Friday, August 26, 2005

Company with a vision...

I can't completely remember the first time I heard of Google. Obviously it was years ago now. Sometime in the late 90s I know that people were saying that there was a pretty good search engine named Google. At the time I was using Yahoo! primarily, and although I may have looked at it, I never really tried Google. But over time, more and more people would talk about it, and sometime in the early 2000s I started using it pretty regularly...

Today, is it almost fair to say that Google is synonymous with internet? Well, no, but it may just be THE major player in the industry. I'm sure there are various reasons for this - spanning from competitor incompetance to tech savvy. But I think that one of the keys for Google is that their growth was predicated on ideas that could provide revenue. Although I haven't done any research or study on the company, they have always struck me as focused on: (a) the Brand; and (b) becoming the best marketing/advertising company in the world. Each major development in their technology has seemingly involved more directed ways to get Advertiser A's product message directly to Buyer B - who already has an interest in Advertiser A's product.

And here's another step - a BIG step, and only rumor at this point - in their progression of becoming the world's leading marketer and one of the world's strongest brands:
Free Wi-Fi? Get Ready for GoogleNet
What if Google wanted to give Wi-Fi access to everyone in America? And what if it had technology capable of targeting advertising to a user’s precise location? The gatekeeper of the world’s information could become one of the globe’s biggest Internet providers and one of its most powerful ad sellers, basically supplanting telecoms in one fell swoop. . . .

First it would build a national broadband network -- let's call it the GoogleNet -- massive enough to rival even the country's biggest Internet service providers. Business 2.0 has learned from telecom insiders that Google is already building such a network, though ostensibly for many reasons. . . .

So once the GoogleNet is built, how would consumers connect for free access? One of the cheapest ways would be for Google to blanket major cities with Wi-Fi, and evidence gathered by Business 2.0 suggests that the company may be trying to do just that. In April it launched a Google-sponsored Wi-Fi hotspot in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district, built by a local startup called Feeva. . . . Google's interest in Feeva likely stems from the startup's proprietary technology, which can determine the location of every Wi-Fi user and would allow Google to serve up advertising and maps based on real-time data.
It seems like this company really has a vision of where they want to go. Now, admittedly - I am not a fan of the culture of pervasive advertising and marketing that we find ourselves in these days. But in an era of short-term thinking, it's interesting to find a company which seems to have a very clear long-term strategy or vision, and chases that vision every day. I think there is a great argument about the long-term effects of all this direct marketing on our society - one I'll have to write about on another day. But regardless of that tension, I've got to be honest that I Google every day, as do millions of us out there. Hmmm...GoogleAmerica one day?

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