Google doesn’t get brand / discovery advertising

Google’s ad business models are based on intent and relevance and not on discovery. The performance based AdWords and AdSense models are easier to measure and appeals to the logical / analytical minds at Google. The power of influence, discovery and brand advertising needs more right-brain thinking than Google’s left brainers are used to.

Also, instead of innovating and exploring new forms of brand advertising, Google’s strategy in that space over the last few years has been to simply buy DoubleClick which is the leader in old-school brand advertising (mostly banner ads). This basically means that there is no fresh thinking in this area at Google compared to Facebook, which understands the power of discovery and recommendation.

Bindu Reddy makes some interesting points in this great piece on Techcrunch. Google owns publishers, but unfortunately Facebook owns a large number of the users.

Considering she oversaw product management at Google. She knows her stuff.

The only thing that can hopefully slow Facebook's domination is the revolt building up due to Mark Zuckerberg's tendency to show his disregard for user privacy.

Google says it’s willing to accept its shortcomings on the social web and bring in a “Head of Social” to set it on the right course. The company has hired an executive recruiter to fill the position, and is currently in the process of casting its net as widely as possible.

Though competition from Google sends shivers down spines in just about every sector — from news and book publishers to phone makers to venture capital — the company’s dominance has a gaping hole on the social web. Google has tried to introduce social sites, from Orkut to Buzz, but they’ve had limited appeal, hampered by a misunderstanding of user needs. In recent months Google has added a social layer onto its existing products, like search and maps. And it does have powerhouse publishing and communication properties in Blogger and Gmail on the outskirts of the social web. But there’s no formidable master plan to speak of.

Google wants to hire "Head of Social." (waves hand wildly)

Ugh, I don't like this prediction at all.

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As Google rose to become the barometer of all that's worthy on the Web, publishers rushed to change their sites to appease the Google god. "Search Engine Optimization" became a massive industry; a multitude of SEO consultants sprung up, offering to tweak your Web site to better fit Google's measure of the Web.

What if Facebook Likes take off? Or to use the proper jargon: What if the Open Graph becomes the measure of the Web? Will publishers change their sites to appease our new overlord?

I'm already seeing it: Thousands of sites are adding Facebook's version of semantic data in preference to the open standards as Facebook becomes the new kingmaker. In the week since launch, more than 50,000 Web sites have added Facebook's "social plug-ins." All of which will make it blissfully easy for Facebook to organize the Web:

Facebook Optimization may be the new SEO.

At least most companies have Facebook blocked.

Someone noticed Google owns the Web? I do not know enough about what Google has or has not done to comment, but this will be interesting to watch.

Too big to fail turned out to be wrong for banks and other corporations. But don't tell that to Google, which has quickly expanded into making smartphones, mapping streets of the world, streaming videos, connecting friends and selling digital books.

As Washington focuses more on Google's explosive growth, one thorn in the company's side is John Simpson, a 62-year-old veteran journalist with a deep suspicion of big business and a mission to break up the search giant.

Federal regulators have launched a handful of investigations of the Internet behemoth -- which dominates Web search -- to ensure it doesn't unfairly hurt competitors and consumers in its feeding frenzy of online businesses. So far, there hasn't been a full antitrust review of the variety that hobbled Microsoft, AT&T and Standard Oil.

But Simpson thinks that needs to happen.

He's no longer in the newspaper business, having lost two jobs during "restructurings," he says, scooping the air with curled fingers. Now Simpson works for a nonprofit group called Consumer Watchdog, where his singular focus is turning up the regulatory heat on Google. With its brand appeal, he says, Google is an ideal target.

He's turned the tables, digging up data on the giant that tracks every move its users make and collects information without their knowledge. Also, he said, the company unfairly uses its size to barrel into new businesses.

Google says that just because it's big doesn't mean it's bad. In other words, it hasn't used its dominance in search to edge out competitors unfairly in other businesses it enters. An example of that would be forcing cellphone makers who use Android software to use only Google's search engine and YouTube on those phones.

Nonetheless, the company has responded to antitrust finger-pointing by beefing up its staff in Washington. It also hired a lawyer focused on competition. He and others have given more than 100 talks to Hill staff members, regulators and journalists, saying that Google is just one click away from losing its 65 percent dominance in search.

Given how tight the Google C suite is with the current administration, I think this will blow over. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

I love me some Conan. That is all.

Twitter is becoming a more robust and extensible platform, but they seem married to their limitations in terms of content. Facebook has added many FriendFeed-like features, but they have also acted in a way that makes me uncomfortable in terms of changing the rules of privacy in the middle of the game, while also locking away other pieces of content that should, in my mind, be public. In my position as somebody who manages Facebook pages for multiple clients, I could never delete my account (and leave them rudderless), but simply expect that all my data there will be discoverable and public and searchable, despite their promises to the contrary.

 

The world of social networking is not a zero-sum game. For Buzz to succeed does not mean that either of the other networks have to fail. In fact, it doesn't even mean that Buzz has to be the biggest network on the planet. But it does mean that it should have the potential to be the best. I need a powerful aggregation tool that watches my activity on Google Reader and native blogs, but also offers the option to share photos and videos in a public way. Buzz does that. I need a powerful tool that lets me find friends' updates from around the Web and engage with them in a central location. Buzz does that.

 

Louis makes great points as usual. He explains why Twitter is a fantastic tool, Facebook is a necessary evil (I agree) and how it is such a shame that Facebook bought Friendfeed and let it wither.

So when Google rolled out the ability to search and analyze the Twitter archive it got me thinking--if it wanted to, Google could slap together a slick web-based front end (not something awful like iGoogle) and change the social media (and even mainstream media) monitoring game. Think about it, its got nearly all the pieces in place already, here are just a few:

• Google News: Coverage from mainstream news outlets and top tier blogs? Check. By far the de facto online news aggregator
• Google Blog Search: Long-tail blog search? Check. Not the greatest of blog search engines, but far from worst, and when combined with Google News, covers 85-95% of what you're looking for anyway.
• Real-Time Search: Ability to monitor and capture the conversation from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku, Identi.ca and more? Check. To top it off, this feature is also available in 40 languages, so international capabilities? Check.
• Twitter Archive: Ability to review and analyze historical Twitter buzz? Check. Adds a nice graphical component showing peaks and valleys as well.
• Google Trends: Ability to see and graphically display hot search trends and online conversations? Check.
• YouTube: Ability to track and monitor results from the top video sharing site in the world? Check. Added bonus: if you own a channel then you've got some decent insights into how your videos are performing as well.
• Google Reader: Ability to customize and display your search results however you like? Check.
• Google Buzz/Gmail: Ability to share items you find noteworthy and even 'assign' them to someone else on your team for follow-up. Check.
• Analytics: Ability to seamlessly combine web analytics with online conversation analysis? Check. This would be a major step up from where the current platforms are.

Google has an impressive line up of powerful Social Media monitoring tools. The best part about the Google tools is it is free.

Schmidt disses Blogging

Google CEO Eric Schmidt guest starred spoke at the American Society of News Editors conference recently where he tried to lull traditional media worrywarts into a false sense of security by telling them:

“There is an art to what you do. And if you’re ever confused as to the value of newspaper editors, look at the blog world. That’s all you need to see.”

Not only does that statement berate blogging and bloggers in general, including the millions pumping out content on Google-owned Blogger.com, didn’t he just dis many of the attendees as well? All the major media outlets have blogs, and bloggers, nowadays, don’t they?

Who knew I could like him less?

Use the “site:” operator to limit searches to a particular site. I use this one all the time, and it’s particularly handy because many site’s built-in search tools don’t return the results you’re looking for (and some sites don’t even have a search feature). If I’m looking for WWD posts about GTD, for example, I could try this search: GTD site:webworkerdaily.com.

Use Google as a spelling aid. As Rob Hacker — the WWD reader I profiled last week — pointed out, entering a word into Google is a quick way to see if you have the right spelling. If it’s incorrect, Google will suggest the correct spelling instead. Additionally, if you want to get a definition of a word, you can use the “define:” operator to return definitions from various dictionaries (for example, define: parasympathetic).

Use Google as a calculator. Google has a built-in calculator — try entering a calculation like 110 * (654/8 + 3). Yes, your computer also has a calculator, but if you spend most of your day inside a browser, typing your calculation into the browser’s search box is quicker than firing up your calculator app.

Great ideas!

As CNET's Declan McCullagh noted yesterday, ECPA is notorious for being extremely convoluted. Digital Due Process also noted that the ECPA standard are not clear (especially with regards to access to location information), that it's not clear how the Fourth Amendment applies to new services and information and that some fo the standards are simply illogical.

More Resources

• The current law
• Legal analysis of the current law from the Digital Due Process coalition (PDF)

Digital Due Process wants the U.S. Congress to completely rewrite the law, but to focus on a handful of issues: access to email and other private communications stored in the cloud, access to location information, and the use of subpoenas to obtain transactional data.

Here are the four ways Digital Due Process wants to modernize the ECPA:

• Better protect your data stored online: The government must first get a search warrant before obtaining any private communications or documents stored online;
• Better protect your location privacy: The government must first get a search warrant before it can track the location of your cell phone or other mobile communications device;
• Better protect against monitoring of when and with whom you communicate: The government must demonstrate to a court that the data it seeks is relevant and material to a criminal investigation before monitoring when and with whom you communicate using email, instant messaging, text messaging, the telephone, etc.; and
• Better protect against bulk data requests: The government must demonstrate to a court that the information it seeks is needed for a criminal investigation before it can obtain data about an entire class of users.

It is a good idea to update the ECPA, but I prefer as few "helping" regulations online as possible.