ISM Signpost #21
*** Lord of the rings*** Target practice
*** On the face of it
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Google develops search for mobiles
Google is developing a search service for mobiles in its quest to push more deeply into the one area where it is seen to lag behind rival Yahoo. Google’s new service will enable consumers to find and buy ringtones, games and other mobile content.
While Google already offers a mobile version of its search engine, its latest foray into the mobile world signals its desire to become a gateway for finding and paying for mobile content.
The new service will enable users to search for a ringtone, for example, and browse through a list of providers and links so they can buy the content. In time, Google plans to charge advertisers for higher placement in the search results, in the same way it offers sponsored links on computer web search.
Insiders have also suggested that Google is investigating a social networking element to the mobile service. For example, Google’s Gmail email users may be able to exchange content through their phones.
Google has been beefing up its presence on mobile phones for some time. In June, YouTube made a version of its video-sharing website available for Apple’s iPhone. Google is also testing a service that will broker ads for other mobile websites.
In a separate move, Google has linked up with a mobile phone operator to provide web search and tools for Sprint Nextel, the US next generation wireless network. The two companies will jointly offer the search and other tools through a new mobile portal and will share advertising revenues.
Global sales of music, video, ringtones and other content reached $27.4 billion last year, and are expected to grow to $59.3 billion by 2011, according to the Yankee Group. It looks like Google will become increasingly visible in the world of mobile.
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Yahoo and AOL bolster online ad offering
Yahoo and AOL have both made concerted efforts to improve their online targeting to specific audiences for advertisers. While Yahoo has launched new tools for marketers to target online users, AOL has acquired Tacoda, to help with targeted ad deals.
Tacoda has assembled a network of thousands of diverse sites that allow for insertion of behaviourally targeted ads. The acquisition will bolster AOL’s Advertising.com division, which places display and search ads online and accounts for about one-quarter of the company’s revenue.
AOL’s acquisition follows a spate of deals with online ad firms from its rivals, including Google’s proposed purchase of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion and Microsoft’s planned acquisition of aQuantive for $6 billion.
Meanwhile, Yahoo’s new tools called SmartAds, enable marketers to target specific groups of buyers. For example, if a Yahoo user is browsing for sports cars in Yahoo Autos and has selected New York as its default location in Yahoo Weather, SmartAds can deliver an ad that displays relevant cars alongside local dealer information.
SmartAds is initially being rolled out on Yahoo in the US for its travel industry advertisers. It will then be rolled out to other markets and other industries. The new tools and acquisitions signify the ongoing struggle for both Yahoo and AOL to keep up with rival Google in search advertising.
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What does social networking mean for search?
As the compelling habit of online social networking spreads like wildfire, what does it mean for the world of search? The increasing time that audiences are spending on social networking sites is cited as one reason to anticipate a slowdown in the warp speed growth on online advertising, according to Group M, WPP’s umbrella media buying group.
Two in five MySpace members are over the age of 35 and Facebook’s US audience has doubled since opening up its membership to non-students.
Yet advertisers are grappling with how to market their brands on the fast-growing social networks, which are more resistant to advertising than conventional websites and search engines.
To date, social networks such as Facebook are refusing to allow search engines to scan their content – something that Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt has dismissed as a ‘transient’ phase. One people search engine, currently in development, Spock.com, hopes it will become the destination for people wanting to find details on people. Spock builds a profile by trawling for viewable information about individuals on social networks and the web at large, and then enables other people to add tags to a profile.Additionally, the growth in social networking and its implications for search engines leads to a broader ethical question: should people’s lives be searchable? New forms of online social etiquette are needed and it’s likely that expectations about rights to privacy will evolve.
While young people seem to be quite comfortable broadcasting personal details online, one of Facebook’s appeals is its privacy controls. Life swimming in a digital goldfish bowl may lose its appeal when the novelty wears off.
As the thorny issue of privacy rumbles on, it may benefit search engines to seize the higher ground when it comes to sweeping over private lives with algorithms. Regulators are already concerned about the amount of personal information that is stored, analysed and exploited by internet companies.
The Article 29 Working Party, a group that advises the European Union on privacy issues is in the process of investigating how long search engines store the personal information of their customers.
This month, both MSN and Ask.com have called for the industry to develop better safeguards for protecting their users’ search histories. Google has agreed to delete cookies after two years. Ask.com went a step further by announcing it would enable its users to prevent the company from collecting and storing personal data, including search histories.
As the search engines are dragged towards tighter privacy measures, a more imaginative solution will be required if they are to tap into the commercial potential of social networking.
