Google vs Amazon. let the battle begin.

[austtr]

US online giant Amazon is preparing to take on Google in one of its core businesses, Internet advertising, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Amazon is developing its own program to target ads using the information it gathers about the preferences of its customers.

Tests of the new platform could start later this year, the business daily said.

It's going to be very interesting to see how this pans out... if Google continues to control and manipulate search then they have a huge headstart with all the adverts they can carry on SERP's plus their advertising exposure via Adsense partners.

But if Amazon can make themselves into the default address for internet commerce (I suspect they already are for many people), then who needs to search.... and by association, will there be much less dependence on Google?

We live in interesting times.

[TapFam]

Amazon for commerce and Google for everything else, where do I fit in?

[turbocharged]

The way both these companies are intertwined, with Bezos being an early investor in Google and a sizable percentage of Google's current Board of Directors being past Amazon employees, I would not be surprised to see a future merger of the two companies. Though in public these companies may want to present the impression that they are competing with each other, they do collaborate on many issues including joint lobbying efforts through the Internet Association [internetassociation.org...]

[EditorialGuy]

I would not be surprised to see a future merger of the two companies.

With their completely different cultures? That seems unlikely.

Getting back on topic, one would expect Amazon's ad platform to be more limited in scope than Google's, if its strength is going to be Amazon's customer data. (Amazon is primarily about goods rather than services.)

[superclown2]

I would not be surprised to see a future merger of the two companies.

If they do my Kindle will be up for sale and I shall never buy from Amazon again. They won't notice though because they'll be too busy taking over the rest of the world between them.

Would it make economic sense? Google, still a one-trick pony with an incredibly profitable main product; Amazon with countless products and miniscule margins. What a brave and exciting marketing exercise that would be.

Can Amazon dent Google's share of online advertising? For consumer goods, why not, they are already the first port of call for many of us. Anything else? No way I can see. Then again they only sold books at a huge loss once ..........

[turbocharged]

Can Amazon dent Google's share of online advertising?

It's possible that Amazon will do what Time Inc. and other media outlets have done - make their new advertising opportunities available through Google's Global Exchange program via DoubleClick. If that's the case, Google would get a cut from the ads they sell. Google announced a similar partnership late last year with Facebook, but I have not seen any updates on that from either party.

[austtr]

This story has an air of "media beat-up" about it. Unless I'm missing something, Amazon's plan is to introduce targeted advertising to it's database of existing customers.

The company where I bought my last mattress does that, so does the hotel where I last stayed and so does the company where I bought my last printer. Isn't that a basic fundamental of marketing? It's hardly newsworthy.

If Amazon seriously wants to challenge Google in the online advertising market (as the media is reporting), surely they will have to try and match the range of exposure that Google Adwords get via SERP's, Adsense publishers and the many other advertising platforms.

Amazon is not in search, so rule out SERP pages. Does that just leave an Amazon version of Adsense where the ad exposure is influenced by the search rankings of the host pages? That leaves Google in control.

Why would you commit to a huge project when one of the key players is your major competitor with the capability of turning off your traffic flow and has a demonstrated willingness to eliminate competitors (ie affiliates)?