Google fail

It's incredible to think that Google is a company that is only just 10 years old. While Google has grown rapidly, it has invested and acquired various other companies. This has given them a service portfolio that dominates the Internet, it has also produced some high profile failures. I've pointed out a few of these below:

Google fail #01
Google Videos
A nasty user experience and content that is available elsewhere means this video service can be pointless. Comparing Google Video to Youtube highlights various problems with usability. The increase in competition in this area and country specialist video sites (Daily Motion), means that Google Video never really took off.

Google fail #02
Orkut
Since it's inception in 2004 Orkut has played second fiddle to Facebook and most of the other top social networking sites. With less of a targeted, niche audience, Orkut fell by the wayside while bands and musicians clamoured for Myspace profiles and youngsters went for Bebo and everyone else got a facebook account.

Google fail #03
Google Print Ads
Google attempted to offer traditional print based advertising via the Adsense service. The service was stopped on April 30th 2009 and is another reason why Newspaper and print based advertising is so weak. If Google cannot generate results for customers and revenue for the print advertising media, who can? It was an interesting idea, but is another tally on the list of Google fails.

Google fail #04
Google Talk
Launched in 2005 as a web based instant messaging client, Google aimed to take some of the market from Microsoft's Messenger program and AOL's AIM, Jabber and Yahoo! Messenger services. Users had little control over how their buddy lists details were controlled too.

Google fail #05
www.Youtube.com
Google acquired Youtube in November 2006 for £1.1Billion. Since then, Viacom have attempted to sue Youtube for $1billion for displaying copyrighted material. The very high running costs of YouTube (it is expected to lose £317 million in 2009) has prompted Google to plaster ads across the site wherever possible causing many complaints. I'm sure it can be turned into a great advertising platform in the long run, but for now, it remains a great way to waste time!

Bwin Poker

Bit off topic, but I know a few other SEOs like their poker so I thought I'd pass opinion on Bwin Poker. Bwin recently bought Pokerroom and now has their own branding and graphics. While this is ok, I did prefer the Pokerroom graphics and layout (including the themed updates for Halloween and Christmas!). Bwin itself seems very slow and disconnects me a lot more that Pokerroom ever did and this is a real annoyance when you are doing well in a multi-table tournament and suddenly you find you are disconnected and lose whatever pot you were involved in...

I hope Bwin sort it out, I was a big fan of Pokerroom and I'd rather stay with Bwin than be forced elsewhere by dodgy disconnections!!

Google is getting desperate?

I've noticed a few changes to certain Google owned websites recently. Youtube seems to have more ads on it than ever before, with some videos having built in adverts displaying relevant material (like links to itunes from music videos)and while these are targeted and relevant it gets quite annoying to have to close the ad when I'm watching a video.

Blogger has also been altered recently, with a new "Monetise" tab appearing to help users track Adsense on their Blogs.

Google have obviously decided to plaster as many ad placements on their sites as possible and tried to encourage Bloggers to put Adsense on their sites. This all gives Google more ad placements which makes them more money.

So why is Google so desperate to increase the volume of placements it has? Has the global economic climate affected Google that much?

Interestingly, overall online marketing spend is expected to continue growing, and I reckon most of that increase will come from offline marketing. At least with online marketing you can track the efficiency of a campaign more accurately, in difficult times this is always critically important.

Does anyone else think Google put too many adverts on their sites?