We’ve been promised and have waited a long time for Google Maps SA to go live, and now the wait is over.

Update: A lot more tweets coming in regarding Google Maps

What can you do with SA Google maps

• Get directions for drivers and pedestrians from any specific point to another
• Search for any location, places of interest
• Personalise your own maps and create My Maps – add information to your own locations
• Market yourself or your business by getting a free Local Business Listing
• Use Google Maps on your phone

I have to mention that longtail previously invited Stafford to speak on Google’s involvement in South Africa at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange which I was not able to attend, so the following are my impressions taken from his latest presentation. This is in the particular order of randomness.

Don’t think only ‘search‘ when you see Google – think BIGGER, much BIGGER. Google are set on bringing information straight to your doorstep, be it on your computer or your cell phone. Relevant content, images and soon also maps for SA. Interesting enough Google has the biggest datacenter in the world – 14 times the size of NASA.

Some interesting stats and notes:

• Information is more accessible on mobile phones
• 1 in 6 searches done on the Internet are done on mobile phones.
• South Africa ranks as 3rd largest in query volume behind Japan and India being 1^st and 2^nd respectively.
• Google recently launched Google mobile ads which functions on their motto of ‘Moment of Relevance’ so you don’t have to scroll through tedious pages of content before finding what you are looking for.
• We are the 4^th country in the world to get mobile universal search.
• There are more mobile phones in the world than tv, pc’s and credit cards combined and I think this is the future for branding your company, getting your information out there and communicating to your target market.
• Currently Google SA does not have any competitors in this field and it is huge for them.

Not only do they bring us search results, they have gone and made it a true experience to search for something.

Pay-Per-Click and Quality Scores
Despite popular belief Pay Per Click Ads on Search Result Pages are actually not ranked due to the amount advertisers pay but according to the Quality Score given. Quality Scores are made up of 4 very vital features which is:

1. The Speed of Landing Page
2. The Quality of Landing Page
3. The Number of ‘click troughs’ (high or low)
4. The Moment of Relevance

Some companies make use of additional links (Google co-op) under their search result listing that allows you to simply browse their site without actually opening their landing page eg. Microsoft.

Google SA will be bringing us Google Maps soon with great prospects. It is currently up and running in the States and a real ground breaker when it comes to mapping. You can get step by step directions that guide you from point A to B and these will update if you drag the dots on the map to alternate the route. You can also place ‘yourself’ in the vicinity by dragging the little man onto the street you would like to view – this will allow you to view the surroundings which opens up even more possibilities. Should it just be to familiarize yourself with the area, to get visual land marks for when you are in the area, to sussing out an area before you go look at a house that’s for sale/rent and even better, you can advertise on this virtual street, meaning that browsers can ‘walk into’ your shop, see what it looks like and even order from your menu. This is a whole new advertising market that’s opening up.

Google prides themselves on using a fast platform, they are able to go through posted content in 0.7 seconds by using their spiders to grab all the relevant information. This is even faster abroad and sitting at a whopping 0.03sec. This allows for up to the minute news reporting and CNN tapped into this market. Instead of sending out reporters they now have over 300 000 civilians uploading ground breaking news where they are in the heat of the moment using i-report.

With YouTube being a part of Google they have expanded their services even more. 14% of total traffic in South Africa is just YouTube and this will probably grow due to the fact that they promise to improve the download time and search experience in September as they are building new centers locally with new servers. YouTube statistics can be tracked for your video – how long it’s been viewed, do they complete the watch and from where they are. Companies are starting to utilize this medium to post competitions and to draw the market to their product.

In South Africa we have under 5 million people connected to the internet currently and less than a million broadband users. Hopefully this number will increase as Google is working hard in trying to lower broadband costs. So we can start looking forward to SA going from the most expensive to one of the cheapest in terms of connectivity and they would like to see this at the end of 2010 and have between 12 and 17 million people connected.

Google is clearly bringing the world to us click by click, be it information, other users, video, advertising, maps and up to the minute news reporting. It’s out there – so you might as well use it.

So, from a more darker than usual room, Petre managed to get some good snapshots.

Ingrid Rubin introduces Stafford Masie who came to talk to us about Google bringing Maps, Gadget Ads, Youtube Channels and low-cost broadband solutions to South Africa

Stafford Masie with longtail team members Nic, Japie and Ingrid after the presentation

Stafford Masie with longtail team member Melt du Plooy after the presentaion.

More images were taken and you can view them all at our longtail eMarketing account at Flickr.

Most importantly, we needed to hear – from the horse’s mouth – what Stafford Masie had to say about the latest trends with regards to Google Maps, Google Gadget Ads, Google Mobile Search, YouTube and other Google features that will soon be available in South Africa.

As always it is difficult to make notes of everything being said, so here are the highlights from our notes taken from the presentation.

Stafford started off by giving a little history on Google and said that Google’s aim is to 1.) educate people about everything online and 2.) to assist wherever possible. So, as Google’s Country Manager, Masie and his team of experts want to bring the Global Google solutions to South Africa.

think maps.google.co.za
think youtube.co.za
think blogger.co.za
think faster, better broadband!

Yes! Google South Africa is involved in trying to improve broadband locally and promise that in 18 months time, South Africa will go from the most expensive (and slow) broadband to the cheapest and fastest broadband connections in the World. According to Masie, this is what he is most passionate and excited about, getting South Africa up to speed with the rest of the world when it comes to broadband connections. That got me excited and pretty much every person in the room, I am convinced about that!

Hopefully low broadband costs will account for up to, and over, 20% penetration of the South African population.

Before I get into more detail about the future local Google services, here are some statistical information that Stafford mentioned regarding Google stats for both South Africa and international:

• 13% of total internet traffic in South Africa during the 4th Quarter of 2007 was spent on YouTube
• A 708% growth was recorded in this quarter
• Gmail is the leading free email service
• 90% of people use Google as their preferred Search Engine

In light of the above, Stafford addressed marketers and digital agencies and mentioned two very important points:

1. End user generated content or end user content generation
• YouTube provides 8000 minutes of video which is published worldwide per minute
• 84% of all internet activity is about people publishing content
• The internet today is not about taking, it is all about giving, sharing and participating
• Everyone is encouraged to experiment and engage!
2. Moment of relevance
• Knowing when someone wants something at the right time and to present them with what they want
• Google is #1 in mobile internet share and “click to sms” to come via ads which will deliver targeted ads when asked for
• Above 60% CTR in online video ads, again with the end user in mind, served at the right time
• Refining Search Engine Result Pages with Google Co-op – giving the user more than what they asked for

Stafford stressed again that online should never be ignored and that both the above mentioned points are crucial for everyone, especially marketers and digital agencies.

Finally, and in very short time, Stafford highlighted the exciting things to come from Google in South Africa and also services that we can make use of:

• Google Maps will be the biggest thing happening in a very short time with the local maps.google.co.za – Exciting developments in Maps such as virtual billboards on street view level and updated map gadgets.
• Mobile search will soon allow click to SMS on inline ads
• As faster and cheaper broadband will be available in South Africa, more people will be online, greater target markets and audiences.
• Google co-op is a new service allowing for refined search within search results
• YouTube channels is a unique way of making use of user generated content when users are provided with a platform or medium
• Syndicated search should be utilized more

Ok, so in a nutshell, that highlights Stafford Masie’s presentation on Google South Africa. Feedback that longtail received from many attendees was that it was informative and eye-opening. People loved Stafford’s enthusiasm and vision to educate and help wherever possible.

Be sure that longtail endeavors to provide further updates to many of the above mentioned solutions and also future events, so keep on “watching this space”.