Google: From Middleman to Destination

Update: OK, this post is looking a little more timely with the Google / Yelp rumors.  See discussion on TechCrunch, GigaOM, the New York Times, and RWW.

I was remarking to a co-worker yesterday how nice Google's local business pages are looking.

Check out this example page for a restaurant in my neighborhood in San Francisco, Luna Park.  It's pulling in a whole bunch of reviews from various sites, it's now parsing ratings by different criteria, there are tons of images, there are maps and Google street view, and plenty of structured data like hours and payment information. 

It's a very nice effort, that draws heavily from content aggregated around the Web, as well as Google's own properties.

And if you are a content publisher that currently gets traffic from organic Google traffic, it's a damn frightening turn of events. 

The Luna Park page above is a destination page. 

Sure, you can click off to check out the original source of some of the review and image content, but you don't really have to.  Pretty much all the information you could ever need is right on that page.  And if this page were in play in Google's organic search results, it would certainly rank near the top.

And that's the thing, for a brief period a few weeks ago, I was seeing some of these pages in the organic SERPS.

Was this a foreshadowing of the future, or a glitch?

Google's product pages are starting to look like destination pages as well - here's one for an 8GB iPod.

And here's an example person destination page.

I tend to be a bit paranoid when it comes to Google, but it would appear that they are starting to build out destination pages for every thing - business, product, person, etc. - in the world.

The question is not, "What does Google's move towards being a destination mean for Yelp?"  The question is, "What does this mean for the Web?"

Google has become a dominant company by being the most powerful online middleman in history, sitting between the searcher and the destination website.  It appears that they may be starting to wonder what would happen if they became the destination.

I've been talking a lot on this blog about the rise of big, horizontal content sites like Demand Media and Answers.com. 

Perhaps we should be adding Google into this discussion.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google Adds Place Ranking System, Should Yelp Be Afraid? (readwriteweb.com)
• Content Farms: Why Media, Blogs & Google Should Be Worried (readwriteweb.com)

Comments

[Johnarobb]

Google didn't start out as a portal but they sure are going that way. Their dominance is going to generate more scrutiny in the coming months. The consequences of their actions may be to do no evil but what about the unintended consequences?

When Google loses its role as a filter and becomes a destination it will lose some of its neutrality. I don't believe that is good for them, or us.

[lawrence]

Interesting points John. Short term, they clearly would make more money if they didn't have to share revenue with AdSense publishers (or miss out on revenue from traffic sent to sites without AdSense). Longer term, who knows? If Google search became Google site search, would people stop going? Would they even notice?

[Kent]

Oh they're taking over the world. Google has one of the most recognizable brands in the world. That makes it easy to market any of their services. Plus, the services are consumer friendly so why not include them in the discussion? They're probably a front runner.

[viagra online]

Middleman is a robust proxy server with many features designed to remove unwanted content, increase privacy, and to simply make surfing the Web a more pleasant experience. Some of the highlights include banner and popup blocking, HTTP and FTP content caching, NTLM and Basic authentication when forwarding through another proxy server, regular expression substitution in downloaded files and HTTP headers, regular expression substitution on requested URLs, many URL commands to temporarily change the proxy settings or to view information about a requested file, complete support for HTTP/1.1 including persistent connections and gzip encoding, and an intutive Web interface for configuring the proxy.

[tweezers]

but still i don't trust google completely, as a company their have a great people but way too arogant (customer service)

[triathlon shoes]

When choosing a beginner triathlon training, it should contain achievable goals for you to meet each calendar week and should increase the load gradually. If you can, try to recruit a friend or join a team in training triathlon beginner. Great post and now I know what to do, thank you! Site has been added to my RSS feed for later browsing.

[London Dating]

Great post and now I know what to do, thank you! Actually this Blog post helped me a lot. I hope you continue writing about this kind of entry.

[AJF 4]

Hi,just found your posting while i google something and wonder what hosting do you use for the blog,the rate is much more faster than my website, i really want it.will returning to look it over,i enjoy it!

[burberry handbags]

you are right

[timberland mens shoes]

Now that the movie Machete cheap timberland boots has been released on the unsuspecting public, the Machete race war is timberland boat shoes on. White people need timberland boots sale to lock their doors and load their guns because the timberland shoes outlet Mexicans are coming across the border and they're gonna win timberland mens classic shoes! Ok, reality check time. Machete is a movie, and it's actually kind of timberland mens shoes boring and the plot is extremely hard to follow. You’re given the cheap timberland chukka boots feeling that Mexicans are really good people that work hard all very true timberland classic boat. White people are corrupt, evil opportunists who want to hog all the timberland womens shoes good things in life. If you made it all the way to the end without timberland chukka boots sale falling asleep then you get treated to an explosive mini-war that might timberland mens chukka even be like it was at the Alamo, only this time the Mexicans win. The ending is probably the timberland chukka shoes online best part of the whole movie!What you don't see in the timberland mens chukka whole movie is African Americans. Where do they stand on these issues? Are they just a corrupt and timberland classic boots evil? Why are the Mexicans fighting only white people I think there were timberland boots sale a couple of token black people in that big fight scene…not sure? And which side are the timberland shoes outlet African Americans on anyway? Will they come to the white people’s aid or will they cheap timberland chukka boots stand on the side of their minority brethren?http://www.timberlandofficial.com

[fivefingers kso trek shoes]

Stosur and Dementieva only started the vibram five finger gripping fourth-round encounter at 10.57pm local time and finished at 1.37am after cheap vibram five fingers Open organisers thrust women into the second vibram fivefingers kso feature night match at the Open two evenings running for the first time. It was the latest finishing women's singles match in US Open vibram five fingers history. The New York major is notorious for rowdy crowds and late-night vibram shoes, but tennis legend Martina Navratilova said it was unfair that vibram five finger shoes Stosur and Dementieva should have to follow a men's best-of-five-set clash onto Arthur Ashe vibram fivefingers running Stadium.After snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, Stosur had no complaints about the fivefingers kso trek shoes lateness of the match in the so-called city that never sleeps.It was always going to be tough following the vibram fivefingers kso trek guys but whenever everybody stays around and cheers and supports us like that, it couldn't be any fivefingers shoes better.With so much going this Labor Day weekend, you might have missed the release of Machete vibram kso, a film that depicts a race war between Mexicans and Caucasians. Machete has been met with fivefingers kso plenty of controversy, given the violence depicted in the film as well as the stereotypes presented in the race war vibram kso sale theme. In the trailer below, you can see a preview of the film, which stars fivefingers kso trek Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Mari and Don vibram fivefingers shoes Johnson.Some films generate a lot of vibram five finger attention based on great writing and great acting. Here, it seems that the Machete race war theme is driving its vibram fivefingers shoes sale notoriety. http://www.vibramfivefinger.org/

[generic aldactone]

Hyperaldosteronism is the medical term for producing too much aldosterone. It can be caused by various conditions (such as cirrhosisor kidney disease) or may happen for no apparent reason. Primary hyperaldosteronism (as opposed to secondary hyperaldosteronism) is not caused by any other condition outside the adrenal glands and includes hyperaldosteronism due to adrenal tumors
. Aldactone can be used to diagnose and treat primary hyperaldosteronism. It can be used short-term, while waiting for other treatment (such as surgery), or long-term (for those who cannot or will not have surgery).
o evaluate the use of spironolactone in class III and IV heart failure patients in four urban teaching hospitals.

[generic avandia]

If you like your rice a little chewier like brown rice, feel free to skip the microwave step.

I will have to try the Tamari sauce, I just heard that the flavor was way too..

[Two Jimson Weeds with Green Leaves and Blue Sky]

So happy to enjoy such a insightful article that does not depend on base posturing to get the topic fulfilled. The post is in reality the greatest on

[ugg]

welcomed by many ladies style.

[wholesale hats]

That was a great piece of information., I enjoyed reading it[url=http://www.buy-caps.com wholesale new era hats]

[ugg boots]

So happy to enjoy such a insightful article that does not depend on base posturing to get the topic fulfilled. The post is in reality the greatest on

[Coach Bags Outlet]

"I sought to show the changing balance of planes - from anti-ship torpedo and dive bombers in the early days when the main objective was destroying other ships - to fighter planes, whose main job was to defend against the kamikazes in the final months."

Max, Midway is pretty much the final act of anti-ship carrier warfare, right? If you follow Keegan and Churchill, it's the critical turning point in the Pacfic war - there's a wonderfully readable description of Midway in Keegan's The Price of Admiralty.

[Taobao agent]

Um...like the style of your writing.*_*

[clear wireless internet]

I went out and of course his hotel / pub was still in service at 11:30 p.m.. Other local said he "was a bit funny".I will never go to this place again and the light from the charming town of Middleham.

[dreambox 500s]

This makes it easy to sell one of its services. In addition, consumer services are easy, why not include them in the discussion. They are probably a precursor.

[mycouponbasket]

you are right.... i agree with you...

Nice information thanks for the update.....

[Generic Cialis]

Hola,Ha hecho un trabajo muy bueno. Hay muchas personas en busca de eso ahora van a encontrar suficientes fuentes por tus consejos.espera para obtener más consejos acerca de que

[Florida Insurance]

well well well i just told a funny insurance policy joke about some quotes in florida insurance. It was awesome

[Kamagra Oral Jelly]

Skönt att vara besöka din blogg igen, har det varit månader för mig. Väl här artikeln som jag har väntat så länge. Jag behöver den här artikeln för att slutföra mitt uppdrag i kollegiet, och den har samma tema med din artikel. Tack, bra aktie.!!