Pimping - Google Style!
Are you a slave of Google? Do you think Google deserves atleast a month of your yearly pay? Well, my friends, these thoughts are justified and Google plays a central role in our lives.
Of late, Orkut, a part of Google, has me hooked. Its a social networking site (euphemism for a dating site?). I have connected with long last buddies on Orkut and I grateful for it. Apparently, I am connected to some 20 million people through my 29 friends!
Apart from the obvious, it has some cool features. One of them, is "profiles views" which directly corresponds to your popularity in the community. Everytime, I open up Orkut, it feels good to see that atleast somebody has been reading my profile. Italso has a bunch of lists - wish lists, crush lists, hot lists. These lists aid Google inpimping. If two persons add each other unknowingly to their respective crush lists, Orkut automatically mails both the persons about their mutual attraction. This is the actual message one gets:
-----------------------------------------------
Take a deep breath and ponder this...
orkut has unmasked a shared affection
And shown twinned wounds from Cupid's darts.
But while we aid in love's detection,
Its future path lies twixt your hearts.
-----------------------------------------------
Thankfully, there are no little-red hearts in the mail
Within this context, I should definitely sidetrack to tell my story. The other day I was caught up in the Orkut craze. I had plenty of time on hand and started searching for girls from Chennai in Orkut(but residing in US). One of them really caught my eye. She was what very man wanted (dont ask me how I figured this from reading a 25 word description on her profile) - smart, cute, and mysterious. In this moment of attraction (aka weakness), I sent out a teaser. The poor girl was so alarmed by the teaser, that she changed her profile making sure to remove every personal detail about her! Google, for once, let me down. I was later sorry, for I intruded her privacy. (As an aside, privacy in Orkut is pretty next to non-existent. One can easily reconstruct a person's background and interest by looking at the communities enrolled. The scrapbook, in most cases, contains a veritable treasure trove of information on what the person has done, doing, or going to do. If you take my case, I am a member of SBOA (school), Thiagarajar College of Engg(UG school), UIC(Master's school) communities. A glance at my scrapbook will tell you that I have no plans for July 4 and intend to stay put here in Chicago).
So, coming back to point, why should Google play Cupid? Allow me to speculate the business model behind the whole venture. Pimping is all about money and Google has been wealth-generator .I am pretty sure money-making is as integral as match-making is in Orkut.Orkut, provides a treasure of knowledge to Google. And the best part is that the content is completely user generated.Consider these cases:-
1. The communities are prime ad targets as they present a critical mass of like-minded people. Take the community called "Ada pavi, ada pavi". This is devoted to Tamil comedian Vivek. This group can be marketed Vivek movies and the possibility of them lapping it up is high. Such highly focused groups is any marketers dream come true. The best part is Google doesn't need to spend money or time correlating people with similar interests. These communities form on their own. A few text/picture ads on the home page of the community aint going to harm anyone.
2. Profile views, as I mentioned before, can be construed as a popularity counter. Google can target the most viewed profile and lure the profile-owner to host ads. And that's one more revenue stream.
At this point of time, there are no ads. It will remain pristine, till people get so used to it that they are dependent on it. Google will then makes it move I guess. This has been their business model so far.
If all this fructifies in the future , I salute Google for visionary money-making ways. As they say "Keep it pimping, Google"
Of late, Orkut, a part of Google, has me hooked. Its a social networking site (euphemism for a dating site?). I have connected with long last buddies on Orkut and I grateful for it. Apparently, I am connected to some 20 million people through my 29 friends!
Apart from the obvious, it has some cool features. One of them, is "profiles views" which directly corresponds to your popularity in the community. Everytime, I open up Orkut, it feels good to see that atleast somebody has been reading my profile. Italso has a bunch of lists - wish lists, crush lists, hot lists. These lists aid Google inpimping. If two persons add each other unknowingly to their respective crush lists, Orkut automatically mails both the persons about their mutual attraction. This is the actual message one gets:
-----------------------------------------------
Take a deep breath and ponder this...
orkut has unmasked a shared affection
And shown twinned wounds from Cupid's darts.
But while we aid in love's detection,
Its future path lies twixt your hearts.
-----------------------------------------------
Thankfully, there are no little-red hearts in the mail
Within this context, I should definitely sidetrack to tell my story. The other day I was caught up in the Orkut craze. I had plenty of time on hand and started searching for girls from Chennai in Orkut(but residing in US). One of them really caught my eye. She was what very man wanted (dont ask me how I figured this from reading a 25 word description on her profile) - smart, cute, and mysterious. In this moment of attraction (aka weakness), I sent out a teaser. The poor girl was so alarmed by the teaser, that she changed her profile making sure to remove every personal detail about her! Google, for once, let me down. I was later sorry, for I intruded her privacy. (As an aside, privacy in Orkut is pretty next to non-existent. One can easily reconstruct a person's background and interest by looking at the communities enrolled. The scrapbook, in most cases, contains a veritable treasure trove of information on what the person has done, doing, or going to do. If you take my case, I am a member of SBOA (school), Thiagarajar College of Engg(UG school), UIC(Master's school) communities. A glance at my scrapbook will tell you that I have no plans for July 4 and intend to stay put here in Chicago).
So, coming back to point, why should Google play Cupid? Allow me to speculate the business model behind the whole venture. Pimping is all about money and Google has been wealth-generator .I am pretty sure money-making is as integral as match-making is in Orkut.Orkut, provides a treasure of knowledge to Google. And the best part is that the content is completely user generated.Consider these cases:-
1. The communities are prime ad targets as they present a critical mass of like-minded people. Take the community called "Ada pavi, ada pavi". This is devoted to Tamil comedian Vivek. This group can be marketed Vivek movies and the possibility of them lapping it up is high. Such highly focused groups is any marketers dream come true. The best part is Google doesn't need to spend money or time correlating people with similar interests. These communities form on their own. A few text/picture ads on the home page of the community aint going to harm anyone.
2. Profile views, as I mentioned before, can be construed as a popularity counter. Google can target the most viewed profile and lure the profile-owner to host ads. And that's one more revenue stream.
At this point of time, there are no ads. It will remain pristine, till people get so used to it that they are dependent on it. Google will then makes it move I guess. This has been their business model so far.
If all this fructifies in the future , I salute Google for visionary money-making ways. As they say "Keep it pimping, Google"
posted by Unknown at 7:41 PM
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