P.S. I found this on Flickr, and one commenter says they are even willing to pay for the schwag. I’m sure the Google marketing department would be happy to hear that!

Silverlight, Microsoft’s rich-media application plugin, saw a similarity between the plugin’s name and those iridescent glass rocks used to fill silk flower vases in restaurants and offices. I guess they thought this was a good thing, because Microsoft apparently gave them out at the SXSW music festival a few years ago to promote Silverlight. I’ve seen a lot of weird swag at festivals, but I guess the part that mystifies me the most about this promotion is the absence of any visible branding from the rock - they literally could have just raided an art supply store and hauled the bounty to the festival to hand the rocks out by the dozen. Where’s the promotional savvy in that?

[via Schwag Addict]

After the cute little Android camera backpack that made the rounds of tech and design blogs a few weeks ago, we knew it was only a matter of time before Google started tapping into the selling power of cute and releasing some quality Android goodies of its own. These collectible figurine toys, designed by Andrew Bell of Dyzplastic, will be available in twelve different styles, including business apparel, demonic red, radioactive beige, caution yellow, and of course classic green. Plush versions can’t be far away, I hope…

[via Geeky Gadgets]

To celebrate the release of the latest version of Firefox, I figured I’d see what is out there in the way of Firefox swag. The Mozilla store is full of custom t-shirts made by fans of the browser, which isn’t surprising given how easy they’ve made the customization process: simply create your design, upload it to their servers, and order your shirt, available in a variety of styles. There’s some great art on the site - I really like the metal-style design above, and they have something for everyone, from the cute to the abstract.

There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Google’s entry into the smartphone game. The Google Android OS, unlike Apple’s iPhone system, is not restricted to one provider of hardware or service, and is therefore much friendlier to developers who might want to create apps or other software compatible with it. Did we mention it also comes with a really adorable logo?

This Android custom backpack is so far just a one-of-a-kind item, constructed to hold a digital camera (and complete with detachable arms and legs!), but it’s ridiculously cute and has been appearing on a lot of geek- and craft-friendly blogs, ensuring that someone is definitely going to pick this idea up and start making Android bags on a larger scale. Apple may have met its match - their logo is modern and sophisticated-looking, but it isn’t cute.

[via Phandroid]

A friend of mine who works for Google used to bring a few of these “Google orbs” around with him to warehouse parties and demand people pay attention to the color-changing promotional toys. It never really worked, socially, and he (thankfully) stopped doing it after a few failed attempts at picking up girls, but you have to admit that - outside of parties, of course - they’re pretty cool looking. The glowing bouncy balls cycle through shades of luminescent blue, green, and pink - a lot more interesting than the static stress balls most software companies slap their logos on.

[via The Internet Schwag Museum]

Firefox is celebrating 5 years of Firefox. It has quickly become one of the major web browsers in the world and it’s no surprise when you start looking into their promotional efforts. Firefox encourages anyone around the world to host “Firefox Parties”, they’ll even provide the schwag! The parties are then added to their events calendar so anyone around the world will know how and when to attend.

Some of their favorite schwag items seem to be buttons, awareness bracelets and lanyards. However, if you’re lucky you may just get a messenger bag or t-shirt with your schwag request.

Getting a blog on Technorati (a blog that blogs about blogs) means thousands of visitors coming to your site within a few hours. So no wonder people scoop up Technorati stickers and t-shirts like nothing else!

I love this Photoshopped picture with the Technorati logo- it’s done better than most advertisements, but by a plain Technorati enthusiast, not an employee . Some of my other favorite Technorati pictures are the “Name that cleavage” photo and the Technorati belly photo.

Those Marketing Ninjas and their great schwag- so sad to see them go.