Google Knol; Opportunity For Local?

Knol, (short for unit of knowledge) will invite authors on any topic to provide content to Google.

According to Google expect the following;

"Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.

Once testing is completed, participation in knols will be completely open, and we cannot expect that all of them will be of high quality. Our job in Search Quality will be to rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google search results. We are quite experienced with ranking web pages, and we feel confident that we will be up to the challenge."

I'm interested on the local take.

Is there opportunity for local business within Knol? On first view plenty. Do you know your local real estate market? Post it up, link to your real estate site and invite comment.
Local commercial painters or wedding photographers can take to pen and start talking.

Arborists can write about care of regional trees and trimming requirements. Caterers, whip out the calender and start writing.

If we know anything about Google we know they love scale and this means opportunity will present itself at the neighborhood level.

This is a great move by Google and proves again why they are the leaders in search and online marketing.

Google Pay Per Action Will Change The Game

Google Pay Per Action (CPA) being expanded according to Google;

"Google announced today the worldwide expansion of its pay-per-action advertising beta. Pay-per-action is a new pricing model that allows advertisers to pay only when a pre-defined action is completed on their site, such as when a user makes a purchase, signs up for a newsletter, or completes any other clearly defined action. Since the initial launch of the pay-per-action advertising beta in March 2007, many advertisers who have used the new pricing model are pleased with the opportunity to have more ways to promote their products and services online."

Click fraud concerns will all but disappear for merchants adopting the CPC model. (CPC defined)

A key question for adopters is how much are you willing to pay for a fairly qualified lead, one that has at the least given you their phone number or email?

Got Rid Of Adsense For Awhile

I had to remove AdSense from the blog. Google was sending ads that had nothing to do with material written on here or on searches made by me. The lifestyle oriented questionaire they have been pushing for a couple of weeks now might be deemed as offensive by some.
The last thing I wish to do is offend current or potential clients.

New Design For Google Blog Search Results

Google Blog search results page now sports a design similar to Google web search results. Notice too how Google has inched blog results closer to sharing the search home page. Blog search is first up for choices on the drop down menu under "more." How long before blog search gets home page positioning? It seems unlikely it will come at the expense of "Images", "News", "Video" or Maps" (local).
Maybe Google will have to expand the vertical search options tabs?

Update: I am seeing the old Google Blog Search page design on some searches. The link above still directs to a page with the new design.

Google's Schmidt On Targeted Advertising

Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaking to investors in San Diego said "We are just at the beginning of targeted advertising".

" Schmidt said about 90 to 95 percent of TV viewers are exposed to random ads. "It's a constant barrage of ads that aren't relevant; pet food for people without pets, baby products for families with out kids. Even a small improvement [in relevancy] would have a very large impact."
He said Google is exploring ways to better target TV advertising and leverage the fact that an increasing number of consumers have IP addressable set top boxes."

I've felt for awhile the (not too distant) future of TV advertising includes personalized super-local "AdSense" type spots delivered to my demographic for my personal tastes and needs. They will know from my search and spending habits I haven't been to Costco for awhile and maybe Sam's Club will bid to hit me up with an enticing offer to pull me from Costco. Abertsons grocery figures I feed a large family and that like most in my neighborhood I shop at SaveMart. Albertsons might bid up big to get onto my TV screen. If ads are local and relevant to me I might not Tivo through ads like I do now.

Think of the possibilities for local merchants.

Schmidt is telling us where they are going, I'm listening.

Update:Danny Sullivan reports Google is delivering ads to Concord California cable subscribers! That was fast Eric.

Google Maps Synopsis

Small Business SEM tells the Google Maps/Local story better than any I've read before. I blogged on it the other day but Matt McGee really nails it. Great read.

Google Could Dominate Local, Why Don't They?

Google is in a perfect position to put a grip lock on local search. Greg Sterling's thought provoking post offers in part;

"Google is really in the driver’s seat on many fronts right now. Turning to local, the company recently enhanced it's local one box presentation of results.

Google is not the best local application online by any means. (Yahoo! Local, Ask and Yelp, for example, are better.) It has taken some steps to improve the user experience but it could certainly do a great deal more (e.g., “sort by rating,” “click to compare businesses,” etc.). One wonders why not? Maybe Google is distracted by all the initiatives going on there, doesn't feel it needs to upgrade the application and/or doesn't want to threaten its partners too much.

Whatever the reason, the company is not doing all it could in local. But Google is probably now at the peak of its market dominance (I could be wrong of course). And with a few simple tweaks it could literally dominate local — verticals are different — because of its general search volumes.

There are also a range of things that Google could also do on the revenue side that it isn’t doing to attract more SMB advertisers. (Clearly a $3+ billion dollar quarter suggests there’s no urgency there.) Curiously it hasn’t (yet) done them either..."

I'm with Greg, it's curious why there is not more innovation, more urgency. Big "G" is the aircraft carrier in the sea of search so they don't turn quickly but their labs turn out products like Code Search and other useful (and less useful) tools continuously. Why has local lagged? Why do I have a better local search experience on Local.com with all the goofy ad noise than I do with Google Maps?