My first reaction to Google Weddings was:

Upon further reflection I think there may be more to Google Weddings than just another random 20% time project seeing the light of day:

  1. It’s about Local:  Yellow page usage is driven by a few big life events – births, birthdays, graduations,  getting a job, buying a house, getting sick and/or dying and getting married, to name but a few.   As I predicted last year, vertical guides are becoming an important part of the local search equation.  Weddings is a big vertical with a lot of marketing dollars spent on a local level.
  2. It’s about Social: There are few events in one’s life more social than a wedding.  It involves relationships from almost every part of one’s life.  There are invitations, travel recommendations, pre-parties and post-event photo & video sharing.  We all know Google wants in on the social thing in a big way.  Perhaps Google Weddings is a side entrance into the party.

We shall see.  Remember: Rule #35: Breakfast is for closers

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9 Response Comments

  • Mike Blumenthal  February 10, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    I agree that nothing is more social nor more local… but why isn’t integrated into Hotpot, MyMaps and Lattitude?

  • Andrew Shotland  February 10, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    That would require commitment

  • Gina  February 10, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    step aside theknot.com here comes google 😉

  • Jim Rudnick  February 11, 2011 at 7:08 am

    @Mike & @Andrew…..commitment and a degree of perserverence to see it thru to the end….good for one and all IMHO…but sadly, I doubt that day will ever come, eh!
    🙁
    Jim

  • Ed Tennant  February 11, 2011 at 7:58 am

    I agree with your WTF sentiment. I forwarded the news with the subject “Oh Crap!” It may not be immediate but there will be premium advertising around this in the future. My prediction for where Google moves into local next is simple…every place they aren’t already.

  • california search engine optimization  February 13, 2011 at 9:50 pm

    I agree with your WTF sentiment. I forwarded the news with the subject “Oh Crap!” It may not be immediate but there will be premium advertising around this in the future. My prediction for where Google moves into local next is simple…every place they aren’t already.

  • Lee  February 16, 2011 at 2:57 pm

    I think you’re totally right about local and social – and even more right about the level of commitment.

    Google is everywhere they think they need to be (or will be soon), but at a level where it’s hard to see how any of these things will pay off. Hard to turn “social” into a core competency if it’s not really part of the company’s DNA.

  • Carlton  February 17, 2011 at 1:40 am

    I am actually curious whether Google will take it so local that they step off the screen and into the book- meaning, is there a potential yellow pages or other print media arising from Places? They could go for the category killer, and dominate local advertising spending.

  • David  February 20, 2011 at 6:40 am

    This whole google weddings thing has struck me as weird from the beginning. Is this only the start though? Will start to see different search parameters for various kinds of businesses in the near future? I’m starting to think that is going to be the case.