Froogle and Groups have been relegated to the out of sight, out of mind dustbin (well, to the More link, really) as Google’s Marissa Mayer formally announced the video link we have been seeing atop the Google search bar for the past few days.
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
— Roy Scheider, Jaws
To pay Rupert Murdoch those millions, as well as satisfy its voracious cash needs, Google has to get more video, especially featured video from partners like Viacom and AOL, in front of its users.
So Google tucked Groups and Froogle into the More menu choice, just click on More and up comes the little menu with them and Books, and much more, on it. The official word on this comes from Mayer, Google’s VP, Search Products & User Experience:
You may have noticed the Google homepage feels a little different today. That’s because we’ve reorganized our tabs, or “top links” — the blue links to Images, News, Maps, etc.). In this iteration, you’ll see that Google Video is now featured on the homepage.
Search has always been a fundamental paradigm here, so we’re constantly working to integrate more services into the main search experience.
As our product line evolves, we’re also finding that we have a few destinations that people need to get to directly — sometimes because the user experience relies heavily on browsing (News, Video) or because there’s a different way of searching (Maps).
Mayer also observed that Google will be making more changes in the coming months to how its services are organized.
Right now, video is the bigger boat Google needs. Video has become the big draw online given its growth in usage and popularity. Google’s deals, networking, and advertising expertise could combine to monetize video at a level no one has approached yet online.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
