Yesterday Google entered the realm of virtual worlds with the launch of Lively. While some bloggers and analysts were surprised by the move, Hitwise is taking the news as an opportunity to say “we told you so!”
The stat tracking company is toting the fact they predicted such a move back in January. They made that call based on clickstream data (i.e. – what categories people are clicking on in Google search), and have created a chart showing the top 20 categories and which properties Google owns within them:
In turn, it becomes pretty clear how Google is going about launching new products or acquiring others: analyzing the most popular topics within its search engine. Of course, Google then integrates as many of those products as it can into search results too: for example, maps, photos, and YouTube videos now appear for relevant queries, in turn creating more page views across Google properties.
So what might be next for Google based on this data? Autos, music, and government are the only categories where Google doesn’t have a presence in the top 20 according to Hitwise. An iTunes competitor from Google has been long-rumored, while an automotive search product is hardly a quantum leap. Both could easily be integrated into search results, and unlike some other Google products, have obvious business models attached to them (pay for music downloads, referral fees on auto leads).