inter:digital strategies

Every time I see a lawsuit like Brava Corp vs. Google, I have to wonder exactly what the thoughts behind the suit really are. Is it an honest (though mis-guided) attempt at retribution for perceived slights? A search for publicity? Hope for financial gain?

Or is it just bad decision making?

In this particular case, Ms. Bradley of Brava Corp. claims that her business relationship with Google (as a brief participant in the AdSense program) caused her irreparable harm by damaging her reputation. Now, it’s rather unclear exactly who caused her reputation harm. Did Google publicize the fact that Ms. Bradley had violated their terms of service? No, she did that herself by filing this suit. Her lawsuit is definitely a little short on merit.

It seems unlikely that any lawyer would advise Ms. Bradley to pursue a suit like this after considering her statement and reading the Google terms of service. Fifteen minutes should be all it would take to determine that the suit is not likely to be successful. So, one is inclined to conclude that the suit has other goals.

Let’s consider publicity. From a search perspective, this lawsuit has significantly increased the appearances of her corporation name in web press. It’s also created a decent number of additional links in to her site. But what’s the context of these links? Are they relevant to her business? Are they positive recommendations of her company or services? Not exactly. Nonetheless, when a site with an Alexa 3-month average putting them at traffic rank 2,317,997 has a traffic rank today at 3,808 - there’s an obvious impact.

What good is this likely to do. It’s a lot of publicity. It’s a lot of people visiting her site - will most of them think her suit is frivolous? Sure. Will some of them think Google is an evil empire which must be destroyed? Yep. Ultimately, an increase in visibility of this level can do good.

But…it’s probably not worth it. A pure spike in traffic is only going to accomplish so much. And since the site isn’t monetized in any way to benefit from the brief traffic spike, Brava Corp. will be dependent on gaining additional customers from this experience.

So, what does Brava Corp. offer? Management consulting, business tech consulting, corporate psychology services, and a variety of other vaguely-defined corporate services. It’s not clear to me that there are a lot of corporations who would hire a company which has recently demonstrated such a poor sense for public relations.

So what’s my point here? Consider carefully before pursuing a lawsuit. In addition to the standard expenses of the legal system, you may want to consider the publicity you’ll receive after filing. From a publicity perspective, it may not matter specifically whether you actually win your suit - however, it probably matters more that you be able to demonstrate a real understanding of the issues you’re arguing. A suit which is transparently frivolous will have minimal benefits to your public image, where a suit which has merit can provide publicity benefits without also damaging your reputation.

So, Google has taken one more step towards providing a full-service online application service. Now making Google Apps for your domain available, which includes Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and Google Page Creator you’re looking at a branded site service enabling inter-office and extra-office communications, group calendaring, and web publishing within your organization - all very handy tools which are not frequently available at this kind of cost level.

Of course, their information pages do say that there is no premium edition:

Is there a premium version of this service?

Not at this time. However, if your organization has advanced needs not met by this free service, let us know and we’ll get in touch when a premium service is available for your organization.

But I think we can all pretty easily see the possibilities available with the expansion of Google Spreadsheets and Writely - or future related products. As has been observed by several people around the blogosphere, this project seems to be targeting the enterprise desktop market using a service business model.

It’s also very easy to see the appeal of a service model of office software. This could certainly relieve some of the burden on IT departments to maintain licenses, install and reinstall software, and maintain support for diverse products. Of course, many IT departments have gotten to the level where this kind of maintenance is highly routinized - nevertheless, the appeal can’t be ignored.

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of takeup the service has - will this be primarily appealing to mid-sized businesses with undersized IT departments, large corporations, small business owners? Will the targeted education market like the idea? Who knows…in many cases, the lack of control of their own hardware and data centers may sway IT directors away from the product.

I can’t even guess, really…

A recent thread at Cre8asite Forums brought an interesting article to my attention.

Not that there are any huge surprises in the article - it’s all pretty much common knowledge about the relationship between Google and Dmoz. However, having it written up by a highly experienced Dmoz editor gives it a notable boost in value. Jean Manco is a regular contributor to Cre8asite forums, providing updates into the happenings at the Open Directory Project and related issues. She has been a volunteer editor with the Open Directory since 1999.

That is to say, she is somewhat of an authority figure when it comes to the open directory. She is one of those few Open Directory editors who really makes a point to communicate with the webmaster community - something which, sadly, isn’t incredibly common amongst the Dmoz community.

If you really want "the scoop" on Google’s relationship with the Open Directory Project, this is a great place to start.

Hat tip to sonjay at Cre8asite!