Now The Media Are Optimizing For Google…
No surprises here. Rather than write what should be written, write what searches best… Lohr reveals all.
So news organizations large and small have begun experimenting with tweaking their Web sites for better search engine results. But software bots are not your ordinary readers: They are blazingly fast yet numbingly literal-minded. There are no algorithms for wit, irony, humor or stylish writing. The software is a logical, sequential, left-brain reader, while humans are often right brain.
Carr + Disney = Back to the Future…
Carr points to and illuminates some of the thinking coming out of Disney on the future of media:
The whole idea of participative, or citizen, media is an assault on the power of big brands to determine what people read and watch and listen to. Tokens of central, paternalistic, commercial control, brands lie at the very heart of the traditional power of the so-called mainstream media. Sweeney is saying that media brands, which have seemingly lost some of their power recently, will ultimately triumph on the web. The future will end up looking like the past – only more so. Faced with the welter of online media choices, “consumers” will flock to trusted brands to “help them navigate the digital world.” Same as it ever was.
I’m not so sure. At the end of the day, content will triumph over brand. That will work in the favor of some content creators – such as the NYTimes. I don’t think it will work so much for those in the entertainment market where loyalty is much more fleeting. I’m not likely to migrate to big brands as much as I am brands that are relevant (YouTube vs. Disney). And I don’t care if those brands are individuals blogging (like Nicholas), blogmedia (I read Engadget more than CNet), or focused feeds from traditional media…
What is really exciting about Disney’s announcement is that they are finally – if somewhat incompletely — understanding that we are on-demand, time-shifting maniacs. I’m still stumped as to why I can only watch TV on the broadcasters schedule. For instance, I can get channels for the region I am in (PST), on their schedule. What I actually want though is all the EST programming on a PST schedule – and both for purposes of Tivo. I want several episodes of Lost back-to-back. Same for 24. The fact that they are beginning to enable me to run my own viewing schedule is a good sign.
If The News Release Is Dead…
Why did Warren Buffett and Business Wire’s Cathy Baron Tamraz ring NYSE’s opening bell to signal the start of trading on the world’s largest equities exchange? Both were “celebrating” Business Wire’s recent acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway. Warren’s no slouch.
FourDocs
Picked this one up via Veer. Gool idea from Britain’s Channel 4 – FourDocs, “the place to upload, watch and learn about documentary. Anyone can upload a FourDoc, it just has to be fact-based and 4 minutes long.”
Here’s one about a French toy store, and anothere one on abseiling (rappelling).
Very participatory.
Yahoo…
Both Steve and Stowe speak to this story on Yahoo in which they say it’s not their goal to be #1 in search:
“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”
No surprise there. Yahoo’s “life engine” brand positioning gets more to where they are going. Arguably, they’ve done a better job than Google of integrating the entire web 2.0 suite. And that’s how I use them. My customized portal is of as much value to me as the utility of Google. Frankly, none of Google’s products other than search have wowed me. Google Earth was like fun for a day. But I’ve found the reverse to be true for Yahoo!
I’m not about to make any declarative statements about giving up on Yahoo!. What is telling is the relationship between the CMO and Google vs. Yahoo – at least the CMO of a start-up. I look at Adsense every couple of days. They suck my marketing budget up like an out-of-control Dyson vacuum cleaner. And of all the marketing vendors they are the only one to demonstrate a very real, automated correlation between investment and results. Yahoo simply isn’t there with them.
What is catching my attention as a CMO are all the other search options coming my way – companies like SLI Systems and Eurekster for instance. We tend to always view the battle as being between giants. More than often innovation happens at the edges of the market – that’s how Google snuck-up on Yahoo and I have no doubt that Google will inevitably be challenged by upstarts.
So, even if my thesis holds true, it will be interesting to see how they monetize the life-engine position in the future. Google’s competitive weapon isn’t just the utility of search, but all so the utility of their advertising engine.
Disclosure: Yahoo! is a customer of LogLogic where I am CMO.
