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K-Fed Up with Celebrity Skinned Search
March 22, 2007 |
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I've got a question for you: would you want to do anything with Kevin
Federline? Personally, the more Federline-free my world is, the better.
But apparently other people don't see it that way. You may have noticed
earlier this week that K-Fed is actually launching his own search
engine. Well, to be more accurate, he's slapping his face on an existing
back end, so to speak. I won't go into the details of the K-Fed engine,
except to say that it's powered by Yahoo and it’s offered by Prodege.com.
Par-Tee with Britney’s Ex!
Apparently, making this your primary search engine could open the door
to a chance to win tickets to Kevin's private birthday party (I would
rather wear Fiberglas underwear), T-shirts and other paraphernalia all
related to the somewhat questionable K-Fed brand. Apparently, an invite
to K-Fed’s birthday party is "a once in a lifetime opportunity." This
has the ring of truth, as I might consider killing myself if I actually
won.
This got me thinking. If we're in the era of consumer generated media,
are we also in the area of consumer generated celebrities? Does the
increasing fragmentation of our society through an explosion of online
channels mean that even marginal celebs like Kevin Federline get their
own small sliver of fame? If we have enough Kevin Federline fans
somewhere, and the Web has empowered them to have a voice unlike
anything they may have been able to have before, is there a place for a
Kevin Federline search engine? And, if so, does the future hold the
promise of a profusion of celebrity skinned search sites?
Google Dresses Up Your Home Page
Ironically, Google also made an announcement this week releasing six
themes for their personalized homepage. In this case, Google went out of
their way to make sure that the themes are not commercial in any way. In
Google's words, these themes are all about "art and personality". The
new Google themes are clever, in that they are location sensitive and
have some cool little twists designed to "delight" users. For example,
some of the scenes show outdoor scenes and the sun rises and sets in
sync with where you happen to be located. With a Google theme installed,
you may never have to look out your window again. But in a conversation
with Google, they made a point of saying that they're hesitant to open
up an API to Google themes, for fear that it would cause a rush of
commercialized skins, which could encroach on the user experience.
Blatant Commercialism is Skin Deep
Commercially oriented skins are nothing new, of course. Movies have
released custom skins for MP3 players and other online apps that bury
functionality under a sea of advertising spin. There are hundreds and
thousands of desktop themes, wallpaper and screen savers with a
commercial bent. But up to this point, search has been relatively "spin
free", save of course for the advertising on the actual results page.
But at least I don't have to look at Kevin Federline when I'm searching
for the symptoms of gout or trying to find an update patch for my latest
Windows problems.
Just Give Me My Results, Dammit!
Based on a few new entries in the search space, it suddenly seems like
we need personality mixed in with our search functionality. Search
innovator K-Fed is not the only one pointing us in this direction.
Microsoft has been playing around with Ms. Dewey (again an unfortunate
choice of words), with the assumption that an undeniably attractive but
distinctively bitchy female guide standing in front of a Blade Runner-esque
streetscape will somehow make our search experience more complete.
Perhaps Ms. Dewey could be K-Fed’s rebound after his split with Britney.
Or perhaps both of them should have a cup of tea with Jeeves and see how
being a search mascot worked out for him.
My feeling is that we want search to be a pristine experience. We wanted
it to be minimalist and we want to start from a neutral palette. We are
so focused on intent and the task at hand when we interact with search
that anything that gets in the way is simply a distraction. It adds
nothing to the user experience. Search is very utilitarian task. We get
in, find what we're looking for and get out. However, with the lion
share of the search market tied up in the hands of so few players,
perhaps any tactic is worth a try to see if they can rest even a small
sliver of those searches away from the Google's and Yahoo's of the
world.
Where Are They Now?
By the way, the other celebrities that have their own search engines
with Prodege.com? Meatloaf, Andrew Dice Clay, and Winona Judd. So the
progressive degrees of "washed up" seems to be: appearing on Dancing
with the Stars, then Hollywood Squares, then having your own search
engine. Now, I ask you, if Paris doesn't have her face (or other
assorted body parts) plastered on a search engine somewhere, how hot can
this trend really be? |
Gord Hotchkiss
President and CEO
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Blog: www.outofmygord.com
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