The End Of Search?

A version of the end of Search is what Google’s Amit Singhal presented at Google I/O. And, while the implications can certainly scare or annoy many, there are just as many that are excited about its implications. But, there are considerably fewer who can begin to fully comprehend the possibilities. Of those few, I can bet most are within Google’s walls.  As I have already gotten into a debate about this with some friends, the only end of search in sight is just the form of the verb we choose to assign to the act of search.

Courtesy of Google/IBTimes

I’m excited about the possibilities presented in Google’s plans to remove the verb.  What I mean is this: we now think of search as going to google.com and entering a question or query. Upon entering that, the results are given and we react from that.  What Google presents for their (and subsequently our) future is the action of presenting items that might be of interest due to the knowledge graph of our actions.  While Facebook made waves with the Social Graph, Google jumps further with the Knowledge Graph.

As we continue to move toward those simple and “free” products that help find, share and purchase, Google is gathering that much more data so that they can dynamically provide information they think we want on an individual basis. That predictive presentation of content is what is both exciting and scary. While I can see the things that are relevant on a Google map or Chrome or some other Google product, the mere fact that it knows so much about me is cause for concern.

But, as written in this blog before, we’re collectively moving past the concerns of privacy and on to the embrace of simplicity of information. By best utilizing the available data (that is growing exponentially by the day) there are so many permutations and executions we can only dream of.  It is possibly the truest form of crowd-sourcing to determine our next steps in most everything we do.  With the right applications and products, automation of mundane actions and events would lead to higher productivity and expanded experiences – if we want that.

This all leads us back to the end of search as we know it.  If things pop up based on predictions that we might like or be interested in something without our action of looking for it, is that a search?  If I am walking from the office to the coffee shop and see a cool object in a store that causes me to walk in the store, does that constitute a search for that object in that store?

I feel that the coincidental discovery of a product while doing something else is not a search – something a good friend of mine disagrees with. But, based on my theory, if systems are going to get smarter based on the massive data it receives and start presenting options and items that make sense as my possible next query, without the action of my thinking to ask the question, does that not mean we have reached the end of search?

Enough With The “Build It And They Will Come” Mantra!

With the winding down of the Digital Content NewFront (DCNF), one thing is clear – there is a lot of compelling video content.  The question remains - will enough people find it? Online/Mobile video providers are not the only ones confronting this dilemma. A multitude of options are available for audiences of all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. and that hasn’t changed – other than just getting larger by the day. While TV content providers had to go through a phase of dwindling audiences and learning to be able to deal with it, publishers of digital content never had anything but a diverse, wide and scattered environment with which to service. Those in the space always knew that while we could track more information and produce content more inexpensively – but it would be hitting fewer people than the broadcasters and many cablecasters were.  That scale was the first challenge that I think we have collectively gotten over.  Perhaps the biggest hurdle moving forward is the limited perspective usually found in dealing with everything surrounding the actual content creation and the driving of eyeballs to content. It was kind of understandable why many people thought they could build something cool, slap it up on the web and generate some traffic or buzz back in the day.  Before Social Media came on, that was certainly easier – not always completely effective, but more effective than it is now. Today, while many marketers talk about the need for Social integration with their brands and their digital marketing products, its frustrating to witness how many people are still mired in the ideal of “Build it and they will come.”

We see many instances of digital products that take off and generate buzz in a timely fashion, but only tick off one or two boxes out of the five that they could have hit if planned and produced fully across all channels and divisions. Many success stories are achieved almost by accident and many marketers jump on to take a part in its glory. It should no longer be acceptable for a marketing team or vendor to engage on a project based solely on a cool idea if they do not have an executable plan for reaching the right audience.  When setting KPIs or projecting ROI without a clearly defined smart distribution/seeding plan, you’re working in a “fingers crossed” capacity.  Some feel that by creating something cool and putting media behind it, they will be successful.  They will probably be more successful than if they just placed the marketing product in the digital realm, but it’s still not as strong as it can be.  And, that’s why strategy goes beyond any individual campaign and looks to leverage all existing distribution/seeding outlets.

Bringing it back to DCNF, Google/YouTube is the last presentation and will be touting the deeper opportunities with channels – where users can delineate what they are most interested in and have those videos come up in quasi-curated groupings. This might make things a little easier – especially on the video platform that serves up 3 billion hours of video a month. But, for the content creator and any advertisers who are paying for product inclusion within the content, there still needs to be some sort of engagement that actually drives the eyeballs to the content.

While it was nice to see some interesting content presented during DCNF, there’s still a huge lack of compelling discussion of how users will be drawn specifically to this content.  If they are just relying on the conceit that viewers are organically drawn to the affinity channels they most associate with, then they’ve had their eyes closed for a while.  On television, there are MANY channels that I have an affinity for. Yet, there are maybe 15 channels that I will flip through when not watching something in the DVR. Studies have shown that I’m not alone.  So affinity alone does not hold too much water when discussing the introduction of new shows and the generation of viewers.

Moving away from video and focusing on digital marketing products, it’s the same thing. A close friend of mine, Jo Oskoui, told me about an experiment his team just completed that speaks directly to this dilemma.  His company, Oskoui+Oskoui, will be publishing a study that delves deeper into the specifics, but the gist is that they had produced a piece of content and originally posted it only on their blog.  They posted the piece in Q3 2011 when there was a lot of buzz about the related product – a product with a huge cultural value that happened to have a major consumer product release at the time. Their blog gets decent traffic for a blog of that type, but they wanted a limited posting and then see what happened. The basic creative element got less than 50,000 views since posting on their blog - OK but not much.  More than six months later, they completed their experiment by engaging their proprietary social distribution and seeding network to distribute the same exact piece of content and were able to garner over 3 million views with a high rate of re-posting in only one week.

This exemplifies the importance of having a whole plan surrounding any digital marketing product launch. There is too much happening in the digital realm – without even get into the today’s crazy buzz about George Zimmerman’s legal defense team launching a site and social media outlets – nobody can rely on just placing content in the digital realm and expect people to find it.

The good news is that there are many cost-effective options for creating that holistic marketing execution. In fact, I would push vendors to not only come up with the creative idea, but the sound executable plan for generating the distribution that’s required to make a difference (and establish the parameters of success.)  Many companies already engage separate vendors to do creative production, social strategies and implementation, and publicity, but they don’t do a great job of keeping every group up-to-speed – leading to less effective campaigns and wastes of money. So, even if the creative agency isn’t a one-stop shop, that doesn’t preclude the marketing team from engaging all groups internally and externally to set the stage for a whole campaign.

We know that we won’t strike gold every time, but we’ll certainly do better if we go out with a smart strategy and ensure that the strategy and products are communicated across all parts of the company – not just putting content out there and crossing our fingers that people will find it.   FIELD OF DREAMS is a fictional story and we know that the famous line,”Build it and they will come”is just a piece of dialog – we just need to act like we know that when launching our campaigns.

Coachella Fix Served by YouTube and State Farm

There is the saying that nothing beats the real thing, but sometimes what you have to settle for ain’t to shabby. This was the case with the Coachella Live site on YouTube. For those who were not lucky enough to get tickets nor able enough to take off for a weekend of all the crazy things that happen over the course of the weekend on a Polo field, this presentation sponsored by State Farm insurance was fantastic.  Sporting three live streams on a dashboard that included thumbnails of what you’re not watching, Facebook/Twitter/Google+ and a schedule of what’s to come, there was no lack of exploration and enjoyment possible. YouTube really showcased a phenomenal product and Coachella was able to serve the fix of a much larger audience to celebrate the music exploration and wonder that is Coachella.

There were a number of elements that really made this content great:

• The interface was simple, clean and clear;
• The production quality was strong throughout. The on-site direction and coverage was comprehensive and, in some instances, rivaled that of a well produced concert video.
• The streaming quality was better than I had expected. In most cases, both the small and full screen versions were very clear. Sometimes, the images were getting pixellated, but there was no rhyme or reason that I could make out. When the image quality was good, it was great and when it wasn’t, it wasn’t that bad.
• The sound quality was clear and consistent throughout – even when the picture was not.
• The Chat was extremely active with very little delay.  Unlike previous versions of this type of thing that I’ve seen, you could see songs, comments or lyrics presented on stage referenced almost immediately in the feed. The fact that three major social networks were incorporated  for ease of entry and use seems like a no-brainer. It’s surprising how many feeds choose not to use more than Facebook and Twitter…
• State Farm’s sponsorship was persistent, tasteful and refined while not interfering with the content.  Meaning, they didn’t pause sets to show a graphic in-stream - or some other annoying ad mechanic.

Though there was mention of the live streaming on YouTube and the Coachella site, I didn’t see any wide mentions or promotion for the feature.  Perhaps I missed it and imagine there could have been some artist relationship elements to consider.  Ultimately, the people who were most interested were able to find it – either by searching it out or finding it organically through friends’ social activity.

Talking about artists relations, I was impressed that the artists allowed it – and even more impressed about some of the artists that participated. With the point of the weekend(s) being music and the exploration of new music, the site makes perfect sense.  I was able to check out a solid mix of acts I knew and had even seen live before with a healthy dose of new acts.  I know that the experience is not the same as being there, but I am sure that Coachella Live viewers were able to jump from stage to stage much more quickly and easily than anyone who was physically there. The fact that I could jump from a great view of Miike Snow to the pit of Radiohead without leaving my chair was awesome.

On a personal note, My commute home after Radiohead’s late set on Saturday and Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg’s star-studded show to close it all on Sunday night was much more comfortable than driving home from Indio.  And, the fact that I already have State Farm insurance made me feel that I wasn’t just being a freeloader – I might even feel a little bit more loyalty to them because of it.

Hopefully, this becomes a trend for more live events as it really extends the community and the technology has come about to enable that like never before. The technology upgrades has made the experience drastically different from when I spent hours in front of the television watching Live Aid as a kid.  Who would have thought then that we could control what we were watching without having to suffer through commercials and annoying MTV VJ commentary?

Props to Coachella and its partners for taking the festival to the next level by making the experience extend beyond the 180,000 people who actually get to go to the two weekends in the desert.  The fact that YouTube is now hosting some of the full sets, it really extends beyond the desert. And, you get a chance to see some freaky cool things like the holographic Tupac performing. Thanks for providing the opportunity for many more people in many countries to get their fix…

Sony Wins With Tic-Tac Box Sized Ultrabook

Blowing everybody away this weekend, Sony unveiled their full-powered Ultrabook that is the size of a quarter.  I’ve mentioned here before how Intel has been trying to get the word out and Sony has done it majestically with its Vaio Q product. As stated in the post title, this product that is smaller than a Tic-Tac box is sure to make Sony a winner and bring Ultrabooks to the forefront of every consumer’s mind.

Something must have been happening this weekend for a number of technology companies to launch products with Q at its core. The other big one is the Quest option for Google’s Map product. Oddly launching on a Sunday, users were able to find a button for Quest in the upper right corner at maps.google.com after they entered the address.  By doing so, the service provides a wonderfully simple 8-bit chroma version of the map (of course, this is all in honoring the game, Quest).  As you can see in the map of my neighborhood, it does me a huge service by pointing out the things that are most important – a park, a diner and a mexican restaurant that has live music six nights a week… Oh yeah, and the schools that my daughter will not be attending for Elementary and Middle schools.

And, of course, I know this is all for April Fool’s Day – I recounted some from last year in my post on Friday.  The thing is, there are some strong opportunities to market products and have an eye on the future with some of the pieces that were joked about.  The Google piece above was just one of MANY things the Google folks offered up – April Fools has seemingly become their most holy of holidays. The Quest piece is what seems to have gotten the most buzz (I was sent something about it by 10s of people directly and its been written about everywhere) but they have also done things like offer: every single movie ever on DVD to your door (from YouTube); change the weather to serve your needs; auto-driving NASCAR race-cars; tracking traffic to your sites from other planets;

and, the Googlers from Oz announced their new Google street cam placed on Kangaroos’ heads. Of course, this would never fly in the States because some boneheaded legislator would find something wrong about it – and that wrong bit would have nothing to do with cruelty to animals.

But let’s get to the good stuff.  And by good stuff, I mean things that could leverage the fun to possible sales instead of just something to take up excess free time on the job. In the UK, Firebox.com has announced the availability for pre-order on Personalized Fireworks.

They even go so far as to offer the following caveat:

Please Note:

• Best viewed from a distance of 10km
• Make sure the box is facing in the right direction and check all commercial flight patterns before lighting the fuse
• Once lit, retreat to a safe distance of 200m
• Display last approximately 5 seconds
• In some cultures may lead to idolatry

It really gets me that I have to check all commercial flight patterns and that there is not a chance in hell that I will be able to get 200m away, let alone get to the requisite 10km for optimum viewing.  But, in all seriousness, I bring this up because their product page is surrounded by all the products that they really do offer.  Yes, their product is funny and they certainly had some fun with it, but they are able to then leverage the traffic to drive awareness and, hopefully, sales at the same time.

Also in the UK, mobile provider O2 announced a new phone with a humongous battery that would last for 1,000 hours of talk time and 92 days of stand-by. Sadly, the phones are not that comfortable when kept in your pocket -

but the key thing here is that O2 does actually have a product named On and On.  If someone were to look for that, it would show up on the home page of O2 as their unlimited package.  Again, a good example of something that could drive to more business.

Toshiba got some buzz for its response to Apple and their Patent prowess.  In order to move away from the rectangular tablet, they devised a “Shapes” line where the tablets are anything but rectangular.

I look at this as something that could get people thinking about the future possibilities for technology.  So, even though it might not lead to other sales, it does something for the better good, beyond making a joke.

There are probably hundreds more of these things that appeared at larger or greater scales. If Intel and Sony were smart, they would look to parlay any interest in this obvious joke product of the Sony Vaio Q to illustrate that the Ultrabook product is still quite sweet.  Again, leveraging these things against actual product sales is all about keeping the conversation going – unless, of course the conversation veers to a funny recent post on the Sony Vaio Q YouTube page that laments, “WOW THAT WOULD REALLY SUCK FOR WATCHING PORN.”

April Fools’ Day Protection Mandated By Supreme Court

Though the fact that April 1st falls on a Sunday  this year diminishes some of the fun of April Fool’s Day – as most of us won’t be in our offices - there’s still a lot to look out for.  Consider this to be a friendly public service to make sure you don’t look the fool too easily.  As we don’t know what tricks are up some marketers’ sleeves, here’s a perfect opportunity to look back at some of the foolery from last year to help protect ourselves on this upcoming day of fools – as mandated by Justices Alito and Ginsburg…

Last year, London’s morning Metro promised to deliver the news and a snack.  I just don’t know how likely the custom of leaving issues on the Tube for others to pick up and read would continue. Kudos to Warner Bros. for getting the WILLY WONKA call-out.

Marmite tempted the taste buds with their supposed joining with Vaseline to offer some good old yeast extract lip therapy.  It makes me gag just thinking about it.

Some people were extremely saddened that this offer of Child Free sites was just an April Fool’s joke. I’m sure they would have had quite a few takers had it been for real.

Supposedly some people made this drink with lemon juice and milk and said it was good. I can’t imagine, but a hearty “Huzzah” to Captain Morgan for having some fun and the people who tried this with the implicit risk of projectile vomiting.

Luckily, the following offered new jobs for a hard-hit economy:

So, anybody who was incredibly smart with an encyclopaedic memory with the ability to type 34,000 words per minute who was struggling to find a job could have gotten this Autocompleter job at Google.

And because nobody can believe that something about dogs is not true, You’ve got to love the Hundstol dog high chair that IKEA was advertising.

April Fool’s Day is an underrated opportunity for brands and companies to have some fun. It’s a shame that it does not fall on a work day this year as a bunch of the fun will be diminished. Fortunately, the Supreme Court has not laid down the law as it pertains to fooling family members or housemates. Good luck.