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  • Ken McCarthy organized and sponsored the first conference ever held on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web. His company Amacord Inc., formerly E-Media, was one of the first Internet-based businesses in the world.

    In addition to working with small and mid-sized business clients since 1993, McCarthy was a consultant to NEC's Biglobe, the largest online service in Japan, from 1996 to 2001. His book The Internet Business Manual was the first book on web entrepreneurship published in that country. He is also credited by Hotwired magazine with being one of the people responsible for the development and popularization of the banner ad, one of the key underpinnings of commercial Internet publishing.

    A graduate of Princeton University, McCarthy came to the Internet industry with a varied background which included technical consulting for two of New York's top investment banks, lecturing on educational psychology at MIT, Columbia, and NYU, and founding and operating a number of small businesses, including one that helped produce an Academy Award winning documentary.

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July 12, 2006

A hole in Google's armor?

Google is the 800 pound gorilla in search - today.

Is there any force which can dislodge it?



 

Yes. The techies of the world.

Let me disclose right away that I'm not one. That's been both a weakness and a strength. A strength because I don't get caught up in technical minutia and because it's much easier for me to think like an "average" user - because I am one.

But I do listen to my techie friends.  After all, they were the ones who discovered Google and were the first to actively recommend it to others.

Remember how deeply entrenched Yahoo was not long ago? It didn't matter. Quality of results - and the buzz started by techies - dislodged them practically overnight.

So where do smart techies go to do their searching these days - and why?

Here's something a very sharp friend casually mentioned to me in passing the other day as I told him about a research project I was working on:

"I've had really good luck with accoona and MSN as of late, better results than Google. (Less of a target for the SEO guys)"

"...less of a target for SEO guys."

"...less of a target for SEO guys."

Yes, I repeated what he said twice.

Do people want search results cluttered with semi-relevent listings generated by SEO flim-flam?

The answer is obvious.

Google may end up being a victim of its own success if it can't get a handle on the SEO problem. They know it and they're certainly not going to go down without a fight.

If you've based your business on trying to fool Google with tricks, you may discover you've taken on a deadly serious adversary that is a lot bigger, stronger and smarter than you

July 12, 2006 in Internet insight |

Comments

Ken McCarthy

Speaking of holes in the armor...

Last winter, I had the chance to chat informally at length with a top Google executive.

The subject of click fraud came up. He seemed a little too certain that it wasn`t a problem and Google had it all under control.

Recent article from the Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6a0130f6-14d1-11db-b391-0000779e2340.html

Posted by: Ken McCarthy | July 17, 2006 at 08:26 PM

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