Listening to key executives talk at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today, Google is clearly very bullish about two key things: Google TV and display/video advertising.
Earlier in the day, Google CEO Eric Schmidt went to bat for Google TV. Later, Google Global Sales Operations and Business Development, Nikesh Arora, said that in 5 to 8 years everyone will have an IP television, like Google TV.
So why is Google gaga over this space? Well, advertising, of course. Arora noted that the moment you stick a broadband cable behind your TV, you can create brand engagement rather than just the standard old brand awareness. That’s what Google does. But they’ve only been able to do it mainly with text-based ads up until now.
But Schmidt noted that display is Google’s fastest growing business now. He also believes it’s going to be Google’s next big multi-billion dollar business.
Arora noted that the display advertising business is actually older than the search advertising business — it is what the Internet was built on — but then it stagnated. Now it’s time to jump start things.