Google said Thursday it submitted applications for more than 50 top level domain names (TLDs) for .google, .docs, .youtube, and .lol to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The goal to expand the Web's suffixes could allow the company to offer a variety of new services related to emerging technologies, such as Project Glass, and original programming on YouTube. For instance, FremantleMedia said it would add the YouTube channel "The Pet Collective,” featuring new series and programming. The channel, part of YouTube new original programming rollout, will bring seven original programs to YouTube hosted by Khloe Kardashian, Bindi and Robert Irwin and David Lehre among others. The shows will offer pet training tips, pet entertainment and programs designed to inspire responsible pet purchasing and ownership. ICANN closed the application process for new domain names Wednesday. It plans to list the name applications on June 13, days after Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others plan to make the transition from Internet Protocol version 4 to IPv6 on June 6. The change will provide available IP addresses for the growing number of Internet-connected devices. Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker's stats that point to 2.3 billion global Internet users in 2011 -- up 8%, driven by emerging markets like mobile traffic, which continues to grow. "We're just beginning to explore this potential source of innovation on the Web, and we are curious to see how these proposed new TLDs will fare in the existing TLD environment," Vint Cerf, chief Internet evangelist, wrote in a post. By opening up more choices for Internet domain names, we hope people will find options for more diverse -- and perhaps shorter -- signposts in cyberspace."
Google could gain a financial boost from paid advertisers looking to improve product search results on Google Shopping, but not all online ad experts agree the change will prove positive for merchants. It could complicate matters, as the new product combines product feeds with paid results. For Google, the upside means additional ad revenue. For merchants, the downside means they now must pay for a once-free service that generated positive performance and gains in ecommerce traffic. How much retailers and advertisers pay will influence product search results for U.S. consumers beginning this fall. Previously, searches were based on relevance. Rimm-Kaufman analyst Mark Ballard said the new program might increase traffic levels for advertisers using Google AdWords by 3%, which might not be enough to offset costs. "We don't expect merchants to gain more traffic," Ballard said. "In fact, they might even see less traffic because I would expect fewer combined clicks. They're paying for a chunk of traffic they previously got for free." As incentives to adopt the paid listing ads, Google will offer a 10% discount on all paid clicks received from the ads on Google.com and Google Shopping when initiating the ads prior to August 15. The discount applies from July 1 through the end of the year. Sellers on Google Shopping also can receive a $100 AdWords credit if they become a new Product Listing Ad client. Some search experts expect to see similar changes to other services as pressure to generate additional revenue rises under cofounder Larry Page.
Google is taking the wraps off Google Shopping, launching a new initiative it says will make it easier for smaller retailers to connect with consumers, and easier for shoppers to find the products they want. It also means it is shifting its free model to a purely commercial one, which it will test and implement throughout the summer. Once a user initiates a product search, Google Shopping will “show pictures and products integrated in a single experience,” Sameer Samat, VP of product management, Google Shopping, tells Marketing Daily -- adding that it will experiment with looks and approaches in the months ahead. The goal, he says, “is to create a beautiful experience that makes it easier for people to turn their shopping intentions into purchases, and helps merchants attract customers.” Google is inviting merchants to participate by setting up Product Listing Ads campaigns and offering incentives, including a $100 AdWords credit for stores that sign up before Aug. 15. Part of the reason for the change, he says, “is that merchants told us they wanted more opportunities to stand out. For small and medium merchants, it’s challenging to compete with larger brands, and we think this can help.” The effort also squares with its “trusted store” initiative, launched nine months ago, which independently grades stores on shipping and customer service. Stores that earn the “trusted store” badge can display it, encouraging shoppers who may be leery of buying from smaller retailers. First, he says, Google will focus on getting the word out to merchants -- transitioning from a free to a commercial model, based on these product-listing ads. Once the transition is complete this fall, he says, the emphasis will shift to building consumer awareness of the changes. “The idea is that this shopping experience is more intuitive and will provide better answers to queries,” he says, “helping consumers narrow down their choices and click through rapidly to get greater detail.”
Retailers, more than most marketers, have a wealth of data and information at their fingertips. Retailers also have more product, geographical, and inventory diversity than marketers in other industries. Thus, being able to leverage all data is crucial. By leveraging your data across all aspects of paid search optimization you can do some amazing things. Leveraging your data so it can work together is one of the most important steps towards integrated marketing. Both third-party technologies and search engines have made great strides in creating innovations to allow retailers to use their data for more successful marketing campaigns. A few examples of data you already have that can be leveraged include: Product data feeds: As a retailer, you track everything about your products and inventory. You know which products are sold out, and in a perfect world your search campaigns would act intelligently and sell only the products you have in stock. By using product data feeds to automate campaigns, you can do exactly that. Why bid on ads for products that you can’t even sell? This wastes money and provides a poor user experience. Product feeds also help in keyword/ad expansion for new products that are hitting the site, so retailers are able to maximize these immediately. Location: Retailers with brick and mortar presence can also drive business with location extensions. You know where your stores are, you know where you can provide products in person -- you can easily leverage this data with location extensions. With location extensions, you can add your store’s address and phone number and dynamically update your ad copy to include other information that matches the user’s location. With this capability you can target multiple locations and tailor ads to match a user’s interest based on physical location or places mentioned within a search. This ability increases relevance and effectiveness and offers multiple ways for a customer to reach you -- online, physical location or phone number to call and place an order. Finally, location is also important in mobile targeting, where people on the go who are looking for a nearby location can be directed to your store, with a map, address and directions. Margin information: It’s a fact of life; some products generate more money than others. But should you bid on all keywords equally? It is possible to close the feedback loop between bid tech and profits by leveraging per-product margin data. Feeding in gross margin data will help factor in not just performance in terms of spend and revenue associated with each keyword, but also the cost of goods and revenue each product generates relative to the keyword or keywords that map to these products. Retailers can optimize their paid search bids based on gross margins to allocate media spend where they can make the most impact on the bottom line. These are just a few brief examples of how, as a retailer, you could leverage data you already have to optimize your paid search media. It also highlights the importance of integrating and centralizing your data. While integrating marketing data is important for every marketer, the benefits are clear and abundant for retailers. When all of this data is in one place, you can work smarter and provide a better customer experience.
What do you do when the search engine you started up with your fellow uber-geek partner makes you fabulously wealthy, but somehow all the billions it’s raking in leaves you feeling rather empty? What do you do when you’re no longer the darling of the mainstream press, who once enthused that no challenge was too daunting for you and your company full of exceptionally gifted and only slightly less egotistical baby geniuses? Well, if you’re Sergey Brin, you find a new toy. You leave the mind-numbingly mundane business of running a multibillion-dollar mega-corporation to your power-tripping co-founder, and you lock yourself away in an undisclosed office somewhere in Silicon Valley, spending your day playing with robots, space elevators, virtual reality glasses and self-driving cars. You go back to what you wanted to do in the first place, which was to “put a ding in the universe.” And it’s probably no coincidence that you’re following in the footsteps of your “love me or hate me” mentor, the late Steve Jobs. Say what you want about Google, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Brin and Page wanted to change the world in substantial (and hopefully non-evil) ways when they started. But the business of running a business tends to make one put ideals on hold and focus on the bottom line. Taking your company public doesn’t help. Shareholders typically value revenue over revolution, profits over prophesy. “Sure, robots and space elevators are cool, but tell me how that’s going to contribute to our quarterly earnings?” Public companies, by necessity, tend to focus on the short term rather than the long. But Brin has never been a short-term guy. Neither has Page, for that matter. They both love to take something and spin it into a grandiose vision. For Page, he felt he could best realize that by taking over the leadership of Google. But for all the power that comes with that role, there’s also a heaping helping of compromise. Brin apparently felt more comfortable in the more idealistic environs of the Google-X Lab. If you’re not familiar with Google X, it’s a super-secret hidden laboratory where an ultra-powerful super computer and high tech gadgets allow the billionaire to fight crime… no, wait, that’s the Bat Cave. Google X is a secret laboratory where Brin has been spending a lot of time lately. In a New York Timesarticle from last November, it’s described as a, “clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. Google is so secretive about the effort that many employees do not even know the lab exists.” What are some of these “shoot-for-the-star” ideas? There is no definitive list, given the “hush hush” nature of Google X, but third-party reports commonly mention space elevators, driverless cars, connected household appliances, and one project that is starting to see the light of day: Google Glass, wearable technology that someday could bring a Google interface to the world around us (more about this in a future column). Google X certainly doesn’t suffer from a lack of ambition. It’s the type of thing we used to routinely expect from the Google we knew and loved. And it’s got oodles of “cool”: robots and space elevators and driverless cars, oh my! But these types of skunk work projects are often just a way to pacify a few highly placed egos and keep them out of the way while the real work of the company gets done by those who are a little less grandiose in their ambitions. And Google X does suffer from Google’s long-term problem of trying to do everything at once. The company has always had a problem with focus. Unlike Google X, Jobs’ lofty ambitions and breakaway projects at Apple were tied to a product that would ship sometime in the next decade. Don’t expect to see a space elevator coming to your neighborhood anytime soon. So the question remains: Will Google X define the future of Google, or is it just a plaything to keep Sergey happy? Only time will tell.
In a defeat for Google, a federal judge ruled today that the Authors Guild can continue with its lawsuit accusing the search giant of infringing copyright by digitizing books and displaying snippets of them. U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin in New York rejected Google's argument that the Authors Guild lacks "standing" to litigate copyright infringement claims on behalf of its members. Google had argued that copyright claims should be decided on a case-by-case basis, in part because fair use requires individualized assessments. Chin disagreed, saying it would be "unjust" to require authors to go to court individually. "When Google copied works, it did not conduct an inquiry into the copyright ownership of each work; nor did it conduct an individualized evaluation as to whether posting 'snippets' of a particular work would constitute 'fair use,'" Chin wrote in a 32-page ruling. "Google cannot now turn the tables and ask the Court to require each copyright holder to come forward individually." Chin also proposed resolving fair use questions by looking at different types of books -- fiction, poetry, cookbooks, etc. -- and then evaluating how Google's program affected each category. Google also argued that the case shouldn't proceed as a class-action because many authors thought the digitization program had helped them. To demonstrate this point, Google said that a survey it commissioned of more than 500 authors showed that 58% approved of the scanning project, and that 19% said they felt they had benefited (or would benefit) financially from Google's display of snippets. Chin disagreed with Google on that point as well. "Importantly, the survey did not ask the respondents whether they would want to be part of a lawsuit through which they might recover damages," he wrote. "Indeed, it is possible that some authors who 'approve' of Google's actions might still choose to join the class action."