Search Engine Fatigue

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at October 23, 2007 in Search Marketing. 0 Comments

An interesting little snippet at search engine land about search engine fatigue:

–72.3 percent of Americans experience “search engine fatigue” (either “always,” “usually,” or “sometimes”) when researching a topic on the Internet.

–65.4 percent of Americans say they’ve spent two or more hours in a single sitting searching for specific information on search engines.

–More than three out of four (75.1 percent) of those who experience search engine fatigue report getting up and physically leaving their computer without the information they were seeking – either “always,” “usually” or “sometimes.”

The report discusses user frustration with clutter and the content of search results:

When asked to name their #1 complaint about the process, 25 percent cited a deluge of results, 24 percent cited a predominance of commercial (paid) listings, 18.8 percent blamed the search engine’s inability to understand their keywords (forcing them to try again), and 18.6 percent were most frustrated by disorganized/random results.

There was also a desire among many users that search engines be able to “read their minds”:

Kelton asked survey respondents whether they wished that search engines like Google could, in effect, read their minds, delivering the results they were actually looking for. . . That capability is something that 78 percent of all survey-takers “wished” for, including 86.2 percent of 18-34 year-olds and 85 percent of those under 18.

I have to confess, that if I can’t find something then generally it isn’t out there on the Web – I’m a pretty good searcher. There are certain mind-melding techniques to become one with Google, but if I shared them I’d have to kill you.

Kinda reminds me of this:

Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can’t Index

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Business Blogging for Dummies

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at July 12, 2007 in Business Blogging, Marketing Blogs and Online Public Relations. 0 Comments

I found this quote of the day over at Media Influencer in relation to Google’s Sicko to-do:

Blogs let you communicate directly with your audience. Of course, we’re too busy building product to communicate with our audience so let’s hire a marketer to do it for us. And when inexperienced marketers get a blog, they all blog the same way. Their voice is as authentic as a Twinkie is organic…. [Their] ire should have been directed at whoever gave the keys to the blog to someone whose authentic voice reads like a Newsweek health supplement advertorial.

So, to recap, the recipe for a disaster is easy: hire marketers with no authentic voice, ask them to pimp offal, and when they’re busted for it make them force out an apology in which they blame it on their authentic voice. You too can make the front page of TechMeme for two days running with three easy steps, though you might get wet sleeves fishing your career prospects out of the toilet when you’re done. You’re welcome!

Now this isn’t just a killer quote but a serial killer quote from an article that is truly worthy of your attention if you’re in the game of setting up blogs for clients or even setting up a blog for your own business.

Think on.

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How to take over the world by keeping schtum

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at July 5, 2007 in Mobile Marketing and Search Marketing. 0 Comments

Looking at the iPhone as an alpha, it’s a heck of a feat. Gorgeous. Groundbreaking. Full of promise and a lot of delivery. Unfortunately, we’re paying for a full-release version.

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Obviously Google gets on with Apple a whole lot better than it does with Ebay, unless their last attempt at crashing a party left them smarting like a roundly spanked buttock. It seems everybody has managed to do everything with the iPhone this weekend apart from marry it or eat it. There’s also been an inordinate amount of mindless guff spouted about it; and all the while Google has been quietly going about its business building the mother of all telecommunications infrastructures.

As Apple changes the world one slogan at a time, Google does it in a state of denial. Here’s a few interesting snippets from an even more interesting article relating to what they’re putting together:

“They have enough potential capacity to compete in wholesale telecommunications or as an Internet service provider,” says Eric Schoonover, senior analyst at Washington, D.C.-based TeleGeography Research, a consultancy that tracks fibre holdings.

The company [Google] is estimated to have between 40 and 70 data centres filled to the brim with computing and storage power, with at least five new facilities under construction in the United States alone. By comparison, Canada’s second-largest telephone company Telus Corp., has eight.

The search company is building its data centres next to hydroelectric facilities in order to feed their huge power needs, he said. All that capability will soon be turned against telephone and cable companies, which is why firms such as Telus and Bell need to merge — they’ll need the extra girth to mount a defence against Google.

“They’re looking to come in and completely usurp the telcos at both the business level and the consumer level,” Mr. Entwistle said.

It’s quite obvious that Google are up to something and I’m presuming they aren’t acquiring all this infrastructure just to do a spot of telco-squatting. And have Google just bought out GrandCentral, a voice communications management solutions company, because they had a bit of spare cash lying about?

It could be said that if Apple is trying to change the world then Google is trying to take it over. I’m not averse to a universe dependent on all things Google and I’m sure they might even make quite a decent fist of being a telecommunications behemoth. I know that I’d rather sign with them than AT&T or Time Warner.

You must, however, question what is going on in principal.

We got a bit of a taste of the bitter pill that could be Google world domination over the Sicko debacle this week. They started by offering to counter Sicko searches with health industry ads, then they got called on it, then they went into full retraction mode sending employees off to watch Michael Moore’s film – I sincerely hope during work hours.

But, thinking on, Google world domination would have none of the three elements above. They’d simply be doing it all in secret and manipulating results to show the highest bidder. Google has every right to have somebody make a mistake on one of their blogs and retract it after other forces on the internet kick up a bit of a stink. So long as we have an internet along those lines then I think we’re going to be just fine.

I bet Google just wished they could hire somebody with a Phd in common sense.

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