Is The Search just beginning?
Apr 2nd, 2008 by Chris Cooney
Besides providing a fascinating chronicle of Google’s ascension to master of the world’s information, John Batelle’s The Search provides an important distinction — the strength of Google isn’t solely their powerful search algorithm, but their keywords-based AdWords advertising model which effectively monetizes language.
Noah Elkin over at Searchenginewatch points out in his post The Shifting Power of Words,
With the ascendancy of search, the adman no longer occupies the foreground. Rather, success today hinges on working effectively behind the scenes to harness the intelligence of search – the insights into customers’ thought processes and the vernacular they use to seek out brands and products…
Noah goes on to point out that consumers typically use the same language across channels, so high-value keywords identified in an AdWords campaign could potentially inform messaging for print and broadcast. However, Noah drops the conversation short of where I thought it was headed.
Last year, Google’s acquisition of YouTube raised a lot of eyebrows not just because of the price tag, but also the fact that the company had no revenue model. However, over the past year AdWords users have been given the added option to place local print and radio ads via Google. So, how long until advertisers are able to purchase placement of YouTube videos based not only on keywords, but also geography and eventually demographics?
It seems Google is perfectly positioned to reinvent television, or better yet, create a new communications channel that combines the emotional impact of the moving image, the flexibility and mobility of the Internet, and the language-centric measurability of Google’s mighty search algorithms.
As strategic and operational knowledge implementing “interest-focused media” like AdWords becomes mainstream, interruption formats will continue their long decline or die off, to be replaced by micro-branded channels. No question Google seeded this rapid evolution nearly 10 years ago, and really, you have to wonder if this isn’t what they envisioned long before the rest of us started to connect the dots.
