This blog is for the students and instructors to continue the conversations on the role of information technology in modern corporations during the second decade of the 21st century. Please feel free to join the conversation by commenting on our discussions.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Google in the Wedding Planning Business??
Is Google getting into the wedding planning business?? Take a look at this blog and decide what this means? See also here.
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A foray into the wedding planning business seems the perfect way for Google to leverage and extend its platform, without a lot of hard work. Having already launched a number of tools in the scheduling/planning domain that were readily embraced by the consumer (Google Calendar, Google docs, various Google templates), this wedding planning suite appears, at first blush, to be a natural extension of these tools. Indeed, its existence was surely precipitated by a careful examination of the wedding planning-related search terms consumers entered into its engine.
An analysis of the "All-in-One Wedding Planner Tool" reveals the possibilities for all parties involved: for Google, the ability to collect highly-detailed information on guest demographics and characteristics (cf. the Guest List which asks for individuals' mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, number of children and dietary restrictions (!), among other info) which it can then incorporate into its advertising algorithms; for advertisers such as wedding venues/caterers/photographers/videographers/florists/DJs/dress shops/etc., the built-in market research (provided, perhaps unwittingly, by the consumer) of knowing whether their venue/service/product was among a consumer's consideration set, and how it is perceived by the consumer (c. the Venue notes: "gorgeous view of ocean"); and for the consumer, a location-independent tool that has aggregated much (or all) of his/her wedding-related planning.
It behooves the consumer to remember that what is useful to him is arguably even more useful to Google. In innocently surrendering his wedding intentions to Google, the consumer might actually be surrendering his wedding actuality: did he really intend for his reception to cost $4,700, or did he subconsciously anchor himself to that figure, as it was pre-loaded into Google's budget form? Did he really intend to have that hotel wedding, or was he swayed the Tips on Google's Budget Estimator Form that claimed "one misconception is that a tent wedding in your backyard is more affordable than a nice hotel" (along with, perhaps, targeted hotel advertising when he returned to Google's main page)?
Thus, Google's Wedding Planner tool presents one of the company's best chances yet to obtain a multifaceted picture of our relationships, our financial constraints, our music preferences and the scope of our ambitions. It remains for us to divulge that data.
A foray into the wedding planning business seems the perfect way for Google to leverage and extend its platform, without a lot of hard work. Having already launched a number of tools in the scheduling/planning domain that were readily embraced by the consumer (Google Calendar, Google docs, various Google templates), this wedding planning suite appears, at first blush, to be a natural extension of these tools. Indeed, its existence was surely precipitated by a careful examination of the wedding planning-related search terms consumers entered into its engine.
ReplyDeleteAn analysis of the "All-in-One Wedding Planner Tool" reveals the possibilities for all parties involved: for Google, the ability to collect highly-detailed information on guest demographics and characteristics (cf. the Guest List which asks for individuals' mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, number of children and dietary restrictions (!), among other info) which it can then incorporate into its advertising algorithms; for advertisers such as wedding venues/caterers/photographers/videographers/florists/DJs/dress shops/etc., the built-in market research (provided, perhaps unwittingly, by the consumer) of knowing whether their venue/service/product was among a consumer's consideration set, and how it is perceived by the consumer (c. the Venue notes: "gorgeous view of ocean"); and for the consumer, a location-independent tool that has aggregated much (or all) of his/her wedding-related planning.
It behooves the consumer to remember that what is useful to him is arguably even more useful to Google. In innocently surrendering his wedding intentions to Google, the consumer might actually be surrendering his wedding actuality: did he really intend for his reception to cost $4,700, or did he subconsciously anchor himself to that figure, as it was pre-loaded into Google's budget form? Did he really intend to have that hotel wedding, or was he swayed the Tips on Google's Budget Estimator Form that claimed "one misconception is that a tent wedding in your backyard is more affordable than a nice hotel" (along with, perhaps, targeted hotel advertising when he returned to Google's main page)?
Thus, Google's Wedding Planner tool presents one of the company's best chances yet to obtain a multifaceted picture of our relationships, our financial constraints, our music preferences and the scope of our ambitions. It remains for us to divulge that data.