Google is really two companies: Google the search engine and Google the business-services company. Together, the two sides form Google the media company. Along the same lines, Google is employed by two breeds of user: consumers who are searching and business partners of all sizes who seek online visibility. Google’s two sides can’t be separated like an Oreo cookie; they’re stuck together by keywords. Keywords typed into the search engine are used also to determine the ads placed next to the user’s search results, because advertisers bid for the right to launch ads on those keywords. Those same ads are launched to thousands of partner sites in Google’s expanded advertising network. Even sites that don’t advertise but appear prominently on the search results page probably built their content and HTML coding around the very

same keywords. As you can see, the consumer experience (finding destinations) and the business experience (finding customers) are inextricably linked by shared keywords. But make no mistake: We business users do not enjoy the same weight in the Google equation as consumer users. (Of course, most of us use Google’s front end as consumers, too.) Google’s first concern is the search experience, and the primary relationship is between Google and the consumer. Without satisfied searchers, the business side has no value. Consumers may freely focus on the search experience, with no awareness of the business forces competing in the background. But business users who ignore consumer-search priorities

court their own downfall.