What Google and Facebook share in common?
Both exist to do one thing.
That is to provide you and I advertising. Not the social media thing and the search engine thing. They are merely vehicles to gather information. Google and Facebook are tracking us so that they can produce better ads. Ironically, all this work, all this web space, and technology is really about building a media empire.
Think about all the stuff Google owns and provides.
Many folks whine and complain that Google has ruined their search engine results. The Google original dictate of providing relevancy is dead. And as such It is blasphemy cry the SEO enthusiasts.
They whine that the home page of a Google search is littered with Ads, Videos (with ads), Photos, News, Blogs, ad nauseum. Most insiders claim that the search from Google is worst than ever.
Check out some of the stuff Google provides to us as Webmasters all for free.
- Adwords
- Analytics
- Webmaster
- Profile
- Blogging
- Split Test Tools
- Keyword Research
- Google Plus For Business
- Adsense (they even let us make money off their ads)
Other productivity tools include a full suite of office programs, Gmail, as well as other neat things like music storage and free books and places to store our family videos and pictures. What nice people those Google people!
With these tools they can track what we buy and our customers buy, what music you are into and what websites you visit. And get this. What you probably will buy, what music you might want next, and what site you might visit next or soon.
The Devil Does What the Devil Does.
I once had a pal who I set up selling mortgage leads. He was desperate for a sale and was not yet able to locate his own buyers. He had great leads but no idea where to find a buyer.
I had heard of a mutual acquaintance of who my pal had thought was of very questionable character, but he needed mortgage leads.
I hooked them up and forgot about it. I found out several months later that all was going well up and until this buyer stopped paying on already delivered leads.
I told my friend that he had done a deal with devil. Sometimes in business, we regrettably do that. But at least be smart enough to build into your pricing the eventuality that the devil will do what he eventually does. He is in no way your advocate and will always not only act as a business should in their own self interest, but will additionally seek advantage over you. Just because it can.
With Google, we are indeed doing a deal with the devil. Our privacy is being eaten up without prejudice on a daily basis. It is even uncool to complain about it. Twenty years ago there would have been an outcry. Today it is just the way things are. To hearken images of Orwell's 1984 simply put us in the camp of not "getting it".
However, if you have been in the business on line for any amount of time you have either sought out Google love or have already got it. Or like some of us veterans you have got it, lost it, and gotten it again over and over again.
Everything the Yellow Pages Wishes it Could Be
But indeed with all these free cool tools Google is taking our behavior and codifying it into a trend. The more data points they have on us the more they can render us not just relevant search results, but more importantly relevant advertisements.
This is everything the Yellow Pages wishes they could have been.
Image via Wikipedia
A big money block is in local for Google and we all do things locally. So think about why would Google hassle with the maps and taking photos of every house and business in America? I mean what a pain right?
Because as the funny car snapped the photo of your house, they grabbed and recorded your ip address and no doubt have cross referenced that with freely available ownership information (Are you a renter or owner). Minimally.
As you set up your Android cell phone, you quite possibly used your Gmail account. That Gmail account cross correlates with your home information and all your behavior there. So as you search for spots on your phone or use gps on the maps, I can see a day when Google most likely will serve you relevant advertising that matches to your current location and what you have searched for in the past on your phone and other computers.
Show Me the Money Google
This is the direction Google and Facebook wants to go . The question you need to ask is "how can I take advantage of this?"
The simple answer is you must know the players in the game, the rules of the game, and how to play it.
Google respects two things. No scratch that. Google craves content and references to that content (links and citations).
With content you can syndicate and get into lots of web places. Text, video, pictures, various documents are all indexed by Google.
The opportunities are not only getting your own pages indexed in as many ways as creatively possible. But also the other pages where your content is syndicated like videos and pictures.
Your business can also show up in many local directories and Google Places.
Give us a call or email and find out how you can make this giant task much more manageable and scalable for your business to produce more leads. 310 - 533 -9145
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