So I had lunch with some folks from Google (NY) today and was fortunate enough to get a first glimpse of the Google phone.

First encounter with Google's new live search results feature.

...words just can't describe it.

So earlier this week I signed into my MCC account with a most unwelcome message,

Your qualification is at risk.
You are at risk of losing your qualification due to low account spending. To retain your qualification, you must maintain the minimum account spending level.

Naturally the first thing I did was contact my Google representative to ask why I would possibly lose my status. I'm spending the proper amount, my CTRs and Quality Scores aren't bad. What did I do?

As it turned out, my daily spend averaged slightly less than the minimum required spend to retain my Qualified status. This average spend has to roughly equate to a minimum amount over a ninety day period. Of course we all know that right?

As of today, this page and (most importantly) this page claims that the minimum ninety day spend must be no less than $1000. What if I were to tell you that there are three zero's missing from that?

In essence I was informed that the $1,000.00 factor in becoming (and maintaining) qualified status was a "big mistake." The minimum is REALLY supposed to be $100,000.00 over a ninety day period.

To retain qualification, program members must maintain a spend of $100,000

(90 days) on an ongoing basis. Program members at risk of losing
qualification due to low spending levels will be notified by a message on
their Google Advertising Professionals program site, and Company account
Administrators will also receive an email notification.

Wow! Calling a $99,000.00 difference a "big mistake" is a bit of an understatement!

Now let me make clear that I am neither announcing that Google has royally screwed up nor am I saying that ANYONE is going to lose their qualification status. The information I received has only been gathered from a single source and unfortunately I'm a blogger (at least in my head), not a Journalist. Verification is an awful lot of work for us lazy people.

Anyway I can't help but worry for the free-lance SEM folks out there who can't come near that kind of spend but still enjoy that certification of Adwords credibility.

Now we can see the average CPC, from lowest to highest, when building the ad-group.

Yesterday I read a funny little tweet from the famous Danny Sullivan:

Koogle, the latest search engine to hit the web, is Rabbi tested and approved. Koogle is free of sexually illicit and other "religiously objective material" in it's search results.