The InfoCommerce Group just wrapped up their annual “Data Content” conference. In their weekly email, a list of new key words for the online database industry was offered up:
- Embedment
- Aggregation
- Good Enough
- Curation
- Platforms
- Humans
At the end of that list was this zinger:
“There are other keywords that came out of DC09, but, surprisingly, one keyword was barely heard at all:
Google.
While anything but irrelevant, Google has ceased to be an existential threat to the industry. Data publishers have largely made their peace with Google, and it doesn’t dominate their thoughts the way it once did. Google is a tool that can be profitably leveraged, and Google is no longer the enemy. This is likely due in no small part to Google maturing as a business enterprise, and its recent focus on opportunities far less threatening to those of us in the data business.”
It’s been four years since I was at InfoCommerce’s event as a speaker, with the talk Google Rules, Directories Drool. So the data/content world has adjusted to the scary monster that Google was then. Now, the relationship is more symbiotic.
What does this mean to B2B marketers?
Now we, as clients of data/content/directory services, should be looking beyond the threat to these services posed by Google, and be looking on how they might be delivering on those new key words I started this post with:
- Embedment-are they a part of our way of doing business.
- Aggregation- how deep is their info, how specialized?
- Good Enough- data is hard to keep current, how well are they doing?
- Curation- are they avoiding overloading their audience?
- Platforms- are they leveraging popular platforms (google, salesforce, facebook, etc.)
- Humans- are they using people to ensure quality content?
It’s a new ruler for the database people. How well are your suppliers doing?