John Battelle's Search Blog June 2010

Will Google Compete With Facebook? Er…It Already Is, Folks.

Last weekend the news was conjecture about Facebook doing web search, today, the news is conjecture about Google doing social networks. All of this has been sparked by two well known Valley guys opining on samesaid…Kevin Rose, CEO of Digg, tweeted that Google was working on a “Google Me” social network (he since was “asked to take down his tweet” by someone…) and then a former Facebook employee answered a related question on his own Q&A service, Quora.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, folks. I certainly don’t find it the least bit surprising that Google is continuing its push into social – let’s not forget, the company recently launched Buzz, which qualifies as a major social network, already owns Orkut, which also qualifies, and has added social features to its core search service – including Google Profiles and social search functionalities.

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Google Takes One More Step Away From China

Google today announced another step in its protracted divorce from China – to satisfy regulatory and license requirements, it's no longer directly serving results from its Hong Kong based (and uncensored) engine onto its Google.cn site. Instead, it's directing users to the Hong Kong site, in essence, creating one more…

Google today announced another step in its protracted divorce from China – to satisfy regulatory and license requirements, it’s no longer directly serving results from its Hong Kong based (and uncensored) engine onto its Google.cn site. Instead, it’s directing users to the Hong Kong site, in essence, creating one more click for users to go through before accessing its service.

And there’s no certainty that service will be allowed inside China, as the regime is clearly not pleased with Google’s failure to roll over. Google’s license to do business inside the country apparently expires tomorrow. This move was clearly intended to convince China that Google is living by the letter of Chinese law. I’m not sure that matters, and it may effect Google’s other businesses – Maps, for example.

Meanwhile, Google’s main competition, Baidu, which as a homegrown company has no such issues, has gained marketshare at Google’s expense. CEO Robin Li will be at Web 2 this Fall, a rare appearance and one certain to be newsworthy.

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Google Has to Fix The App Store

I'm not an Android user, yet (working on that), but if this piece is even halfway true, Google needs to respond, quickly, with a plan to fix the Android app store. I've heard over and over that Android's user experience, when it comes to apps, is terrible, and it's a…

I’m not an Android user, yet (working on that), but if this piece is even halfway true, Google needs to respond, quickly, with a plan to fix the Android app store.

I’ve heard over and over that Android’s user experience, when it comes to apps, is terrible, and it’s a major reason why folks love Apple. Signal over noise.

Noise and dirt are essential to the web, but there’s no reason why they have to overrun it. Curation is a media skill, an editorial skill. Not what Google’s good at. Maybe it needs to outsource it to folks who are good at it (ahem). In any case, it remains a major failing point in the Android competitive ecosystem. Take the good lessons from Apple’s app store, and exploit the weaknesses. There are many on both sides.

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Is Apple’s iWorld “The Web”?

I spent a fair portion of today at the O'Reilly Foo Camp, as eclectic an assortment of smart folks as you're likely to find anywhere. I wrote perhaps the first ever piece on Foo back in late 2003, and I've been trying to make it every year since. It's quite…

I spent a fair portion of today at the O’Reilly Foo Camp, as eclectic an assortment of smart folks as you’re likely to find anywhere. I wrote perhaps the first ever piece on Foo back in late 2003, and I’ve been trying to make it every year since. It’s quite a confab.

Today I asked a number of the folks I ran into the same question: “Is Apple a part of the Web?” The answers I got were nearly unanimous – no, Apple’s iWorld is not part of the Web. Apple’s approach to the world – one of control, limited APIs, top-down control, the utter lack of…dirt…well, that’s not the web. One researcher working on a large scale Web problem dismissed Apple to me in this way: “Oh yeah, Steve’s managed to repackage pieces of the Web and resell them to people, good for him. But that’s not the real Web, so who cares?”

Does Apple represent the same kind of threat to the Web that the Web itself represented to the PC/Windows hegemony ten years ago?

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It’s Official – Apple Kicking Google Out of iWorld

I've written extensively about iAds here and here, and one question I raised has to do with Apple's policies with regard to third party data and ad networks, in particular AdMob. As All Things Digital notes today, Apple this week "clarified" its policy with regard to third party networks, and…

I’

ve written extensively about iAds here and here, and one question I raised has to do with Apple’s policies with regard to third party data and ad networks, in particular AdMob.

As All Things Digital notes today, Apple this week “clarified” its policy with regard to third party networks, and it’s hard to read it as anything other than a direct declaration of war with Google. In short, third party ad networks can run in AppWorld, but only if they are “independent”. Put another way, sorry AdMob, you’re not welcome here. (I interviewed AdMob CEO at the CM Summit Monday, and asked him about this. This was before the policy was clarified, but he seemed pretty certain Apple would do this.)

I think this is shortsighted and wrong. I also think it’s classic Apple. It’s a re run of the Us vs. The World mentality that forced the Mac into a corner back in the late 1980s. This time, Google plays the role of Microsoft, but it really doesn’t matter. Apple won’t let anyone play in their iWorld who might pose a competitive threat.

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@CMSummit – My Presentation

Here's the deck I used to open the CM Summit yesterday. Enjoy! Opening Slides by John Battelle, Monday June 7View more presentations from CM Summit: Marketing in Real Time. PS – all the presentations are available on our CM Summit channel here….

Here’s the deck I used to open the CM Summit yesterday. Enjoy!

Opening Slides by John Battelle, Monday June 7http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=cmsjb2010-01-100607090532-phpapp01&stripped_title=opening-slides-by-john-battelle-monday-june-7

View more presentations from CM Summit: Marketing in Real Time.

PS – all the presentations are available on our CM Summit channel here.

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@CMSummit – Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Presentation

The most tweeted Slideshare of the show so far is Mary's presentation. Here it is for your reading pleasure! Internet Trends 2010 by Morgan Stanley ResearchView more presentations from CM Summit: Marketing in Real Time….

The most tweeted Slideshare of the show so far is Mary’s presentation. Here it is for your reading pleasure!

Internet Trends 2010 by Morgan Stanley Researchhttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=msinternettrends060710final-100607133705-phpapp02&stripped_title=ms-internet-trends060710final

View more presentations from CM Summit: Marketing in Real Time.

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Month: June 2010

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Will Google Compete With Facebook? Er…It Already Is, Folks.

Google Takes One More Step Away From China

Google Has to Fix The App Store

Is Apple’s iWorld “The Web”?

It’s Official – Apple Kicking Google Out of iWorld

@CMSummit – My Presentation

@CMSummit – Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Presentation

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