All these things reveal beauty in their classic, timeless, simple states. A major contributing factor in Google’s rise to dominance has been their ability to grasp the fact that people can indeed find beauty in simplicity. It is widely believed that the average American is targeted by over 3000 ads and exposed to hundreds of them on a daily basis. Ad space dominates our surroundings and it is no different in the online realm. In a cyberworld cluttered with advertisements and widgets, Google continues to exercise its motto to “think backwards” by displaying beauty in simplicity. I noticed a recent change in the Google search page. Traditionally, the page would look something like this:
Google simplified things even further by removing all the peripheral links to reveal a pure, clean, simple search page:
The peripheral links in the image above don’t appear until you take action by moving the mouse over the page. You can call it the anti-AOL or the contra-Yahoo!. I simply call it beautiful. Note that I am speaking purely from a search perspective. A company like Yahoo! finds its strength in their network/portal. When it comes to search, Google continues to deliver by sticking to one of their 10 philosophical pillars: “It’s best to do one thing really, really well.” That one thing is Search and the newest change to the homepage embodies this philosophy.
We often speak to e-commerce businesses who try to jazz up their site with way too much text, animation, dizzying color patterns, or overwhelming ads. It should be well noted that potential customers and site visitors want to find the info they are searching for quickly and easily. Simple, clean pages do wonders for website conversions, visitor satisfaction, and bounce rates. The next time you give your site a facelift, I encourage you to take a lesson from Google and consider the ‘less is more’ approach. You can always give us a call so we can discuss strategies for your website.
While we’re on the subject of Google ads, I hope you were able to catch the Parisian Love Super Bowl ad this past weekend. I tend to judge Super Bowl commercials by watching faces of the viewers around me rather than how I personally react. I noticed the faces of the viewers at the Super Bowl party were absolutely intrigued by this commercial and actually enjoyed watching it. There was no humor, celebrity spokesman, or special effects. It was simple yet captivating… how fitting of Google.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYavikKP8wI
On a personal note, this commercial is the one that got my vote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rsEnwKrsvc
- Michael
Nett Solutions is a SEM agency working with Yahoo! and Google. We are a SoCal based company built of an eclectic cornucopia of: marketers, mothers & fathers, husbands & wives, college grads & MBA’s, surfers, church-goers, athletes, comedians (and those who think they are comedians). Our common bond is that we like to help people succeed.