Using Google’s Observations to Improve Your Internet Marketing
Google collects and analyzes a massive amount of information about what interests us, how we use information and where we use information. Teasing insights from that data can have a strong impact on your internet marketing direction, strategies and tactics. Take mobile services, for example.
David Wood writes on his blog about a Google presentation about use of mobile services. The presentation, by Sumit Agarwal who is the product manager for Mobile at Google, includes a lot of insight into Google’s approach to developing applications and is very much worth a read (especially if you’re into developing software).
But from a straight-ahead data standpoint here are some interesting revelations about the way people are using mobile devices and Google’s mobile products:
- There is latent demand of mobile users for carrying out search enquiries – a demand that i smolstly being inhibited by fear of high data charges
- Every weekend, the demand from mobile devices for map tiles reaches the same level as the demand from fixed devices.
- People seem to want to search for the same sorts of things – in the same proportion of times – regardless of whether they are using fixed devices or mobile ones.
This is the sort of thing to think about when looking to the future of human and computer interaction. Thinking about these data points leads to more questions and thoughts, of course.
People want to use data services on their mobile devices more
The primary barrier to people using data services appears to be price. This price will certainly go down in the future. Here are some questions to think about:
- How will this affect my marketing efforts?
- Will my current marketing efforts be sufficient in a world where mobile devices are used as often as large screen stationary devices?
- What will have to change and why?
On weekends, map-based services are used equally by mobile and desktop devices
When William Gibson said that the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed I always thought he meant geographically (better cell phones in Asia, for example). But the future could be distributed by any of the dimensions, and here is an example of distributing the future based on time.
If mapping and locality are significant to your business, then you get a free glimpse at the future for two days a week. Make the most of it!
People aren’t different just because they’re sitting in a desk at work.
If people are searching for the same kinds of things from their mobile device as they are from their desktop, then perhaps some beliefs about “browsing habits” are either incorrect or changing. That and perhaps we’re carrying our work around with us all the time with our shiny iPhones and Android handsets.
For those who are afraid of change this last point is at least some solace: What you know about your site visitors now is applicable to a future mobile web world. People aren’t changing what they’re interested in, they’re just moving around while they’re interested.
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Outstanding read, I just emailed this to a co-worker who was doing a little research on this. Thanks again.