Google vs. News Corp?

The balance of power in the media world is shifting. Google is not a search company – it does search. Google is a media distribution company. It is covering all of its bases by building the ad infrastructure to support Web, Radio, Print & soon, TV, utilizing both today’s processes and building tomorrow’s cross-channel advertising tools. Because of its Web/Interactive expertise, and because it is going to own the majority of the Web backbone, it is positioned to control media distribution and ad management as the broadcast, cable print and interactive media channels converge.

Sure, Google & Microsoft compete, but I’m not convinced they are the fierce direct competitors that many suggest they are. In fact, when you speak with Microsoft employees, they are not gunning for Google. Well perhaps the Microsoft Live group is, but the rest of the company is focused on selling software products, not search and advertising. With all the brain power in Google, it’s hard to believe that the crap they deliver on the application side is their best effort. I think it’s a bunch of noise to keep the spotlight off their real focus.

No one but a handful of Googleites really knows for sure, but here’s my guess. We hear a lot about Google’s personalization efforts as they automate location awareness, demographic and psychographic profiling. Yeah, yeah, it may improve search, but those are the building blocks of effective advertising. Now, if you put some of those PhDs to work building tools that can integrate marketing across TV, radio, print and the Web – watch out! Now you’ve got something that makes their current market cap look small.

Like Microsoft, Google is embedding itself into the global infrastructure. Search is just the tip of the iceberg. The real power comes from what’s underneath – the infrastructure. What Microsoft has done better than anyone else on the software side is become part of the global infrastructure – communications, entertainment, business, and with Windows embedded and mobile products, that reach is extending into areas such as automotive and household goods. Google, with this latest move is extending the depth of its reach to compete against media giants like News Corp., betting that channel convergence is not too far away. And with today’s Red Herring article about You Tube deals with Verizon & Comcast a lot of other media distribution companies want to make sure they can profit from that convergence.

He who controls the distribution network controls the billions of advertising dollars which must flow through it. So even though companies such as Riya, Like and Ask.com may have better, or at least alternative methods for searching or ad delivery, the time and money required to build an advertising infrastructure is enormous and beyond most company's means. Now should one of these guys just happen to pair up with someone who already has this infrastructure, then things could get really interesting!

Mr. Murdoch, are you watching?