Visiting Google - Representing the Green Industry

I sit here in the Marriott Residence Inn in Mountain View CA tonight in preparation for a visit to Google Headquarters tomorrow.

10-20 Media is an Authorized Google Adwords Reseller. That means that 10-20 Media (me) is receiving 2 days of training from a team of Googlers on their home turf.

I feel like I am representing and industry tonight. I wonder how many other pure-bred green industry genentics have been in the door at the GooglePlex?

This is a big deal for this reason: The power of an aggregator.

You see, Home Depot and Lowes can build sophistecated web advertsing applications and deploy them across the enterprise at a low cost per location. Need a materials calculator? Sure, they have it on their home page. Use it and then contact your local store.

A message board - sure. Ask the Big Box expert, get the answer, and buy locally the solution.

One critical part is missing though. Relationship.

The web is interactive. The Big Boxes are not using the web to build relationships with their users (atleast not that I can tell). And I don't mean "Sign Up For This Newsletter". That is one directional.

So 10-20 Media and our Lawn and Garden Search site is an aggregator. An aggregator of many, many localized small businesses that have lots of knowledge and willing to share. They also have LOTS of products (how many plant names are there? Whew!).

There is no way that your local garden center and nursery is going to be able to build a page for every plant and product that is worth selling and search engine optimize it. Ain't happenin'.

So Lawn and Garden Search, as the aggregator of said information, can build content and commerce pages and send the searcher to the local business for the information. It is a practical reality and a need within our industry.

To tie this thought together, this visit to Google is going to fill my head with the means to bring the local searcher to the local enterprise to find exactly what they need, and build a relationship with the customer along the way. Great things ahead for this industry of ours.

This is no small task, but I'm up for it.

Starts tomorrow.

Steve