An internal market for Google ads

Search is one of our primary interfaces with content and services. Ads are funding much of the content and many of the services we use. Internet style search is fast being adopted for enterprise content but there is a case for using advertising style services on intranets as well.

The right hand side column for Google search and gmail has always been used to serve ads, but along with Google's launch of new products the space is increasingly being used to link to other services - maps, stock quotes, calendar, shipment tracking etc. - some run by Google but not all.

Google is expanding its range of products for the enterprise, the latest being the OneBox - internal search with connectors to typical enterprise apps like Oracle, Exchange and Salesforce. Imagine if the appliance came with AdWords functionality built in. It could be put to use to place "advertisements" next to searches or emails. Or change the layout of intranet pages to make space for "ads" in a right hand side column. The stuff you would want to promote is the organisation's own knowledge and services - plus content from knowledge services that the firm or the user subscribed to.

On top of bringing knowledge closer to the situations where it is relevant, tracking of click-through rates would produce a potentially useful map of "hot" knowledge, information with long-term value and other patterns. The organisation's own database of intentions.

Tags: Google search adwords auto discovery