Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? and all-round Google sycophant/visionary (depending on your point of view) sat in on a pretty amazing Q&A session with some top Google execs at Davos a couple of days ago and has published the exchanges in full on his excellent Buzzmachine blog.
Here’s a summary of what I think are the six most salient points:
- There will be more transparency with Adsense.
Google is willing to “consider” disclosing the revenue split numbers behind the AdSense program.
This has been a contentious area for ages as nobody quite knows how profitable this element is for Google. - Not that hot and bothered over the Ipad’s arrival.
“You might want to tell me what the difference is between a large phone and a tablet,” Schmidt said.
Ooh. Schmidt the bitch! - The importance of applications.
“The phone is defined by the apps.”
Do you reckon they’ll get to work on the [intlink id="321" type="post"]Google Toilet[/intlink] now then? - The economy is improving.
“The recession is very much behind us.”
So speaks one of the largest, most visible (and profitable) companies in the world. As a company that specialises in [intlink id="92" type="post"]speeding up during the slowdown[/intlink], this will be an interesting period to see just how [intlink id="242" type="post"]far of the competition Google can stay.[/intlink] - Increased focus on display ads.
“Display (ads) is likely to be our next really big business globally.”
So, the initial [intlink id="298" type="post"]Chrome billboard advertising[/intlink] wasn’t a one-off. This is a pretty big statement when you think about it. Google, an online company, is going back to print to maximise it’s advertising revenue. Watch this (billboard) space. - Better partnerships with printed media.
Marissa Mayer promises better ads and support for pay systems.
This has been a bit of an Achilles heal for Google in 2009. It’s not a case of the newspaper industry needing Google more than Google need them or vice versa..they need each other….I still believe there will be a major battle soon involving [intlink id="261" type="post"]Newscorp, Google and Microsoft[/intlink] but a general improvement in relationships with the printed media will stop Newscorp amassing too many troops in the early stages. And remember – [intlink id="275" type="post"]anyone can annoy Rupert Murdoch.[/intlink]