Google Becoming a Major Player in Content Creation
Search engine giant Google is expanding beyond the search realm and is becoming a significant force in the content creation space.
As a search engine, Google analyzes Web content to deliver search results. Google rose to the top of search engine success by delivering an algorithm that users found to be superior.
Over the last two years, Google has worked to expand its operations into the other side of the Internet – content creation. Currently, Google’s most popular content site is YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006. Google also owns Knol, an encyclopedia site that could compete with Google-partner about.com.
What this Means for Search Marketing
Engaging in content creation could theoretically threaten the objectivity of Google’s search results because Google sites compete with non-Google sites for higher rankings. Google is emphatic that it does not grant any priority to Google-owned sites.
“Biased results? No way. Providing great search is the core of what we do. Business partnerships will never compromise the integrity or objectivity of our search results. If a partner’s page ranks high, it’s because they have a good answer to your search, not because of their business relationship with us,” wrote Google on its official blog following their partnership with AOL.
Google’s assurances notwithstanding, many of Google’s content network partners believe Google could be a potential threat to their sites. Despite the concerns, it is virtually assured that these companies will continue their partnerships with Google because the Google network offers the advantage of a very wide reach.
This may also pose a problem for companies that market through search because Google may be a competitor. For example, if you search “blog services” Google-owned blogger.com is the first sponsored link to appear. This could result in driving up the cost of Paid Search campaigns since Google will be competing with their advertising clients for positioning.
Google has seemingly unending resources and direct access to the natural search algorithm. This means that their content will also naturally rank higher in organic search results.
