Comments on: Google Market Sense http://boakes.org/google-market-sense/ talking up a better world, over tea Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:04:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Stephen Newton http://boakes.org/google-market-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-3774 Stephen Newton Thu, 23 Feb 2006 12:50:48 +0000 http://boakes.org/?p=530#comment-3774 I think it’s more subtle than that. Feel good is mostly a nice by-product. Analytics can help page rank as tells Google more about how people use the web. It shows how dependent a site is on search traffic; a high dependency might suggest the site has little following. How sticky is the site; do people spend any time there? If not, the site may be low quality. I’m sure there are plenty of other examples. It also tells it the proportion of searches performed by competing search engines. I think it’s more subtle than that. Feel good is mostly a nice by-product. Analytics can help page rank as tells Google more about how people use the web. It shows how dependent a site is on search traffic; a high dependency might suggest the site has little following. How sticky is the site; do people spend any time there? If not, the site may be low quality. I’m sure there are plenty of other examples. It also tells it the proportion of searches performed by competing search engines.

]]> By: Rich http://boakes.org/google-market-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-3773 Rich Wed, 22 Feb 2006 15:40:33 +0000 http://boakes.org/?p=530#comment-3773 These were first pass thoughts, so naïve is a fair criticism. The Analytics T&C's state that "Google will not share information associated with You or your Site with any third parties", which sounds fairly good for assuring direct comparisons are avoided. What that statement doesn't say however, is that "Google will not sell knowledge and services <em>derived</em> from the analysis of information associated with you or your sites. For example: A visitor searches on Google for T-Shirts and visits your sloganeering T-Shirt site. AFAICT thre's nothing in the T&C's or in law, that prohibits Google from telling you that n% of customers who visited your site went on to make a related purchase from a competitor. I just can't buy into the idea the Google need analytics for the feelgood feedback of happy site owners; but I concede that there is the possibility that the entire Analytics business model is based on that - a loss leader to ensure site owners are friendly with Google. The benefit for Google, if this is the case, is that if a site owner is already using Analytics, then using Adsense is just a few clicks away, inreasing potential of yet another site that they can sell Adverts on. These were first pass thoughts, so naïve is a fair criticism. The Analytics T&C’s state that “Google will not share information associated with You or your Site with any third parties”, which sounds fairly good for assuring direct comparisons are avoided.

What that statement doesn’t say however, is that “Google will not sell knowledge and services derived from the analysis of information associated with you or your sites.

For example: A visitor searches on Google for T-Shirts and visits your sloganeering T-Shirt site. AFAICT thre’s nothing in the T&C’s or in law, that prohibits Google from telling you that n% of customers who visited your site went on to make a related purchase from a competitor.

I just can’t buy into the idea the Google need analytics for the feelgood feedback of happy site owners; but I concede that there is the possibility that the entire Analytics business model is based on that – a loss leader to ensure site owners are friendly with Google.

The benefit for Google, if this is the case, is that if a site owner is already using Analytics, then using Adsense is just a few clicks away, inreasing potential of yet another site that they can sell Adverts on.

]]> By: Stephen Newton http://boakes.org/google-market-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-3772 Stephen Newton Wed, 22 Feb 2006 13:48:15 +0000 http://boakes.org/?p=530#comment-3772 I think this is a little naïve. It assumes that competitors would be happy to share extremely detailed and confidential data. In the unlikely event that they were, collusion on that scale would almost certainly be illegal: it would amount to price fixing as competing stores would mimic each others best aspects to the point where they became clones. Indeed, Google would need to be in a monopoly position and that would throw up regulatory concerns. That’s before you consider the privacy issues. I think this is a little naïve. It assumes that competitors would be happy to share extremely detailed and confidential data. In the unlikely event that they were, collusion on that scale would almost certainly be illegal: it would amount to price fixing as competing stores would mimic each others best aspects to the point where they became clones. Indeed, Google would need to be in a monopoly position and that would throw up regulatory concerns. That’s before you consider the privacy issues.

]]> By: Alexander http://boakes.org/google-market-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-3771 Alexander Wed, 23 Nov 2005 10:56:21 +0000 http://boakes.org/?p=530#comment-3771 Nice article, indeed I also believe one of the reasons is that Google will use the data to improve their ranking system and so eventually the affiliate websites will rank lower than unique content websites. Nice article, indeed I also believe one of the reasons is that Google will use the data to improve their ranking system and so eventually the affiliate websites will rank lower than unique content websites.

]]>