FB, GOOGLE AND THE PROBLEM WITH MAJOR BRAND ADVERTISING You see, Google merely t

FB, GOOGLE AND THE PROBLEM WITH MAJOR BRAND ADVERTISING

You see, Google merely transferred the money spent on yellow pages to a new medium, that provided, like shareware, free advertising (search results – the white pages), and better placement (yellow pages), and much better placement (advertisement position on the page).

Now I have no idea why google tolerates all these local (sh_t) yellow page listings other than it generates click money for them at the expense of users, instead of creating a very clear means of searching for local services based upon your address, that is edited as the yellow pages were, that places some demand for legitimacy upon the people making the listings. Because it’s impossible to find almost anything local still. So that seems like a ‘miss’ because it’s a hole someone can hurt them with in the future. (Citysearch was awesome and I still miss it)

But back to the broader picture, this plan to transform the yellow pages business onto the net was fantastic. However, it did not help attract major brands. Major brands cannot find success on google or Facebook, nor can these platforms be used to create local draws – events.

Next, because they were designed for consumers, it’s very hard for major brands to use these platforms to advertise to businesses that actually want to see those ads. And yes, there are things that businesses want to subscribe to. If I could see the advertising equivalent of Pinterest, as a user, and select what promises

Now, I’m living in a world where I see mobile as a bit of a misallocation of capital that will come to an end like the housing boom. (or the iPad era). It’s only interesting because like the era where americans immigrated germans into the midwest or the gold rush era in California, or the current migration of Chinese out of the serfdom of rice cultivation.

So I’m giving some thought to a more static world than we have seen for the past two decades.

And I’m more interested (as I have been for some time) in big brands, able to sell complex value propositions rather than trying to get attention from the consumer with A.D.D. from overstimulation.

Now, if we had very detailed profiles on individuals, even if you couldn’t see their names, and you could publish Pinterest-style information (Rich I mean), as a major brand, I would think that would be interesting. I mean, we have all these trivial little publications that try to reach out to people in industries. What if that was always available to them like a separate tab within Facebook?

We don’t want interruptions. But we all like diversions. And advertising property constructed can be a great diversion.