Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Are Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s ears ringing? After all, Spot Runner CEO Nick Grouf is borowing his Googley one-stop online advertising agency lines!

Grouf announces SpotRunner’s acquisition of SEM firm Weblsitic:

“This acquisition further strengthens our leadership position as the comprehensive resource for the full spectrum of local businesses’ advertising needs. Our objective is to help businesses drive awareness and attract new customers through multiple media channels, in an integrated manner, and online advertising is a top priority for us and for our clients.”

The SotRunner goal is to offer a “complete solution”: ”including media planning and buying for TV, radio and online,” because, Spot Runner assures:

TV and Internet advertising, when utilized together, have proven to be a particularly effective combination. According to Jupiter Research, TV advertising is the number one impetus for people to search for a particular company or product online, surpassing all other forms of advertising.

Remember when the Googler-In-Chief’s favorite fantasy was a multi-million dollar “complete solution” one:

The long-term fantasy is we walk up to you and you give us, say $10 million and we’ll completely allocate it for you across different media and ad types.

Long-term is apparently VERY long-term, though, as Google’s billions remain steadfastly 99% “traditional” AdWords and AdSense pure, as I steadfastly report:

SEE Google CEO In-Car Radio Ad Vision Fading and
Google TV Ads Auction: NO AdWords Buyer’s Remorse and
Google Execs Silent On NYC Print, Radio, TV Promises and
MySpace To Google: Learn How To Sell Advertising, OMMA Report and
MySpace To Google (Round 2): Text Clicks Do NOT Rule! VideoEgg Report and
The Web Economy Rejoices: Google IS Overrated and Due For BIGGER Fall!

If Google is not easily able to achieve one-stop online ad agency domination, does SpotRunner have a realistic shot? Unlikely.

Google has ONE very big advantage over SpotRunner, a $139 billion dollar one: Google owns the number one search engine inventory SpotRunner needs to resell! Reseller status is NOT a winning ad sales formula, just ask Google: Google Radio, Google Print, Google TV, Google MySpace…

Nevertheless, Ketan Shah, CEO of Weblistic, confirms his “passion” for “making online advertising easy and turnkey for small and medium-sized businesses.”

Unfortunately for new coproprate parent Spot Runner, however, local passion is hard to monetize.

MORE: Spot Runner Sells For Rival Google: Local SEM Bandwagon Grows and Local Video Ads Battle: YellowPages.com Taps TurnHere, Spot Runner Gets 1200 TV Producers

PLUS: Yellow Pages Get Reprieve? The Myth of King Google Local Advertising ROI and
Reach Local Advertising? How Google Squeezes SEMs and AdWords Buyers and
Local Ad Sales War: Why Google is a Guaranteed Winner and
Google AdWords Plus Box: Local CPC Bidding War Unleashed! and
Google Apps & Maps: Enterprise and Local Business STILL Missing and
Local Advertising Online: SMEs Hold the Billion Dollar Keys, ILM ANALYSIS 

PLUS: PAY PER BLOG? WHAT KILLER BUSINESS MODEL

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Yay Google? While the world continues seeking to bask in the Googleplex’s all mighty SERP glory, all is NOT well in Google land.

Google begins it homepage doodle countdown today to mark Christmas, even while Google dissed Hanukkah, once again this year. Even more extraordinary, Google Maps is dissing every holiday merry maker around the world, thanks to Google’s BAD Maps.

Today, Google wishes “happy holidays” on its homepage. Yesterday, though, the $200 billion market cap number one search engine acknowledged that it could NOT be relied upon for holiday assistance.

The incredulous Google Maps homepage admission:

HELP HOLIDAY GUESTS FIND YOU: FIX YOUR ADDRESS ON GOOGLE MAPS.

Right! Prepare the chimney, and help Google get its product straight.

GOOGLE OUGHT TO FIX ITSELF, before consumers rely on it. Google is off the map if it is basing the integrity of its Maps experience upon individuals volunteering to help the company out.

Google is telling the world that the ballyhooed Google 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 a long shot.

John Hanke, Keyhole founder and Google Maps & Earth Director, was the closing keynote at the Kelsey Interactive Local Media conference in Los Angeles last month; I followed Hanke on the closing panel of the conference. 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.

Hanke concurred with 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.

Holiday party goers also have a lot more important things to do then help Google build a valid map. Instead of relying on inacurrate Google Maps, consumers ought to use a better map product.

PS: To all using Google Maps on the holidays, GOOD LUCK!

PLUS: Google Warning: How GOOG 411 Tricks Consumers and Google Knol: The End of Google.com, NOT Wikipedia and Google Zeitgeist: $200 University Payola AdWords Scam 

MORE: Google Ignores Hanukkah, Again: Festival of Lights Dark on Homepage and Google AdWords Plus Box: Local CPC Bidding War Unleashed! and Google Apps & Maps: Enterprise and Local Business STILL Missing and Why Google Worship is a BAD Call in 2008

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Beware Google, really. I oft underscore how the GOOG secret weapon is a four letter word: SPIN. Google is now wreaking havoc with another four letter word: GOOG (411).

I also often warn how Google Services’ Privacy Policies enable Google to do whatever it likes, for as long as it likes, with users’ private information that consumers willingly hand to Google on a (free) silver platter. The nefarious results of “whatever Google likes,” is now rearing its ugly head, thanks to Mountain View’s devious GOOG 411.

Google hawks GOOG 411 to consumers as its “new 411 service”: “With GOOG-411, you can find local business information completely free, directly from your phone. You can access 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone, anywhere, at anytime.”

YAY Google? Once again to the FREE consumer rescue?

NO, IT IS GOOGLE TRICKING USERS ONCE MORE, TO THE SOLE ADVANTAGE OF THE $200 BILLION MARKET CAP CORPORATION. 

Why has Google been spending money to advertise GOOG 411 to consumers when the Googleplex prides itself on never spending a penny on marketing?

Google’s best friends at Search Engine Land cheered their sightings of GOOG 411 billboards, hailing GOOG 411 billboards as “a bona fide effort by Google to expose the service to people and generate usage”

What’s remarkable with this is that Google is actually doing consumer marketing (a first) for a product and not relying entirely on word of mouth.

NO, what is really remarkable is how gullible many are willing to be, for the sake of Google!

AND, what really matters, is the sake of consumers duped by Google into using GOOG 411 under false pretenses.

A call to GOOG 411 begins with an announcement: “The call is recorded for quality,” BUT THAT IS A GOOGLE LIE.

Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products & User Experience, on the real reason GOOG 411 records calls, as cited by InfoWorld in October:

The reason we really did it is because we need to build a great speech-to-text model … that we can use for all kinds of different things, including video search.

The speech recognition experts that we have say: If you want us to build a really robust speech model, we need a lot of phonemes, which is a syllable as spoken by a particular voice with a particular intonation. So we need a lot of people talking, saying things so that we can ultimately train off of that. 

So 1-800-GOOG-411 is about that: Getting a bunch of different speech samples so that when you call up or we’re trying to get the voice out of video, we can do it with high accuracy.

GOOG 411 is NOT a touchy, feely, free Google consumer service, it is a ruse to trick people into giving Google their own personal genetic materials, for free, so that Google can profit from the proprietarty human (very) personal property of millions of innocent consumers.

NOW MORE THAN EVER, USE GOOGLE SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK. HERE’S WHY:

Google Privacy Trap: Consumers Beware and
Google is WRONG On Consumer Privacy and
Google is NOT Your Friend 

BEWARE FACEBOOK, TOO: SEE: YES! Facebook IS Scarier Than Google! and
Facebook is ‘Sorry’? Savvy Users Will Forget, NOT Forgive, Mark Zuckerberg and
Beacon Privacy Solution: STOP USING FACEBOOK! and
Dear Facebook, Beacon Tracking STILL Evil: Will Zuckerberg Partners Repent? and
Facebook STILL a Danger to Children: Zuckerberg, Attorney General Cuomo in PR Push

MORE GOOGLE DEVIOUSNESS: Google Has Insomnia: Mrs. Manber Beats 21,300,017 SERP and AdWords! and
Google Zeitgeist: $200 University Payola AdWords Scam and
Google Knol: The End of Google.com, NOT Wikipedia

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

While Google cheers the addition of “colored labels” to Gmail, the nation’s 15 million plus local merchants are bracing for the fallout of Google’s latest, not so greatest, AdWords maneuver to corner the local advertising market online: “The AdWords Local PlusBox”!

YAY? Just days ago, at the Kelsey Interactive Local Media conference in Los Angeles, I predicted an impending push by Google to (highly) monetize its lucrative local and mapping real estate.

Following a Google keynote by John Hanke, Keyhole founder and Google Earth and Maps Director, I had the honor of helping wrap-up the three day conference as a panelist on the closing panel. I was asked by Matt Booth. Kelsey VP, for my outlook on the maps opportunity in local and referenced Hanke’s presentation to make a contrarian local maps case, SEE: Google Apps & Maps: Enterprise and Local Business STILL Missing

I also underscored how Google Director of Local Markets, Eric Stein, refused to provide any insights into how Google determines the three “local business results” that adorn Google SERPs, when asked for guidance by a Kelsey conference attendee during the opening “local search” panel.

In August, I headlined, Google Local Search Gold Mine: When Does Google Cash In? I asked at the time:

WHEN WILL GOOGLE CASH IN ON ITS LOCAL SEARCH GOLD MINE BY PUTTING THE LOCAL ONE BOX UP FOR AUCTION?

Exactly four months later, Google has indeed unleashed a Google Local (Plus) Box bidding war, big time!

I underscored in August: Did you know that Google’s top three “organic” search results are perhaps the Web’s most valuable real estate? Of course you did! A new comScore-TMP local search marketing agency study concurs:

60% of searchers online looking for local businesses think that the top results are most relevant. 25% don’t want to have to scroll down.

Why, then, does Google continue to give the house away, the SERP local house, in particular, I wrote in August.

AS I PREDICTED, GOOGLE IS NOW TAKING MONETIZATION CONTROL OF ITS NUMBER ONE MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF LOCAL SEARCH REAL ESTATE, SELLING IT EXCLUSIVELY TO HIGH BIDDING LOCAL SEARCH PLAYERS:

If you want the Local PlusBox displayed with your ad, your ad must show in the top position. Please remember that all ads must meet price and quality thresholds to appear at the top of the page.

Google’s “helpful” black-box AdWords local auction advice:

Instead of considering your actual CPC, we’ll now consider your maximum CPC bid, which you control. This means that your ad’s eligibility to be promoted is no longer dependent on the bids of advertisers below you. You now have more control to achieve a top position by increasing your maximum CPC.

YAY! Let the Google Local CPC bidding wars begin!

MORE FROM KELSEY CONFERENCE: Local Advertising Online: SMEs Hold the Billion Dollar Keys, ILM ANALYSIS
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
Local is Global: $134 billion in Yellow Pages, Classifieds and Internet Advertising, ILM REPORT

ALSO: Sony Jeopardy! Union and Studio Egos in the Way? WGA STRIKE INTERVIEWS

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

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!

ALSO: Facebook: Bloggers Kick Zuckerberg Off Throne, What Were They ‘Smoking’?

MORE FROM KELSEY CONFERENCE: Local Advertising Online: SMEs Hold the Billion Dollar Keys, ILM ANALYSIS
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

ALSO: Sony Jeopardy! Union and Studio Egos in the Way? WGA STRIKE INTERVIEWS and Bill Gates on Software Market: TINY Google Web Services Lag BIG Microsoft Business

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

I had the pleasure of helping close the Kelsey Group Interactive Local Media Conference 2007 today in Los Angeles, participating in the final panel wrap-up and big picture local advertising opportunity analysis, along with Kevin Heisler, Executive Editor, Search Engine Watch.

Conference producer Peter Krasilovsky asked me to do a high-level overview of conference themes presented and key takeaways. The theme of my presentation: SMEs hold the keys to local’s future.

In the “National Advertisers Going Local Panel,“ Shawn Riegsecker, CEO, Centro, said the big local opportunity is still years away. I agree and believe SMEs are the current big stumbling blocks, for three principal reasons: SME Adoption Rates, SME Control Issues and SME Market Confusion.

SME ADOPTION RATES

The industry looks at the local opportunity glass as half full rather than as half empty. Conventional wisdom is that online local ad spend growth will inevitably catch up to online local media consumption. There are two fundamental flaws with that assumption however:

1) The majority of local merchants do no advertising whatsoever in any medium, online or off, and will continue to remain happily advertising-free.2) Getting SMEs online–one way or another–does not mean that they will stay online.

Matt Van Wagner of FindMeFaster shared case studies of his local search campaigns for small businesses which he described as “miserable failures.“ MerchantCircle claims it has more SMEs online than anyone else, 300,000. It also says it has contacted every single SME in the U.S., about 15 million. MerchantCircle then has a 2% conversion rate, and many accounts are not active.