Google Apps & Maps: Enterprise and Local Business STILL Missing
YAY? A Google Apps sales pitch!
For Google fans (and SEM consultants), any opportunity to attend a Google “presentation” is deemed a privilege. I have attended many a Google Apps product pitch cum conference presentation, Google Local “presentations” as well. The privilege, however, is ALL Google’s!
Rare indeed is a Google keynote or panel appearance anything beyond a replay of products previously announced, in other words, mere displays of product spec sheets and demos publicly available at Google.com.
This past week, the two Google appearances at the Kelsey Interactive Local Media conference in Los Angeles were no exception. Eric Stein, Google Director of Local Markets, participated in the opening “Local Search” panel and John Hanke, Keyhole founder and Google Maps & Earth Director, was the closing keynote. In both instances, the Google execs stayed on Google PR course, showcasing the existing Google suite of products.
Stein’s appearance was of particular non-note, as I recount in The Future of Local IS (Google) Search: ILM REPORT. Stein was disingenuous regarding the impact of rising CPC prices on the local SEM market and point-blank refused to shed any insight on how the Google Local one-box SERP results are chosen for display.
I predicted that the Hanke keynote would be but a razzle-dazzle Google Maps demo, and it was. How much razzle-dazzle will Google Maps actually have in the mass market, though, I analyzed on the closing Kelsey panel.
As I underscore in Google STILL Not Killing Classifieds: Local Safe, Too, Google Maps is NOT the definitive local reference: Google’s “adjustment” to its map functionality may be heralded as a Google move to “open up” to users by “wikifying” the experience, but Google itself acknowledges that its maps actually send people to the wrong final destinations, even those seeking to party with Googlers! Hoping for mass citizen corrections of Google Maps to make them meaningfully better for the masses is undoubedtly a long shot.
Hanke seconded my evaluation of the shortcomings underlying Google Maps data and even acknowledged that local businesses are NOT lining up to “correct” their location pointers on Google Maps.
In my closing Kelsey panel appearance, I made a contrarian case for why the Google Maps opportunity is overrated, citing Hanke’s look at the “Google Map of the future,” which presented as a confusing graphic with an unwieldy number of listings, Websites URLs, product and service pitches…overlayed in an indecipherable mass of boxes on a map.
The Google Map roadmap is not only graphically confusing, but ”do no evil” confusing as well. After all, what will happen once Google fully monetizes every piece of its Maps real estate, I underscored.
Google allready refuses to let consumers know why it deems its top local results in Google SERPS to be the “most relevant.” Consumer confidence in Google Maps may take a beating once Google Maps are available to the highest Google auction bidders only.
What about Google Apps? Google continues to struggle with enterprise adoption and enterprise level functionality.
In Google Confirms: Enterprise Apps is NO Microsoft Office Killer I present detailed, first-hand reports and analysis and make a solid case for why Google is and will contnue to be 99% AdWords pure. Microsoft’s Q1 earnings report support my contention that no one is “killing” Microsoft Office.
ALSO, IBM Confirms: Google Poses NO Enterprise Threat
Nevertheless, when Google speaks, Google-centric Search Engine Marketers help spur the Google case along, as Andrew Miller did following the “privilege” of attending a “Google Apps presentation in Ann Arbor”:
All in all, it was a very helpful presentation for the uninitiated as well as the long-time Apps users like myself. I would encourage you to try it out. It’s free, easy to set up and will only improve over time.
Thanks for the Google advice!
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Google Beware: Facebook Takes Local Advertising Gloves Off, ILM REPORT and
Citysearch’s Herratti on Social Media and Merchant Reputation: ILM INTERVIEW and
Jason Calacanis: ‘Wrong About Local Too,” ILM REPORT
The Future of Local IS (Google) Search: ILM REPORT and
Google AdWords Plus Box: Local CPC Bidding War Unleashed!and
Local is Global: $134 billion in Yellow Pages, Classifieds and Internet Advertising, ILM REPORT
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