I don’t have time for a long article, but I was excited about the implications of this article so I thought I should share. As has always been the case with offline marketing, this shows that a recommendation from a trusted friend online is becoming more powerful than the unreliable results of a search engine: “According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/14/BUU51C0AMN.DTL
Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
This week, Google unveiled it’s latest foray into the world of social media, Google Buzz, and I am going to be bold and say: it has the potential to be Google’s most successful venture in the social space yet.
Google Buzz Integrates with G-mail
It’s true that Google Buzz is not without flaws, and several of the online industry experts are quick to point that out. A lack of integration with other platforms and services and privacy issues seem to be at the top of the list of concerns. Buzz is not yet integrated with facebook or even some of it’s own entities like youtube. This results in a newsfeed that is not as integrated in comparison to it’s competitors facebook and twitter. Furthermore, as with their introduction of ads within G-mail, consumers are concerned with their privacy and do not want Google reading their personal e-mails in order to give us more relevant ads. Sure, relevant ads are great, and in theory, they are certainly more effective from a marketing standpoint. However, if I wrote a long personal e-mail to a close friend asking for relationship advice, Google’s offer of a romantic date near me might make me squirm. Of course, I know that Google doesn’t ‘read e-mails’ so much as they work off of keywords randomly and non-obtrusively, but you can imagine what someone who is not a search engine marketing guru (yes, I said it… 
) might think.
That being said, I think it’s important to remember that this is Google’s first release of their new product, so of course it will have opportunities for improvement. Social networking communities seem to struggle with privacy boundaries, and I think Google will find it’s balance and assurance with users as time goes on. Furthermore, Google knows that it will have to bite the bullet like it’s predecessors in this space and offer solutions that work with other social networking sites in order to satisfy an increasingly linked social society. I think they will evolve in order to satisfy their user-base, as well as provide even greater solutions that Google is known for.
Let’s talk about the reasons that Google Buzz is already poised to succeed. For one, their feed offers the option to be either public (like twitter) or private (like facebook). This is an innovation users have been waiting for, and Google is in the unique position to provide it without impeding on it’s core mission as would be the case with it’s two major competitors. Additionally, it integrated this feed with G-mail which is already a successful communication vehicle and immensely popular with users in part because of it’s pioneer G-chat feature. This feature leads to a user-base that is even more connected to it’s e-mail than most other e-mail providers, who have only added it in retrospect. Right off of the bat, they have a large and engaged audience to trial their product, provide feedback, and hopefully embrace it as it evolves into something that they want. Another reason Buzz will be successful is because the world has embraced social networking from a personal and business perspective. Once computer-phobic grandmas are now OMGing over the cuteness their children’s latest baby pictures on facebook. And what company doesn’t have a twitter even if they have no idea what to do with it? While it took years for people to warm up to potential business opportunities on facebook and twitter, companies had already jumped on the Google Buzz Bandwagon within hours of Google Buzz’s launch. They may not have a firm grasp on how to deliver ROI with these sites yet, but in response to mass consumer acceptance, companies have put a lot more focus on their social media campaigns and have dedicated people to keep up with the trends in this industry. As a result, Google Buzz is being greeted by a willing commercial audience, and I predict that personal users will warm up to it as the tool evolves. I certainly plan to keep an eye on it’s progression as well as the exciting evolution of social networking!
