John Battelle's Searchblog

So what does Google say to all this? After years of proudly touting their "no-self-advertising" status, what is their PR line now? Have they said anything?

maybe ads, ads & ads?

Hmm -- what's the difference between "ads", "adverts", "advertisements", "advertising", "promotion", "marketing", ...

Wittgenstein had a simple & straightforward answer: the contexts in which those words appear *define* their meaning.

And I'd add: It's the same with brands.

Google is undefined because there is no specific context -- so searching on Google is like using a Kleenex tissue...

;D nmw

Searching on Google is like using a Kleenex tissue, nmw? Do you mean that it blows?

;-)

But seriously.. I see this as part of a larger trend, with Google "going back" on everything that they once held to be definingly unique about themselves. Now that Google self-advertises, and now that they show banner ads, and now that they show non-relevant ads (see my comment a few days ago, about my experience with Google ads on merriam-webster.com), what makes Google different anymore?

Google started a decade ago by rejecting the old methods, old media, old measures. They're swinging back around, and now embracing all that they once rejected. What is the rationale for this? I would like someone from Google to sit down and clearly explain it to me.

The closest I've gotten to hearing an explanation is this line, from the Google "10 Things" corporate philosophy:

When we first wrote these "10 things" four years ago, we included the phrase "Google does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat." Over time we've expanded our view of the range of services we can offer –- web search, for instance, isn't the only way for people to access or use information -– and products that then seemed unlikely are now key aspects of our portfolio. This doesn't mean we've changed our core mission; just that the farther we travel toward achieving it, the more those blurry objects on the horizon come into sharper focus (to be replaced, of course, by more blurry objects).

This explanation about Google changes is nice, but it doesn't really help me understand why, as Google has traveled farther toward achieving their goal of organizing the world's information, they are taking a conceptual step backward and now embracing the sorts of things that they rejected a decade ago.

Is the horizon really so blurry, that the near future looks exactly like the distant past?

So your suggested slogan might be something like: "horoscopes, financial advice and chat"?

Maybe google could even get onto the "green" trip and work more towards "renewable tissues" so that they could clean their spectacles without blurring their vision by smearing them with viruses and similar sales pitches from the past... (?)