Monday, January 28, 2008
Search Engines Benefit From Laziness
A report came out from media buying gurus GroupM that expects Internet ad spending in North America to grow more than 42 percent in 2008.While the search engines do a decent job of connecting people with the information they want, the basic secret for their success is that people are too lazy and comfortable to change their ways. Think about it -- there are millions of searches each day for terms like "best stores for shoes" or "John Travolta movies," and these make wads of cash for Google, Yahoo et al.
Alternatives to search -- through shopping specific search engines, internet yellow pages, vertical websites and affiliate websites -- can get you the information you want faster, yet most folks go to Google.com and types in generic searches.
Why? Because it's too easy to go the same old URL, and people and because the alternatives aren't nearly as widely known as they should be. It took nearly 20 years for the unwashed masses to realize that there was a world outside of AOL, but finally people learned to explore the greater web.
Search marketing continues to dominate because people prefer one URL to thinking for a few seconds that they can get sports scores, comparative pricing, or movie reviews all from dedicate websites.
Would more advertising offline or on social networks do the trick? I remember back in the day when Yahoo and Buy.com used to advertise heavily on TV to try and get attention, but TV ad rates have scared away most of the competition. You still see a fair amount of outdoor advertising for websites, but they haven't done much to move people away from search.
So let's hear it: will search always be the path of least resistance and remain king of all advertising, or will other marketing initiatives eventually penetrate the collective online psyche?
Via Adotas.
Posted By John Gartner at 10:35 PM
Permanent Link: Search Engines Benefit From Laziness
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