The Future of Google

In chapter 10, “Google Today, Google Tomorrow,” Battelle notes several challenges Google will need to overcome in the next few years – “Can it continue to innovate in the face of treacherous competition? Can it keep its most productive employees despite their own personal wealth? Can it learn how to partner with outside companies who find Google’s loose approach to business confusing and dangerous? And finally, can the triumvirate of Schmidt, Page, and Brin hold it together…” (p 230).  

Some additional questions come to mind, such as, will Google succeed in the ever-elusive
“Semantic Web” or the “Perfect Search”? Will Google finally become known as a true media company, not just a “search” company? In Battelle’s blogpost this week, he muses over “the age-old conflict that Google faces between being a pure navigation service – ‘We get you where you want to go’- and being a media company – ‘We get you to our properties, where we make more money if you stay.’” According to Battelle this conflict is a very real, urgent, and present one. If Google succeeds in this venture, they will become a true media company that effectively competes for your attention and monetizes it with advertising, not one that gives you your search results and sends you on your way.

This week, several news stories involving Google and its apparent still-bright future have emerged. Google plans to be a significant player in the display ad market in the next year, considering YouTube, the company’s “brightest light.” Tim Armstrong, Google’s North American president for advertising and commerce, said Google’s advertising platform will evolve over time so that it won’t distinguish between search and display ads. Google is just waiting on regulatory approval to complete its proposed acquisition of DoubleClick Inc., “a transaction that would enable Google to make a more aggressive push to expand beyond search ads into the market for graphical display ads such as banner ads. “

 In other Google news, the company plans to unveil a new ad service to web publishers to manage their online ad sales, another tactic Google is using to broaden its reach in the online advertising world.

In Google Apps news, Google has updated its applications for business, schools, and other organizations including a new interface, group chat from the browser, an improved contact manager, color-coded message labels, and bookmarkable messages and searches.

Batelle notes an important part of Google being Google…it’s culture.

Today, an interesting post on TechDirt discusses problems that could arise from the merging of two company cultures, in this case Yahoo and Microsoft, and references Google as a prime example of the importance of culture in a corporation (even if Google is an extreme example). This post links to Grant McKracken’s blog, who argues that corporations are inherently cultural and ”when things go bad in a merger or an acquisition, the problem is sometimes not with the mechanics, not with the infrastructure of the deal.  The problem is with the superstructure of the deal, the ideas, practices and cultures that must now be brought together for things to work.”

“Just Google It”

In the first half of John Batelle’s  The Search, he begins to detail the story of Google’s extraordinary and rapid rise to fame. Batelle has followed Google and its founders’ successes from a mismatched computer stack in a Stanford dormitory to the media darling/hottest internet company in the land.

Two of Google’s innovations that have dramatically altered the way we are accustomed to searching, include Page Rank and adwords. While the name “Page Rank” is trademarked by Google, the patent belongs to Stanford University, where Google founder Larry Page and later, Sergey Brin, conceptualized the 1995 research project that eventually morphed into their company. Page submitted his first paper on Page Rank to dismal reviews,  leading to rejection of publication. Page and Brin’s next paper detailing Page Rank was published later in 1998. They called it “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine” and Google was born.

As explained by Google, “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves ‘important’ weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important’.” Although Google continues to devleop its search technology and other factors contribute to search results, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google’s web search tools.

Adwords is a cost-effective method of search advertising that enables even cash-strapped small businesses, or any ordinary person for that matter, to buy key words for as little as 1 cent per click.

“Just Google It…” This phrase, once applicable to internet searching, now holds a wealth of meaning as Google’s interface can take the place of software, email, news, and more. In Nicco’s webcast for this week, he talks about Google’s strategy to move the application layer, once reserved for hard drives, over the Internet. So, now, with Google docs you can write papers, plug data into spreadsheets and design presentations, in addition to uploading documents for storing or collaborative projects, all for free. It is even possible to download a free, fully customizable software package via Google Pack and to create your own personalized Google homepage to boot.

Since Google is attempting to challenge even the software market, I wonder if we will ever be comfortable with moving everything online. Perhaps I’m biased as a Microsoft employee and avid user of Office 2007, but I’ve also been used to using Office for papers, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. since middle school when I had to start typing and turning in papers. To me, Office equals ease and comfort. 

I’ve also suffered through countless nights attempting to complete work online on a spotty internet connection. For those of us who live in the city, especially in older homes, reliable Internet is never as accessible or easy as it seems no matter what provider you’re using. I also travel frequently and I’ve noticed lately while working online through airport and hotel Wi-Fi connections that sometimes coverage is not as reliable as when I’m at
the office or at school. I also do a decent amount of work on planes – I’ll type up a spreadsheet, paper, presentation, etc. I don’t need an internet connection to complete any of those things. In general, I’m just not comfortable with having to be online to complete daily task.

Google’s future in the application market remains to be seen….however, it seems that “Just Google It” has staying power as being synonymous with searching. Just as we still blow our noses with “Kleenex,” clean our ears with “Q-tips” and “Xerox” to make copies, we will continue to “Google” to search the Internet.

Blog or Die?

In the second half of Naked Conversations Scoble and Israel continue to vilify traditional one-way marketing, while hailing the blog as the “revolution” of how companies communicate with customers. In chapter 9, the writers finally admit “blogging has its prickly issues.”

Shel’s newest blog post on social media seems to pick up right where the book left off, “Regular social media followers understand that Microsoft, for example,  does not, think with one mind, but with nearly 60,000 of them that GM does not speak with one voice or language, but with over 275,000. The 85,000 or so Intel employees do not march in step with each other and their taste in the drummers marking cadence is quite diverse. So if you blog with transparency and candor about your corporate job and the guy down the hall is devising a character blog by a talking moose to extend brand, he or she may hurt the brand or simply waste company resources, but that effort will not hurt yours, and that is why, in the long run, the simple, interactive credible path will prove to be the wise course for most companies whose employees take pride in their products and services.”

While Shel’s post is natually well written and thought provoking, several questions arise. While these thousands and thousands of employees all have different, and no doubt, interesting perceptions and viewpoints of their company, is it realistic to assume all of them, or even a large chunk of them, could blog or social network while maintaining the neccessary order and structure of the company and without significant legal ramifications? When does the conversation become too large and spread out? Doesn’t it cheapen the merit of blogs and convolute an already communications-saturated world. Though supposedly “anyone” can blog…should “anyone” blog?

This week on PR 2.0, a blog post aimed at PR professionals, Brian Solis asks, “Should PR Agencies Blog?”  BL Ochman offers a list of some new far from boring blogs and answers the question “Should Every Company Blog?” with an emphatic HELL NO

So, is it “blog or die?” “change or die?” Or even, “blog or become irrelavant?” I would venture to say no. I’m not going to deny the importance of blogging as a tool in corporate communication, I do argue that it is just that – a tool, not neccessarily a “revolution” as Scoble and Israel claim. Blogs cannot and will not replace “traditional” integrated marketing and PR strategies (many of which are far from traditional). A company interested in maintaining or devleloping an open channel of communication with its customers and constituents as a whole can utilize corporate blogs as part of their strategy. However, blogging cannot stand alone and cannot replace certain important marketing functions, at least not yet. While Microsoft marketers do use blogs, podcasts, streaming video,and social networking as part of an integrated strategy, we unquestionable still use direct marketing, email, events, promotions, PR campaigns, traditional sales pitching, etc. And we are an actual technology company – we cannot forget about those companies who are not and whose customers are vastly different.

The population of blogging and blog-reading citizens still pales in comparison to television viewers and even newspaper readers. Many companies with traditional cultures and traditional customer bases will not neccessarily convert their key constituents into blogosphere participants. Many of our grandparents or even parents have still not completely grasped the concept of PCs. How are we supposed to explain to them now that they have to participate in the world of blogging to maintain relevancy and to find out what’s going on in the world? This brings up a key example of companies who should not feel pressured to craft a blogging strategy – those who count the older population as a key demographic.

While I certainly believe blogs and Web 2.0 practices are still in the growth phase, the fast pace of technological development in general and web development specifically, raises some important questions about the near future. What will be the next “revolution” in marketing, PR, and business in general? It is certain that some other innovation will soon come along to either supplement or flat out replace the value of corporate blogging and the methods in which marketers and executives speak to their customers. When this happens, will blogs fade away as quick as they appeared or will blogging persist Will those who haven’t caught on to blogging be left in the dust or will they simply be able to move past the era of the blogosphere and jump on the next hot trend without skipping a beat?