One question...
Are Google's products (apart from search) well recognised worldwide yet?
In the UK, for instance, things are popping up all over nowadays. Google Earth being mentioned on TV adverts for holidays; Google Checkout creating a significant buzz to rival PayPal in many ways; iGoogle creating a regenerated hype about the once called "personalised homepage".
Yet, there's a lot of people out there who don't know there are over a hundred products by the company.
What's it like in other countries? Do you get the general feeling of popularity – or is it still just a search engine to many people? |
I got a friend, who considered himself as tech-savvy, never heard of YouTube.
When talking about Google, it's search, search, search, and Google Video, from what I have observed over a long period of time.
Most people I know don't talk/know about stuff like this. I am guessing that 80% + don't have a Google account.
So, your experience may vary.
Location: Midwest, U.S. |
Here in the US I've seen a ton of Google references in TV shows. Almost all of those references relate to web search. While shopping for tech products, I've seen Google stickers on hard drives and USB flash drives. It seems that Google partnered with those companies to provide Google Picasa and Desktop software.
Location: West Coast, U.S. |
Google Video is most used in Ireland even instead of YouTube because everyone likes to download to iPods and PSP's. orkut is unheard of but Gmail accounts are huge. Everyone I know has a Google Account (practicccaly) and most businesses use calculater. Apart from that I'm not sure. |
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9466/dsc04117ze2.jpg
Colin, you mean these? I saw that yesterday. :) |
I think the relevance of the question is directly proportional to the age of the person on asks!!
If they are older, the only think of Google as Search, Mid range users not say Search, Gmail, but as you go down the scale in terms of age, the perception changes.. its becomes YouTube, Search, Gmail.
These are the three distinct properties have gained user traction from the inception of Google.
The rest of the the services like AdSense, AdWords. Orkut, calendar, maps, Google earth etc.. is not commonly known to the generic user.
|
In the UK, Google Earth is a HUGE success. People won't stop talking about it! |
Here in Germany, Google Earth, Gmail, YouTube and Google web search/ image search are really big, at least if I look at what friends/ family/ media/ strangers on the train :) are talking about.
By the way, I interviewed my sister as non-tech person which Google products she knew... so you get a good impression http://www.55fun.com
(Chapter 8: What is Google, and what do people consider fun about it?) |
Location: UK (South East)
On a quiz I made on Bebo one of the questions I asked was:
3) Which of these Isn't a Google Service?
a) Google Site maps
b) Google Music Trends
c) Google Sets
d) Google Blogoscoped
So far only one person has selected the correct answer :-) Admittedly these are among the lesser Google services, rather than the main ones such as Gmail, Calendar etc.
At my school this is what most people use:
Mail: WL Hotmail
Social: Bebo
Sat Pics: Google Maps/Earth
Video: used to be GVid, now YouTube
Homepage: Google (Classic)
And yeah travel companies do seem to be using GEarth quite a lot. The also use it on the news some times, but they keep switching between that and Microsoft VE (even on the same news report!). |
