Google partners with Real Player

• Apr. 20, 2004

It seems odd that a search engine and a media player would partner in a distribution agreement. After all, what benefit would it be to either Google or Real to offer their downloadable products together?

Surprisingly there could be many benefits for both partners here. Although there are probably more long term benefits, there are short term benefits as well. Depending on how it is distributed (such as, will the user have the option to install the toolbar in the media player, or will it still be a browser based toolbar?) could have far reaching implications for both Real and Google.

For example, Real could benefit from Google's ability to track and monitor search usage. They should easily be able to incorporate this into the media player so that its usage is monitored by both Google and Real. Real could then provide targeted media while Google will likely be able to send targeted advertising to the media player.

Further, this gives them both a leg up on Microsoft. Up until now, only Microsoft has had the ability to really monitor media player usage and exploit it. They have been keeping a media history on users, and have been able to send those same users media and ads aimed at the user's preferences.

In addition, this gives Google one more "in" with yet another AOL property. We've mentioned in a past article how Google seems to be trying to move more and more into AOL territory. Marry that with the fact that AOL is still having problems, and perhaps there is more to this story than Google is letting on.

But back to the partnership – since Real Player plays many more types of media than most other players (namely Windows Media Player) this can end up being a good thing for Google users. Imagine having the ability to now search multimedia – something Google doesn't currently do, but something Altavista (owned by Yahoo!) does very well. Microsoft also has this ability through the Windows Media portal, as well as within the player. Therefore this is the one area which Google lacks, but Microsoft and Yahoo! have developed. (On a side note – both also have instant messaging which Google also lacks – but that's another story).

And considering that the majority of time users spend online is NOT search related – that is they are chatting, or playing streaming media or online games among other things – it makes sense that Google would head down this direction. Especially if they can integrate their core business – search - into a product which benefits the every day user who may use Google for search and only search.

On the Real media front there will be the potential for huge benefits as well. Imagine having your application able to efficiently search your computer for media and build play lists based on genre, artist and so on, but have it do it automatically with little user intervention. Further, to be able to add new music and categorize it on its own - makes the product more appealing.

Some players, like Windows media player and Apples ITunes can do this for you, but they need help. Not to mention they take quite a while to search through your whole computer looking for media. But if Google search can do it faster and more efficiently and build you the play list in ½ the time would that be worth it? Further, it could then launch a web search for you to find other free music matching your preferences.

For example, if you have a variety of music but tend to listen to the same artist, you could launch a search from Real media player, using Google, to find other free music from the same artist web wide.

From an advertising perspective, Google could then also serve you targeted ads based on your listening preferences. If you like top 40 then it would serve ads relating to those artists, or genres or services you could use to enhance your top 40 listening experience. All the while both Google and Real are gathering your habits and preferences to help tailor future offerings and even making a little money on those ads being displayed.

So while details of the new partnership are sketchy, they do open the doors to a great deal of potential for both Google and Real Media. I guess it depends really on what they decided to do and where the partnership takes them.

Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Searchengineposition.com
Enquiro.com