Google’s Future is in the Palm of Your Hands

Aaron Goldman is the author of Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google. This post is part of a blog tour celebrating the book launch, which has Aaron “appearing” at 30 blogs in 10 days. More information is available at GoogleyLessons.com.

The future success of Google is no longer fixed. Literally.

The fixed web as we’ve come to call it (because, seriously, what is the opposite of mobile?) and the process for searching it and delivering ads has become a $20+ billion-a-year business for Google.

But, with each passing day, the ways we search the web and have ads delivered are changing.

In my book, Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google, I reference the following sound-byte that Google CEO Eric Schmidt dropped at a conference back in 2002….

“The mistake we always make is we assume the success in the next 10 years will be the same as the success in the last 10 years. The dominant players always get it wrong.”

Put another way, to steal a catch-phrase from VivaKi Chief Strategy and Innovation officer, Rishad Tobaccowala, “The future will not fit into the containers of the past.”

Once again, this can be interpreted quite literally.

For the past 10 years, the container we primarily used to surf the web was a computer. Today, however, more and more people are using the web on their handhelds.

As smartphone adoption increases and the devices get better and faster, Google needs to rethink the entire search and advertising experience.

When you’re on the go with a small screen, you don’t have time (or eyesight) to sift through tens (much less hundreds) of links. Nor are you likely to click on a little text ad and complete a purchase, unless it’s immediately relevant — think $1 off coffee at Starbucks.

The killer mobile search app is not even a search app. As discussed in chapter 21 of my book, it’s an “app-ssistant.”

Rather than taking you through a string of searches and results, app-ssistants take instructions like “book a trip from Chicago to New York for business” and return recommended actions like “AA flight 368 departs 8:00am, the Marriott Times Square has a king non-smoking, and reservations are available at Nobu (hah!) for 7:30pm.”

Far out, right? Not really.

App-ssistants like this exist today. One of them is Siri, which was just bought by Apple.

Based on intimate knowledge of your preferences and robust indices of digital assets (via API integration with merchants), app-ssistants change the search game from query-link-query-link-query-link-act to just query-act.

So what is Google’s play in the app-ssistant world? As I cover in the book, the Big G has a few options here…

1. Google can create a search engine to help you find the best app-ssistants. (Boring!)

2. Google can build an app-ssistant of its own. (Privacy!)

3. Google can build the infrastructure upon which app-ssistants operate — things like centralized UI’s and easy API tools for merchants. (Bingo!)

If Android is any indication, Google’s betting on option 3 but I wouldn’t count it out when it comes to the other 2.

After all, you have to hand it to Google — it remains fixated on innovation and never lets boredom or privacy stand in its way!

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Great stuff Aaron, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and insights. If you’d like to get a little more of Mr. Goldman’s thoughts, you’ve got several options:

How about a Complimentary E-Book with Googley Lessons

Or you can pick up his book, Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

Tags: aaron goldman, app-ssistant, apps, Google, mobile