maxim refugees for its own online lifestyle title, MadeMan. Sugar Inc. has launched a dozen titles off its PopSugar brand. Then there's Nick Denton, godfather of the model, whose Gawker Media has been making inroads in brand advertising after slogging away in this space since 2002.

The Eco-Logical Business Program in Oregon provides an extensive number of resources to small businesses to help them prevent pollution and get certified as a green business.  Here is their list of what's involved in their program:

Certified businesses go beyond compliance with local environmental requirements and implement pollution prevention efforts in their work sites. Businesses are certified through an intensive application and evaluation process. During the certification process, businesses are evaluated in the areas of:

• Hazardous waste management
  
• Air quality and pollution
  
• Spill prevention and response
  
• Product and waste storage
  
• Cleaning procedures
  
• Purchasing/inventory management
  
• Recycling procedures
  
• Employee involvement and training
• Drainage Systems
• Energy And Water Use

THE PROGRAM

The Eco-Logical Business Program recognizes businesses and shops that reach the highest standards in minimizing their environmental impact. The goal of the program is to prevent and minimize pollution generated by small businesses in the Tri-County area. Currently, there are two multi-media (air, water, and solid waste) certification programs

Learn more at http://www.ecobiz.org/becomebiz.htm

I an an active affiliate marketer for select companies and I have made it a habit of glancing over the Associates Agreements before I commit to adding the company's products to my websites, but I hadn't worried too much about them... until this came up in an affiliate agreement: