How serious is Google getting about promoting its profiles? Well, aside from now including them in Google Search results, and giving you the option to have a vanity URL, Google is now giving away 10,000 sets of business cards to people that have one.
The deal, in partnership with iPrint.com, is being promoted with a huge link at the top of Google Profile pages. The link reads, “New! Order profile business cards to tell your friends about your profile.” Click on the link and you’ll be taken to an ordering page.
The cards are pretty basic, but they’re an idea that’s been getting buzz on the web for quite some time. It’s simply a white card with a big Google logo. In the middle is the Google Search box, which has your real name (as opposed to your profile name) inside of it. At the bottom it has the vanity URL for your profile.
With the promotion, the first 10,000 people who sign up will get 25 free cards. But you’ll have to sign up for an iPrint account to get them. And unfortunately, these cards are only available to be shipped in the continental U.S.
And yes, the card even has an “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. But sadly no, it doesn’t have a watermark.
Update: As some commenters are noting, it looks like you may need to create and fill out a Google Profile for that link to the free business cards page to work (which makes sense).
[thanks Derek for the tip]
Eh, the cards look kinda… pointless? heh
It’s kind of cool.
i would not consider the subsite “google.com/profiles/mycompany”
a vanity url.
I would classify it as a “U.R.S”.
Uniform Resource Subsite.
A Vanity URL is a Good Domain Name.
not a subsite.
whom ever has the greatest offering of personalized profile channels will win the user and business profile games.
be difficult finding a consumer to take you seriously with a google subsite profile business card. still nice to see an effort in the custom profile promotion market.
IdentityLocator.com – who are you?
If by “cool” you mean “I registered *two* profiles to get 25 cards?” I’m right there with you.
I already submitted mine last night
http://www.goog...les/me/bizcards
Not Found
The requested URL /profiles/me/bizcards was not found on this server.
Do you have a Google Profile?
Apparently you have to have your profile filled out with more info. Like what super powers you have (mind-reading, though I’ve only practiced on myself).
404 rather than warning message is very un-google though.
interesting, i’ll update that thanks.
25 free cards? That would cost me like $2 at Kinko’s. Kind of a lame promotion if you ask me.
try a lot more than that. They’ll charge you $10 just to open up a file form a thumb drive.
Will be giving this one a spin. This does seem a bit out of the realm of google. I don’t see this as part of their business model, beyond taking over linkedin before they catch on…
hmm..does it really cost a lot more to mail stuff overseas? “Continental US only” sounds kinda lame in this century.
It says continental US only but I filled out the form fields with my real address, in Thailand, using the spaces available.
Then at the bottom I was forced to make a selection of an American state, I did so, and the cards turned up 10 days later.
bonus.
Submitted for fun, but I haven’t switched to a vanityURL because they have me locked in to an e-mail based one. Not letting me customize it yet means I can’t/wont accept a vanity URL. The assumption that just because we have a gmail account it would make a good vanity URL is no bueno. Driving me nuts. Really hope they let us choose custom ones soon.
They don’t offer vanity URLs, but they do offer ones that hide your email prefix – at the bottom of the profile editing page, where it shows your profile URL, click on “see other options”
Thanks for crediting the tipster
/
oops sorry derek, meant to – wrote fast. good call.
Thanks MG. I appreciate it. Ya’ll are too fast to even send you tips usually.
Who cares about the cards, I’m just glad you referenced American Psycho. That whole business card exchange was fantastic.
Seriously — maybe my favorite scene from any movie in the last decade. Lions Gate removed embedded privileges on all those clips — annoying!
This is the best version I can find to embed sadly:
Yeah, mad props for the Bateman pic
Thanks for putting that up. If you ever wanted to sum up what is wrong with Corporate America, just watch that scene. Kudos.
Yeah the links aren’t working for me.
Yeah, check the update, you need to have and fill out a GOOG profile first.
I had my profile already set up, but when I went and added even more information, it seemed to work.
Thanks!
MG Seigler can you go one post without promoting your name or twitter account
it’s like parislemoncrunch out here
where am i promoting my twitter account?
“or”
(within the past 24hr)
http://www.tech...0-less-leaving/
http://www.tech...-search-to-all/
It seems sort of blatant and slightly sad
you’re right, i’m very sad about it. quit making me feel bad.
everybody loves the whole “hitting back with sarcasm” thing.
in your sig, tc doesn’t allow mad amounts of posts so it will end soon.
Its better to print cards in my place, rather than those free cards. Infact, I have my blog cards so i dont need separate card just for Google profile….
Couldn’t agree more, Sanat. Surely even Google could afford to ship a few biz cards internationally!
How annoying!
I went through all the trouble of creating my profile just to finally read: “(Offer available to U.S. continental street addresses.)” Nooooooooooo!
sucker!
I told my lady friend about it, like I found it myself and now she’s smiling at me. I love TechCrunch. Don’t hate the blogger, Hate the game.
Who cares how fancy they are! they’re cute, and free.
Thanks!
Just ordered mine.
is the color bone?
No, bone is what you get for giving out too much personal info in exchange for free but useless trinkets.
Offer not valid in the state of Hawaii! HI is missing from dropdown in the iPrint order form.
Not valid in Puerto Rico [US Territory].
Ordered mine first thing this morning …
This post makes me want to dance to “Power of Love” and rent a 1980s Porsche to go with my stylish new double breasted Power Suit.
Signed up for an account, filled out everything, but still no link for the cards…have the 10k already gone?
It didn’t show up for me until I switched off my ad-blocker so maybe it’s that.
I saw some other message boards saying that filling in ALL profile fields and re-saving did the trick. I tried that quite a few times. Finally got it to work. I seriously think it’s just luck.
Bummed because I have a common name and all the good Gmail addresses were taken, including my full name.
Looked it up on a global email finder, and a bunch of “good” gmail addresses for me are registered in Mountain View, CA. Does Google not WANT me to have a usable email address? The only available one was my lame high school AIM handle that I still use. Grr.
And us Canadians are left out again. What are they worried I will pirate them across the border?
You would think that adding a Logo you do not own to your business card could cause problems. Nice move by Google for being open. Let’s see if Twitter and Facebook will follow the same trend.
GREAT picture choice, the headline and seeing that picture was enough to crack me up. OUTSTANDING
Interesting that Google has to give more free stuff for free stuffs. I guess people do not trust someone who is just giving things free. Deep in their heart they have big Why. Google, Facebook must start charging for their services so people can start trusting them.
Early on in Gmail, they used to ask people for a mobile number to verify that you are a real person. Ordering the cards kind of validates that the information you have on your profile is real. It is unlikely that you will hand out cards that point to inaccurate information.
The other point is that this cute marketing idea does a good job of positioning the google profile product as a modern business card equivalent: an online presence that people you meet can view without actually connecting to you on a social network like linkedin or facebook.
why would you want a business card with the google logo on it?
they only mail the b.cards to continental US addresses
May be some people doesn’t like it due to Google Logo on it.
I ordered mine but I don’t know that they will pass the Shira Lazar test
http://twitter....atus/1371255514
Don’t bother with the Google cards. You go through the whole setup process and then they say that they’re all gone. So, they don’t tell you that until you’ve signed up and they have a new user and then they shaft you. They even won’t let you “complete” your profile until you’ve filled out enough info to their liking. They’ve got more money than God and can only afford to give out 250,000 cards?? The viral advertising isn’t worth even that?
Nice marketing idea by Google…
However you have to remember that a Google profile is just 1 result of your ‘Google CV’ – Google 1st search results page for your name search.
If you want another positive result that promotes you & your brand on Google you should also create a profile on LookupPage which aims at getting your profile on search engines when someone searches your name – even if it’s a popular name. Check it out if you like
Thats nice.