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So, most people (i.e. people like me) just assume that most machines run with hamsters running on wheels. A Ferrari has like, WAY more hamsters than a DVD player, for example. Well, I always thought that Google just had billions of hamsters and billions of wheels in a warehouse somewhere powering their operations. As it turns out, I was wrong. Check out this cool infographic to learn more about how Google works, from beginning to end! [PPC Blog]

Okay, so this wasn't a Wall Street Journal or US News & World Reports ranking but, according to the Daily Beast, Dartmouth is the most powerful college in the field of tech. I'm not sure what that means, to be honest, but it's pretty cool and more than a little surprising. Dartmouth beat out Stanford for the top spot with the top five rounding out with Princeton, Harvard and MIT. Congrats to Dartmouth on its mighty and powerful presence in tech and thanks to Matt Burr for finding this gem! [TheDailyBeast]

This marks the second day in a row that I didn't come up with the content for a blog post. Thanks to Wpromotesman Chris for sending this video.

Now, obviously, Chrome isn't really faster than lightning but doesn't this make you want to download Chrome and see for yourself? That's called great marketing! The real surprise for me wasn't that Chrome proved to be so darn fast, it was that potatoes were almost as fast! Potatoes are supposed to be lazy, not fast. If you call someone a couch potato, that's supposed to mean that they are sluggish layabout with no discernible direction for the day. Apparently, we've misjudged potatoes; they are almost as fast as the Internet!

So, the next time someone calls you a couch potato, take it as a compliment. Also, get yourself an egg cream at the malt shoppe because apparently, we're in the early 20th century back when people would refer to other, lazier people as "couch potatoes."

President Barack Obama is, once again, using Google AdWords to reach Americans. This time, Mr. Obama is advertising under keywords related to Goldman Sachs and their recent brush with the SEC. As you can see above, Mr. Obama's ad is displaying in the banner section of the sponsored link results with a message for Americans interested in learning more about Goldman Sachs and the SEC proceedings. If you click through, you are asked to enter your zip code. Once entered, you are prompted to send the following letter to your respective Congressperson, in my case, Jane Harman:

I stand with the President for health reform

 

I'm writing to thank you for standing with folks like me, not the insurance companies, on health reform. Passing reform will be hugely helpful to struggling small businesses and families in our district and around the country.

I wanted to let you know that voters in our state have pledged thousands of volunteer hours to fight for members of Congress who fight for reform.

I know that the final vote will be very close, and wanted to let you know that voters at home are standing with you at this crucial time for health reform.

Thank you.

At this point, I got a little confused.

First of all, didn't Mr. Obama already win the battle for health care reform? Second of all, what does this have to do with the SEC or Goldman Sachs? If you search around the site, you can eventually find Mr. Obama's thoughts on Wall Street in a video called "Holding Wall Street Accountable," but Paid Search 101 dictates that your keywords, ad text and landing page should line up; making finding the relevant content should be as simple as clicking the ad.

I support Mr. Obama in his forward-thinking plan to reach Americans who may be confused, angry or ill-informed about the current economic situation, however, I would ask that he make sure that the people handling his AdWords account try a little harder to deliver the correct content to the people searching for it. In hopes to be of service to my country, I've provided the video below. You're welcome, Mr. President!

Having trouble keeping track of who hates who and why in the ménage-à-trois from Hell that is the relationship between Apple, Google and Microsoft? Not to worry! This handy chart should help you to keep things in perspective. Now, if only we could get Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt and Steve Ballmer into an octagon... [Gizmodo]

...is not this guy! I'm serious!

Have you been to the Masters website yet? I think that it is, far and away, the most well-designed sports website I've ever seen.

First of all, you can watch the whole thing online. Most of us are working and shouldn't be watching golf while putting together reports for clients, however, for research purposes, I checked it out for a few minutes. The streaming was ad-free, smooth and syched perfectly with the audio. It was probably the best streaming event I've viewed online. Furthermore, you could put your attention on five different areas, from keeping an eye on the 15th and 16th hole to tracking the featured group. This sort of choice makes watching the event online even better than watching on television!

Second of all, the highlights are amazing. Check out this system:

How awesome is that interface? Can you imagine looking at a baseball game and being able to watch just the outs and hits instead of the menagerie of plays that ESPN chooses for you? What happened in the eighth inning? Click. Now you see it. Of course, to do this for all the golfers at the Masters is an even more impressive feat.

It's great to see an event like the Masters build a website that lives up to its potential. Compared to the bloated, ad-heavy, slow-moving site that ESPN has become, the Masters' site is a breath of fresh air. Kudos to the geeks behind Augusta's site who put this together!

So, enjoy the Masters online but be careful; if you work in an office with a large percentage of men over 35, websites like this could destroy your company's bandwidth and productivity!

You guys already know how I feel about the iPad but I think that this chart visualizes my exact thoughts more succinctly. Take a tour through the flowchart and find out if the iPad is probably not a good purchase for you or if you're a giant tool that nobody likes! [HolyTaco]

Dimitar Kerin has a very promising career. Unfortunately, it's as a fake, online farmer and not as a city councilman anymore. Mr. Kerin's penchant for plowing his pixelated plantation has gotten him booted from the Plovdiv City Council in Bulgaria. It seems that he continued to farm away even after council members were warned not to use their city-issued laptops for games, even a game as boring as Farmville.**

So much for the argument that Farmville is stupid because there are no consequences... [Slashdot]

**Yes, I still play. No, I don't know why.

Poor Barry Allen. First, DC gave him a silly looking costume, then Apple excludes him from the iPad. [Gizmodo]

Behold, the the Louis Monet Jurassic Tourbillon. Made with Jurassic Era dinosaur fossils.

Quick! Somebody loan me $200,000!

Wait, no; I'll never be able to pay that back. Okay, new plan: I need an acrobat, a locksmith, a demolitions expert and a conman. Meet me in Basel, Switzerland behind the Dompropstei tomorrow at midnight, local time. Be discreet. [Gizmodo]