Monday, November 21, 2005

GoogleBase and B2B publishing

Google launched its GoogleBase database service last week. Unlike the Web, which is awash in unstructured information that's crawlable by a search engine robot like Googlebot, GoogleBase allows anyone to set up their own structured database (with fields and records) right inside Google.

This is potentially mind blowing, depending on how it catches on with users. Just like people make a living now selling stuff on eBay without so much as a Web site, it is conceivable that a new breed of information publisher can make a living by housing a structured database on Google. No Web site necessary.

This is potentially a threat to traditional B2B information publishers with specialized databases. To say nothing of the fact that Google owns the display ad space against that content.

We all need more time to grasp the implications of this move, and to see how quickly it catches on with users who publish structured information via GoogleBase. Right now, most of the categories seem to be consumerish ("recipes") or classified-related (cars, jobs).

For some informed opinions, I recommend reading recent posts regarding GoogleBase from database publishing guru Russell Perkins and Forrester analyst Charlene Li.
Posted by Dave Newcorn at 8:20 PM I'm reading: GoogleBase and B2B publishingTweet this!

2 comments:

  1. I haven't studied this aspect of the new "Darth Vader" of the technology world, but where do they make money on this? Everything Google does is aimed at capturing your personal information and selling ads targeted to it. To their credit, they do make a feeble attempt to separate real search results from ads, but I notice the headline links on sponsored sites are not all that informative. They often look like the real Web site until you read the "fine print" and see what their URL is. I'm to the point of trying to use Ask Jeeves as much as possible to avoid Google. I just don't trust what they do with all that information.
    ReplyDelete
  2. In the beginning, Google makes money off of additional pageviews on which to place ads. But in the longer term, I wouldn't be surprised if Google started charging GoogleBase publishers in exchange for offering higher level features, such as reporting, trackability, privileges, etc. All the tools you need to run your own information engine, without the pesky bother of actually owning or maintaining Webservers. It's similar to what eBay did. In the beginning, they charged a nominal fee of $2 to list your item, regardless of how much it eventually sold for. When they became the e-commerce engine of choice, they increased the fees considerably, especially for bigger ticket items. Because they had enough critical mass to do it without affecting demand.
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)