Out Googled: What Is Your Google Strategy

Out Googled is a period series covering the strategies of companies and even entire industries to counter the enterance of Google (GOOG) in to their domain.

At its core Google is search and advertising, however the company has many tentacles and its looming presence can be felt in many areas such as;
- online applications
- mobile & telephony
- ecommerce & content
- social networking
- gaming & virtual worlds
- hosting services
- measurement & analysis
- publishing & broadcast
- space technology

Google is rapidly moving into new markets and reshaping existing industries. As long as there is a web component to a product, given its sheer reach and power, Google is possibly better positioned to serve the needs of the 6 billion plus addressable market for web based products independent of platform.

So what is your Google strategy? Send us your story.

Yahoo's Casualties in Search War

Semel maybe out but so are 10 of Yahoo's 26 executives (see then and now). A 40% turnover in executive management in one year is pretty high. I guess the battle against Google is taking its toll. Semel, who didn't know what email was before he arrived at Yahoo has left behind a trail of destruction. The vacancies are being filled by Susan Deckers' friends according to sources. Susan, who takes over as President of Yahoo, is famous for saying that "Yahoo's goal is not to be number one in search". Besides losing all this "talent" in a short time, the company is losing millions in severance compensation. Several employees said that Farzeed Nazem, CTO, spent more time filing papers with the SEC over stock options purchases and sales during his 11 year hibernation. The WSJ says it reinforces doubts about Panama when the guy overseeing the global rollout leaves smack in the middle of it. A senior Yahooligan (Yahoo employee) described Panama as larger than the Titanic and that it will help Yahoo capture more search advertising dollars.

Here is the list of executives jumping ship:
Terry Semel, CEO
Susan Decker, CFO
Lars Rabbe, CIO
Dan Rosensweig, COO
Farzeed Nazem, CTO
Chris Castro, CCO
Lloyd Braun, President, Yahoo! Media
John Marcom, VP International, Yahoo!
Phu Hoang, VP Engineering
Daniel Finnigan, VP Classifieds

At the annual shareholder meeting Jerry Yang had nothing to say about Yahoo's business but human rights. Yesterday, he released a statement saying "Terry has given Yahoo! six of its best years".

Yahoo, hosting the Titanic party at its campus in Sunnyvale, CA.

"Search Is History", says Yahoo!

As the company realizes that it can no longer compete with Google, it is saying the future of web search is history. Yahoo says the model for getting information via the browser is outdated. In the future relevant information will be delivered directly to readers. "The future of the web is about personalization. Where search was dominant, now the web is about 'me.' It's about weaving the web together in a way that is smart and personalized for the user," said Tapan Bhat, VP, Yahoo!'s Personalised Home Page.

Interestingly, iGoogle is about personalization and Google has been making alot of noise of about it. Suddenly, it has become the core focus at Yahoo. Yahoo has been losing market share to Google in search and has been recasting itself as a company not focused on search. In fact Susan Decker, CFO, Yahoo has said previously that "Our goal is not to be number one is search". "They've realised they can't compete with Google on search." said Deborah Schultz, a Silicon Valley-based marketing consultant.

Search continues to gain wider adoption as an enabler for online commerce and soon may become the platform for commerce. Billions of dollar are being channeled into search as major marketers and brand advertisers see the efficiency of the medium. The river of money is finding its way mostly to Google. In fact the company does more in reveune in a single quarter than Yahoo does in a year. The entire Searchnomics conference is focused on the importance of search to web sites and online businesses.


On Tuesday June 12, 2007, Yahoo holds it annual shareholder meeting. Yahoo's Terry Semel was the highest paid CEO in 2006, with total compensation of $71.7 million, according to the AP. That is two times more than the $27 million in total compensation for the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, baseball's highest-paid player, and higher than the typical pay A-list stars like Brad Pitt who earn $20 million a movie, plus 20 percent of the gross box office take.

There is even talk that Microsoft may buy the company. That would give Semel a graceful exit. However, the word is that the company is not attractive enough to any single major buyer to advance their product line, not at that price. Jeff Clavier, a venture capitalist at SoftTech, said: "The problem with Yahoo! is that they're trying to be all things to all people but they don't do any one thing particularly well."

All this is making investors, partners and customers very nervous. Several advertisers and partners are moving to Google; Friendster, a social networking site, moved to Google from Yahoo to better monetize its user base with Google's larger ad platform and deeper inventory. If this trend continues, Yahoo maybe history before search is.

Sir Martin Says Google Is Frienemy

I was at "The Future of Advertising Conference" at Stanford and Sir Martin Sorrell, Chairman, WPP, the largest advertising holding company shared some interesting stats about the advertising business.

1. WPP has a market share of approximately 25% of the global ad business, annual billings of $60 Billion and yet only $200 M of that is with Google.
2. Google's revenues are approximately $11 Billion and at $200 M, WPP is one of Google's largest customers. So Google's tail is very very long and they are just getting started.
3. He went on to say that Google is a FRIENEMY - Google is your friend in the short term and enemy in the long term. His reasoning was Google wants access to large advertising account, that they do not have relationships with and that is where the friendship begins.
4. There was little mention of Microsoft or Yahoo and it understandable as their respective foot prints in this space is still considered baby steps.

On May 16, 2007, the WebGuild will be having an event of The Future of Online Advertising with all the heavy weights including Google. The panel will share insight into the future of online advertising from several perspectives of paramount importance to web professionals, seos, sems or search engine marketers, web analytics professionals, online merchants, venture capitals, entrepreneurs and anyone that uses a website to acquire customers, service customers or monetize customers. There are still a few spots left. If you miss this then there is always Searchnomics, which delves deep into search advertising and search & marketplaces and must attend for all web professinal.

In Search of Traffic

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on why website owners need to harness the power of Search Engines and deploy SEM and SEO strategies to find customers.

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are often shoppers' first stops when they're looking for a product on the Web and thus it is crucial for websites to show up prominently in search-engine results.

The is the focus of the upcoming Searchnomics 2007 Conference aimed at web and internet marketing professionals. Search has become the enabler for business. It is the most efficient medium connecting business and customers. Searchnomics is where the leaders of the search industry meet to share cutting-edge knowledge, best practices, and trends in:

• Search Engine Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Design and Development
• Branding and Promotion
• Web Analytics
• New Innovations and Opportunites

The article is only available via paid subscription. Here is the link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117769688676085058.html?mod=wsj_right_click

Local Search Marketplace

Local.com has launched "Local Promote" a service for small businesses.

The service allows small businesses to establish a Web presence with a landing page on Local.com, in addition to various distribution, pay-per-click and featured placement options.

The free basic version includes the ability for businesses to post and update business name, description and contact info. This will make it easier for lots of small business to form a Web presence.

Local.com is one of several companies along with Google Maps, Krillion, Gruuve and others that are enabling the "Webification" of the the local search marketplace. These services enable local business to establish a web presence easily and essentially expand the addressable market of online advertisers.

Once there, they are hoped to evolve into paid marketers, whether that be a subscription service like Local Promote, featured placement or paid search on Google.

Google's New Search Page on IE

I rarely use Microsoft IE, so today when I searched using IE the Google search results page on IE was different to the search results page on Firefox. I guess Google is doing a browser detect and displaying different looks on the different browsers. I would like to hear everyone comments on this.

Google search results on IE



Google search results on Firefox

Google Voice Search

Voice will be a key piece of mobile search and thus Google has launched an initiative to enable users them to find information about local businesses, driving directions, sports scores, stock quotes, weather, news, movie show times, and more via their phone.

Google Voice Search currently in beta allows users to call a number and specify a search query and get the results on a web page read back to them (that match the specified query). To try the service dial 650.623.6706.

Voice will play an important roll in the rapidly growing local search market. I believe Google will integrate Voice and Maps into its Local Search offering. Thus it will be another way for user for search and locate information.

Voice has been used extensively as an automated directory assistance feature by companies such as Fedex, Cingular/AT&T, American Airlines, American Express and other large companies to handle customer requests. The difference here being, voice is used as a way for users/searchers to get actionable information at their finger tips.

Recently, Microsoft bought TellMe for the very same reason. Microsoft believes that the battle to win the hearts and minds of searchers is going to be mobile and local search, and that Tellme has what it needs to win. However, Tellme's service is call center automation solution. It simply uses voice to as the executable to handle customer traffic in a call center. This is different from utiliting voice as the executable to search web pages. Sure, TellMe can be retooled to read web pages but that is not worth paying $800M plus. So in fact Microsoft is in the call center automation business and not mobile search. I know because I had a start up in the internet voice search way back when it was not sexy.

Local.com Lands $8M

Local.com Corp. which provides technology and services for helping retailers advertise and consumers search for locally available products, has received $8 million in financing from Hearst Interactive Media and Greenway Capital.

Local.com Corp. (NASDAQ: LOCM) attracts about 10 million visitors a month seeking information on local businesses, products, services, people and jobs.

Google, Yahoo and other provide local search as side offering of their core platform. eg. I did a search on Google and Local.com for Chinese food in my zip code. Local.com displayed sponsor/paid listings first (which I quickly skipped) and when organic results. The results we displayed by the closest to my zip code in miles which made it easy. However, the map and directions went the best user experience.

I did the same search on Google and the closest venue to my zip code was third. If I was new to an area this would be useful information. Google Local in now integrated with Google Maps and it was very easy to use.

Live Search Mobile Upgraded

At the 3GSM World Congress 2007, Barcelona, new features for Live Search on Windows Mobile were announced. The new features include "a unique, category-based search, which virtually eliminates the need to type text into the phone; an option to "map all results" so several listings appear on the same map; aerial imagery; and local traffic status in selected U.S. cities.

Live Search for Windows Mobile also provides additional new capabilities including satellite imagery, GPS integration and the ability to send search results to a friend." They are available in USA and UK, and to customers using Windows Mobile powered devices, Nokia Series 40 and Series 60 devices, the Motorola RAZR/SLVR family, and assorted LG and Samsung devices. The Live Search feature provides:

Category-based local searching: Based on their location, users can browse categories such as restaurants, hotels and accommodations, and shopping. Searches return local results with address and telephone details and provide easy options to save to contacts, map directions to or from, search nearby, map all locations, or call.

Maps and directions: Global positioning capabilities built into Live Search for mobile enable users to search and explore routes from their current location.

Traffic: Real-time traffic data is available for more than 25 U.S. cities, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

SideStep Steps into $15 Million

Travel search engine SideStep said it raised $15 million in its Series C round, led by Norwest Venture Partners. "SideStep will use the funding to aggressively scale key areas of the business, while growing its leadership position in vertical search and building out its media and user-generated content offerings." To date, SideStep has raised approximately $32 million. Other competitors include Kayak which has raised $30 million.

Lately, Norwest, Charles River Ventures, WorldView and many other hardware oriented venture capitalists have been investing in consumer internet. This is the domain of seasoned pioneers like Ram Shriram of Google. Forbes calls him the man with the midas touch. Ram has many stellar successes to his name including Junglee which was acquired by Amazon and Netspace - in which he was a key player.

Norwest is an investor in Turn (the new CPA ad network), which wants to challenge Google Adsense. Turn is led by Jim Barnett. Jim Barnett sits on the board of SideStep.

Also, Norwest is an investor in Yatra, an India based travel search engine. Ram is an investor in ClearTrip.

It is yet to be seen if the new entrants can stay in the kitchen when it gets hot. After all the were the same folks asking Serge Brin and Larry Page, why another search engine was necessary when Yahoo and MSN existed. I am betting on the "clear" winner.

Google Earth gets Local

Google Earth will now incorporate local advertisements. The move will let advertisers place local ads in the form of map markers around the site as clickable links. Logos and contacts details will help users find the exact location of a certain business.

"If you've created Local Business Ads in you AdWords accounts, they'll now appear on Google Earth in addition to Google Maps," Google wrote in an email to customers.

"Advertising a hotel in Lake Louise? A neighbourhood cafe in Paris? Google Earth users across the globe can zoom in on your business. Don't forget to add a customised icon to make your ad stand out," the company added.

Google Earth was originally called Earth Viewer and was created by Keyhole. It is now available under three different licenses - Google Earth, Google Earth plus, and Google Earth Professional.

Google Earth, Google Local and Froogle will be a lethal combination for marketers. It will be a one stop ad purchasing and delivery system.

Krillion - Local Search

Brand search engine Krillion helps consumers find where they can buy products in their markets after conducting online research. Other companies that provide a similar service connecting online product research and offline buying are ShopLocal, StepUp, NearbyNow, Yokel, CNET, Become.com and data provider Channel Intelligence.

According to Michael Yang CEO Become.com online product research and offline buying is expected to be a multi-billion market by 2010. That tells me a smart version of Google Local and Froogle is on its way soon.