Starting
with Google Search in 1997, Google has always been trying to find the best
answers to its users' queries.
In order to
provide a more dedicated response to users' queries, in Aug 2001 Google decided
to launch 'Google Questions and Answers'. This service allowed users to send
their questions by email and for a flat fee of US$3.00 Google staffers would
reply to those questions. Unfortunately the service ran for only 24 hours,
after which it was shut down due to excessive demand1.
This was
followed by 'Google Answers' in April 2002. This was different in the sense as the users were
asking other users (researchers) for answers and were willing to pay the
researchers between $2 to $200 to for an
answer. Google were charging 50 cent fee for posting a question and was keeping
25% of the reward money.
Although the
service was receiving more than 100 questions per day but Google decided to
shut it down in Dec 2006 saying that Answers community's limited size and other
product considerations made it more effective for Google to focus its efforts
on other ways to help its users find information2.
Then came Knol, which was launched in 2007 as a method
for authors to work together to create authoritative articles about specific
topics that they know about.
In Oct 2012
Google decided to shut down Knol and said
that it was prioritizing its product efforts so it can make things much simpler
for its users and devote more resources to high impact products.
However, in
order to continue the fostering of creation of very informative and
authoritative content, Google worked with Solvitor and Crowd Favorite to create
Annotum whereby all of the content from Knol was passed over to Annotum (launched on November 22, 2011 as an
open-source, open-process, open-access scholarly authoring and publishing
platform based on WordPress).
And now, on
November 5, 2013, Google has launched Helpouts
where users can get answers to their queries via a live one to one video chat
(using Google Hangouts) from over
a thousand pre-screened 'providers' (experts from all different fields). The
providers include individuals, small and medium businesses as well as well
known brands and they have the option to
offer their services for free or ask for a set fee for a specified amount of
time or even charge by minute. Payment transactions are done using Google Wallet and Google takes a 20%
cut out of the fees.
This seems
to be a great opportunity, specially for those individuals and businesses who
are already providing educational and informative videos on Youtube, to sign up
for Helpouts and generate some
serious income rather than simply relying on the ad revenues.
Helpouts have some great features. Google's Udi Manber, VP Engineering, posted in his
blog, "Once you’re in a Helpout, you can do more than just talk—you
can share your computer screen, collaboratively edit a presentation, or record
your Helpout. And if the experience doesn’t meet your expectations, we offer a full
money back guarantee."
The concept
of using 'one-to-one' live video chat for business was taken up by eBay in 2005
when they acquired Skype. It wanted to connect buyers and sellers in the eBay
marketplace via Skype but failed badly as the marketplace continued to use
email as their preferred mode of communicating with each other. However, with
the offer of a full money back guarantee Helpouts
may prove to be successful.
Whether Helpouts is a success story or not, in
my opinion marketers should still tread with caution when having a presence on
this platform as it is a new B2C business model where the services provided are
rated along with users' comments. Also, a company's or an individual's position
in Helpouts internal search is based
on the heading, keywords and the 'reputation'. And, I personally think that as Helpouts are one of Google's latest
products, its content will start showing up 'more' in Google's organic search.
So, no matter how tiny, but it can still play a part is SERPS.
References:
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