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Google Search Income Flat-lines after 25% growth in Q4 ‘07

Data from ComScore released to Wall Street analysts indicates that Google’s paid clicks in February rose only 3% compared with the same month a year earlier. Paid Search is Google’s Primary revenue source, when search users click on a sponsored-search result, generating revenue from the company’s advertising customers.
So what does this mean for Paid Search advertisers?
Google’s 25% growth rate in the final quarter may have harkened Google’s growth from new to emerging media, but the slowing of the income growth rate is not a sign that Google advertisers are slowing down.
Google dominates the U.S. search market, delivering sponsored search results relevant enough for users to actually click on them. Search is the driving force behind Google’s success. The February paid-click figures from comScore could reinforce the perception that Google is feeling the effects of the recent troubles in the broader economy, but really it is a sign that Google realizes that while it matures into mainstream media, it still has some refining to do.
ComScore even made it a point to come back and clarify for Wall Street what those of us on the Google Highway already know…
…Google’s quality improvements, known as a “Google Dance,” account for the drop-off in paid click growth. Unlike the housing boom, Google is taking time to reflect, improve, and solidify it’s position as the top dog in the world of search.

Google Unnerves Pentagon – How about Hospitals?

Once again, Google’s Streetview team seems to have compromised security, this time at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.  But don’t open another browser and look it up,  Google removed the images as soon as the U.S. Department of Defense requested their removal.

So what does this mean for Businesses or Healthcare Organizations?  It means that like the Defense Department you need to know how you are portrayed on Google Maps.  In the six months since broadening the Streetview feature from 6 to over 30 cities Google has gone from having 63% of the search market share to having 77%.

Alan Chapell, president of Chapell and Associates, which focuses on search engines told TechNewsWorld “It’s a bit late to be concerned about Google mapping and imagery. Isn’t the horse pretty much out of the barn on this?” The Horse is out of the barn, in a VW Beetle driving down your street, with a 360 degree roof mounted camera.

So how can Google’s Streetview help Hospitals, for example?  A primary feature of Streetview is the listing and location of addresses by the lot plots.  Therefore, if your Hospital occupies 4 city blocks Google’s  peg for your entrance location may be drastically off.  Editing this listing’s basic information and moving your listing’s peg exactly to your entrance can increase the ever growing number of patients who use Google to find where they are going. Adding a separate listing for Emergency Room entrances and keep patient’s from having to navigate long confusing hallways or traversing the outside of the building to reach the correct entrance.

A word of caution! According to Google there is no way to remove a listing from Streetview. If you find someone else has listed you incorrectly leave a review/comment on that listing with a link to your website, or directions on how to find the correct listing.

As more patients use GPS devices and Google expands it’s Mobile platform making sure your physical exact location is correct on Google will be as important as having a sign on the front of the building.

Microsoft - the Underdog on the Web?

At Microsoft’s MIX conference Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO, really let the questions fly, and handled himself the way one would expect the CEO of Microsoft, with audible playfulness, jokes, and a little dancing.  However, the crowd wasn’t all drinking the cool-aid. Former Apple Evangelical turned info product salesman Guy Kawasaki, blogger Rafael Rivera were among those pushing Ballmer while he attempted to show off Microsoft’s latest web wares.

When interviewed by Guy, Ballmer broke the news as gently as he could We’re in the game, and we’re the little engine that could, just working away, working away, working away. In online, yeah, it’s Google, Google, Google. I’d say were the underdog.”

One year ago at last years MIX conference Steve and Microsoft were singing a different tune of calling Google “a one trick pony” and “cute.” That would explain the court documents that Guy dug up alleging that Ballmer once threw a chair across a room when an employee let him know he was leaving for Google.

Hopefully Microsoft’s CEO has more than just the one trick of being able to slip out of that question by Kawasaki up his sleeve, because…

Microsoft = Underdog

Seems like one heck of a trick to me.

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