Google's Banner Day
By Rex Moore (TMF Orangeblood)
March 4, 2003
Popular search engine Google is stretching its wings once again, this time flying into the world of targeted advertising. The privately held California company unveiled a service today that promises to serve relevant ads on third-party websites in a completely automated fashion.
A real example of the process can be found on the HowStuffWorks website. Typing "transmissions" into the search box brings up a page describing how transmissions work (obviously), as well as a "Featured Results" column with ads for companies that sell or rebuild transmissions. It's much the same for any product: cameras, cell phones, electric dog polishers, and so forth. Even a page about pies brought up an unobtrusive ad for "Gourmet Pies Delivered -- Apple, Cherry, Pecan, Peach, Keylime Chocolate & more. Great gift idea." Mmmmm... pies.
Today's news is a shot across the bow of companies such as DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK). While DoubleClick may have proprietary technology of its own to serve effective ads, only Google searches the content of Web pages to bring up targeted ads -- a process it claims produces click-through rates at least five times higher than the industry average.
It's hard not to be impressed with the recent rollout of features on Google. Its News section somehow produces a completely automated, relevant, timely page that easily keeps users abreast of current events. Froogle finds products for sale online. Google Catalogs allows you to search and browse retailers' mail-order catalogs online. There are other features, including search via telephone calls, which are almost ready for prime time.
All in all, the company with the world's No. 1 brand is stepping on toes from Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) to Overture (Nasdaq: OVER) and seems to be more than ready for its much-anticipated IPO. No word yet on when that might be, though Forbes -- which said Google had about $300 million in 2002 revenue and $100 million in profit -- predicts it's coming soon.
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