Google is sending greetings to users. Text below. In the mail a link to: http://www.google.com/advertising/holiday2009/

"Happy Holidays from Google
  
Hello,

As we near the end of the year, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for the time, energy, commitment, and trust you've shared with us in 2009.

With sharing in mind, this year we've decided to do something a little different. We hope you'll find it fits the spirit of the holiday season.

We're looking forward to working with you to build lasting success in 2010.

Happy Holidays,
Your Google Team"

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-charity-gift-2009.jpg

The target site explains that Google intends to spend $20 million for charities, which are listed to be:

   * Feeding America
   * Boys and Girls Clubs
   * Smile Train
   * CARE, Mothers Matter
   * World Wildlife Fund, Natural Capital Project
   * Mobile Creches
   * Prajwala
   * HEAL Africa
   * African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
   * The Mango Tree
   * National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
   * Harlem Children's Zone
   * Save the Children, Latin America focus
   * Reporters Without Borders
   * Witness
   * Loud Against Nazis
   * Global Voices
   * Ushahidi
   * Save the Children, Middle East and Eurasia focus
   * Grupo Cultural Afro Reaggae
   * Ashesi University College, Ghana
   * Pratham
   * Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience
   * Shin Shin Educational Foundation
   * Tzu Chi Foundation

Hm, searching for site:www.google.com/advertising/

gives:
http://www.google.com/advertising/congratulations.html
http://www.google.com/advertising/emaward.html
http://www.google.com/advertising/healthcare.html
any idea what those are from?

The Emmy page was mentioned here: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-09-03-n60.html (original source: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/08/google-wants-to-team-up-with-emmy.html , but by default I can't access the latter from China). In the comments to that post, the healthcare page is mentioned too, though not explained...

Received that email too just now – does anyone know, is it unsolicited, or did it require some opt-in?

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-happy-holidays-email.png

So far I know it´s send to AdSense – AdWords users. So no opt-in. I just got it.

I clicked "Report spam" when I received that unsolicited email.

Could it be based on your email preferences in your AdSense account?

https://www.google.com/adsense/lang-change

I personally have "Newsletters" checked there, so that could be it. On the other hand, every trustworthy newsletter I met in the past disclaims in a footnote where they're coming from/ how to unsubscribe. There was no such footnote in the mail from "Your Google Team".

I just got more then 30 of this e-mails for AdWords accounts, more to come I expect :-).

> Could it be based on your email preferences in your AdSense account?

Well maybe that's where Google got the email addresses from, but the email doesn't seem fall into any of the categories available for ticking, which are:

- Newsletters
- Google market research
- Special offers
- Information about other Google products and services which may be of interest to you
- Mandatory service announcements that relate to your agreement with Google

If there was a category for "Corporate Public Relations Marketing Communications", and I had ticked it, then I would have expected to receive this kind of message.

It's not a big deal, but if a company aims to not be evil then people will expect a higher standard of conduct from them.

If a person or company donates to charity, the good is done by the deed itself. It's not necessary for them to beat their chest and shout about it to the world.