CNN’s homepage has an article up this morning about Google’s decision to run an ad during the Super Bowl this year. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was all hyped up about it. But why? If you read the article, this quote by some Analyst (read: bored motherfucker) sums it up:

“Google has had its designs on selling ads on television, and it is beginning to develop an interesting business there,” said Andrew Frank, Google analyst at Gartner. “Google … is coming to grips with the fact that the Internet can’t persist as a disconnected medium that doesn’t interact with other media.”

Apple has been dancing around the idea of partnering up with Bing (MSN), using them as their default search engine for future iphones because Google dared challenge them in the smartphone arena. The balance of power is shifting a bit. Is Google even slightly concerned? Not a chance. Google is obviously making moves to compete in other markets (I think competing for mobile adspace is short-sighted anyway.)

Here’s why:

Once you merge television and internet advertising technology you will own the fucking universe. Imagine the targeting capabilities. You will be able to aggregate viewer data OVER TIME. What does a 33 year old male who makes 45K per year in Tennessee watch(ahem, NASCAR and Dexter)? How much time does he spend watching the news? Per week? Per month?

How many 24 year old girls watched the new chizzled jaw-line-strapping-young-lad-marries-cute-girl-from-Michigan reality show last week? What offers did they “click through” the most? What companies media buys resulted in the least amount of channel changes/whatever?

You like MMA? There will be ads for gloves, shorts, DVDs and Geotargeted links to your local gym (most of you MMA fans should try and drive off a bridge on your way there)

Whoever is developing the ad-serving technology (it isn’t Google, but Google will buy them for lets say, 2 billion) to facilitate this will be responsible for the single greatest shift in media/communication of all time. Somehow, they will figure out a way to make those ads less intrusive. Perhaps adblocks that only display whenever you go to the menu navigation? Big auto insurance companies might just have a tiny little red dot in the corner of the screen that you can hover over and it will show you a Google map of the local dealerships. Who knows.

Our economy is going to be horrible for a long time, but that doesn’t mean things are going to stop moving. Online adversing opened the doors for a legion of businesses that never would have existed without it.

Fuck it. I guess I’ll have to start watching TV : )