Is Google bad for business (to business publishers)? A big chunk of Google‘s revenue is business-to-business advertising dollars. What is the dramatic growth of such online advertising expenditures doing to traditional print-based business-to-business publishers? Frankly, no one knows the answers yet, but Pat Kenealy, CEO of IDG, is at least asking the questions…and suggesting other business-to-business publishers start asking the same. This may seem like an esoteric issue, but it is important for publishers to follow the nuances of this issue. As Pat leads one of the world’s largest business-to-business media companies, one that has always been an aggressive leader in putting its content on the web, free for all Internet users to access, it will be important to watch what IDG does if Google gains a larger and larger piece of the budget pie from traditional IDG advertisers. Would it be too far-fetched to imagine a day in which IDG and other business-to-business publishers who offer their content free to web users not allow Google to index their websites? If IDG cuts off their content from Google, would they be shooting themselves in the foot…or would they be making the only decision that makes sense? I know some people believe, “you don’t exist if you don’t allow Google to index you,” but the content produced daily by the hundreds of technology writers and analysts employeed by IDG will be found by those in the IT world who depend on it, Googled or not. I don’t know the answers, but this will be interesting to follow.
