Google has two faces. Among consumers it is an internet deity. By far the most popular search engine in the world, it accounts for almost 90 per cent of searches on the web in the UK, and continues to develop startling new services such as Google Earth, which offers a searchable 3D view of the planet, and Gmail, the first email service to give unlimited hosting space for users.
But, to the media world in which it increasingly makes its presence felt, the company's image is less favourable. It is worth about £100 billion, yet, despite making almost all of its revenue from advertising, it is often described as remote and unhelpful to advertisers and their agencies.
Given its reputation, when Revolution had the chance to meet the company's UK MD, Dennis Woodside - his first major interview since taking the role last September - we decided to let the industry put the questions.
So, as he settles down in one of the author-named meeting rooms (we're in Wilde) in Google's famous Googleplex near London's Victoria station, Woodside - who came to Google in 2003 by way of McKinsey - is open and friendly. He is hard to pin down; jet-setting regularly to keep track of things in the US. But, though time is short, he is keen to hear what Revolution readers want to know. So, you asked the questions and here is what potentially the most important man in UK digital marketing had to say.
Do you think MSN will be taking market share from Google or that people will start using more than one search engine?
Ariel Schvarzstein, marketing manager, Expedia.co.uk, Expedia.nl and Hotels.com
Dennis Woodside: People tend to go to whatever search engine they think is going to deliver the fastest and most relevant results. With Google, we have been successful because we do just that. We deliver results, which are very relevant and very fast in a way that is trustworthy.
So what we are going to find is more and more types of information that are available in our general index and where you can search over information that is in any digital format whether that is books, whether it is video, or whether it is HTML. My belief is that you are not going to see a huge fragmentation of search as long as we keep innovating in the space.
Revolution: The real question is, how do you think MSN and Yahoo are doing? Do you see either company doing any better in the future?
DW: That's more of a question for them. I really cannot comment on how their business is doing - I can only tell you how Google is doing.
Given the difficulties with seeing the implementation and knowing who the partners are, what is the best way to get the most out of Google's content network? (The system for AdWords clients that allows them to place ads, including video banners, alongside relevant content on web sites.)
John Martin, internet business manager, Goldshield Consumer Health UK & Ireland
DW: The content network is much under-used. If you look at pricing, it is fair value, so one way that we see the advertisers using the content network is to broaden the aggregate volume of clips they are getting and to start lowering overall pricing.
How is Google planning to offer cost-per-acquisition (CPA) advertising, and how important does it see this becoming to its revenue stream in the coming months or years?
Paul Coggins, executive sales director, Zanox
DW: CPA-based models are something that is going to be an increasing focus for us. It will make sense for certain types of advertisers where they have the right kind of Information.
But the real issue with CPA is it requires an advertiser to be relatively transparent with what their cost per acquisition is - some are willing to do that and some are not. For some it will make a lot of sense and will be quite effective. I would expect to see something in the near future.
Isn't the problem with Google apps documents and spreadsheets the fact that, should the internet connection go down, you cannot work? And what is the biggest concern for the future of Google UK?
Ed Anderson, online communications technical manager, Microsoft.
The power of Google apps (online software services such as word processing) is shown by the example of a reporter in Hong Kong who was trying to file a story to the UK. His PC's hard drive crashed. But luckily, he was using Google apps so he could finish his story and file it.
As for what we worry about most, I think it's the two guys in the garage who think up the next big idea. That could be anything. Just look at last year. YouTube officially launched in December 2005, and, by December 2006, it had more than 100 million users (Google bought YouTube in October for about £1bn). It literally was two guys in a garage.
It always seems to be two guys. Look at Larry and Sergey (Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin). We worry about whether we're innovating fast enough, whether we're on the cutting edge in web development and what our advertisers want to do.
REV: So the thing you fear most is the next Google?
DW: Yes, that would be a good answer.
If Google had to choose between love or hate regarding affiliates, which would it be and why?
Mark Walters, COO, Affiliate Window
DW: I don't think it is love or hate; that's a strange way of putting it. With affiliates and where affiliate networks are providing relevant experiences for consumers, we think that's fine, and there's plenty of affiliate marketers who are aggregating information in an interesting way and putting together information in ways that provide value to the consumer.
In the instances where we think people push the line and try to trap people into clicking into stuff to make money, then we don't view that very well.
How much revenue or clicks do affiliates account for through Google UK?
Mark Walters, COO, Affiliate Window
DW: To be honest I don't know, and if I did, I don't think we would share it.
Does Google expect video revenue in the UK to eventually outstrip search revenue?
Phil Cooper, CEO, Utarget
DW: There are clearly going to be opportunities for marketers here and we are all trying to figure out what those are. You are going to see a period, just like you did with search in 2000 and 2001, where people try different advertising formats, different advertising models - sponsorships, in-stream video ads, pre-roll ads, interstitials, whatever - before we get to a model that is working for the advertisers and, more importantly, that is working for the consumers.
When you have that much consumer usage, you are going to have a business. The question is when, how much, and who is going to provide the technology that powers that business.
What are Google's long-term plans with regards to the illegal posting of video within Google video and Youtube? Is there any opportunity for Premier League Clubs to work more closely with Google?
Mark Rowan, head of communications, Everton Football Club and Mark Hargreaves, general manager, Manchester United Interactive
DW: There are absolutely more opportunities for Premier League clubs to work with us more. We have a deal with Chelsea where we are hosting content for them through a YouTube channel. The web enables fans of all sports to engage with their teams in ways they could never engage before. In terms of copyright, it is something we take very seriously. We are not a content company.
We are a technology company and what our technology does is provide people with an opportunity to access information in whatever format it might be. In terms of video, we are providing technology that allows people to share content. Some people take advantage of that and post content that they don't own. As soon as we are notified of that we take it down, and we are working on tools to automate that. But this is a problem we are going to have to work on, and we are going to have to solve.
Why does your approval process for registering a trademark take so long, for example, up to three months?
Rebecca West, phones4u
The question is what is Google doing about trademarks and how do we try to protect them.
We have a registration process where you can register your trademark, as you know. We need to clear that registration to make sure it is legitimate because we don't want people registering trademarks that aren't legitimately theirs.
That, of course, takes time and we wish it would not take as long as it does. But the fact is you need to do real work, you need to do legal clearance to get that done and it inevitably takes time.
REV: From what we hear, a brand has to send their application to California, you can't send it to the regional office.
DW: You can work with your team here, if you have a team in London, they will help you do that.
Why does Google change ranking methods periodically for optimisation?
Shane Ryan, Axciom
DW: That's a good question. Our strength is matching relevant advertising with queries and we are always looking for ways to improve the relevance of the advertisers that we serve.It is a fairly detailed science as to how to do that, so we have PhDs and scientists in California and Zurich whose job it is to improve the ranking algorithm.
When we find breakthroughs that are going to benefit advertisers and users, we change it. It's not just important to put the most relevant ads on the page, it's also important you don't put the least relevant ads on the page if you have ads that aren't that relevant. It all winds up detracting from the ads.
Is Google going to use personalised search features to provide better-paid advertising, and thus allow advertisers to optimise activity against behavioural use of profiles?
Andrew Burgess, MD, Equi-Media
DW: Good question, I honestly don't know the answer. It is probably something we are looking into but, really, I don't know the answer to that.
How is Google trying to monetise properties such as YouTube given that, in the near future, ad blockers are going to be more prevalent?
Raf Rasile, head of production, Good Technology
DW: People click on ads for a reason, they want to find out what the advertisers are selling and make a decision about purchasing. The supposition of ad blockers is that advertising is bad. As long as viewers find advertising good we're not too concerned.
In what year will Google take over the world?
Scott Andrews, senior copywriter, Good Technology
DW: (Looking baffled) People overestimate Google. When I joined, there were about 1,000 employees, now there are about 10,000. But you can look at 1,000 companies in the world that have more employees and more revenue than Google. People get excited because we have gone from no revenue in 2000 to $10bn last year. What really is more interesting is, where is the internet going to go? And how much of our lives are going to be spent online? People find themselves always in front of a computer. I have a Mac at home and it is always on, and hooked up to the internet. We don't know how big that can become and that's much more interesting than how any player can do, or how big any specific player will become.
For a full transcript of Dennis's answers, go to www.brandrepublic.com/revolution.
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