Interview: The search expert on Google's acquisition of dMarc, the advertising giant's new video store, and why standing up to the DOJ was a good move.Everywhere you look, there's Google.
With products or projects is almost every major advertising market, the media giant (née search giant) is affecting the way we publish books, read newspapers, watch video and more.
Most recently, the Mountain View, CA-based company acquired dMarc, a major player in the $20.6 billion radio advertising market.
Just today, Google resisted a justice department request to turn over search records.
The man who's considered one of the foremost authorities on Google is John Battelle, an entrepeneur, journalist, author, and a founder and executive producer of the Web 2.0 conference.
Battelle recently wrote The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.
Many follow his exploits on Searchblog.
We caught up with Battelle to ask him a few questions about Google and the search market.
Google just acquired dMarc. It's their largest aquisition expenditure yet, and it's in the $20.6 billion radio advertising market, not search. They've made tentative steps in newspapers ($50.2 billion) and magazines ($23.9 billion). The biggest markets left are direct mail ($44.5 billion) and television ($55.4 billion). How do you see them entering those markets, if at all?
Google has decided, rightly, that they are in the advertising business. They have a major opportunity to leverage their two core assets - their platform infrastructure, and their network of advertisers - to disrupt the way traditional marketing is done, and to find significant efficiencies along the way. If you think of search as the navigation interface to knowledge and information, then search is how we will find and consume all media, not just "online publishing", which is where Google started.
When we focus on Google and Yahoo, we often tend to miss the developing stories. Which are the three most important Internet search start-ups, and why?
Jesus, if I knew that, I'd start one. Wait, I did - Federated Media, of course!
Reviewers have largely panned the expanded Google Video Search for its poor interface and hodgepodge of videos. Did Google release too early, were they too eager to capitalize on the popularity of online video?
No, I think in the end Google was being cautious, rolling the product out in phases. What they failed to do is meet the consumer's expectations of what a video "store" from the all powerful Google should be like. They are not merchandisers at heart, they are engineers. That showed in this rev. I am certain that will change.
How big a threat to Google is AOL's acquisition of Truveo?
It's part of a larger question: When will AOL stop using Google's search? Given the recent deal, the answer seems to be "About three years." Why do I say that? Yahoo was Google's partner too. Microsoft was Yahoo's partner....these things don't last forever.
Do people trust Google more or less now than they did a year ago? Do you?
I trust Google about the same as I did a year ago. In the end, I think Google has earned a lot of trust. Of course that can be lost quickly, and Google knows that. I think what they did today - standing up to the DOJ - was a very good move.
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