Reviews like this haven’t made me too anxious to dive into MSN’s AdCenter product to buy advertising.
I wonder how Microsoft feels about the uptake so far. The product was years in the making, and there just hasn’t been much buzz or positive experiences to point to so far.
I’ll give it a spin soon to see for myself, but haven’t read anything that’s motivated me to do so.
After the initial Google Spreadsheet announcement, blogs are buzzing with some of the biggest voices bashing Google, some defending them, and others just questioning their intent.
The complaints seem to range from Google getting distracted from their core mission to just putting out incomplete or bad products.
I disagree with both ideas. First, their core mission has been organizing information and allowing people to find it, and the tools they’ve been building and releasing all do have to do with organizing and working with information. And, at this point their core revenue model is advertising from Adwords ads showing up in search results and in Adsense. The main dangers to that revenue model are someone making it obsolete in some way, or Google losing search volume and losing Adsense publishers. Creating these free tools people use keeps people involved in the Google brand, thus making searchers more likely to use Google Search, advertisers more likely to think of advertising with Google, and publishers more likely to work with Adsense.
As to whether the products are revolutionary enough doesn’t matter that much. Google Spreadsheet isn’t revolutionary, and it’s not better than Excel. However, it’s good enough for a lot of Excel users, it’s free, and it’s on the web meaning users don’t need to fumble around with if it’s installed or not.
Here’s a way I like to think about web product development. When my 4 year-old daughter needs a spreadsheet application to start doing her first school projects or financial work on it, which is she more likely to use? Pay $269 for Office to get Excel? Or use a free and simple web-based application like Google Spreadsheet? I know which way I’ll be pointing her when that time comes.
That’s the thing, Google has time. The product doesn’t need to be perfect now, they’ve got the size and momentum that they’ll get users simply on their name and their Google-like ability to make things pretty darn easy to use. Will they be the best spreadsheet application in 8 years when my daughter needs it? I have no idea, but they should probably be trying.
Google has announced the release and beta of Google Spreadsheets. For the full rundown on what it is with screenshots, check out Google Blogoscoped.
The timing is right though, I’m ready for the free versions of tools that were really formally only available in Microsoft Office, which costs hundreds of dollars. Is Google Spreadsheets as good as Excel? No, of course not, definitely not if we’re talking about features. However, I don’t use 90% of Excel’s features, or 90% of the features in Word, or Powerpoint. With Writely being purchased by Google, you know a Google web word processing product is on the way, if Writely isn’t good enough already to do the job.
So, I’m a power computer user and do lots of “business” on a computer using Word and Excel daily, but the functionality I use is covered in these free web tools. The next computer I buy will not contain Office, and I’ll just use web office applications.
I wonder what percentage of Microsoft’s customers will be coming with me?
In a great win for WebTrends, Microsoft has chosen them as the analytics provider for all of Microsoft’s web properties.
Their press release covers the reasons why Microsoft made that choice. It should be a good momentum boost for Webtrends as it seems like some of the largest web companies out there have selected other vendors over the past couple of years. It’s just more proof how competitive this space is, and how much great innovation the analytics vendors are doing in their products.
With Google’s purchase of Urchin and subsequent release of Google Analytics, some have wondered if Microsoft’s purchase of DeepMatrix not too long ago was going to be a similar product offering for Microsoft. WebMetricsGuru suspects that Microsoft may not have felt that DeepMatrix could handle the needs of Microsoft’s properties themselves.
Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch talks about Yahoo and Microsoft getting together in some way to challenge Google. He brings up some very good reasons that it might makes sense for them to work together because both have their various strengths and weaknesses of going up against Google’s Search/Adwords/Adsense platform.
That’s fine, I think it could potentially help both companies although there might be some general brand confusion depending on what they do.
Either way though, it still feels like they’re playing catch up to Google. Instead of trying to catch up on their own, they’d be trying to combine their strengths to battle Google on the Search/Adwords/Adsense platform. I’m not sure that’s the right strategy. I think the right strategy would be to innovate to the next level. Is the Adwords/Adsense model really the best advertiser/publisher model possible? I wish the Yahoo Publisher Network didn’t feel like a watered-down Adsense with slightly different features. I think many publishers would have loved to see something innovative that made it a more compelling solution than Adsense, besides just being an alternative to it.
How do you innovate? Flip media on it’s head. Change the way the game is played. Be open, be efficient, be transparent, put as many people together as possible.
Robert Cringely is always an interesting read, and his latest post is about Paul Allen and his relationship with Microsoft with a a good story or two along the way. What’s really interesting is his confident prediction at the end that an upcoming anti-trust case will be the downfall of Microsoft. Wow.
The blogosphere was filled with 2006 web predictions, including my own. Looking back at mine, only one or two have come true thus far, but the year is still young. Now that we’ve already got reality for the first quarter of the year, it’s time for some quick End of Q1 Web Predictions for the rest of 2006.
1. Applications are ahead of the curve.
The Web 2.0 world will start to realize that some of the cool applications being built are fantastic, but still ahead of the curve. I think some examples of this are applications that I really like such as Newsvine and Edgeio. They are well made, but I don’t think there are enough sophisticated users yet to make these applications really take off. I’m not saying they won’t, but I think they’ll have slow growth until it really kicks in about two years for them. It’s a reason that it’s sometimes best to keep things simple. Digg took off because it isn’t complicated, it takes a lot more time to figure out how to get the most out of Newsvine.
2. We’re short on attention.
The early adopters that are using all these new web applications only have so much attention, so it will take more users to keep many of these businesses viable and growing. For example, I’ve tried out 10 social bookmarking applications, yet I only have time to use one. My mom will never use one, my daughters are still 10 years away from using one, and the majority of my coworkers in a technology industry still don’t use one. Basically, this means some will crash and burn.
3. The rise of vertical social networks will quicken.
Myspace, Facebook, and their brethren have really taken off over the past year and a quarter. We’re now going to start seeing them tighten some rules to appease advertisers and investors, and growing problems with things like the police, school administrations, and others meddling will stunt growth a bit and make them lose some “coolness”. Combine that with some getting tired of how large and unfocused they are, I think we’re going to see more social networks popping up for specific industries, topics, and areas of interest. Dogster is such an example that’s been around for a while for dog lovers. Joga from Nike/Google is an example of how we’ll start seeing social networks for sports.
4. Facebook will regret turning down $750 million.
I don’t see how they’re worth $1 billion, but maybe I’m wrong. I just feel like they’re not going to be able to get a better offer and should have taken the money while the space was still red hot.
5. MSN will release their contextual product to poor reviews and results.
MSN will release their adCenter contextual network to publishers, and publishers won’t like the experience or the results. It will be the 2nd major company to try and present a great alternative to Adsense that won’t quite deliver.
6. Google Calender will be good, which will be a shock.
Google’s upcoming calendar application will be good, which will be a bit shocking compared to some of their recent product releases which sometimes feel half-finished. 30Boxes will be okay, but others trying to enter the calendar space will be in trouble. What is 30Boxes business model by the way? Getting acquired? Premium options? Ads?
7. Blog networks won’t get acquired, but will realize their income isn’t too bad.
After the About.com and Weblogs Inc. acquisitions there was a whole bunch of blog networks that started up. Whether they were motivated by the acquisitions, I’m not sure, but I don’t think we’re going to see many more networks get acquired by larger players. However, due to multiple streams of income such as advertising, sponsorship, and affiliate programs, the owners will realize that it’s not too bad of a business.
8. Niche Ad Networks Will Start Popping Up
FM Publishing may have been one of the first, and in some ways blog networks are like them, but we’re going to start seeing niche ad networks being created by entrepreneurs who realize that large ad networks can’t focus on getting sites targeted deals in all the various industries out there. It’s not a business to build and flip, but a small team can make some great income by starting an ad network focused on one type of industry or site and maximizing that site’s inventory.
9. Content producers will start to realize the value of microchunking content, monetizing it with built-in ads, and letting it go.
While NBC did the wrong thing in forcing sites to remove the viral hit “Lazy Sunday” Saturdy Night Live video clip, it was a prime example of how microchunked content can spread, and the opportunity that exists for smart content producers. If NBC had immediately placed the clip on their site after the show with an ad or two built into it, they could have made a lot of money from that video being passed all over the web and viewed by millions. Instead, it got put out there without any monetization at all, although NBC still benefitted from the resurgence of interest in Saturday Night Live.
10. Bloggers will complain.
Bloggers will continue to complain about things such as the snarkiness in the blogosphere and what’s going on with their Technorati rating.
That’s it for now, let’s see what develops in the rest of 2006.
The SearchEngineWatch blog is reporting that MSN will be offering a time-limited AdCenter sign up on Monday, March 6th for only three hours. It will start at 9 am PST and advertisers can start creating campaigns right away.
It sounds like it’s probably meant for them to just get some outside beta testers without really opening up the flood gates. If you’re interested, makes sure you set your calendar to get in at that time.
It’s nice to set the bar high, but shouldn’t Microsoft keep statements and goals internal when it comes to beating Google? Neil Holloway, President of Microsoft Europe, Middle East, and Africa said “that in six months’ time we’ll be more relevant in the U.S. market place than Google.”
Does Microsoft learn anything from the past? A little while back they made a similar claim when launching their independent MSN search, and they now have 12% of the search market to Google’s 50%. I’m glad they have guts, but they’re starting to just look like they don’t have a clue in making claims that they can’t back up. Maybe they’ll back it up this time, but for some reason, I doubt it.
I’d rather see them say they know it’s a great challenge, and they think they have some things coming which will make them a larger factor in the search world. Saying they’ll be more relevant in 6 months…that just seems a little silly.
Pete Caputa is sniffing out what I’m smelling as well, Google is starting to go everywhere ads, which as much as they may try it means they’ll most likely lose focus on their online advertising business. They’re in a tough spot, they need to keep growing, but yet they don’t want to screw up what they have.
What does this mean? It’s getting hard for them to innovate. They’re making piles of cash from Adsense, which gives you less desire to innovate. You’re #1, everyone is chasing you, so you have to be extremely paranoid to keep innovating the way a startup would. Google may know that they need to keep innovating, but it’s almost impossible to stay as hungry. Microsoft wants to take their market. Yahoo wants to take their market. And hundreds of smaller companies with nothing to lose want to take their market. Can Google keep innovating to fight them off? I’m not so sure.