Google Australia is launching a new program to help Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) get on board with Adwords by offering them a free $75 search marketing campaign. This comes as Google saw its first drop in profits this year.

I don’t at all doubt Google’s intentions in trying to help out small businesses with advertising in the current climate, but there are also suspicions that it is a response to rumours that Yahoo7 are to also launch a similar free advertising campaign targeted at SMEs.

The Google Campaign will launch over the next couple of weeks and businesses who have not yet tried Google Adwords are eligible to apply before June 30.

$75 AUD is not much but it is a great opportunity for SME’s who have not dabbled in Adwords before to get a kick start in Search.

Julian Persuad, Head of Online at Google Australia said that “In Australia, we’ve seen strong growth in search queries over the past 12 months. Australians are going online to research their purchases more carefully, whether it’s a new lamp, a restaurant booking or a business stationery supplier.

What do you get when you combine Google Search with a solution to hunger – Hoongle; a search engine with a social conscious. For every search query entered into Hoongle, 20 grains of rice will be donated towards ending hunger through the United Nations World Food Program.

Hoongle uses Google to rout all search queries so everything remains the same in terms of search results, sponsored listing, except you add 20 grains of rice. Developed by undergraduates Vladimir Hruda, David Whitehead and Salmaan Ayaz at the University of Richmond, since it was launched in September last year it has generated 8.5 million grains of rice so far; that about 4,000 meals.

It’s quite similar to FreeRice.com; a not for profit initiative between UN World Food Program and Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Users on the site participate in a vocabulary game and 10 grains of rice are donated for every correct answer.

The Hoongle project however has the inbuilt potential for a longer life span because search engines (Google in particular) are apart of daily internet use.

According to a recent article in the NY Times:

The team said the search engine has about 90,000 users in 130 countries, and traffic to the site has been doubling every 2 to 3 weeks. The team has discussed rolling out versions in different languages and even implementing a version for the iPhone.

On average I would do at least 10 – 15 Google Searches a day; probably more. That equals 200-300 grains a day, which equals 6,000-9,000 a month, which equals 72,000 -108,000 a year, and so and so on. So get searching.

The latest news has just been sent out – if you missed it you can read it here

Bumptop is Anand Agarawala’s creative solution to PC desktop organisation. I first discovered the product in his amazing demo presentation at TED Talks. It’s offers an alternative user interface that turns your PC desktop into a literal 3D desk space. You can organise documents into piles, crumple them, stick post-its on the walls, hang photos and pictures around you desk and virtually customise as you like.

My own desktop resembles something of a files slum; overcrowded with old files, excels, images all with poor or no naming conventions – i found one call “aidglw988db”. I just installed Bump Top and it has been very instrumental in inspiring me to clean up my desktop; my slum is looking more and more like a well planned (and well named) CBD.

You can download the trial version for a play or get Bump Top Pro for $29. Check it out.

This isn’t digital but definitely post worthy. DDB Brazil created magnetic posters for WWF (World WildLife Fund) that allowed passer bys to stick coins on to fill out animal silhouettes. This is a brilliant idea on several levels. Firstly it puts the donation at the heart of the interactions and makes it clear that your donations can help keep these species from fading away into extinction. It’s a simple idea but very effectively communicates the value of even the smallest donations. Even though it is a poster, it’s an interactive poster and this concept can be applied to the digital experience too.

Every now and then in my hypertext wandering I come across a blog which is great for forwards and in between emails and spreadsheets – which is why I’m creating a new category specifically for this kind of content called Hypertext Wanderings. For my first post on this topic I’m giving a link to “1001 rules for my unborn son“. No information or pretext on the blog except for the line “Let’s get some things straight before I get old and uncool.” The anonymous author posts rules/images/songs/ quotes he wishes to share with his future child before he gets too old and caught up in “uncool” adult things. Currently he is up to rule 359 and one of my favourite pieces of advice posted is “Dress for the job you want not the job you have.”

I also want to give a link to Found Magazine which are another great place to visit at lunch. They basically document people’s found letters, notes, items. Spending most of my time in front of fonts it’s easy to forget the intimacy and personality conveyed through handwriting. The bits and pieces featured give you a little window into a nameless faceless stranger’s life; some notes a hilarious, some personal and very sad but all are very human.

And one last link to Scanwiches – this one is a great novelty find and is pretty self explanatory; also good to get your appetite grinding. Check them out and look out for the next installment of Hypertext Wanderings.

Being in advertising or design our over/under ever lying goal is to communication with people, the majority of them complete strangers. Whether it be for a branding or direct response acquisition purpose, the marketers job is to find a way to meaningfully communicate with someone.

Squished shoulder to shoulder on a tram yesterday I witnessed a great example of communication between two strangers. The two ladies had seen each other at the same event a couple of months ago, one recognized the other and they discussed that night; what dress one wore, who they were with that night. The conversation then moved onto where one of them worked and what they; which she apparently wasn’t getting paid enough for.

One of these women would have been in their mid twenties and the other over 60. The most amazing part of this – wait for it – was that the younger girl was deaf. The older lady didn’t know sign language but they talk with their hand, their bodies, eyes and faces. We can communicate using all our channels, and each one give the other meaning and reinforcement.

For me I’d say this was the same as trying to communicate through any kind of ad campaign. You need to make use of all the channels available to you – word of mouth, print, logo, videos. Digital comes with its own channels; search, display, affiliate, social media, etc. A lot of the time it’s easy to use your ‘voice’ to communicate; that is the strongest communication tool, but don’t forget to use all alternatives “arms, eyes, body” to engage with the people that don’t necessarily hear you.