When discussing Google’s future, people tend to focus on the concept of “more” - more partners, more acquired companies, more market share.  Google’s also looking at things in terms of “better,” though, and believes there’s a lot of room for improvements in its already impressive advertising system.

“There is still substantial headroom in monetisation,” stated Nick Fox, Google’s director of product management in the advertising division.  Which is really saying something, considering the company’s impressive third quarter.  Fox also told the Financial Times that “[t]he quality of ads is still quite low.”

Some people may feel that Fox’s comments were of the job-endangering variety, but the widespread existence of banner blindness should speak to their truth.  Also, the few times a month I intentionally look at ads - just to see what’s going on - I’m never confronted with anything that’s superior to Google’s natural search results.

So instead of an insult, Fox’s words could be taken as a sort of indicator of potential.  After all, Google’s not going to identify ways in which it could improve and then let Yahoo and Microsoft have all the fun.

It should be interesting, then, to see what Fox has planned for Google’s advertising system.

Tags: Google, Advertising