As you may have noticed yesterday, Google has redesigned their search engine. I was a little hesitant to write about it since they have been doing quick redesigns of miscellanious things and then changing them back. About a month ago they redid the images page, but after a couple days it was back to normal. This, however looks like it's here to stay.

The design looks much better than it was before. Everything on the page seems to have a reason for being where it is as apposed to being thrown in wherever it would fit. They've added a nice little bar to the top of the page with all the different sections (well not all), and a place to log in. Also the results bar looks so much better. The whole site just looks much more fresh.

Google's redesign isn't all about looks though. This change represents a huge move for google: universal search. This means when you search for something it won't just give you web results. Now your going to start seeing related content at the top and bottom of the page (it seems to be dependant what your searching for). For instance, searching for Steve Jobs will give you a couple image results, your search results, and then some news results, while searching for music will give you related searches at the bottom of the page such as 'music videos' and 'music charts'... it's a huge step forward.

This change isn't something that happened overnight and is done. Google's blog points out that this is just the beginning and there is much more to come. I'm waiting for it, Google!

"Gentlemen, we need to find a way to market the movie Shrek the Third in a way that will bring people to our store. Do you have any ideas?" Then I assume the intern, Luke, kicks in with this; "I know, lets make some things in the restaurant puke green, then people will want to eat here for sure!" Then Fred (the boss) replies; "Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that! We could make the straws green. Why, we could make some of our shakes so ugly that even Shrek himself wouldn't touch one!" He continues, "Luke, your hired full-time! You can be my assistant. I always knew you were destined for greatness!"

Of course Luke is quickly fired after he shows Fred the numbers and some of the emails they have gotten about the shakes.

Conversely, Volvo has taken advantage of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie with some really cool marketing. They sunk a treasure chest somewhere in a body of water with the keys to a brand new XC90 and $50,000. Check out their mini-site where you can find clues on where the treasure is buried and learn more about the XC90.

Would you rather win about $100,000 in prizes or slurp a puke green shake through a puke green straw?

I know you just want to watch the video!

A few weeks ago I wrote about a video my cousin and I were working on that was shot completely in reverse. Well we've finally finished it. Honestly the end result is a bit disappointing, mainly because we didn't have enough time to run through the storyline and make it easier to understand. Don't get me wrong, I still think the video is cool, but this just makes me want to make a better one.

We made the video for our church, we were studying the book, Naturally Supernatural over the last 6 weeks and this was the last week of the study. Overall, the reaction was better than I expected, it seemed like most people were able to understand the plot. So what do you think, does the video make sense to you? Watch it!