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Google is good, but who knows it?

Alright, so I saw this and found out there is this whole "Technology-driven Philanthropy" thing that Google is into here: www.google.org Absolutely fantastic. Google is fantastic with aggregating information for various purposes. This is the best one yet.

Social Media has become a significant resource for people to get information they need ... fast. Recently, Twitter and CNN brought you the inside look at Lybia when other sources couldn't get a report out. Now, it's your turn G+. This is the chance for G+ to shine and make its mark on the social media landscape. Your Irene information (http://crisislanding.appspot.com/) is beautiful (and now I know my parents are okay because of it. Thank you.)

However, for all the good you do how many know about it?

You guys really, REALLY need fire whomever is running your PR department and get your machine working. There is soooo much that you guys do that NO ONE knows about. Specifically, with the above, if I were your PR guru, I'd be plastering it all over the place. Nothing flashy; just "Hey, you need information on Irene ... we've got you covered. Take a look: http://crisislanding.appspot.com". Run it on CNN, HLN, local news stations. Heck, get the stations to do it for you and have the Weatherperson deliver it to the viewing public during their weather segment. You should make a press announcement. Instead, what did you do? You blogged it. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Here are a couple more examples of how (I think) you've bungled the PR angle.

Google Powermeter
http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/index.html

We got our new smart-meter installed in February. Had I known about this service I definitely would have signed up. No notification that is was available to me, from my supplier OR you. To raise awareness energy usage is fantastic, but when did you raise awareness of the program?

You plan to kill the service in September. STOP. Think for a moment about all the users you have access to through Gmail and G+. Make a media blitz announcing you are going to extend the project through the end of the year. You're frickin' Google for gods sake. ADVERTISE!!! See what happens. I bet you'll find that it'll scale just like you want.

Google Health
http://health.google.com

This is another sad one to see go. I've used it since 2008 and found it perfect for my purposes. But, again, I ask, where was your awareness program. I found it then (as with Powermeter) by stumbling upon it. You didn't make the connection with me. You didn't ADVERTISE. Google = ADVERTISING.

PR is about maintaining and enhancing an image. You could do better; much, MUCH better.

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