Google and God are a lot alike. Both work in mysterious ways. Both are unfair. And apologists are quick to defend both, because without them the universe (or at least SEO) has no meaning.

Because we have utmost faith in the wisdom of Google, we decided to input the 26 letters of the alphabet into Google Web search to see what links would earn St. Peter’s gate key (we mean the “No. 1 position.”)

Here are the results:

• A = Google Finance page for Agilent Technologies Inc.
• B = Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
• C = Google Finance page for Citigroup Inc.
• D = Google Finance page for Dominion Resources Inc.
• E = E! Online
• F = Google Finance page for Ford Motor Company
• G = Gmail login page
• H = Wikipedia entry for “hydrogen”
• I = iPod/iTunes section of Apple Web site
• J = Wikipedia entry for the letter “J”
• K = Google Finance page for Kellogg Company
• L = Wikipedia entry for the letter “L”
• M = IMDb page for the 1931 German film noir starring Peter Lorre
• N = The N, a nighttime network for teens
• O = O, The Oprah Magazine
• P = An instructional page about HTML on the site of December.com
• Q = Google Finance page for Qwest Communications International
• R = The R Project for Statistical Computing
• S = Google Finance page for Sprint Nextel Corporation
• T = Google Finance page for AT&T Inc.
• U = University of Arizona home page
• V = Wikipedia entry for the ’80s television series
• W = W Hotels section of the Starwood Hotels Web site
• X = Google Finance page for U.S. Steel Corporation
• Y = Yahoo! Mail login page
• Z = Wikipedia entry for the letter “Z”

We know we’re mere mortals, but these returns do raise a few questions:

1. How come the movie M beats the letter M, but the letter Z beats the movie Z?

2. What’s the deal with all the Google Finance results? You’d almost suspect Google had some kind of financial interest in the site.

3. Is Wikipedia a better dictionary than Merriam-Webster, and a better encyclopedia than Britannica? According to God (we mean Google) it is — by a wide margin.

And funny — but in 26 searches, we got back only three references to the letters themselves or to the alphabet that comprises them. Could it be that Google sometimes misses the forest for the trees?

Bah! That kind of talk can only lead to chaos.

Best that we teach our children a new ABC Song for the age of Google. Does anyone know a word that rhymes with “Google Finance”?

I saw one of the more brilliant music videos I’ve come across in some time today. Naturally, it wasn’t on MTV; it was on YouTube. By an “unsigned artist” named Jessica Delfino. Here it is:

A few years ago, this poor girl might have never found a record label; now she doesn’t need one. What’s more, even if she ultimately is label-bound, it’s more fun that I found her now — before she becomes famous.

‘Cause I e-mailed her, and she e-mailed me back in, like, 10 minutes. She complimented me on the Idea Grove Web site, and even fooled around long enough to stumble across a Charles Ives quote that applied to her work (”I don’t write music for sissy ears.”)

Try that with Sarah Silverman or Joni Mitchell (actually, it might work with Joni, assuming she has e-mail.)

Anyhoo, a couple hours after I heard from Jessica, jazzycatzz posted this article on Spin Thicket, which describes how bands are becoming so adept at using social networks to promote their work that they are actually rejecting offers from major labels.

The band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, for example,

hired their own manufacturer, distributor and marketing company, and instead of the $1 an album they’d typically make from a record company, they’ll get about $6 for every copy they sell.

Hard to argue with that — especially considering how fickle labels have become with their artists. These days, in fact, many labels are only willing to sign artists for a “single song, maybe two, and a ring tone.”

Which brings us to the worst reality of all for the music business — their biggest revenue staple, the CD, is going by the wayside.

As Mark Cuban put it in a post today:

I would say the music industry has put itself in the position of being incredibly stupid. They are dependent on a format, the CD, that few people listen to…

Why can’t the music industry get that we should be able to buy music when we want, where we want, in the format in which we consume it, on our IPods and comparable devices. Until that happens, total music sales will continue to decline and quckly.

As for the major labels, they are going to have to start offering more — rather than less — to artists. Either that, or settle for a considerably smaller share of the take.

Update/correction: Jessica isn’t actually unsigned; she’s with the indy label Loudmouth Records.

• Should the media be sent to Guantanamo to learn how to ask tougher questions? (The Flack)
• Why Disney was quiet as a mouse about Hamas Mickey (Huffington Post)
• Pipe company’s uTube.com Web site is making big bucks off mistaken identity (Daily Dog)

Check out Spin Thicket for more media, marketing and PR links.

Technorati tags: Branding Strategy, PR, Blogs, Journalism, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Media

From Spiegel Online:

A debate is raging in Istanbul about just how much skin advertising billboards should be allowed to show. The dispute highlights the deep divisions between Muslims and secularists in the country. And it may become an election issue…

On the one side stands the Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan … Some swimwear manufacturers have complained that [AKP] city officials have banned certain revealing advertising posters for bikinis and bathing suits for “moral reasons.”

On the other side are the left-leaning, strict-secularist nationalists who fill public squares each weekend with massive, anti-AKP demonstrations accusing the party of wanting to transform Turkey into a theocracy.

People, can’t we all just get along? Here’s a compromise.

Michael Moore’s new documentary, “Sicko,” premiered at Cannes over the weekend. Here’s a sneak preview:

(Via eDrugSearch Blog)