Google comes to MediaCity
Matt Brittin, chief executive of Google in the UK and Ireland, was at MediaCity on Monday and revealed some interesting tidbits about the company, its current projects and its future. Ostensibly in town to visit the BBC’s new offices, Brittin also gave a talk and Q&A session during his time here, and while he didn’t touch on any specifics, he did cover most of the company’s core products. One of the most interesting revelations was that Google has access to two billion people through their data, which Brittin says now focuses strongly on social, a stat that firmly establishes them as the most powerful advertising platform on the planet, ahead of even Facebook. Brittin also discussed the role of social media during the UK riots (coming down on the side we argued for in FWM Bytes) and also, rather embarassingly for the BBC, revealed that the corporation’s default search engine is not Google. They’re Bing people at the Beeb.
Brittin also discussed the company’s future, reminding the audience that Google TV and mobile offerings are still very much a part of their plans. Search, however, remains the business’s centrepiece and Brittin insisted that content is, and will always be, king for search success. He touched upon the continued slow demise of print media and told newspapers that they must look to create consistently high quality content to encourage users to keep reading. This combination of art and science is the secret to innovation, Brittin said.
Finally, what are Google’s thoughts on MediaCity? Brittin was impressed and refused to deny suggestions that the company could look to set up a base at the site at some point in the future. “We’ve got small team in Manchester, but not at MediaCity,” he said. “Having seen the offices here, I don’t think we’d need too much persuading. I don’t think we’d say no to coming here. We just haven’t got around to it yet.” This was another standout day for MediaCity and at the speed the site’s profile is increasing, they’ll need to get around to it pretty soon…
mCommerce is going places
A few weeks ago, we wrote about some good news for mCommerce, with revenue increasing and user acceptance improving. Now it seems one of Britain’s biggest supermarkets is jumping on the mobile bandwagon by announcing the launch of instore Wi-Fi. Tesco, which has over 2,000 stores nationwide, this week revealed they are set to trial a free Wi-Fi service for customers in four stores, with an eye to rolling the service out across the rest of the country if the initial trial is a success. This would allow users to browse the web as they’re browsing the aisles, picking up online deals and offers. Tesco’s Chief Information Officer Mike McNamara told the Financial Times: “You can stand Canute-like and pretend nothing is happening … or you can say it’s happening, and I am going to help it happen.”
Tesco have plucked for the second option with some gusto. This announcement joins a May trialling of an in-store Sat Nav system that allows users to track down their favourite items using their mobile. Both services are designed with the customer in mind, but will the customer respond? The global tech company NCR Corporation has mixed news. A survey of 1,600 European shoppers found that when considering their weekly shopping 92% of customers across the continent do not use social networks and 94% do not use mobiles. However, 57% of UK shoppers said they would be happy to receive personalised information on items they often buy, while a further 43% and 37% would be happy to be sent information on new products and their preferred brands respectively. Clearly this kind of strategy may prove successful in the UK, but European markets may need a more tentative approach. Nonetheless, social and mobile technologies offer a platform to engage with customers that major brands would be wise to take advantage of.
Google goes to Hollywood
Hollywood studio Miramax has announced that it is looking to agree terms with Google over the right to stream their films online as the relaunch of the search engine giant’s Google TV platform gathers pace. Miramax CEO Mike Lang told New Media Age that they are looking to expand their content into the digital realm and Google’s strength in the advertising market makes them an obvious choice for a partnership. “We’ve had lots of conversations with Google, not only about its TV platform but also YouTube and its Android platform,” Lang explained. “It would be an incredible partner. It would bring significant scale and a great ad platform, and we like the idea of providing more free, ad-supported content on digital platforms.” Google TV stuttered on initial release, but it is thought an American relaunch is imminent with an expansion into Europe expected next year. Miramax’s catalogue includes Oscar winners like The English Patient, Good Will Hunting and Life Is Beautiful and cult classics such as Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting, so it’s clear that the partnership would not only benefit Miramax but give Google a rich source of content to entice online movie lovers to Google TV.
Facebook unlikes Likes
Having announced major changes to their profile pages at the F8 conference a fortnight ago, Facebook has now revealed a significant revamp of its page insight offering. Among the new metrics that will be helping brands make more informed social decisions are ‘Friends of fans’ (the total number of friends your fans have – essentially your maximum possible organic reach) and ‘Virality’ (which aims to give an idea of how strong a post’s word of mouth quality is). Most significantly though, there’ll be a ‘People Talking About This’ metric that will add up various engagement types, such as likes, comments, RVSPs, @mentions, Facebook Places check-ins and photo-tags, and produce an overall engagement figure. This information will be publicly available on a brand’s page, meaning your competitors can see how popular you are and you can see how popular they are. This may not sound like great news, especially if your brand is struggling on Facebook, but Craig Stoe, Context Optional VP of Product, says it’s all designed to give advertisers a more accurate set of metrics to base major decisions on. “We’re moving away from the era of ‘likes’,” he explained. “We’re now measuring what people discuss on Facebook and a brand’s total reach.”
RIP Steve Jobs
And finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the sad passing of Steve Jobs. The Apple co-founder has had a profound effect on the digital industry, his company, like Google, attempting to find new ways of blending art and science to innovate and evolve. He’ll be sorely missed. Wired and Mashable are among those leading the tributes.
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