Marketing Pilgrim

Mark your calendars for April 10!

That’s the day that Google is reportedly going to officially pull out of China, with the announcement coming as early as Monday.

According to Bloomberg (via China Business News) this is all based on a tip from an anonymous sales person inside Google’s Chinese office–I could make a bad joke about the game of Chinese Whispers, but I won’t.

Anyway, I really can’t help but ponder the real reason Google is pulling out. Is it because of the security issues? Is it because the search engine is struggling to dominate the search market? Surely its decision isn’t purely a stance on censorship. After all, China’s not the only country that requires Google to censor its results:

Remember like 10 years ago when the “cool” thing to do was WebTV? A computer on your television set, with a keyboard and a mouse that worked (sometimes) with no wires?! Okay, so it was never really that cool—maybe watching TV and computing simultaneously hadn’t been invented yet—and yet Google is partnering with Sony to bring the Internet back to the television.

Right now there are a few set-top boxes that offer access to limited Internet content. Google & Sony’s box, with the Android OS, would allow users to access the full Internet, possibly with apps for popular sites like Twitter and Picasa, according to the New York Times.

Yesterday at OMMA Global in San Francisco, US Cellular illustrated a unique way they were using search campaigns: to test calls to action for their print campaigns. According to MediaPost:

U.S. Cellular tested six paid-search campaigns to determine the one targeted message that would reap the biggest rewards and conversions. “The messaging is limited because you have 70 characters, so it won’t be exactly the same message, but you can see specific calls to action that might work better than others,” [EVP & Managing Director of SMG Search Jill] Balis explains.

Google is testing a new opportunity for companies to advertise in Google Maps. While the tests are only being run Down Under (Australia) it doesn’t mean that they are being secretive. The idea is a way to for companies to make their listings on Google Maps stand out a bit more thus increasing their exposure. While this would seem to be perfectly suited for mobile users it is currently only being rolled out on desktop and notebook environments.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports

Google has begun putting ads on its popular maps pages in Australia, a sign that the search engine giant wants to convert more of the high traffic to its websites into advertising dollars.

Logos for Bankwest, JB Hifi, LJ Hooker, NAB and Chemist Warehouse have started to appear on maps when users zoom in close.

We all know that it is virtually impossible for Google to keep a low profile on anything. When you are that big and influential everyone is paying attention and it seems like every time someone breaks wind at the Googleplex it’s news. It’s the price of fame I suppose.

Of course, if you create the kind of stir that Google recently did around its Buzz service and the apparent “mistake” of making way too much information public without asking the users, then people pay close attention.

One of those is the soon to be ex-Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, Pamela Jones Harbour. During an FTC roundtable discussion in which she noted that her remarks were her own and not those of the FTC (since she is the acting commissioner until April 6 I call BS on that statement but that’s another issue) and the Wall Street Journal reports

Each month we tell you about reports that have come out which talk about the fact that Google is still leading in search. It pains me to write these sometimes because there is nothing to make anyone stand up and take notice. I think we all get it that Google is the dominant search engine across the board.

Where it can get interesting, though, is just how dominant Google is in search for a major business segment online: the enterprise. The latest findings from iCrossing have been reported by MediaPost. To be fair, the author of the article I am referring to is an iCrossing employee. In this instance, though, there is less concern for results being “skewed” since there is no real advantage to iCrossing in reporting these findings (other than some market exposure, of course).