Marketing Pilgrim

Despite the early rough sledding for the Nexus One device, Google is moving on and making improvements to local search on your mobile device. Recently the “Near me now” feature was added which helps users learn what kind of products and services are within striking distance of their current location. While not as sexy yesterday Google announced that it is offering optimized search suggestions for your mobile searching pleasure. Google feels your pain of trying to type so much on such little keyboards I guess.

At this time these features will be available only on Android and iPhone devices. If you are a Blackberry user are you seeing a recurring theme on this one? For the folks at RIM they better get their ‘you know what’ in gear or else this train is leaving the station for good. That’s for another post though. The official Google Mobile Blog tells us

Did you get the sarcasm in that one? If a picture is worth a thousand words then Yahoo, bing and Ask.com must be saying “Oh crap, not again!” 250 times right now. Experian’s Hitwise shows why.

As we talk about often it’s not even that Google is on top anymore. That’s a given. In fact, its dominance is what makes the uninformed cry monopoly. Once again market dominance doesn’t mean it’s the only game in town. People just like it better and use it more.

What is interesting is the drop in share of the next three biggest players. Google is up one percent but all three of the others are down 4%. There is no search ‘cannibalism” going on here where they are feeding off each other. Are people looking for other search options other than Yahoo, bing and Ask that are not named Google?

Google Local Business is getting some pretty heavy attention these days. Why wouldn’t it? With 2010 being the “official” year of mobile and with Google having its own phone (although they would like to see other people have it as well) there is much to celebrate. Of course this isn’t without its issues such as listings being hijacked (check out Lisa Barone’s excellent post at Small Business Trends to learn about that mess) but nothing’s perfect right?

Well, Google is moving right along, so to speak, as they announce two new features to the increasingly important area of search for the SMB. The Google LatLong blog tells us more about being able to post to your place page:

With all of the press in the gadget and Internet marketing world last week around the introduction of the Google Nexus One smart phone you would think that there would be a rush to buy them. Appears that is not the case, at least not initially. My theory is that while there was all kind of chatter amongst the industry, they would be the most likely to buy one but they are not going to commit to a new phone and platform if they are already an iPhone user. Oh, and the VAST majority of people simply don’t run out and buy everything that is launched.

Google has decided to stop censoring its search results in China as mandated by the Chinese government—even if that means shuttering their search business there. The Chinese government has responded, reminding us all that they’re in control of the Internet in China, and nobody else should get any ideas from Google’s ploy.

Naturally, China also condemned the cyber attack (which originated in China and targeted over 30 companies, according to Reuters) and said that they are against piracy. They stated that the government has a duty to shape public opinion through means like the Internet.

Which, of course, is antithetical to one of the most basic, inalienable rights recognized by Americans and further protected by the First Amendment. But hey, to each his own, I guess.

Google seldom comments on click through rates on its flagship AdWords product. It is, after all, where they get most of their income. With millions of searches performed every day, however, the rate doesn’t have to be very high for them to clean up.

And, as it turns out, it’s not. In a thread on the Google AdWords Help forum, Google employee AdWordsPro responded to a question on what a “general” guideline for expected clicks might be. While naturally, there’s a lot of variation among industries and specific keywords, it’s interesting to see a Google employee comment (albeit vaguely) on an average CTR.

Says AdWordsPro: