“I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.”
—Leo Buscaglia
Google Instant debuted yesterday. You’ve probably heard all about it — after all, it made the national news broadcasts yesterday evening, was a trending topic on Twitter, and so on and so on. You can learn more about what Google says about it over here.
The New York Times has an article on it, of course, and here’s the salient portion you ought to know:
Analysts said that it was too early to tell how Google Instant would affect search engine marketing and optimization businesses. But because Web pages and ads show up before people finish typing queries, it could be more challenging and expensive for them to pick keywords that catapult their sites to the top results, analysts said.
For example, it has been less expensive for a small hotel in Paris to buy ads that show up when someone searches “Paris boutique hotels in the Marais” than when someone searches “Paris hotels.” But now that Google immediately starts showing results, people may type long queries less often. As a result, advertisers would have to bid for more common terms.
Of course, just because it’s too early to tell doesn’t mean other analysts aren’t assessing the impact of a product that’s been in the marketplace for only a few hours. Here are a few of the more interesting ones I’ve seen so far: ReadWriteWeb, Latitude Blog, Web Seo Analytics, Affiliate Marketing Blog and ITProPortal.
I think it makes sense to give Google Instant a few months in the marketplace and see how the public at large interacts with it before making any definite assessments. A significant number of users may turn it off entirely; Google provides that function. The impact on SEO and PPC may be huge or it may be negligible.
As Yogi Berra might say: We won’t know till we know.
… courtesy Nick Usborne: Do you write your Web content for eyeballs, or for engagement?
Now this is solid journalism from the L.A. Times: The guy who wrote the “jump the shark” episode of Happy Days muses on the etymology of “jump the shark.”
PCWorld takes a look at some of the reasoning behind Friday’s move by Craigslist to shut down its adult services section.
