This article was published on November 8, 2010

AdWords is ten years old and Google wants your success stories


AdWords is ten years old and Google wants your success stories

On October 23, 2000 the United States was less than two weeks away from one its most controversial presidential elections, but on that day a historical event happened in its own right – Google’s AdWords launched.

Though not the first keywords based ad network, AdWords is one of the biggest money makers in Internet history (if not #1) – as well as one of the core ways that businesses attract customers online –  and to celebrate all that money changing hands, Google is putting together a global map of success stories about how advertisers and partners have used AdWords over the years.

Google is asking for short videos (3 minutes or less) and/or written testimonials (of 750 words or less) about success stories using AdWords. After selecting the best stories, Google will then publish the map in December. For submission rules and examples, you can check out this YouTube site.

One last thing: in a blog post today announcing this contest, Google also linked to the original press release announcing AdWords back in 2000, and it’s a really fun historical read. For instance, Larry Page was of course CEO then, and AdWords was tested with a whopping “350 businesses and advertising agencies worldwide”. One quote from the press release is especially funny in retrospect: “The AdWords program is one of the best kept secrets on the web.”

Not any more.

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