Danny Sullivan discusses the evolution and future of Google search, highlighting the dominance of ad revenue and the impact of mobile and YouTube on CPCs. He notes that while Google Assistant and Google Home are emerging technologies, they face challenges such as usability and competition. Overall, Google remains a strong force in the digital advertising market, with search ads generating significant revenue.

1. Thoughts on Google Search
Danny Sullivan
Founding Editor,
Marketing Land & Search Engine Land

2. I’m not a financial analyst
(and no, I don’t have shares in Google)

3. I am a journalist who has
covered Google since it started
(and search back when it was AltaVista, Excite,
InfoSeek, Lycos, WebCrawler & Yahoo)

4. Google is much
more than search
(and Alphabet much more than Google)

5. But search remains biggest
(we assume…)

7. That’s mostly ad revenue,
(89%) and…

9. So what’s going on in search?

10. CPCs keep dropping
but paid clicks keep rising

11. As does ad revenue
(red line, in billions)

12. Growth: Mobile Search & YouTube

13. YouTube
lowered
CPCs but
raised
overall
revenue

14. As for mobile search
it’s “resonating…”

15. v

16. v
v

17. Mobile might dominate page
more; more ads certainly help…

18. Four ads
above the
fold; no
more
right-rail
on desktop

19. AdSense
display ads
lose three
ad limit

20. But what about bots!

21. Google Assistant
is “assistive search”
(AKA a bot)

22. Google
Assistant
in Allo,
Pixel &
Google
Home

23. The
promise

24. (Some)
of the
reality
within
Allo

25. To me,
Google
Assistant is
not “killer
feature”
to buy Pixel

26. It’s like
Google with
buttons

27. And regular
Google may
do better

28. But we’ll see
(my 17-year-
old likes the
camera, pity
no Apple
Messages)

29. Google
Home:
Google
comes
to life as a
companion…

30. And it rocks

31. Not perfect
but like
having a real
person you
can ask spur
of the
moment
questions

32. Hands-free
household
companions,
not bots,
might be
next
big thing

33. Google well
positioned if
“information”
use rises…
ads or
retargeting
likely to
follow

34. Ads might
appear on
phone;
searches
are logged

35. Overall, state of
Google search remains strong

36. Thank You
Search ads generated 50 percent of digital revenue in first half of 2016
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