• by March 4, 2004

Search, search, and more search.

One can never have enough information and data about search. After all, search is setting the market on fire, right?

Consider a few recent developments: Yahoo! debuts a paid inclusion program. AskJeeves drops its paid inclusion program, but gains horsepower by acquiring Interactive Search Holdings for $343 million. The acquisition, announced today, puts services such as iWon and Excite into the Jeeves mix. Google has been relatively quiet amid all the excitement. Gee, could it be something about the long-rumored IPO, hmmm. Speaking yesterday with Tim Armstrong, Google's winsome VP-advertising and sales, I asked what the company will do to stay ahead of the wily competitors. Google commands 38 percent of the search market, Yahoo! has 25 percent of the market, according to comScore Networks.

How will Google try to prevent Yahoo!, MSN, and others, from gaining ground? Armstrong says Google's "windshield"/blinders perspective keeps it focused on the future and not fixated on the rearview mirror and that maintaining "user trust" is a key component of anything the company does. "Users vote with their searches," he says. Armstrong, sticking closely to a mental script, his minder nearby, told me that Google's focused on improving the relevancy of current/existing results, growing its index by giving consumers more "stuff" to search, and developing new products via Google Labs. Local and regional search, Orkut, Google's social networking service, and AdSense are at the top of the list for growth opportunities. Google has beta programs for local and regional targeting that are showing interesting results.

But one of the most interesting developments at Google, from an advertiser/sales perspective, is that where a year ago, the company didn't have a dedicated person handling consumer packaged goods marketers within its Vertical Markets Group, it does today. This move reflects the fact that even the toughest categories are throwing a few dollars behind search marketing. ConAgra, Procter & Gamble brands, and others are moving into the space.

Of course, this doesn't answer the question of how Google will accelerate to separate itself from an advancing army of players going full-throttle into the search market.