John Paczkowski

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Google: We Prioritize the End User Over the Advertiser, Unless We’re the Advertiser

January 7, 2010 at 8:21 am PT

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“People wouldn’t like [ads on the homepage]. We prioritize the end user over the advertiser.”

– Google CEO Eric Schmidt, August 2009

How’s this for product placement? Google is promoting its new Nexus One “superphone” from the front pages of two of its most highly trafficked properties: Google.com and YouTube.

Surf over to the former and you’ll find a short plug for the Nexus One right beneath the query field on the company’s otherwise spartan search page. Point your browser at the latter and you’ll find a tile pitching an entire YouTube channel dedicated to the device, complete with demos and, of course, a direct link to the Google-hosted Web store through which it can be purchased (see below; click on image to enlarge).

goognexusonepromos

Together, these sites reach hundreds of millions of visitors a month, so this is not an insubstantial promotion, and it’s sure to generate a fair bit of buzz for the Nexus One, which won’t be sold in stores.

This isn’t the first time Google (GOOG) has promoted a consumer electronics device from its homepage–the search giant featured Droid there last November and T-Mobile’s G1 in October 2008.

As I have noted here before, it’s interesting to see Google leveraging search–a product in which it enjoys a de facto monopoly–to promote a second product that isn’t yet dominant (Android).

Tagged with: ads, advertising, browser, channel, consumer electronics, digital, Droid, end user, Eric Schmidt, G1, Google, google.com, hardware, homepage, hompage, Internet, John Paczkowski, monopoly, Nexus One, product placement, promotion, search, superphone, T-Mobile, visitors, Web, Web Store, YouTube

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  • Anonymous

    old story.. google has been heavily promoting its Chrome browser on these properties for a long time. You can see the ad for Chrome on Youtube right above the N1 ad in your screenshot. On google.com, it’s generally on top right corner. So, much for 28 words on the home page (http://googleblog.blogspot.com.....33-53.html)

  • Andrew Augustine

    This reminds me of Amazon. People talk about how popular the Kindle is. But for me, it begs the question – how powerful is advertising?

    From the day the Kindle was launched, it has appeared continuously on the home page of Amazon's website – providing exposure to millions of customers on a daily basis. Same with the iPhone, magazines and online publications ran maybe thousands of cover story articles and possibly hundreds of thousands of articles featuring the iPhone. How much effect did that have on Apple's iPhone sales? The problem is, when people talk about the popularity of a product, they seldom talk about the untold billions of dollars worth of free advertising that product received.

  • Andrew Augustine

    It is things like this that causes the government (or FCC) to step in and regulate companies. It creates unfair competition! Google should stop this practice – period! It is a very slippery slope they are on.

    Imagine if the president of the United States mentions a company's stocks he just purchased? (I know, I know, this cannot happen; but I am just saying it to illustrate a point)

  • Andrew Augustine

    Google, you are wrong!

    If Microsoft is required to give fair treatment and choice in Windows for competing browsers, then Google must do the same – provide equal news coverage for all new competing phone releases. The cell phone industry is a major industry, Google has the advertising power to tip the scales – affecting both competitors and billions of dollars in private and institutional investments in competing cell phone companies.

  • Justa_Notherguy

    Hey, Paczkowski – nice job on cultivating an intelligent, fair-minded readership. You must be big among the LaRouche subscribers, huh? LOL

    Meanwhile, so what if Google throws in a (relatively) tiny, plainly-worded ad for their own stuff, now & again? They own their homepage, right? Should we prevent them from using it to their own advantage? And are they not entitled to place context-specific ads using their own services? It's not as though they have done anything to thwart, downplay or hide ads for other phone-sellers. Just about anyone can place ads and then have them indexed & served, without bias.

    Compare that with Microsoft's decade-long efforts to strangle competing products & technologies via secret, extortionate dealingss with hardware companies and vendors. Even Apple have been accused of like behavior, recently, with claims that they have locked the bulk of phone-specific flash chip-output. This, atop their proclivity for keeping products closed off to competitors (cf: iTunes v Palm) and generally maintaining iron-fisted control over every aspect of their ecosystem.

    And from this we perceive Google as the supreme villain, here? Oh, please. That argument is too pathetic for serious consideration by anyone with a functioning cortex…which helps to explain the previous responses. ;-)

  • JohnPaczkowski

    Could Palm could purchase a similar ad on Google.com to advertise the Pre and Pixi? Could I purchase one to promote my line of Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement casual wear?

    I don't think so.

  • JohnPaczkowski

    Chrome is a free browser. Nexus One is a $500 SUPERPHONE that requires a cell phone contract.

  • Andrew Augustine

    No, Google is not that bad!

    I have voiced a few opinions about Google. Google cannot be compared to Microsoft and it's anticompetitive behaviors (though of late, Microsoft has been rather sedated or subdued). But they (Microsoft) have won the battle if it is measured in terms of cash flow – generating close to $5 billion dollars in profit each quarter. If you destroy your competition, any amount of fine is palatable. You can pass the cost of the fine to your customers, since you are now a monopoly.

    Google's behavior on the whole has been very good. And at a personal level, I like Google. I think from Google's standpoint, what they do by those one day or few days promotion of the Android phone on their home page is acceptable, since they should be able to make announcements of their products. It would have been better had Google provided objective news information on the latest development in smart phone area (similar to how publications like PC World and PC Magazine report the news). But what they are doing by their actions is to put a powerful wind behind the sales of their Android smart phone offerings. And with their power, they can distort or destroy markets! What I want us to do is show Google tough love. Let them know that on the whole they have been a good corporate citizen, but that we will continue to hold then to a higher standard (yes – a higher standard) because of the major influence they exert on the market.

  • Andrew Augustine

    Anyone with a functioning cortex? It is amazing how when reasoning fails, people resort to calling names! This is how dictators behavior, gain the upper hand by force.

    No, you have not done anything to advance Google's cause, since you have shown yourself unfit to conduct a civil discussion. You could have done well to alerted someone at Google to respond to the views expressed here. I am confident they would have handled these objections with grace and aplomb.