Think eBiz; thoughts on eBusiness

Is Google Evil? Too Powerful?

BusinessWeek posed the question, Is Google too Powerful (April 9, 2007)? It is a very interesting and indepth read about a giant in the advertising industry. Are they huge - you bet - with a market cap that dwarfs many of the long standing media/ad organizations... combined. Are they powerful - well of course they are. Are they "too" powerful? Think-ebiz does not think so.

As we read the BusinessWeek article, our thoughts turned to IBM and Microsoft… and probably Standard Oil and AT&T in its day. Even the Romans! And we came upon this paragraph, which addressed this thought:

If this talk of corporate dominance sounds vaguely familiar, it should. As firmly as IBM ruled mainframe computing and Microsoft the personal computer age, so Google has the potential to rule the Internet. To some people, Google's position today, while clearly far from identical to Microsoft's in its heyday, nonetheless shares some striking parallels. "Google feels a lot like Microsoft in the mid-Nineties," says Silicon Valley startup adviser Dave McClure. "Right at the height of its power, getting a little arrogant, and challenged for the first time by some powerful people."

Perhaps In 10 years there will be some other dominant entity, pushing Google’ together with this list of past champions. In a capitalist economy, there will always be a dominant company in the marketplace. Dominance doesn’t last forever.

Does that make Google evil? Too powerful?  Instead of the naysayers tossing stones at them, those that have the brainpower should try to think ahead at what is next. I am sure if you looked back at Standard Oil and then AT&T, their dominance lasted much longer then IBM… which lasted longer than Microsoft.  One misstep, and the Google’s empire could collapse… or be greatly minimized. And perhaps it is already.

Be honest, who uses anything other than Google search? We don’t see corporations racing towards adopting the Google spreadsheet. PayPal is still the biggest online transaction partner. eBay still rules supreme in the auction space. Google Earth is fun… but not yet strategic. Maybe Google TiSP will catch on - or maybe not. Even Gmail hasn’t forced Hotmail nor Yahoo out of the game.

We believe it is all about search when it comes to Google. If search consumers decided they hated or feared Google, there still exists Yahoo, MSN and Ask.Com.  Choice still remains.

Think-ebiz does not think Google is too powerful, however we think they are terribly unfocused and may simply collapse under all their beta products while others figure out a better way to promote content and informational search.

Where choice remains, power in the marketplace can be blunted. Google is the most adopted search engine in the world, not necessarily the best. What will come next? We wish we knew...  but there will be something else that we fear and hold in awe.

Google TiSP, networking while you sit and think.

Leave to the boys at Google to come up with a new means of networking (you don't think the women would come up with this do you?), and it was right there under our seat all along. TiSP, the new going-with-the-flow networking innovation is designed to leverage your existing pipes and toilets.

Clearly Google has spent a lot of sitting and thinking about this new means of connecting people at a time when many are viewing more traditional offline vehicles like magazines and newspapers. Now you can easily and quickly surf with others in a similar position.

And we at Think-eBiz are now providing a new service, Septic Engagement Optimization (SEO), which will increase your PR (Potty Ranking). More on this new service when we return from the john.

Hello,
We have just opening a new service agency, Septic Engagement Optimization (SEO), to help people get the most of their TiSP experience. For instance, although we do not know the inard workings at Google, we have found that there is a higher level of thru-put when the toilet has a Thousand-Flush tablet in place, rather than using Tilex cleaners, which can dampen signal and reduce relevane.

And using a 2-Ply Toilet Paper can impede signal strength but there may be issues with to much 1-Ply usage as well, a spamming situation perhaps.

Our services also can help improve TiSP Linking to garner higher PR  (potty ranking).

Thank You

Stephen Harris
www.think-ebiz.com    where you do your business, we do ours!

One warning however from the Google TiSP FAQ

Why is TiSP in beta?
When things go wrong with TiSP, they go very, very wrong. Let's leave it at that.

See other press and product released that Google made on April 1st ( this one did. And this one. And this one, and this one, and this one)  Hey wait a minute! This is an April Fools joke??? Oh, we thought this was a new technology breakthrough. Damn they tricked us again!!

2006 Online Spending Jumps, Channels Shift

Online buying jumped 25% on the second week of December (2006) to over $3.75 Billion, which is reported to be one of the busiest of the year - and nearly $700 million on Dec 13 alone! (Reported in the WSJ on Dec 23, 2006). These kind of numbers serves as a wake up call to those not leveraging online and to those that are find their site under-performing. We believe that 2007 will be a year where online advertisers take a hard look at their ad spending and web assets and make critical long term adjustments. Even this selection of channels will come under scrutiny.

In 2005 (2006 statistics not yet available), affiliate programs, pop-up ads and email all took a spending decrease (-27.3%, -97.5% & -25% respectfully). Contrast this to the 193% increase in search engine optimization (SEO) and 8.4% and 10% increase in search engine and banner placement.

And we continue to believe that online offers the smaller brands the opportunity to compete effectively with their bigger breathen. According to Safa Rashtchy (Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Piper Jaffray); "In the offline world, it's impossible for any company to beat Home Depot and Wal-Mart. In the online world, it's possible..."

We couldn't agree more fully; online marketing evens the competitive playing field.

Online buying jumped 25% on the second week of December (2006) to over $3.75 Billion, which is reported to be one of the busiest of the year - and nearly $700 million on Dec 13 alone! (Reported in the WSJ on Dec 23, 2006). These kind of numbers serves as a wake up call to those not leveraging online and to those that are find their site under-performing. We believe that 2007 will be a year where online advertisers take a hard look at their ad spending and web assets and make critical long term adjustments. Even this selection of channels will come under scrutiny.

In 2005 (2006 statistics not yet available), affiliate programs, pop-up ads and email all took a spending decrease (-27.3%, -97.5% & -25% respectfully). Contrast this to the 193% increase in search engine optimization (SEO) and 8.4% and 10% increase in search engine and banner placement.

And we continue to believe that online offers the smaller brands the opportunity to compete effectively with their bigger breathen. According to Safa Rashtchy (Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Piper Jaffray); "In the offline world, it's impossible for any company to beat Home Depot and Wal-Mart. In the online world, it's possible..."

We couldn't agree more fully; online marketing evens the competitive playing field.

Nestles Shifts Ad Spending - tilt towards online

Nestles announced that it has cut back TV Advertising spending from 68% to 60% of it's overall budget - in favor of digital.

"The advent of the digital age continues," announced Nestlé Australia's Ian Alwill. "Nestlé has legislated that we will spend more in the digital space."

The article, from the Sydney Morning Herald, goes on to state how accountability is becoming an even more important theme in advertising. Many of us who have been in the online space for awhile know this to be true - and it makes sense. Spend where the conversions occur.

"If you cannot prove that your media is delivering something, and more often than not these days it's sales rather than brand health, then you have a right to be concerned," Mr Camplisson said.

If this is true, then we will see even more of a shift from the traditional media (newspapers, tv, radio) and into the digital world. Stay tuned (or will this now be.. stay online?).

Nestles announced that it has cut back TV Advertising spending from 68% to 60% of it's overall budget - in favor of digital.

"The advent of the digital age continues," announced Nestlé Australia's Ian Alwill. "Nestlé has legislated that we will spend more in the digital space."

The article, from the Sydney Morning Herald, goes on to state how accountability is becoming an even more important theme in advertising. Many of us who have been in the online space for awhile know this to be true - and it makes sense. Spend where the conversions occur.

"If you cannot prove that your media is delivering something, and more often than not these days it's sales rather than brand health, then you have a right to be concerned," Mr Camplisson said.

If this is true, then we will see even more of a shift from the traditional media (newspapers, tv, radio) and into the digital world. Stay tuned (or will this now be.. stay online?).

3Q Online Spending up 33% over 2005

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers announced today that online ad spending has increased 33% over 3Q 2005 to $4.2 Billion. In 2005 for this same quarter, ad spending had increased 33.9% over 2004 ($3.1 Billion).

Sheryl Draizen, senior vice president, general manager of the IAB, says the online ad market is robust... "My sense is that there's going to be a very strong fourth quarter here," adding: "we're actually seeing marketers increasing their budgets."

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers announced today that online ad spending has increased 33% over 3Q 2005 to $4.2 Billion. In 2005 for this same quarter, ad spending had increased 33.9% over 2004 ($3.1 Billion).

Sheryl Draizen, senior vice president, general manager of the IAB, says the online ad market is robust... "My sense is that there's going to be a very strong fourth quarter here," adding: "we're actually seeing marketers increasing their budgets."