Helpful Insights

Posted on June 27, 2008 by Asi Erenberg

John Battelle’s now-classic book gives guidance

There’s a lot of powerful wisdom in John Battelle’s engaging book “The Search” that can be applied in the world of e-commerce.

It’s a lot more than a biography of the supposedly “Do No Evil” gang behind the ever more gigantic (and maybe nowadays a bit evil?) internet behemoth, Google. Battelle himself says in his introduction that his story is more than that of one company - stunning thought that company’s rise has been.

Indeed Battelle explores, with the fascinated obsession of an anthroplogist discovering an complete alternative society, the deep new cultural influences that search engines have brought to our daily lives - simply because these engines organise and present information in response to our queries in such a differnet way from any previous existing source.

And of course more and more of our lives are in essence being managed through the Net; the proportion of people turning to Search as their first resort for getting what they want is now only exceeded by the rate at which those already using it increase their use!

It follows inevitably that the companies that work through the web and correctly analyse what customers might be looking for - and the provide it in the most hassle-free way are the companie who will rise to prminence and success. And that’s only the beginning, because through the logic of Search’s algorithmic operation, the more users a company’s website has, the more it can analyse whatÕs being searched for and how, and so it can more fully anticipate what customers will want in the future. Battelle uses the phrase “Database of Intentions” for this vast reservoir of information, and in mastering the interpretation of all those millions or billions of queries is how the smartest companies are going to be winners.

One obvious instance of simple success is in contextual advertising, - those little text ads (in text only in these still early days) that turn up next to your search results that are related to your query. This tightly targetted approach - the ads get presented only to someone whoÕs interested in that subject; the ad buyer only pays when someone clicks the link - has that meant that many businesses have enjoyed massive sales boosts without having to spend vast sums on marketing. It can be a total win-win situation for all concerned. Customers find exactly what they want, the business gets business, and - of course - the search engine makes money for connecting the two together.

Battelle doesn’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the downsides that have developed and which we are getting all too accustomed to … like some operators’ growing ability to “game” contextual advertising … the rise of clickfraud … and spammy blogs that clog search results with poor quality and irrelevant websites. But the good news is that all of these bumps in the road can be smoothed out or at least avoided by smart e-commerce companies. The whole idea, after all (especially among those of us dedicated to a “single focus” approach) is to identify the niche market and satisfy it in the specific ways it requires … rather than trying (like some virtual Walmart or the like) to be all things to all customers.

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