Comments on: tackling brands is tricky, tackling verbs is even harder

By: Caltha palustris

Caltha palustris — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:10:44 +0000

It reminds me of a regional idiom: "Badda bing, badda boom, badda bong" Send in the drum machine...

By: alsomike

alsomike — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:04 +0000

“Google connects your email, chat, documents, search, and even browser now, etc. into basically one product”

Wow, really? Google’s product strategy is “Throw it at the wall and see if it sticks”, and this is an outcome of the “20% time” policy (Googlers can spend 20% of work time on projects that interest them).

They have hundreds of little applications and utilities and many overlap: Google Video & YouTube; Google Page Creator & Google Sites & Blogger; Google Notebook & Google Docs; Orkut & Google FriendConnect & Dodgeball.

IMO Microsoft’s problem is that they try a big product rollout, and when it doesn’t work, they throw the whole thing out, rename it and redesign it from scratch. The whole MSN-centric strategy was a mistake, but I think they are finally wising up with the Windows Live suite. It’s a nicely put-together set of products from a single vendor that moms and dads on home computers know and trust. Plus, they have the advantage of 5x gmail’s user base, Windows installs, etc., so they could easily win this.

The real action is Office Live vs. Google Docs. Microsoft is terrified of cannibalizing revenue from Office, so they crippled Office Live and a bunch of other companies, including Google, are jumping in.

By: William Brafford

William Brafford — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:39:25 +0000

College Humor sort of beat you to your verb-status idea. A friend of mine works for Microsoft, and he says they've been enjoying this parody ad: “Googling with Bing.” I will say this: the bird's eye feature on the map search is pretty sweet.

By: Prediction: Nobody Will Ever Say They’ve Binged Themselves « Around The Sphere

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:28:57 +0000

[...] E.D. Kain at The League: But creating a competitive search engine is tricky. Not only are there already a number of other search engines – like Ask.com and Yahoo! – but even those don’t really compete against Google in any meaningful way. This is largely because Google has transcended mere brand status and has become a verb. Once something becomes a sort of universal noun, that’s bad enough. Kleenex did this in the tissue market, becoming pretty much synonymous with tissue. So whether or not you were using a generic tissue or a Kleenex, you called it a Kleenex. They transcended brand. But it’s so much more potent to achieve verb status, and that’s what Google’s done. You “google” something now – you rarely hear someone say “search.” You never hear anyone say “just ask it” or “just yahoo it” – or at least, I never do. [...]

By: Google is a Verb, Not Just a Search Engine

Google is a Verb, Not Just a Search Engine — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:36:07 +0000

[...] E.D. Kain makes the interesting point that it may be too late for Microsoft’s bing to make much penetration into the search market, regardless of whether it’s better at producing desired results, because we’ve already reached the point where the name of the market leader has become a verb. Once something becomes a sort of universal noun, that’s bad enough. Kleenex did this in the tissue market, becoming pretty much synonymous with tissue. So whether or not you were using a generic tissue or a Kleenex, you called it a Kleenex. They transcended brand. But it’s so much more potent to achieve verb status, and that’s what Google’s done. You “google” something now – you rarely hear someone say “search.” You never hear anyone say “just ask it” or “just yahoo it” – or at least, I never do. [...]

By: Mike at The Big Stick

Mike at The Big Stick — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:17:08 +0000

If Google would just come up with a tool to manage multiple Gmail accounts through one screen I will buy stock in the company. There are Firefox plugins out there but I work in a IE-only office.

By: Mike at The Big Stick

Mike at The Big Stick — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:14:16 +0000

From Moff:

Even using another search engine feels weird, like “No, no — I want to look at the real Internet.”

So true! My mom just got a laptop and was using some weird hybrid search engine that came pre-installed through the manufacturers website. When she refused to let me map Google as her home page I was screaming, “You’re not using the internet correctly!”

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:05:32 +0000

I’m not sure I can put this into words very precisely, but for all the money they spend on it, Microsoft doesn’t seem to quite get branding

Exactly right. Nor do they understand connectivity and product overlap the way Google does. Google connects your email, chat, documents, search, and even browser now, etc. into basically one product, and with upcoming innovations like Wave and their OS that connectivity and overlap will just become far, far more effective. (Apple has done this fairly well also with hardware added into the mix)

Microsoft has tried with “Windows Live” and all that, but there are just too many gaps, too many brands, etc. I mean “bing” is now part of the whole cadre of Microsoft products, but is it really tied into them well? Why Microsoft hasn’t made their Windows platform more webby is beyond me. And why they make it so difficult to integrate everything is also confusing. And that bit about a nice paintjob over an essentially second-rate product is right on.

By: mike farmer

mike farmer — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:59:20 +0000

I live in

By: Moff

Moff — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:58:43 +0000

I’m not sure I can put this into words very precisely, but for all the money they spend on it, Microsoft doesn’t seem to quite get branding, or at least not in a way that’s ever connected with me. Whenever I see a Microsoft commercial, or even just a branding example like the bing.com front page, the message I get is “We’re the old, monolithic institution, but look how snazzy we are!” And it always seems like a con to me, because it feels like they’re glossing over all the problems with their products with a slick paint job, even if they are putting out something solid.

And they’re just so out of touch (again, at least to me — I mean, an ad campaign with Seinfeld?). Google’s minimalist look was a big draw — it said: “We know you just want to find shit on the Internet and move on”; there’s nothing like it here. Anyway, E.D., I think you’re right — Google has pervaded our consciousness of the medium. When I think of “the Internet,” the mental image I get is of a Google search results page. Even using another search engine feels weird, like “No, no — I want to look at the real Internet.”