Gizmodo Australia reports seeing the Google training document around its long-rumored branded tablet device, and the “Nexus 7” aspires to be more of a Kindle Fire killer than an iPad contender. The 7-inch device is expected to be unveiled at Google’s I/O conference this week. It will be priced at $199 for an 8GB model and $249 for 16GB and will have speedy process and graphics chops. Asus is responsible for building the hardware for Google. Most notably, the Nexus 7 will have built-in NFC (near-field communication) technology so that it can run Google’s Wallet m-payment solution. This helps Google expand the reach of its struggling m-payment solution, although it is unclear that consumers really want to carry and yank out their tablet to make payments at in-store terminals. Gizmodo Australia says the leaked document shows the new tablet running the next generation of Android, dubbed “Jelly Bean.” Google taking aim at Amazon makes sense, given Amazon’s relative success in leveraging a forked version of Android on its Kindle Fire. Amazon is the first tablet maker to break through the clutter of Android-based tablets, to secure 54% of devices on this platform, according to comScore. For now at least, chasing the iPad for market share in the larger-screen tablet segment is daunting. Recent projections suggest that the Apple share of the tablet market will only grow this year, even as Android-based competitors flood the market. While Amazon made a splash last holiday with its Fire, selling an estimated 4 million to 5 million units, analysts see demand waning quickly this year. Nevertheless, more contenders are coming. Microsoft announced its forthcoming Surface tablets running versions of Windows 8 and competing directly with the iPad. There are also continued rumors that Amazon will release a new version of the smaller Kindle Fire model, and eventually a larger-scale model.
When October rolls around, retailers will be finding their free ride on Google Product Search is over -- it will be replaced by Google Shopping. No longer will marketers be able to just provide Google a data feed of their inventory and product details and sit back and enjoy free activity from organic search. The volume of clicks for this activity is not insignificant, either. It is estimated that 5%-10% of search traffic to retailers’ websites comes from Product Search. Going forward, each product a retailer wants to list in Google Shopping will be a paid placement, via a CPC or CPA model. Google seems intent on monetizing every area of the search engine results page,and this is the next step. That said, this isn’t necessarily just a huge cash grab for Google. There are other factors at play as well. Is this good for retail marketers? Retailers can benefit from Google Shopping in some ways. One important area is the increased level of control that will allow retailers to influence traffic volume and promotion for specific products during promotional periods. Marketers will be able to eliminate fluctuations in volume and allow for clearer differentiation within the Product Listing Ads results. This change will also result in cleaner search results for users, which will benefit marketers as well. Product listings will be more reliable, with less duplication and more accurate product details. When you are paying for a placement, you are more likely to provide higher quality and more updated product information. Better results will likely drive increased usage of Google Shopping compared to Product Search. Happy customers who have the results they are looking for are more likely to convert – which is a win for everyone. Lastly, by making merchants pay for the listings, Google aims to force out merchants who use feed trickery and misinformation to drive clicks. There is work to be done It’s not too early to begin to prepare for this change, especially considering how close to the holiday shopping season it will go into effect. Make sure your feeds are high quality and you understand the budget impact this will have. This change also adds an additional facet to your search engine marketing programs. You will now need to balance Shopping between SEO and other paid listings, which could be a cross-team effort. There’s much uncertainty about how exactly this will work in the end: how relevance factors at play will work in rankings, what importance will be placed on such factors as trusted store verification, or reviews or rating information. Marketers must stay on top of any updates or changes that happen, as Google will be making adjustments during and after the rollout in order to optimize both the user experience and the benefits for marketers.
In my last column, I shared SEM lessons learned from my ten-year Bonnaroo reunion. One of the more heady revelations I had at the festival was that “a lot can happen in 10 years.” As I think about the 20-year reunion in 2022, many questions come to mind: