Recently I was interviewed by a journalist asking my opinions on Google’s “local” moves in Canada. The resulting article appeared in The Wire Report and was titled: Google to target local, business-to-business advertising in Canadian expansion.
Here are excerpts from the article where I was quoted:
James Burchill, a Toronto-based integrated marketing consultant specializing in search engine optimization (SEO), said he expects Google to leverage its capacity to go local.
“They figure that if they can get more geo-specific localization theyʼre able … increase their [advertising] market,” he said.
“I think this is probably part of their strategy to provide the necessary on-site or in-country support for business-to-business advertising.”
Burchill said Googleʼs latest portal, Google Health, also indicates where the company may be headed in Canada.
Launched in 2008, the site gives people the ability to organize their health records online and securely share information with doctors and healthcare providers. Burchill said the tool could give Google information about health trends across the country, which healthcare providers may be willing to pay for.
Google appears to be seeking fortunes beyond the search-engine market because search is under siege from social networking, Burchill said.
“People are now creating networks and clustering together. If you think of Google as a library where you can get facts, think of social networking as your local favourite coffee shop where people are talking,” he said.
“Google realizes that if it stays in good old-fashioned search, itʼs going to start losing ground to social networking,” Burchill said. He added that the company has to find new ways to compete and protect its brand.
But if history is any guide, Googleʼs prospects as a social networking engine may not be so good.
“They canʼt necessarily compete with the Facebooks of the world,” Burchill said. “They tried that with two projects recently and they burned out quite nicely.”
Burchill was referring to Google Buzz, a Gmail social networking service that critics say may not take off, and Google Wave, an online collaboration service that did not become as popular as Google hoped. The company recently said it will phase out Google Wave and use its technology in other initiatives.
The full story is available online. *TIP* If you search Google for the following phrase: “james burchill” +”wire report” you may still find the cached version of the entire article — no login required to access.
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