1. Om Malik mentions a Guardian article about a possible "billion dollar partnership" between Google and Orange to create a Google phone: "Among the potential benefits are location-based searches: aware of your handset's geographical position, Google could offer a tailored list of local cinemas, restaurants and other amenities, and maps and images from Google Earth." (A few weeks earlier, Eric Schmidt had told Reuters that mobile phones should be free.)
2. Don Dodge talks about Google's acquisition of Swiss mapping/local search company Endoxon. And its cell phone search deal with Orange. (Katie Fahrenbacher notes that Google has formed *many* other partnerships with mobile carriers and handset-makers.) He sees tight integration between local and mobile search in the future.
But Google's cell phone ambitions aren't limited to search. For instance...
3. Cingular announced its MySpace partnership a couple of days ago; I wonder if Google's $900 million search deal gives it a presence on the mobile version of the site? Verizon Wireless is offering YouTube Lite via its VCast service; might there be room for Google to subsidize part of the $15/month subscription fee in exchange for ad space? And GMail went mobile a few weeks ago. Sprint Nextel plans to include the Java app on some of its handsets.
4. In addition to mobile phones, maybe PCs should be free as well? Or nearly so? Jason Calacanis thinks Google has that in the works, after spotting a "Welcome to your Dell PC - in partnership with Google" screenshot: "Think about a PC that's sold at cost... Think about being Dell or Gateway and being offered a free OS and 1-5% of the revenue from Adsense on the computer."
5. During the press conference for the Google/BSkyB deal, Sky CEO James Murdoch says "your Internet stuff and your TV stuff" belong in a connected (and now Google-powered) marketplace. Sky's broadband customers will be offered co-branded search/GMail/GTalk/YouTube (can Google Apps and Google Docs be far behind?), and Google will - according to the Guardian - "use information about viewing habits, which can be obtained through the broadcaster's set-top boxes, to produce more targeted TV advertising. Eventually, marketing experts could tailor campaigns to specific viewers, even storing adverts on the set-top box itself."
6. TechDirt notes that the BSkyB deal has little to do with technology, and everything to do with ad inventory. After reading Joe's post, I suddenly realized that software/hosting and other technology vendors who see Google as competition have the wrong idea. Technology is the key revenue generating asset for technology vendors; attention is the key revenue generating asset for Google. Google is trading technology for attention, and since hardware/software/bandwidth are becoming more abundant while attention is becoming harder to come by, Google will end up with a stash of highly valuable ad inventory while accelerating the commoditization of technology.
7. And technology isn't all that Google's giving away. Business 2.0 speculates that the free-through-end-of-2007 Google Checkout might not be intended as a payment processing service - "And that's why it's worth it for Google to offer Checkout for free: If the Checkout logo increases click-through rates, then Google and advertisers both benefit, whether or not customers end up using Checkout. In fact, given the subsidy, Google's better off if shoppers decide not to use Checkout after they click on an ad."
8. During her Web 2.0 Summit presentation (PDF), Mary Meeker says Google might be able to double or even triple its $9 per unique visitor ad revenue within 5 years through improved targeting/conversion. And on a not-quite-related note, VentureBeats notes that 35% of Amazon's product sales result from its auto-recommendation system. If Google works simultaneously on maximizing ad inventory and ad conversion, its Ad/OS, as Robert Young puts it, will generate higher profits than any vendor's sale of just about anything.
9. Will this ad-powered convergence make Google invincible? Probably not. But I think its audience monetization strategy is here to stay. Even RyanAir is taking the same approach. According to BusinessWeek, CEO Michael O'Leary is all too glad to give seats away, seeing as "Ryanair uses its Web site, with 15 million unique visitors each month, to boost ancillary revenues. The company gets commissions from sales of Hertz rental cars, hotel rooms, ski packages, and travel insurance. For the year ended Mar 31, such ancillary revenues rose 36%, to $332 million." That's more than 10% of its annualized revenue, and nearly $2 per unique visitor. O'Leary also plasters ads all over planes, and sells passengers everything from scratch-card games to perfume to digital cameras to bus tickets.
10. Investors in Aggregate Knowledge and Quantcast should be very glad. It looks like successful presentation of contextual, targeted information will be as important as whatever actual business a company is in.
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