If The Google-Yahoo Deal Is Bad For Advertisers Or Publishers, Isn't That Just An Opportunity?
from the what's-the-problem? dept
I recognize that in times of financial crisis, it may seem more difficult than ever to imagine unique and innovative opportunities cropping up -- but it's often in such times that the most innovative businesses are formed. How quickly we forget, for instance, that Google's own business model was formed during the barren years following the last dot com bubble burst. Yet, for some reason, people seem to think that today's offerings are the be-all and end-all of innovation. That's why we get these articles worrying about how a Google-Yahoo ad deal will be bad for advertisers and publishers. Yet, there's little evidence to actually support that. The article linked above cites the easily disproved anecdote from the NY Times last month about one guy who had a spammy site that Google punished. That was the guy's own fault, not Google's.But, really, the most important point ignored in most of these discussions is that if Google really does make ad prices higher and share less with its AdSense publisher partners, that would create a huge opportunity for others, whether large incumbents or small startups, to step into that breach. If I had to bet, I'd say that there are already companies working on solutions that are more interesting and more valuable than Google's advertising plays. There are companies who are recognizing that "advertising" is not necessarily the best model, and they're working on better solutions that won't even seem like advertising at all -- but will start to take advertising dollars away from traditional ad companies. Just as Microsoft couldn't see the threat of Google for many years, Google won't even notice these companies on its radar, and while everyone's fretting a Google "monopoly" in search ads, the next revolution will be bubbling up somewhere else entirely.
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Filed Under: advertising, antitrust, monopolies, search
Companies: google, yahoo
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Guess?
Have you heard from such companies? Or is your point that it's not really unfair?
Just curious, as I don't see what the fuss is about, myself.
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Re: Guess?
Well, yes, I know of some companies that are doing some interesting things, but the real point is that it shouldn't matter. The opportunity is there for the taking.
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Re: Re: Guess?
But doesn't that assume that there are no barriers to entry? I certainly don't know much about this field of industry, but I would think that the barriers are significant, given the few players in the field.
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Re: Re: Re: Guess?
Not at all. The barriers to entering into providing a better solution for ad dollars is quite small indeed.
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Re: Guess?
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Mike is right!
VOTE McCain 2008 - Cause real change would be real scary!
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Very glass half full of you
Btw, AdSense is Google's display ad business. I think you are referring to Adwords.
VOTE McCain 2008 - Cause I want to see more Palin Fey on SNL!
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Re: Very glass half full of you
It's not really just about search advertising.
Btw, AdSense is Google's display ad business. I think you are referring to Adwords.
AdSense isn't display ads, it's contextual ads, which come from its AdWords search ads business. So they're related.
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options are good
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Re: options are good
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