Don't be Evil
|
2:13 AM |
No Comments |
Don't be Evil, Google said.
Yet, it streams cookies onto your computer. Knows what you read, what videos you watch, what links you click, what keywords you search for. The works. It even came up with a browser that is great for browsing, yet mysteriously, doesn't provide any real support for blocking ads (that would be real stupid, wouldn't it, if advertising was your bread-and-butter).
But is Google really out to become 'big brother', or is it simply very good at a number of things, and has made the web experience so good for us that we choose to conduct the lion's share of our online activities through Google?
According to Google's data, each dollar spent on advertising leads to two dollars in revenue for the advertiser (directly, through Adwords), and about eight dollars in profit (direct Adwords clicks, plus non-sponsored, i.e. regular search results). Definitely not evil !!!
Note: It might be too good to be true, and it would be interesting to investigate the assumptions made.
Bringing Films and TV onboard
Not so long back, the major studios viewed Youtube as a menace. However, the cliche "If you can't beat 'em, then join 'em" worked, and we got music videos from Sony, UMG, and EMI (3 out of the big 4) on VEVO on Youtube. NBC, Fox and ABC set up HULU (as an alternative to Youtube that they could live with).
Now, the consumers have got better quality content, and the studios are happy about that too. They wouldn't want low-quality videos of their star artists being put up. The advertisers are happier, too. They get to run their ads against slick videos uploaded by the studios, not against some grainy stuff uploaded by a teenager. Google's happy to overcome it's copyright hassles.
Hulu's actually better than Youtube, in this regard, but is currently restricted to USA, and has a fraction of the user-base that Youtube does.
The next step for Google would be to ink deals to provide studio-authorised content. Already started !
In an innovative move, Youtube broadcast IPL games, real-time, and split the ad-revenue with the IPL. Now if this could be extended to the NBA, NFL, the Premier Leage, Champions League.... wuff ! Enough said !!
Innovation, The Labs and their Alumni
Google docs, Google reader, iGoogle, Google Maps, Google groups. Alumni from Google Labs, each of these. I love the innovations that come out of Google Labs. I've often tried them out, out of curiosity.
The cool thing is that many of these are the product of Google's famous 20% time off policy. No, the engineers don't take Friday's off; they just work on whatever brainwave they have. GMail, Google News and AdSense are products of this really cool policy. Reportedly, about 50% of new product launches come from this 20% policy. Boy, I'd have loved to have this flexibility when I used to churn code.
Certainly not evil !!
Yet, it streams cookies onto your computer. Knows what you read, what videos you watch, what links you click, what keywords you search for. The works. It even came up with a browser that is great for browsing, yet mysteriously, doesn't provide any real support for blocking ads (that would be real stupid, wouldn't it, if advertising was your bread-and-butter).But is Google really out to become 'big brother', or is it simply very good at a number of things, and has made the web experience so good for us that we choose to conduct the lion's share of our online activities through Google?
According to Google's data, each dollar spent on advertising leads to two dollars in revenue for the advertiser (directly, through Adwords), and about eight dollars in profit (direct Adwords clicks, plus non-sponsored, i.e. regular search results). Definitely not evil !!!Note: It might be too good to be true, and it would be interesting to investigate the assumptions made.
Bringing Films and TV onboard
Not so long back, the major studios viewed Youtube as a menace. However, the cliche "If you can't beat 'em, then join 'em" worked, and we got music videos from Sony, UMG, and EMI (3 out of the big 4) on VEVO on Youtube. NBC, Fox and ABC set up HULU (as an alternative to Youtube that they could live with).
Now, the consumers have got better quality content, and the studios are happy about that too. They wouldn't want low-quality videos of their star artists being put up. The advertisers are happier, too. They get to run their ads against slick videos uploaded by the studios, not against some grainy stuff uploaded by a teenager. Google's happy to overcome it's copyright hassles.Hulu's actually better than Youtube, in this regard, but is currently restricted to USA, and has a fraction of the user-base that Youtube does.
The next step for Google would be to ink deals to provide studio-authorised content. Already started !
In an innovative move, Youtube broadcast IPL games, real-time, and split the ad-revenue with the IPL. Now if this could be extended to the NBA, NFL, the Premier Leage, Champions League.... wuff ! Enough said !!
Innovation, The Labs and their Alumni
Google docs, Google reader, iGoogle, Google Maps, Google groups. Alumni from Google Labs, each of these. I love the innovations that come out of Google Labs. I've often tried them out, out of curiosity.The cool thing is that many of these are the product of Google's famous 20% time off policy. No, the engineers don't take Friday's off; they just work on whatever brainwave they have. GMail, Google News and AdSense are products of this really cool policy. Reportedly, about 50% of new product launches come from this 20% policy. Boy, I'd have loved to have this flexibility when I used to churn code.
Certainly not evil !!
0 comments:
Post a Comment