It’s been another exciting week in the world of all things Google. The little search engine with the unassuming primary colored logo has generated more headlines recently than American Idol and Obama combined. Let’s take a look at what the world’s most popular website has been up to.
Just yesterday, Google threw their hat back into the social media arena with the launch of Buzz. Google promises that Buzz will be the faster and easier way to share pictures and videos with friends and family who already belong to Gmail. Naturally Buzz is instantly compatible with smart phones and employs the latest in GPS location to gather information from neighboring businesses and hot spots. Its a gutsy move considering that Google has failed to nab the social marketing scene like Facebook has. From a marketing standpoint, Buzz could provide some much needed oomph to the social media marketing game. Buzz’s new features and Google-like accessability are appealing and send the mind reeling into new marketing plan ideas. If Buzz catches fire, marketers, publicists and businesses could experience a windfall not seen since Twitter’s 2008 explosion. If Buzz bottoms out on the other hand, Google haters will be ready to do a victory dance finally witnessing a rare miscalculation by the media giant.
Also on Tuesday, the ACLU relaunched complaints against Google for working with the National Security Agency”“the world’s largest spying network. The complaints bring up the provacative issues of annonomity, surveillance, and freedom of speech. Mainly, the partnership claims the ACLU spells violations of the law and the Constitution. From a branding and public relations stand point, this involvement with the NSA could be a nightmare. Consumers don’t want to feel like they are being watched so involvement with a government agency could put Google’s trustworthy image in jeopardy.
And last but not least, there is that little commercial that Google ran during the Super Bowl. The clever ad, considered a home run by many, has already been highly praised and parodied. The sweetly romantic advertisement certainly added to the “Aww shuchks. Dontcha just love Google?” persona of the search engine.
Leave a Reply