Comments on: Google and Yell Group

By: Neal

Neal — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

google is already getting the data from some of tne YP publishers, the real opportunity in buying a publisher is access to a broadbased sales force.

By: Nathan Ostgard

Nathan Ostgard — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Google Local could become much more competitive with online yellow page directories if they were basing their listings off of an organized data source (such as one they would acquire from Yell Group), as opposed to the scraping they're doing now.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I would tend to argue against it: Google has historically said it doesn't want to take on the complexity of managing a vast infrastructure and the many small advertiser relationships that would come with such an acquisition.

However, that protest is fading quickly into the background. The Trader Classifieds rumor, the move into print and this now suggest that Google will make some sort of offline acquisition to broaden and strengthen its revenue base at some point in the not-too-distant future, even if it's not Yell.

But who knows.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Because of the database buying and feeds Google is getting (e.g., Verizon, Citysearch, InsiderPages, etc.) Google has BETTER local data, arguably, than anyone else online.

What they don't have is a great user experience, though it's gotten much better. Adding more structure to the user experience, as Yahoo has done, would bring to light the scope and quality of the data they do have.

Sales force is an oppty. But I think a better strategy for Google is to buy a channel like a Web host, which could instantly give the company 200K+ potential SME customers.

That would be more cost effective and in a certain way more efficient over the long term than buying a lot of headcount (though valuable).