New Orleans Internet Marketing

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past year. Although I’m sure there were hundreds of other signs that Google’s image was changing, for me it started when Google “local results” started showing up in search above the natural search results.

Here we had our beloved “Google,” created by two Stanford students infatuated with search, beginning to venture into the realm of the “content providers” by adding local yellow-page-type listings in with their search results. Let’s see, how do we edit our listing? Has anyone ever tried it? If you have, you know that it’s next to impossible. Who knows where Google gets this data, or how they decide which businesses get the privilege of showing up on the front page.

Now we have “news” results showing up in regular search results. Was I looking for news? If I was, wouldn’t I just add “news” to the search or search “Google News?”

The problem as I see it, is that my favorite search provider is turning into “content provider.” This is further evidenced by acquisitions such as YouTube. The search engine we grew to know and love is now directly competing with more and more webmasters around the globe. This hasn’t happened without a backlash though. “Search” used to be the primary means I would use to find the content I’m interested in, but now I have many new alternatives.

Looking back at the evolution and rapid growth of social networks and media, I see a relationship between Google’s “sandboxing” of new content and the growth of popular sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon (SU). For those unfamiliar with the term, Google’s “sandbox” refers to the inability of new websites to rank well for competitive keyword phrases in Google. If I can’t find the newest, best content on Google, I’m going to go elsewhere; and Digg and SU provided a great means of delivering the newest and best content to users.

The recent tryst with eBay is a symbolic event that reminds me that Google is a competitor, more so now than ever. Google wants to be “everything to everyone.” By providing content that it’s too big to manage (local listings), and e-commerce solutions (Google Checkout), it’s no longer just our friendly search provider.