2012年9月16日 星期日

谷歌要動亞馬遜的奶酪 Google Glass e Future of Technology

谷歌要動亞馬遜的奶酪


不管你是想在網上買個電動工具,還是彩色牛仔褲,你很可能會用谷歌(Google)或亞馬遜(Amazon.com)開始搜索。不過,到底用哪一個呢?
為了成為頂尖網絡商城,這兩家公司在私底下開始了一場較量。大大小小的電子商務網站都捲入了雙方的戰火。對於消費者來說,最重要的是,他們能否在網上看到品種齊全的商品。
雖然谷歌是搜索引擎,而不是網店,但是它依靠自己的對比購物服務平台谷歌購物(Google Shopping) 之類的產品,正在逐漸朝電子商務領域進軍。與此同時,用網絡零售商亞馬遜作為搜索引擎來搜索自己想購買商品的人越來越多。

為了迴避亞馬遜的衝擊,谷歌最近對谷歌購物做了一些更改,開始要求那些想出現在與購物相關的搜索結果中的電子商務網站公司支付費用。所以,現在的產品清單就是廣告。出現在搜索結果中曾經是免費的。現在,如果某家公司不為此付費,消費者就無法看到他們的產品信息。
谷歌表示,這項改變將會提高與購物相關的搜索結果的質量,因為如果付費的話,零售商會更傾向於把精確的、最新的產品羅列出來。它還說,那些過時的或是在配送價格等方面對消費者產生了誤導的產品信息,對搜索服務造成了污染。

通過要求零售商為在搜索結果中出現而付費,“各種激勵因素共同確保了我們所得到的數據質量更高,”谷歌購物的產品管理副總裁薩米爾·薩馬特 (Sameer Samat)說。谷歌購物曾叫做谷歌產品搜索(Google Product Search),而更久之前則叫做Froogle。“有了質量更高的數據,我們就能為用戶創造更好的體驗。”

雖然有些零售商對此表示同意,說此舉甚至會幫他們提高銷售量,但有的公司則很恐慌。它們表示,他們不會為在搜索結果中出現而支付費用,或者將列出更少的產品,這樣,購物者們在谷歌上看到的選擇就會減少。

通過這種方式,谷歌能從零售商手中賺取更多的錢,這些零售商都是能給它帶來高收益的廣告客戶。但是,谷歌也需要提高產品搜索結果的質量,來防止那些有價值的客戶轉投亞馬遜。

“谷歌和亞馬遜都有一樣的終極目標,即成為人們進行產品搜索的首選網站,而亞馬遜在這場戰爭中佔了上風,” Adlucent的創始人和首席技術官邁克爾·格里芬(Michael Griffin)說。這家公司為網絡零售商提供搜索營銷服務,以前還曾管理過亞馬遜的付費搜索。

同時,亞馬遜已經從谷歌購物中移除了自己的商品清單。想找Kindle?谷歌購物所展示的Kindle搜索結果都來自百思買(Best Buy)、eBay和名叫Fumfie和格萊德(Glyde)的網站,就是沒有亞馬遜的。

然而,據熟悉亞馬遜策略的匿名人士透露,目前亞馬遜還沒有排除向谷歌付費的可能性,以便讓自己的產品出現在谷歌的搜索結果中。

弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester)的數據顯示,2009年,25%的消費者在網上購物時,都會首先到谷歌之類的搜索引擎上進行搜索,而先到亞 馬遜上進行搜索的只有18%。但是去年,三分之一的人都會先去亞馬遜,只有1%的人會先利用搜索引擎進行搜索。根據康姆斯科(comScore)的統計 數據,在過去一年中,亞馬遜的產品搜索增加了73%,而谷歌購物則走勢平平。

谷歌購物向付費服務的轉變開始於夏季,將會在秋季完成。這是谷歌正在擴大的電子商務計劃的部分內容,這個計劃還包括“付款錢包”(Wallet for payments)、“每日一購”(Offers for daily deals),以及能讓消費者在附近找到目標商品的“谷歌購物”(Google Shopper)手機應用軟件等內容。
如果在谷歌主頁上進行搜索,還是會顯示從整個互聯網上搜索到的結果,這些都是不收費的,但是,也會出現一個方框,顯示產品照片、價格以及描述,這些則是付過費的。如果在Google.com/shopping搜索某個商品,則得到的所有搜索結果都是已經支付過相關費用的。
大多數其他的對比購物網站也提供付費服務,包括雅虎購物(Yahoo Shopping)、Nextag,和PriceGrabber。微軟必應購物(Microsoft’s Bing Shopping)免費為零售商們提供服務,只有一些與Shopping.com合作的產品名錄除外。
但是,多數零售商都認為,谷歌是網絡客戶最重要的來源。也有些人說,他們承擔不起把自己所有的產品都羅列出來的費用。
“如果你是個零售商,又沒有亞馬遜、eBay,百思買或沃爾瑪(Wal-Mart)那麼大的預算,真的會很困難,” Digitas負責性能媒體的高級副總裁格里·巴瓦羅(Gerry Bavaro) 說。這家公司的客戶包括寶潔(Procter & Gamble)。
如果零售商大幅度削減羅列在谷歌上的產品數目,消費者就會到別家網站去——比如亞馬遜——尋求更全面的產品信息。
“最後有人就會說,‘我不會再交錢了,’” 為零售商客戶監察電子商務網站的Dynamite Data的創始人克里斯托弗·庫比基(Kristopher Kubicki)說,“要不了多久,客戶們就不會再相信此類的應用,因為它不再是真正的對比性網站,而是廣告。”
翻譯:陳柳



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