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Coverage
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April 22, 2005
Google - an ad engine?
By Moshe Ofer, CEO, Activepoint
As an April Fool prank, a New York University decided to publicize a new degree it was offering - a Masters in Google.
Ray von Dran, dean of the Information School at Syracuse University, was quoted in Library Journal as saying the school would offer a program leading to a Master's Degree in Google Science (MIGS). "Americans are Googling for hours every day, and they need leaders to show them how to make that activity more efficient," von Dran said (sic).
The joke set-up was that since everyone was Googling now, and that it was time offer expertise in the area of Google, showing others how to search and actually find the thing that they are looking for.
Like all humor there is a nugget of truth to the idea that you need a 'Masters in Google' to find what it is you are searching for in Google. Google today has an index of some 10 billion pages. Finding a precise answer to a question posed to that much of a stack of information is exactly akin to the 'needle in a haystack' notion if you do find exactly what you want, it's just plain dumb luck.
Google is often the tool of students and perhaps business people with extra time on their hands. Without the help of ads that appear on the right side of the Google search page, a person has to sift through the thousands of pages that are served up for a query.
What Google isn't
Google is less of a system of finding what it is that you want in a short space of time, so you can have that information to make a business decision, or a buying decision. It is much more, in my opinion, an 'ad engine'. If you pay the money, your information will served-up more prominently, than those that do not. It doesn't mean the information that is being paid for is any more or less valuable - it is just that the business that paid for its higher spot.
This is very much akin to paying for shelf space in the retail food sector. Those that want their food product displayed at arms length on the shelf pay more for space than those that end up on the very bottom shelf.
It's obvious then that the more pages of information that are served up to the searcher, the better it apparently is for Google's revenue stream - which seems to be ad - based. According to the Internet Ad Revenue Report" conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Internet ad revenue for the first nine months of 2004 totaled slightly over $7.0 billion, compared with the $7.3 billion in revenue reported for all 2003.
One can assume then that the harder it is for someone to find something quickly from a search query, the more likely it is they will click on one of the growing number of side bar ads that are listed. The ads are based on some of the key words in the search string. Even these ads that are served up may be irrelevant to what it is the person is seeking - and they may be out off context.
The side banner ads then are based paid for, and may or may not solve what it is the searcher is really looking for, and may even lead them in a completely different direction.
At the end of the day, Google is making bushels of money and hopefully the ad payers see value as well.
Where's the find in search?
But what's really lacking in the Internet search category is the ability to find what it is you are looking for within the context that you want it, and ideally by using a natural language query string.
Here's an example of what we mean. In Google if you type, 'Looking for a white painted bureau with glass handles' you will get about 60,000 possibilities. The list will include everything from 'white bureaus at a an Inn in Vermont, door knobs made out of glass handles, white glass, white paint and so on.
The issue then is that 99.9999% of the content that is being delivered is not relevant to helping a person get information to make a decision. This might be okay for certain 'informational search' sites, but for those engaged in commerce - not helping a person to pinpoint exactly what they need, will mean a lost sale.
A commercial site that is not answering a query in a way that helps a person to make decision and enables them to find what is they are looking for will not make money.
On commercial sites 'content' and the ability to search it within the context of a query is very important. Also important is how that content is organized on a site. And finally, how that content can be searched and used within the context that of a person's query.
Pinpoint answers
Commercial sites need to allow visitors to use their own natural tongue to make a query on the site. For example on a very large electronics Web site, cables that connect one hardware system to another, can be a very complex item to find. Cables have different end fittings, lengths and quality, based on what it is they need to do.
With a natural language processing discovery engine, coupled with the ability to recognize full sentences and in the context that is being asked - the cables can be pinpointed to achieve the correct answer.
Using this type of system, an electronic firm has found that it has been able to increase its conversion rate of queries to sales to 11%. This is a very high conversion rate, where the standard is somewhere under one percent.
It is this type of discovery technology that pinpoints answers that people are seeking, and less so the large aggregators of pages, without real context that Google and others offer at a price - based on ads served up.
Perhaps a smart combination that advertisers on Google need to consider is to put a contextual search and discovery engine on their own Web site to help guide a visitor and enable them to make a buying decision quickly. This type of business strategy will result in a higher revenue and conversion rate for their ad investment on Google.
Just my opinion, but nonetheless, I thought you might like to try a commercial site that uses a contextual discovery engine to experience the difference.
Go to Maplin Electronics and click on the Maplin Cable Finder, with the photo of the blonde saleswoman. Now type in, 'I want a cable to attach my laptop to a keyboard' and see what you get. By providing valuable textual content, a site can not only increase its credibility, but also improve the site's conversion rate. This type of pinpoint search will make you master of your site, and well, richer too.
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