谷歌广告教母瞄准新方向

    这话以前人们已经说过了，但值得再说一遍：苏珊•沃西基在硅谷之外的世界理应赢得比现在更高的声望。

    作为谷歌（Google）负责广告业务的高级副总裁，沃西基的工作成就了这家互联网巨头的成功：沃西基领导着谷歌最赚钱的业务——广告平台AdWords，并在2006年促成了对YouTube的收购。沃西基的广告产品收入高达近365亿美元，占谷歌去年总收入的96%。所以可以这样说，至少在谷歌内部，沃西基的话很有分量。

    周三早些时候，在摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）举办的“技术、媒体和电信大会”（Technology, Media and Telecom Conference）上，沃西基参与讨论了众多涉及谷歌的话题。最近一段时间，最受关注的恐怕要数正处于风口浪尖的社交网络Google+。今年一月，谷歌推出了新功能——“搜进你世界”，将Google+的图片和帖子整合进了谷歌的搜索结果中。此举招来不少隐私保护人士的强烈反对，同时也可能是美国联邦贸易委员会（the U.S. Trade Federal Trade Commission）扩大针对谷歌的反垄断调查，使之涵盖Google+的原因。

    沃西基对此解释称：“Google+的目的不仅仅是打造一个社交网络，而是充分构造一种以人为中心的体验。它将紧紧围绕人们认识的人和他们交际圈中的朋友，为用户提供他们认为谷歌应该提供的信息。”

    尽管外界对“搜进你世界”争论不断，沃西基认为这个理念完全没问题，而且应该在谷歌开发新的更具个性化的产品时发挥重要作用。沃西基称：“真实世界的信息就是这么传递的，难道不是吗？它有赖于我从朋友那里获得的信息：谁向我推荐了某本特定的书，谁又引用了哪篇文章。我们将这种功能做得越个性化，搜索体验对用户就越有用。”

    沃西基同时强调了移动广告成功的前景，她表示只需要使广告商提高对移动广告的重视程度，就会创造大量商机。（她承认许多广告商甚至还没有建立移动登陆页面。）如果用户看到的广告没有为其设备进行专门的优化处理，他们很可能根本不可能查阅内容、注册服务或是进行购买。

    除此之外，移动广告还可以根据地理位置提供具有相关性的广告，并设定广告的格式，使其向移动应用程序看齐，实现滚动和多屏操作。沃西基说：“目前的移动应用程序可以完成很多广告无法实现的操作。假如现在就开始朝这个方向努力，广告产品会有市场吗？用户能够看到大量不同的页面？这些就是我们目前着眼的领域。”。

    It's been said before, but it's worth saying again: Susan Wojcicki doesn't get enough credit outside Silicon Valley.

    As Google's (GOOG) senior vice president of advertising, her work has been instrumental to the Internet giant's success: Wojcicki spearheaded the advertising platform AdWords, Google's biggest moneymaker, and pushed for the acquisition of YouTube in 2006. And Wojcicki's ad products accounted for 96% of Google's overall revenues last year, bringing in almost $36.5 billion. So it's fair to say that when she speaks, at least within the halls of Google, people listen.

    At Morgan Stanley's (MS) Technology, Media and Telecom Conference earlier today, Wojcicki weighed in on a number of Google topics. Perhaps top of the heap these days is the issue of Google+, which has been subject to intense scrutiny. A feature called "Search Plus Your World," introduced in January, integrated Google+ photos and posts into Google's search results. The move caused some privacy advocates to cry foul and may have been cause for the U.S. Trade Federal Trade Commission to expand its antitrust probe to include Google+.

    "With Google+, it's not just about building a social network," explained Wojcicki. "It's the idea of what is our experience when it revolves around people based on who you know, based on who you have in your Circles, how we [as users] think about the information that we [Google] give to you."

    Regardless of the controversy surrounding "Search Plus," Wojcicki believes the concept is a sound one and ought to play a significant role in the development of new, more personalized Google products. Said Wojcicki: "That's how real world information works, right? It works based on information that I have gotten from my friends. It matters who has recommended a specific book to me. It matters who has actually cited specific articles. The more we can make it personalized, the more we think something like the search experience will be more useful to you."

    Wojcicki also stressed the promise of mobile advertising, arguing that there's an open opportunity simply in terms of making advertisers more mobile-friendly. (Many advertisers don't even have a mobile landing page, she admits.) Users are far less likely to want to engage with content, sign up for services, or make purchases if the ad they're viewing isn't optimized for their device.

    Beyond that, mobile advertising could serve relevant ads based on location and format ads to resemble mobile apps, with scrolling and multiple screens. "You can do a lot of things with a mobile app that right now you can't actually do with an ad," says Wojcicki. "If you start bringing that, should you be able to move the product? Should you able to see lots of different pages? Those are some of the things we're looking at.".