Today I got my first taste of Google Docs which Google provides as an online word processor and spreadsheet which is most likely targeting Microsofts Office Suite of products. Microsoft practically built their empire with the Windows operating system and office suite of products over the last 10 years and have up until now, never really had competition that can really give them something to worry about.

Trying to tackle Microsoft head to head in their core business would almost be impossible as they are so strong in the desktop software market however Google have such a strangle hold in the online space that they are in the perfect position to launch a full scale attack from where they are strongest.

I recently read a book by Seth Godin where he talked about how Apple used a similar strategy which have made them the leader in online music downloads, portable music players and soon mobile phone market by using iTunes which then allowed them to tap into their current user base to push more of their products and services which is much easier than marketing to new market. Couple this with innovative products and Apple now dominates this market.

Google has many of us using their search engine daily. We have Google accounts which mean we can easily tap into the growing range on online services Google provides. This is the platform the Google is using to slowing lure Microsoft Office users away from their desktop software as well as providing a link in Adwords reporting offering to view your report in Google Docs instead of downloading it as a csv file which you could then open in excel.

You use it once today, another time in a few weeks and soon enough you’ll find yourself getting dependent on using it and it starts becoming your main choice for word processing or spreadsheet processing. You can’t help being drawn to using it, as you get to save your files online for easy access and also makes it easy to find later… just log in. It’s convenience and it’s FREE.

With Microsoft being such a huge company, it’s hard to imagine Google doing so much damage and it’s even somewhat concerning that Google has so much data domination.

This is one of the most common questions I hear from clients involved in paid search. There are a few reasons as to why the ads don’t show up but if your keywords are in your campaign and everthing it setup properly, then it could just be a matter of coverage.

Sometimes you might find that the ads don’t display usually because your budget isn’t high enough to get full search coverage.

For example

• Your ads are scheduled to display from 6am – 12 midnight, 7 days per week.
• Your budget is set at $20 per day

Scenario

Your ads are clicked a number of times from 6am – 12 midday and half of your budget is now used up so you only have $10 left of your daily budget. Your campaign still needs to run for 12 more hours so your ads will display intermittently throughout the rest of the day to give you the greatest coverage for the remainder of your scheduled ad time.

I’m assuming that Google does this so that you get an even level of enquiries throughout the day instead of lots of enquires all at once plus to minimise the same people looking for services from clicking your ads multiple times.