“Hey Andy - Your recent posts on Googles new products lead me to do some research. check out this link … I’d love to get your take on it. Do you think Google is stepping into areas best left to Nielsen and the tracking agencies, or is this the next logical progression for them?!? Link Keep Cooking!” Andrew Clark

It’s only natural for Google to step into the areas that have previously been dominated by the likes of Nielsen and Comscore. Why? They have the data to do so. With such a majority in search technology it is easy for Google to mine these analytics, and with the economies of scale at Google - they can provide this information for free. This does directly undercut the business models of the companies mentioned in the link you provided. Will these companies go out of business? No.

While the business models conflict there are other issues at hand. Two of those are data integrity and different sampling methodoligies. The article you cited makes a great point…

Some experts wonder if Google’s Ad Planner service may be a conflict of interest. Will advertisers trust data from a source that sells them online advertising?

The point made is whether advertisers will trust analytics provided by the company they purchase advertising from. My bet is, yes, they will because it is so cheap to do so. The other issue is methodology which directly reflects sampling issues. Google gets 70% of search traffic meaning they don’t have analytical data on the other 30%. The traditional firms like Nielsen use statistical practices such as samples and controls. Regardless, as the article points out, “…the main argument being
that Web usage is too fragmented to be accurately represented by a limited
sample size. Reporting solid results about Internet usage becomes tricky when using a restricted number of participants.” This thinking affects both sides.

I think the industry that should be worried more than the analytical industry is the actual ad firms that do media planning. A couple years ago I built a media planner website for a local ad agency. This directly targets their business model, and with Google’s scalability and affordability, the AdPlanner could directly impact their business - especially when companies like mine exist to help these consumers use the inexpensive tools provided by Google.

Thanks to Andrew Clark for the question.

Do you have a question? Maybe you should Ask Andy!