GoogleBay - Google Looking At Online Classified Ads
New evidence that Google intends to leap into the lucrative and competitive classified advertising business has surfaced, this time in the form of a recently filed Google patent application that details a new type of advertising aimed at individuals.
The new technology would let people sell things on Google much as they do on eBay or craigslist. Google's application describes a technology dubbed ``Google Automat'' that would let people create ads in less than a minute. They would enter details about the item they want to sell, and Google's technology would create a small text ad and a complementary page with the full listing information.
Under one scenario described in the patent application, advertisers would pay to have their ads appear alongside Google search results.
Revelation of the new technology -- coupled with the recent discovery of Google Base, a service that would let people add content to an online Google database -- suggests that the Mountain View company is ready to compete directly in the person-to-person selling of everyday goods, an area dominated by newspapers, eBay and craigslist.
``We know they're out to own search. And it looks like they are out to change classified advertising,'' said Jim Townsend, editorial director of consulting firm Classified Intelligence of Altamonte Springs, Fla. ``It changes everything.''
Classified Intelligence discovered and wrote about the patent application this week. The patent application, which has not yet been approved, was originally filed March 24, 2004 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and published Sept. 29 of this year.
As described in the patent application, Automat shares many of the characteristics of Google's popular AdWords program, the backbone of its ad business and its main source of revenue. That system allows advertisers to create their own ads and have them displayed alongside search results.
But AdWords requires advertisers to buy keywords that match certain search queries, a process that confuses some advertisers. Automat would not require keyword purchases; Google would apparently make its own attempts to match ads to search results.
Automat also appears more targeted at individuals. ``Sell your stuff today!'' implores the sample login page in one illustration in the patent application.
Google responded to speculation about the patent with a short statement.
``Like many companies, we file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees may come up with,'' the company said. ``Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't. Prospective product announcements should not be inferred from our patent applications.''
The revelation of the proposed patent comes two weeks after the discovery that Google is testing a service called Google Base. The service, which is not yet public, is intended to let people post a wide array of content to Google's Web site so it can be discovered by other Internet users -- from classified ads and event information to databases they want to share with the world.
Classified advertising is an approximately $30 billion a year business in the United States. To date, it's been dominated by the newspaper industry. But online companies such as craigslist and eBay have been eating into newspapers' share of the market.
Google's foray into some type of classified advertising has been widely expected for some time. It fits in with the cornerstones of Google's business -- a desire to organize ``the world's information'' and its ability to offer highly targeted advertising.
``Traditional media companies will need to figure out a way to manage life with Google,'' Townsend said.
Assuming Google were to charge for classified advertising, it could provide a lucrative new revenue stream for the company, which has already corralled about one-fourth of U.S. online advertising revenue.
Ironically, the move could also generate more revenue for the traditional publishers against whom Google would be competing for classified ad dollars. Under one scenario, online publishers could carry Google classified ads on their Web sites and share the revenue with the search engine firm.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...y/13129913.htm
I have to say, after reading this i cant understand why they havent done this sooner, with all the stuff they have in their lineup at the moment they could have been a foe of Ebay and other such services a long time ago.
Regards,
Lee
