Marketing Pilgrim

What does a search engine do about photographing the cobbled streets and side alleys of the world. That’s the dilemma that Google faces when trying to add Street View to many city locations in Europe.

The solution? Well, I would have suggested micro-cameras attached to feral cats, but Google went with nerds on tricycles.

I still like my idea better!

According to new estimates from Strategy Analytics, Google’s Android operating system for mobile phones will outgrow competitors this year.

The company predicts shipments of Android-based smart phones will grow by 900% this year, while Apple’s iPhone will achieve a measly 79%–poor things.

Of course, when your market share is less than 1% and only available on one phone, it’s easy to see how Android will achieve its growth.

So, where’s this growth going to come from? Our money is on Astronomers!

App mania is certainly running rampant in the mobile industry led by the frenzy to create another fun little time waster to add to the over 25,000 apps in the Apple App Store. Fortune reports that both the Wall Street Journal and Forrester are talking about how Madison Ave. has embraced this medium to reach the nearly 37 million iPhone and iTouch users. It’s the 37 million and growing number that makes everyone stand up, take notice and create an app.

There are always two sides to every story. On the ‘apps are the only thing that matters’ side of the ledger the WSJ says:

n the past several months, companies such as Burger King Holdings Inc., Zippo Manufacturing Co. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. have experimented with promotional software applications that can be downloaded onto the iPhone, or they have created ads that are placed within other popular applications for the device.

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While Google dominates the search market for the desktop / notebook set and rakes in a ton of money with its ads it is finding that the success is not an automatic win in the mobile ad market. Yahoo is feeling the same pinch but that is just one of many issues facing that company these days, isn’t it?

Over at Investor’s Business Daily’s Investors.com an article serves as a case study of sorts regarding the challenges that face ‘traditional’ Internet ad selling giants and the rapidly emerging and changing mobile ad market. The evidence may be pointing to the fact that it’s not going to be a slam dunk for Google to seamlessly take over this world as well. This kind of says it all

When Glu Mobile launched an ad campaign in February to sell its wireless games, the company at first ran ads on five mobile Internet networks, including those managed by Google and Yahoo.

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I can’t quite figure out why the Federal Trade Commission has decided to investigate Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s role on the boards of both Google and Apple.

Is the government truly trying to find a way to bring antitrust charges against Google? It wouldn’t be the first time, would it?

Or, is this simply the FTC "going through the motions" so as to appease those that feel Google’s too dominant, while using a platform–Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act–that’s rarely enforced?

I’m leaning towards the latter, for a number of reasons.

First, Eric Schmidt was recently named to President’s Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Sure, Obama wants to send a message that there are no "free passes" in his administration, but forcing Schmidt off the Apple board is hardly a victory for those against corporate conspiracies.

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Microsoft has announced the private beta launch of Microsoft Vine, a web tool designed to keep family and friends in contact with each other.

Now, before you start screaming “Twitter ripoff,” take a close look at what Microsoft Vine is trying to be:

Send and receive alerts. Organize people into groups – the sports team you coach, people who live nearby, family far away, special friends, and emergency contacts…Check in safe and well to let your family know you are okay, let trusted neighbors know you’re headed out of town, keep people informed of situations that matter, or share general information like the team practice schedule for the week.

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Hey did you hear that newspapers are having a tough time these days? Of course you have unless you are living under a rock. You can’t turn around without hearing more doom followed a little more gloom when it comes to the newspaper industry. As discussed here on more than a few occasions, some of these troubles are deserved while others are just part of progress. What was once cool and hip most likely will be set aside for progress unless it decides to play along. Ask those folks who thought that word processing was a fad and that the typewriter would stick around (if you still use a type writer PLEASE comment here and tell your story!)

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I’ve not had a lot of luck with voice recognition technology. My Acura MDX tempts me to use the built-in voice commands, but my request for "Nearest Mexican restaurant" ends up with the mind-boggling confirmation that my "Air conditioning is set to 74F."

So, you can imagine just how easy it had been for me to resist using the voice command feature of the Google search application on my iPhone. I simply didn’t have the time to make a fool of myself repeating the same search query over and over again. However, just last week I ended my Google voice virginity and finally used a voice command, instead of typing. The result? A surprising–and satisfying–success!

Apparently I’m not the only one switching from typed searches to voice ones. According to Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering for Google:

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In what could open up a whole new set of search lingo like “head of local search” terms etc. Google is now giving local results in their SERP’s without needing the searcher to ID a local qualifier. Now when you have the emergency need for a lawyer you can save yourself a few seconds by not having to type your city or town name to find one. Well, that is really oversimplified but sounds cool.

As reported by Mike Blumenthal, Search Engine Watch and Cathy Rhulloda, Google is now using your IP address and other location qualifiers to give its local “10 pack” of results as local solutions to your one word request. If I now need a lawyer in Raleigh, NC I can just search “lawyer” and on the first page, usually around the fourth or fifth result, I will see the 10 pack.

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On Wednesday, Research In Motion (RIM), threw the doors open on its much anticipated AppWorld. This storefront is their response to the hugely popular iPhone App Store that provides access to over 25,000 applications for iPhone users to choose from. While not nearly as robust (according to MediaPost there were only 500 apps available upon launch out of a promised 1000) it’s a start for BlackBerry users. Honestly, who has the time to sift through 25,000 apps anyway?

Mobile advertising spend is heating up and poised for serious growth in the near future so BlackBerry’s move in this direction is a good one. Other companies aiming to follow Apple’s lead by launching their own app stores include Microsoft, Palm, Nokia and Google.

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No, this power-to-the-people headline isn’t a belated April Fools’ joke. A Buckinghamshire neighborhood barred a Google Street View car from photographing its homes and streets with an impromptu mob.

The Times reports that after a string of robberies recently, residents had been on the watch for suspicious vehicles. Unsurprisingly, a car with a sphere of cameras mounted on its roof fit that bill.

Resident Paul Jacobs first saw the car. Jacobs went door to door alerting his neighbors, who gathered in the road. They blocked the Google car from passing and called the police. Eventually the driver turned around and left. Jacobs told the Times:

My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime.

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Mobile Internet connectivity improvements through upgraded networks, smart phones, better data plans and more content are the main reasons why mobile advertising is starting to shift from “What’s all the hype about?” to “Finally, it’s catching up to the hype” mode. eMarketer reports that 2008 was where hype and reality crossed paths and now the future of the mobile advertising industry is poised to explode.

Regular readers of Marketing Pilgrim may be familiar with my disdain for predictions of how an industry will grow 5 years from now. These prognostications are educated guesses at best and wild eyed speculation at worst. Though they can be fun to gawk over they often times look ridiculous when seen through the rear view mirror of reality. The following chart shows just eMarketer sees the growth of US mobile advertising spend for the foreseeable future.

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