Google’s Secondary Search: Amazon, Customer Experience and the Almighty $$$
Google’s secondary search feature got some attention in the New York Times. In turn it bubbled up at Techcrunch.
When I first saw this feature, I thought no big deal. Google is trying to keep searchers within their ecosystem for longer. Consumers looking for sites with bad internal search will benefit. You can bypass Canadiantire.ca’s stupid postal code prompt. Hooray! Consumers looking for sites with a good experience will find no value add. Doing a secondary search within results from Flickr is almost meaningless for instance. You want the extra context the site provides — i.e., you want to actually look at the photos.
What Google’s Secondary Search Means for Book Retail
It was interesting to note, when this launched on March 4/08, that Google’s secondary search was offered for Amazon.ca but not for Chapters.indigo.ca. As the New York Times indicates, Amazon asked that Google remove the option. Not sure if Indigo was overlooked or did a pre-empt. But it is arguable that book retail is actually one of those areas where the context added is valuable and should be exclusive. Sure Amazon spends a whack of capital maintaining their search experience — but it isn’t the be all and end all for consumers. When I include ‘Amazon’ in my search query — most of the time — I am trying to narrow the results to the book category, not to the retailer. The context I want most is the book itself, not the retailer’s purchase funnel. Eventually I will get in the habit of capitalizing on Google’s book search capability. I will confidently type ‘book’ to narrow results to the category level then sidelink from there if I want to purchase. If Amazon/Indigo were smart they would accept this reality. It isn’t always about buying something. Work with Google to make the secondary search better (include book cover images, community pages, list results, a call to action, etc.). In effect, use the secondary search as a brand building tool. You will lose page views in the short term, but you will gain brand awareness in the long run.
First Book Publishers, Now Book Retailers, Must Learn to Love Google
In a day and age when I can buy Harry Potter at the dry cleaners, book retailers need to sell me on their brand experience. They can do that best by opening up. Running from the Google borg only perpetuates the status quo — Amazon’s market dominance. As the market shifts from text-in-print to text-on-screen that isn’t doing the consumer any favours. Oops. There I go again, thinking this isn’t about the money (Google’s ads, Amazon’s transactions, publisher’s sales). How naive.
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