Do you Google?

(continued from previous page)

are likely to become prime online advertising space. The beauty, of course, is that advertisers may be able to target their pitches based on the type of content and preferences people select.

"If they are successful, they will eat into Yahoo's business to some degree," Jupiter Research analyst David Schatsky said.

Analysts conjectured that Google might populate home pages with banner ads, as rivals have done. Mayer didn't rule it out, but said the quality of ads in terms of targeting the right audience is more important than ad type. Figuring out how to do that can take months, she said.

"The best thing that comes out of all of this is that it's going to accelerate innovation, not only from Yahoo."

--Allen Weiner, analyst, Gartner

"There's a lot of research to be done here," she said. "But I would be inclined toward text ads."

The issue goes to the heart of Google's identity. Google's enormous popularity has a lot to do with the uncluttered simplicity of its home page--an oasis to many in a world of ever-busier, flashier Web designs. Google's plainness also speaks to the company's early reputation for putting the concerns of users ahead of, or at least on equal footing with, those of advertisers.

That's why some industry observers applaud the company's decision to leave its "classic" home page untouched while introducing the personalization option.

"If you want more from the service, you can get it--but it's not being shoved in your face, at least for now," Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, wrote in his blog.

But as Google pursues a road closer to Yahoo and MSN, will its do-no-evil mantra ring true?

In the end, it may not matter. After all, the privacy dustup over the way Google places target advertising on Gmail--by scanning the text of private messages--has not set the company back much.

"The best thing that comes out of all of this is that it's going to accelerate innovation, not only from Yahoo," Gartner's Weiner said. "It's going to be a real nudge to Microsoft too, and you can't leave AOL out of the pack. The consumer is going to benefit."

What Google does next is anyone's guess, but analysts have their theories. Weiner thinks Google will introduce an instant messaging product within six months, either by acquisition or by building one in-house. It's a major feature that Yahoo, MSN and AOL all offer. "Until they have an IM strategy, they're not fully engaged," Weiner said.

Analysts also expect Google to open Gmail up for public consumption soon. Google has kept the free e-mail service in beta-mode, limiting the number of accounts to those who are invited to join. Offering a home page without e-mail is "kind of odd," Search Engine Watch's Sullivan said.

Further out on the horizon, analysts see the Google home page as a platform for introducing more kinds of media, such as audio and video content. TV listings are another possibility, Sullivan said.

"The thing to watch is, Google is good at doing stuff that's different--features no one was expecting," he added. "They won't completely match everything Yahoo offers. They always have to do something no one else is doing."

Correction: This story misquoted Google executive Marissa Mayer. Mayer said that the company does not want to create a walled garden with its new personalized home page feature.

[Info_Max]

Forget Google, use a Search Engine that values People knowledge: AnooX

message deleted, marked as spam

[Edited by: admin on Jun 6, 2005 11:44 AM]

[201293546946733175101343322673]

Forget AnooX, use a Search Engine that values People knowledge: Google

Forget AnooX, use a Search Engine that values People knowledge: Google

www.google.com

Search with Google to get better search results. Because Google results are machine generated but then made most accurate by majority Vote of the People. Why be treated like an "Idiot Savant" by AnooX? or Yahoo!?

[CharlesJo.com]

AnooX

So you are going to plug AnooX wherever Google is mentioned. Can you at least be a little more creative than quoting the exact catch phrase that AnooX uses. Otherwise, you appear to be a commericial than a real commentator.

CharlesJo.com
Sarcastech

[farker1]

idiot savant

Do you have any idea what an Idiot Savant is? It seems not.

[Christopher Hall]

I've seen a lot of bad search engines in my day...

But that one definitely takes the cake. Not only is it slower than Google, the results weren't anywhere near relevant. I searched for "Toshiba TVs" and got entries for DirecTV.

Worthless.

[pencoyd]

Reminder: advertising is not welcome

I think the community of readers spoke up clearly enough to override any need for us to intervene more deeply in this thread, but a reminder: advertisements are not welcome, and will be removed.

John Roberts
CNET News.com product development

[CharlesJo.com]

Long live Google

Google continues to wow me and everyone I know with their neato technology and good, clean user interface. Long live Google. Someone please tell Microsoft and Yahoo! that one flashing animated banner ad is enough to offend people, let alone two on the same page! I have yet to hear anything seriously negative about Google except from its competitors :)

CharlesJo.com
The New New Media

[kieranmullen]

just wait..

google's comming out with banners.. just you wait...

[Info_Max]

Long live People

message deleted, marked as spam

[Edited by: admin on Jun 6, 2005 11:46 AM]

[farker1]

ho hum

I tried this portal - frankly, I don't like it. I set it to show my email and news headlines. The slightest content ruins google's clean lines; with the gmail notifier there is no need for displaying email on a portal, and as for the headlines, well, I already have enough rss feeds in FF.

I am sure that the portal will be useful for many people, but certainly not for those of us who use google, or alltheweb, precisely because they are not bound to a portal like google.

I realise that google will continue to provide what they call the 'classic' page, and I can't imagine that they will ever discontinue that. However, labelling something as 'classic,' as always, shows quite clearly that the marketing dept is running things.

[farker1]

oops

make that "bound to a portal like yahoo" (yikes!)

[dlanham]

Doesn't compare to My Yahoo

Google has some catching up to do in the "personalization" front, analysts said. This is definitely mastering the obvious. While Yahoo has definitely taken its foot off the gas in extending / improving the My Yahoo property, it is still years and years ahead of Google's meager effort. Google wants to "build a walled garden" and Schmidt says it has a 300 year plan to index the world's information. How do those two statements co-exist?

who cares

let google do whatever they want -- the more they extand themslves the more they have a chance to shoot themselves in the fooor, or maybe even excel at what the others are doing

a far cry

Does not come near my msn or my yahoo. At the end of the day i want to read my stuff, not look at a screen with few listings to maintain its "beauty".

[I_AM_CLEARLY_OBSCURE]

hmm...

I enjoy the simplicity of google's homepage. When I open up my browser I want the page to load as soon as possible, then I want to start doing whatever it was I got online for. I am not the kind of person that likes to sit and fumble through yahoo!, msn, or AOL's crap and waste my time for there pages to load! I will, however, enjoy exploring the new features google starts!