Google: strategy to sell Google Web services to businesses?
Monday, November 06, 2006It's interesting that just the day after Blogger Buzz announced that Blogger Beta was finally "feature complete", a post in Google's Adwords blog targeted owners or managers of small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) that use AdWords - we tend to call them SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) here in Europe - plugging Blogger (particularly the non-techieness of Beta), Google Apps for Your Domain (introduced in August) and Google Docs & Spreadsheets (which Google recently launched as a combo) as free tools that businesses can use.
I wonder if, given the increasing competition for the online advertising dollar, Google plan as part of their future strategy to market their other Web services to enterprise. Yes, those Web apps are free for now but maybe they'll start charging at some point, as they do for their Google search appliance. Diversification sounds a sensible strategy for Google, to me.
But, with so many different apps and services to their bow, I believe it's more vital than ever for Google to approach them in a consistent, co-ordinated way (that common phrase "joined up thinking" comes to mind). I have examples of inconsistencies, which I shall be blogging about, but for now let me leave you with this random funny - I noticed that the Adwords blog post, instead of linking the word "Blogger" to Blogger Beta, links to "http://big.corp.google.com/beta.blogger.com" (which, if you try to click it, simply leads to a "file/server not found" error message. I tried http://big.corp.google.com too, and nada). Hmmm, "big.corp"? Maybe Google will be targeting the big corporations next...
No doubt Google will correct the link when they spot it, so here's a screenshot for proof! (see the cursor and status bar bottom left?):
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5 Comment(s):
Heh, they fixed the link and noted the correction.
Actually Imp I've seen those kind of google url's leak out before. What it probably means is they created the link without the http:// in front, and when that happens the url will get the current domain the server is on prepended to it. Most likely the adwords blog is not really on blogspot servers but on big.corp.google.com, even though you'll only be able to access that domain from inside the google internal network (corp most likely refers to google corporate rather than referring to their outside interests) . Sometimes you can get a possible hint from those, but they have a ton that are just silly names. It could have been on fragile.corp.google.com or beefcake.corp.google.com. Hmmm. I hope that last one doesn't really reflect their future plans. :-)
Google Subdomains
(By Kirk, at Tuesday, November 07, 2006 1:06:00 AM) Edit Comment
D'oh. Just to correct myself. I think I was very wrong when I said that the adwords blog was probably hosted on that server rather than blogspot. But however the internal google network address got in there, the rest still probably applies. Well, probably. :-)
(By kirk, at Tuesday, November 07, 2006 1:37:00 AM) Edit Comment
Anyone know about Google Packs? I can't get it for my place
IT+Relax+News Place
(By Mike, at Friday, November 10, 2006 1:53:00 AM) Edit Comment
Hi Mike, not sure what you mean - referrals? No problem with that, I've added it to my sidebar. (And see this post)
(By Improbulus, at Sunday, November 26, 2006 9:30:00 PM) Edit Comment
Kirk, thanks, that's interesting - makes sense about the internal addresses. I like their sense of humour, big.corp...
You may not want beefcake but I'm sure lots of others might!
(By Improbulus, at Sunday, November 26, 2006 9:31:00 PM) Edit Comment
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