Insider Chatter by 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

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

Every Google product enhancement, minor or otherwise, worthy or not, is pushed to an eager fan base with great fanfare.

Google’s pre-Thanksgiving “treats”: “Think globally,” mark globally,” a map product fix cum upgrade and “A new bulk upload dashboard,” making it easier than ever to feed Google’s “universal search” with the content of others via Google Base.

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.

More (in)famous Google wishful thinking:  Google’s $10 Local Search Pipe Dream: Slave Wages to Squeeze Yellow Pages 

Google Base? Long gone are the days when THAT product was feared as a big, bad classifieds “killer.” Peter Zollman had warned “People in the classifieds business have to assume that Google is coming at them full force.”

The New York Times, on the eve of Google Base takeoff November, 2005:

Several industry executives and analysts said they believed that Google Base was an aggressive first step in a series of maneuvers that would position the company as a powerful player in the $100 billion annual market for classified advertising. The general industry perception is that Google could potentially transform that market, which has already been shaken by the rapid shift to online searching and the free listing services offered by Craigslist.

“It’s very clear that Google is planning to launch a classified advertising product,” Peter M. Zollman, publisher of Classified Intelligence Report, an industry newsletter. “It will be a huge threat to traditional classified businesses.”

Two years later, the classifieds force is still NOT with Google, as far as Google Base has shown. Craig still rules, even as Craigslist minority shareholder eBay strives to steal Craig’s thunder via Kijiji!

Can Google Map Out the Future of Local Search? I analyzed earlier in the week. No strong evidence of a Google landslide to date, however; The Google hands-off, automated, self-serve ”magic” GOOG fuel is cost-effective but not effectively converting a critical mass of local merchants or local consumers.

Perhaps we will know more about Google’s local ambitions soon. I have the pleasure of sharing the final day Kelsey Interactive Local Media Conference honors with the Director of Google Earth & Maps, John Hanke, next week in Los Angeles.

Following the Hanke, of Keyhole fame, ”keynote” on how Google is “contributing to the local ecosphere via local search, maps, directories, and classifieds.” I will be joining Kelsey analysts on stage, tasked with opining on the state of local online: “Revolution, or evolution.”

Last week, I presented the revolutionary ambitions of local contender AnchorFree, SEE AnchorFree CEO: Hotspot Local Ad Network Beats Google, Yahoo, INTERVIEW

AnchorFree’s local wi-fi revolution is nevertheless already being contested by powerful incumbent CBS Outdoors, as I report and analyse in CBS To AnchorFree WiFi: WE Own The Ad Billboard, Online AND Off.

WHAT ELSE IS UP IN LOCAL SEARCH? Learn all about it next week at the upcoming Kelsey Conference on Interactive Local Media in Los Angeles!

SEE YOU THERE? CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

IN THE MEANTIME, READ MORE:

Stepan Pachikov: EverNote Web 2.0 Perfect Mobile Storm To Hit in 2008, INTERVIEW

MerchantCircle CEO Aims To Disrupt Local Advertising $39 billion Spend: INTERVIEW

Naked Google Maps: NO Local Ads For Hungry Motorists

Local Ad Sales War: Why Google is a Guaranteed Winner

Google, Yahoo CAN’T Crack Local Ad Sales Code

Yahoo Wants $12 billion Local Search Ad Spend, So Does CitySquares

1-800 Pay-Per-Call: Marchex Buys VoiceStar, $4 billion Local Advertising Bonanza?

Google Local Search Gold Mine: When Does Google Cash In?

RH Donnelley Means Business.com: Google Feeling Vertical Search Heat

I have the pleasure of sharing the final day Kelsey Interactive Local Media Conference honors with the Director of Google Earth & Maps, John Hanke, next week in Los Angeles.

Following the Hanke, of Keyhole fame, ”keynote” on how Google is “contributing to the local ecosphere via local search, maps, directories, and classifieds.” I will be joining Kelsey analysts on stage, tasked with opining on the state of local online: “Revolution, or evolution.”

The Google Lat Long Blog may have provided the world today with a preview of what the “Keyhole’s” keynote will feature: “Think globally, mark locally.”

In lauding the latest Google Map functionality enhancement, however, Google itself, perhaps unwittingly, acknowledges the fragile nature of the local search experience today.

Seth LaForge, Software Engineer, Google Maps, confides:

The last time I threw a party, I used the MyMaps feature of Google Maps to tell my friends exactly how to find my house. But if they’d just searched Maps on their own for my address and had gone to the marker location, they would have been partying in the middle of the street!

Now for your next party (or any other occasion), you can move the marker for your address to show the exact entrance of your house. Just search for your address, click “Edit,” click “Move Marker,” and drag the marker to your front door.

All is good, NOW, then? Not quite.

LaForge’s Google Maps colleague, Jess Lee, Product Manager, lauded MyMaps at the Official Google Blog in April, “Map-Making: So easy a caveman could do it.” Apparently, cavemen invite their party guests to socialize “in the middle of the street”!

Moral of the Google Maps story? Google may rule “universal search,” but local is in a world of its own, an exciting world where the outcome is NOT guaranteed by Google, or cavemen!

Revolution, or evolution, many, many local players are happily giving Google a run for its local money and I have the honor of interviewing startup CEOs striving to be revolutionary locals. For example:

Stepan Pachikov: EverNote Web 2.0 Perfect Mobile Storm To Hit in 2008, INTERVIEW

MerchantCircle CEO Aims To Disrupt Local Advertising $39 billion Spend: INTERVIEW

AnchorFree CEO: Hotspot Local Ad Network Beats Google, Yahoo, INTERVIEW

Powerhouse Google, on the other hand, STILL is challenged to fully realize its monetizable local potential, runnerup Yahoo too! SEE:

Naked Google Maps: NO Local Ads For Hungry Motorists

Local Ad Sales War: Why Google is a Guaranteed Winner

Google, Yahoo CAN’T Crack Local Ad Sales Code

Yahoo Wants $12 billion Local Search Ad Spend, So Does CitySquares

1-800 Pay-Per-Call: Marchex Buys VoiceStar, $4 billion Local Advertising Bonanza?

Google Local Search Gold Mine: When Does Google Cash In?

RH Donnelley Means Business.com: Google Feeling Vertical Search Heat

MORE INSIDER CHATTER LOCAL INSIGHTS & INTERVIEWS: Judy’s Book: What’s On Sale? WE ARE! Ten Reasons Why and How Pegasus News Fuels Local Media Business Model for Fisher Communications: INTERVIEW

WHAT ELSE IS UP IN LOCAL SEARCH? Learn all about it at the upcoming Kelsey Conference on Interactive Local Media in Los Angeles (be sure to staty till the very end!)

SEE YOU THERE? CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Google is at its shrewd, penny-pinnching ways again! Just as one of the richest corporations on the planet believes it can corner the online local ad market by doling out $10 in slave wages to Googley “sales reps,” the Googleplex is now plotting a $10 million coup to usurp Microsoft’s hard-earned claim to mobile smartphone leadership.

Microsft CEO Steve Ballmer’s retort to Mountain View’s announcement of the Android project last week: “Right now they have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices…”

How many? Windows Mobile is on 150 different handsets, available from more than 100 different mobile operators, with a projected license of 20 million Windows Mobile handsets in2007, according to Ballmer.

BUT, if the Google “Open Handset Alliance” is but a “press release,” it is a $10 million one, as of today.

The Google speed machine believes its “$10 milion Android developer challenge” is all it needs to turn its vision for “the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices” into a reality, quickly.

With so many brilliant minds striving to design engaging, innovative applications, mobile users around the world (3 billion and counting) can expect phones equipped with dynamic and unprecedented applications very soon.

Cash prizes of $25,000 to $275,000 are earmarked for 70 “cool apps” of the Android variety. Google is undoubedtly counting on hundreds and thousands of entries, i.e., developers around the world will be eagerly building out Google’s Android.

Here are Google’s Android development specs for the “cool apps” it expects:

Social Networking
Media Consumption
Productivity and Collaboration
Gaming
News and Information
User Interfaces
Mashups
Location-Based Services….

On your mark, get set, GOOGLE!

MORE MOBILE NEWS: Stepan Pachikov: EverNote Web 2.0 Perfect Mobile Storm To Hit in 2008, INTERVIEW

ALSO: MerchantCircle CEO Aims To Disrupt Local Advertising $39 billion Spend: INTERVIEW and Sexist LinkedIn: Hillary Clinton and Gender Politics

PLUS: Google’s $10 Local Search Pipe Dream: Slave Wages to Squeeze Yellow Pages

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

If only the gOS powered Everex Green gPC TC2502 was smaller, weighed less, was bundled with a monitor and boasted an always-on dialtone: WHO NEEDS GPHONE, then!

The impending Google Phone will undoubtedly be pricier than the Wal-Mart friendly $195 starter Linux PC: 1.5-gigahertz Via processor, 512 megabytes of memory, 80-gigabyte hard drive, DVD-ROM / CD-RW drive…PLUS direct connections to Googley “software” favorites such as gMail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Blogger.

BUT, NO Google Apps! (Google Applications, YES; The Microsoft killing Google Apps itself, NO)

Why OpenOffice.org 2.2, and NO Google Apps? HEY, who says Google hasn’t learned a Microsoft thing or two about making money off the desktop!

PLUS:  Microsoft Vista: Are 88 million Computers Really Doomed? and Google Confirms: Enterprise Apps is NO Microsoft Office Killer

ALSO: Google’s Facebook KILLER Strategy, Microsoft Too and Facebook on the Defensive: Friendster Fate Looms?

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN