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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Two recent patents indicate that Google is taking significant steps to finding more places to put search, navigation, and ads.
The screenshot for one product, Google Kiosk, is fascinating because it gives an important glimpse of what the service might look like, and is a reminder that with initiative, a company like Google will have no trouble finding centrally-located, climate-controlled spaces to grow into. Extending beyond simple information about the stores in the mall, IMHO, we'll eventually see store inventories linked to mobile devices (or the kiosks), possibly linked to locations on shelves, at least in more enlightened establishments. That way, the world of shopping moves beyond the top-down, mysterious, "we'll merchandise to you" model, to the "I want the option to find stuff faster" approach.
Billboard ad serving appears also to be a big part of the plans, as we've speculated for some time now. This analyst appears to go slightly overboard in interpreting the meaning of the patent's claim that the "system" will "generate an ad campaign," thus putting all the ad agency creatives out of business. I maintain that it will definitely alter the skill sets required of media buyers and ad agencies, but no, the computers aren't going to come up with all the ads any more than a computer will write the next episode of Ugly Betty or determine the outcome of the Super Bowl (yet). The main distinguishing characteristic of including uploadable billboard ads in an auction-based system is a change in the economics of ad placement on billboards.
Posted by
Andrew Goodman
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