Googlers pride themselves on being Googley. Remember the first line of the IPO filing (“Google is not a conventional company…we do not intend to become one…”)? But I got this press release today, and man, it sounds, well, just like any other lame press release from any other company trying to spin itself into some sales. Conventional.
Google Checkout Makes It Easy to Shop for Your Sweetheart (or Sweethearts) This Valentine’s Day
Finding the perfect Valentines Day gift for your sweetheart is hard enough, but what about looking for two? According to a recent survey commissioned by Google Checkout(TM) and conducted by Harris Interactive, 1 out of every 2 (52%) U.S. adult Valentine’s Day shoppers* will be buying gifts for more than one Valentine this year – for their spouses, for their parents and other family members, for their pets, and maybe even for multiple sweethearts.
What’s more, 43% of U.S. adults who plan to buy a gift for their significant other reported that they plan to buy him or her more than one, while 41% of U.S. online adults who typically buy at least one gift plan to visit more than one website in search of those gifts. With all these sweethearts to shop for, gifts to buy, and stores to visit, Google Checkout is making the process faster and easier.
Google actually commissioned this research survey, then used it to promote Checkout. Huh.
I’ll second that. I received this press release as well and I was: “Huh? wtf”. Doesn’t correspond too well to my perception of the original Google spirit. I’ve also noticed that the posts on their official blog(s) seems to be drifting more and more towards mere cross-promotion of their new features and services in every possible way. I think quantity has replaced quality and I long for the time when I truly was looking forward to the next Googleblog post.
In other “news” Microsoft released a study that they commissioned and filled out themselves that proves Steve Jobs is a doodyhead and the PC and Mac ads are not funny.
HAHA, Erik’s joke cracks me up! I’ll have to add to Hugo’s comment though… quantity has (somewhat) replaced quality. See below for an excerpt of a similar press release dated November 21, 2006.
“According to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Google Checkout, 40% of employed U.S. adults say they’ll be doing at least some of their online holiday shopping from work this year, with 1 in 4 of those shoppers logging on to track down that perfect gift on Monday, November 27 (57% plan to shop during coffee and lunch breaks, while 34% will wait until the end of the workday).”
Granted it’s PR, not journalism… but still! With all the manpower and geniuses they have onboard, they couldn’t have come up with a more creative plug?
Also remember that any time you read that “x% of respondents in a survey say that they do y” you cannot conclude anything regarding what percentage of people actually do y.
In this case it doesn’t matter, because (a) it’s irrelevant info in the first place and (b) the question was asked wrong. If you want a “spicy” result, the question is how many people buy for multiple girlfriends, not how many buy for both their wife and mother. Good luck getting an honest answer to that question.
I wish there were fewer surveys in the world and more research into actual behavior.
They are still tyring to make a huge push since post summer of last year to get adoption so they can show growth in other areas besides search.
Here is an article from Infoworld with some JP Morgan quotes and other details…, my guess is the big ‘G’ didnt commission this one:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070118/tc_infoworld/85245
I think they meant to say:
Neuroscience work at Cal Berkeley relating to the hierarchical temporal memory patterns of valentines gifting revealed inordinate anxiety over successfully executing Valentines day – excitation patterns were heaviest during the payment phase, especially for multi-site shoppers. Love-oriented merchandise categories and retailers that produced lower levels of perturbation in beta tests, revealed a higher, post-gift love response when shoppers employed a consistent payment engine. Time starved shoppers, using GCO functionality had a higher correlation to aspiration achievement where the common (non-subversive) ethnomethodological response was: “gee that was so thoughtful of you, come on over you big lug and let me give you a kiss.” Multi-lover scenarios, achieved similar results.
Google continues loosing its spirit, if they continue with this way soom they will be purchasing yahoo to close it 🙁
Another big bored and monopolistic company has born.