Google's Finances Suffer...

[jascoken]

I got the following from Perry Marshall and it raises some interesting points about Google at the moment...

Maybe with the added financial pressure - and the IPO of facebook, we may see Google forced to wind back some of their anti-IM activity?

What do you think?

Google missed their targets last week, for the first time ever. Facebook's about to go public. Unless they make major upgrades, they're gonna miss their targets too.

What does that mean for you?

AdWords has finally reached a spot where the "water level" is even with other media. AdWords is still the most amazing advertising machine in the history of the world, but click costs have leveled out.

There's no such thing as a true monopoly in the 21st century. Not for Google, not for Ebay, not for anybody.

Up till now they've been able to tweak the algos (widening their kimono on broad match for example, soaking uneducated advertisers with low quality clicks) and meet their Wall Street forecasts.

They can't do that anymore. They're in what Thomas Friedman called "The Golden Straightjacket." They have to work for their dinero.

Is that good for you?

Sure is. If they have another quarter like this, banned accounts are going to start getting phone calls from a friendly Google rep. They might even up the customer service an IQ point or two...

[lukedidit]

Hopefully the missed targets also prompts them to refocus on their core model - search.

EDIT:

Just wanted to add that Amazon may also need to stroke the head of us IM'ers a little more to - there profits are right down:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...15726020120131

They have already starting to drop prices to try and gain more customers:

http://news.techworld.com/data-centr...cloud-storage/

[mrinternational]

I was wondering why after so many years I received Not one but two $100 coupon codes from google for my adwords account they both came with a very polite letter that said they miss me as an advertiser on adwords and that they would be very happy to see me back.
how things change wouldnt you agree?

[jascoken]

What I've found astonishing recently has been the contact on one hand from the sales team, encouraging an increase in AdSense block placement on many client sites, and on the other being told by the quality team about reducing them simultaneously because they think there are too many above the fold... (When actually there were only 2 small well-placed ads on the page!)

Still... whoever said Google's departments talk to each other...

[Tony2010]

Yeah I like Perry, he has quite a way with words.