Google Succeeds Where Governments Fail

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With Google now recognised as the UK's number one brand we're seeing the developing maturity of an Internet-controlling corporation. Google has been remarkably subtle and intelligent in taking control of the Internet. They won the search engine wars some time ago, effectively defining the way Websites are developed and presented. Governments and the EU have tried to do this and failed.

The Rise and Rise of Google Checkout
It seems certain that we're about to see strong growth in take-up of Google's checkout system for buy-online Websites. Google Checkout is a good example of the company's subtlety. EBay's PayPal has a long-established lead here, but it's regarded as e-commerce for amateurs; it's a great way of selling Billy's outgrown bicycle, but there's no real solution here for serious Internet marketers. By contrast, Google has introduced a feature-rich, scalable payment solution that's easy for developers to implement.

David Ogilvy always maintained that having a product that delivers what your customers want is an essential for sustained market success. Google's satisfied that criterion, but it's then raised the stakes by a clever offer proposition: free order processing to a value of ten times your pay-per-click marketing spend. I have a client spending around £6,000 a month on Google Adwords. Effectively that gives him free order processing, which makes alternatives like ProtX or the infamous HSBC payment gateway look ludicrously expensive.

But Google's cleverer still, using their Checkout puts a highlighted flash on your paid Google advertisement, which is already shown to be increasing click-through rate. This is going to make all of us more aware that Google Checkout exists and, sooner or later, every one of us will have set up a purchase account. Now the snowball rolls. Once you've signed up, it's easier to buy through a Google Checkout than anyone else's, and the alternatives start to die.

I foresee Google Checkout becoming the de facto standard for buying online in under twelve months. EBay is actually banning it from its auctions. This looks very much like a finger in a dyke: it may stop the leak for now, but the water pressure's going to keep on building on the other side of the wall. PayPal may have something under development, but they're going to need to be very clever not to be forced into a “me-too” style of marketing.

The Responsibilities of Market Leadership
It's clear that, with the success of Checkout, Google has raised the bar and further strengthened its grip on the market. The survey carried out by Superbrands of the UK's top 500 brands showed Google a clear leader, despite being only ten years old- the average age of companies in the top 50 is 90 years.

We have to watch carefully how Google handles this power. Microsoft has demonstrated that it's possible for a market leader to be a benign dictator, and has largely proved laudably ethical during its reign as the world's biggest brand. Signs so far suggest that Google may be similarly responsible, and that bodes well for the Internet as a whole.

Implications for Search Engine Optimisation
Google's ascendancy has significant implications for search engine optimisers. XSEO, the company I co-founded with Matt Paines in 2001, has seen big players like AltaVista disappear, and even MSN, with all of Microsoft's massive muscle behind it has been unable to break Google's stranglehold.

Put simply, Google is frighteningly good at what it does. Before Page and Brin, people were optimising their sites by repeating word a hundred times over, and Internet searching was pretty much a lottery. It was Google who made it possible for us to find what we want by detecting these tricks.

XSEO has always tried to give Google what it wants, though admittedly finding out what Google wants can be something of a battle. Overall I see Google's position as a good thing for the good guys. The strength of their recognition algorithms is now such that they can detect more and more of the tricks pulled by the “black-hat” optimisers. We've recently seen major UK Insurance players black-listed by Google. As the Google search engine handles more than 80% of UK search traffic, no one can ignore being removed from its listings.

What we're seeing is an emerging set of standards- something the search engine optimisation industry has been seeking for some years. The EU legislation has failed to force site owners to comply with accessibility guidelines, while Google has enforced accessibility as a by-product of its search engine spider requirements. A site that's accessible, has good relevant content, and that's regarded as genuinely authoritative by its peers is likely to be a site worth visiting. It's no coincidence that Google has aligned its ranking criteria with these three parameters.

So how do I view Google's increasing power over our online lives? Provided they keep their heads and don't allow absolute power to corrupt absolutely, I'm more than happy for them to rule. When standards are imposed legislatively they're often ill-considered and rarely well-implemented. Here we're seeing standards emerging commercially; if they're the right standard- and so far I believe they are- then we all benefit.