Face down, *ss up in the Kool-Aid

This article from Danny Sullivan on Search Engine Land was enough to get me to start blogging as I am tired of too many “pundits” in our industry hooked up to an IV of Google Kool-Aid.

Tough Love For Microsoft Search

Dec 30, 2008 at 5:11am ET by Danny Sullivan

http://searchengineland.com/tough-love-for-microsoft-search-15968

"Remember also that Google didn’t get into search to make money. OK, yes — Larry Page and Sergey Brin clearly hoped to be financially successful. But first and foremost, they thought the challenge of improving search was important. They thought search could be made better, and that motivated them to develop Google, assuming they’d find a way to pay for the service later. Microsoft didn’t get into search to help anyone as their primary motive — they got into it to help themselves."

- Danny Sullivan

<sigh> Here we go again

This remains one of the biggest pieces of PR tomfoolery to emerge from Google's rise to dominance. Building a better Search Engine was a their Business Model and highly successful one at that. One might as well equate the "altruistic" creation of Google to the Virgin Birth or the parting of the Red Sea. At the end of the day, it simply shows that too many of us in this industry are face down, floating in the Kool-Aid.

Google has built some fantastic products (Search, Gmail, Android) and had some pretty big busts… Google Accelerator, Google Video, Google X ("Roses are red. Violets are blue. OS X rocks. Homage to you") to name a few. At the end of the day, we need to remember that Search is a business service not a lifestyle decision. Microsoft, Yahoo, and Ask (I’ve worked for two of these) won’t come close to pulling Google of their throne until they build a better business model off substantially different platform or product. Just as Microsoft was not first into the “Windowed GUI” OS, Google was not the first search engine; just the first really good one. Microsoft retains its OS dominance not because it builds a better product than Apple or Ubuntu, but because it is the “adopted standard of the masses.” I personally think Ask.com has the best Organic algorithm in play right now and spends considerably advertising their product. Yet month after month they remain 4^th in traffic and usage because it is nearly impossible to dethrone the “standard of the masses.” Just as people will not leave Windows en masse unless someone else redefines personal computing, people will not leave Google en masse until someone else redefines search in a Revolutionary way.

The only way Microsoft and Yahoo are going to hurt Google is buying hitting them in the pocketbook and going after their adWords distribution deals. Google’s primary distribution partners provide a steady base of traffic and conversions that allows Google to add partners who are maybe “not so premium.” Remove an AOL and an Ask.com from their distribution landscape and CPCs will plummet as the balance of “Premium” to “Not so Premium” traffic falls out whack. Advertisers will spend less with Google and more with their competitors. Google’s earning and stock price will drop while “Paid Listings Traffic” for Microsoft and Yahoo increase. Such a plan will not ruin Google, but may at least level the playing field.

SearchWarrior