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People use smartphones, tablets, and notebooks/desktops for different purposes.  This might fundamentally affect the type of searches, click-through rates, and conversion rates.  I'm not sure if CPC will necessarily be a good metric for overall monetization per person.

 

Don't get me wrong, CPC isn't a great measure for the debate at hand.  It's just the best measure available.  Google doesn't publish monetization per user, so guessing on where it is and where it's going is kind of pointless.  You have no data available to support your claim.  Of the metrics that Google publishes, CPC is the best one to proxy the impact of mobile.

 

I agree with you that the advertising dynamic is shifting very rapidly and that the true potential of mobile hasn't yet been reached.

 

I see higher usage of smartphones/tablets as being pretty unimportant.  The biggest threat to Google is another company taking away its search dominance, like what Google did to Yahoo and what Yahoo did to its predecessors.  That's what the big picture looks like to me.  Smartphones/tablets are mostly noise to me.

 

Smartphones do present evidence of search erosion for Google.  A good example is local retail:

Desktop scenario: You will probably Google "chinese food toronto" if that's what you're looking for.

Mobile scenario: You will probably hit your Yelp (or equivalent) app and choose "chinese food" from the menuing system.

 

That's one less search and one more bypass.  That's a real challenge for Google and lends credibility to the idea of Apple developing Siri.  One major reason why using Yelp is better than search is because typing out "chinese food" and digging through web links to get to a Yelp page is much more challenging than setting your context first (Yelp) and then choosing "chinese food".  Saying "chinese food" closes the gap quite a bit, which makes Siri interesting.  Too bad for Apple they are completely ham-handed when it comes to web services, or they could have had a winner. 

 

I have been noodling a theory that Apps are highly analogous to the early web concept of "bookmarks".  Back in the dark ages of search, when Angel Fire and Geocities were prominent web properties, "bookmarking" was a prized call-to-action for web visitors.  Bookmarks were really valuable because search completely sucked.  The only way to get back to where you were was to bookmark the location.  Now that web search is amazing, bookmarks are seldom  used.  Apps share a lot of the same characteristics with bookmarks.  Getting people to download your App is like asking them to bookmark your site - they can get back to your service more quickly.  Where the analogy falls apart is that Apps have a richer experience than the equivalent website, so that's a really good reason to download them, too.  But the part that's interesting is how people prefer Apps to search, and why.

 

Google Now is apparently amazing.

 

Apple has been hiring heavily in the Siri team. Stay tuned, there's a lot more to come.

 

Apple's goal with Siri is not to create just a search engine on steroids but a new user interface for the device itself that include search functionality.

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In case you haven't realized, I'm incredibly bullish on any Internet advertiser's ability to monetize its users.

a- Growth in online shopping will drive up competition for ads.  There are still some things that I'd like to buy online but can't (e.g. video games that you can't buy via digital download)... it's pretty obvious to me that there is still a lot of growth ahead for online shopping.

b- Better ad targeting.  Ad retargeting for example is an innovation that many companies will copy and benefit from.

 

I see higher usage of smartphones/tablets as being pretty unimportant.  The biggest threat to Google is another company taking away its search dominance, like what Google did to Yahoo and what Yahoo did to its predecessors.  That's what the big picture looks like to me.  Smartphones/tablets are mostly noise to me.

 

The reason why mobile is important to Google is that it is changing user's habits. Google is trying to change those habits in a way that keeps search relevant.

That is why they built an operating system with puts search front and center. They want search to be your gateway to everything.

 

Facebook is doing the same thing too. That is why they built Facebook Home and put FB front and center. They want your gateway to the online world to be a social network. Best of all, they get Google to subsidize the OS and the infrastructure for them to do it.

 

I expect Amazon to follow with something like FB Home. BTW, Amazon wants to be your search engine for online shopping. They're fine with you using Google to search for information but when you want to buy anything, they want you to search for it using Amazon. Hence, the Kindle Fire which puts Amazon front and center. But it will be cheaper for them to hijack other Android devices like FB has demonstrated.

 

Then there's Twitter and possibly even Yahoo at some point in the future.

 

 

 

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Facebook is doing the same thing too. That is why they built Facebook Home and put FB front and center. They want your gateway to the online world to be a social network. Best of all, they get Google to subsidize the OS and the infrastructure for them to do it.

 

I expect Amazon to follow with something like FB Home. BTW, Amazon wants to be your search engine for online shopping. They're fine with you using Google to search for information but when you want to buy anything, they want you to search for it using Amazon. Hence, the Kindle Fire which puts Amazon front and center. But it will be cheaper for them to hijack other Android devices like FB has demonstrated.

 

Then there's Twitter and possibly even Yahoo at some point in the future.

 

I hope Amazon gets better than 2 out of 5 stars from reviewers when they do their new launcher. :)

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.home&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5mYWNlYm9vay5ob21lIl0.

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no_free_lunch Newbie

no_free_lunch

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A lot of users don’t know what to make of it, or have already decided against it — right now,  11,923 user reviews put it at 2.2. As a point of comparison, Facebook’s normal Android App has a 3.6 rating. Fruit Ninja has a 4.3.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2013/04/22/google-play-user-reviews-have-low-marks-for-facebook-home/

 

Anecdotaly, I have asked several friends their opinion of it and the reaction has been uniformly negative.  The most frequent comment being, 'I don't want facebook taking over my phone' or 'what do I get out of it?'.

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I've been searching for a reason why the stock is at yet another all time high today. But I doubt that's the reason. :)

 

Maybe it's their brilliant capital allocation :-)

 

it's their search franchise. which Facebook is supposed to be stealing. Stay tuned? :)

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I've been searching for a reason why the stock is at yet another all time high today. But I doubt that's the reason. :)

 

Maybe it's their brilliant capital allocation :-)

 

it's their search franchise. which Facebook is supposed to be stealing. Stay tuned? :)

 

Google keeps saying about how as spending has not moved to mobile yet. FB, however, seems to have no problems moving revenues to mobile.

 

I have been watching. I've been watching both RIM's and Apple's stock price.

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txlaw Newbie

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Sundar Pichai interview:

 

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/exclusive-sundar-pichai-reveals-his-plans-for-android/

 

Looks like they're going to make a major Google Cloud Platform push to get developers off of AWS and onto the Google platform. 

 

What's amazing is that some analysts give so much value to AWS when valuing AMZN.  If that's truly the case, think about the embedded value that Google (and Microsoft) have in the infrastructure that they can open up to these guys.

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Google Drive now gives you 15GB of free storage.

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57584080-93/google-drive-triples-free-storage-to-15gb/

 

It will be interesting to see if there are any releases at Google I/O that show what the need is for the bump up.

 

because they can. :) it's nice to have one of the very best large businesses on the planet. it allows you to do things others can't.

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Google Drive now gives you 15GB of free storage.

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57584080-93/google-drive-triples-free-storage-to-15gb/

 

It will be interesting to see if there are any releases at Google I/O that show what the need is for the bump up.

 

The news releases before a major event at usually the ones they consider less important. These are the types of releases that will get lost among the major announcements during the event and not get attention. So they put them out a couple of days before.

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premfan Newbie

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Just a thought for the google lovers. Hollywood is releasing a movie called the internship which is based about working in google. Hollywood has an amazing track record calling tops . The stock price might be reaching its limit based on hollywood essentially making a movie about the company. No skin in the game. Just a thought.

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