No more Google Schmoogle as Sensis maps future direction in search

Stan Beer
Monday, 03 November 2008 07:13

Opinion and Analysis

It is evident that Sensis has been planning the move away from its own technology for a while. When asked how long Sensis has been talking to Google, Mr Akhurst indicated that plans had been afoot for some time.

"We've talking and working together for some time now, probably on a more informal basis," Mr Akhurst said.

"You might not be aware but for the last couple of months we've had search engine optimisation occurring on our Yellow sites, which basically means that the Google search crawler has come in, accessed that information and made it available to Google searches. That in itself has seen a fantastic result of over a million extra users turned up to Yellow online sites.

"We've been talking about and doing things like that for several months. We think Karim (Temsamani, GM Google Australia) and I that there are other things we might do in the future. The technology deployment will be in the first quarter of next year and we're basically doing it all in-house between the two companies."

Neither Karim Temsamani, general manager of Google Australia, or Mr Akhurst would be drawn on commercial details of the deal between the two companies.

Mr Akhurst would also not be drawn on how much cash Sensis has burned over the years in trying to develop its own search technology.

"I can't release that information," he said.

However, Mr Akhurst did say there would be no job losses at Sensis as a result of the shift to Google technology.

Referring to search development staff, Mr Akhurst said: "We've got a lot of online activity - one of the biggest online businesses in the country. They will be well and truly utilised within the Sensis group. They've already been working on alternate projects."

In a new era where IT&T jobs are getting scarce again, that at least sounds like a bit of good news. As far as Yellow online is concerned, come first quarter 2009, with Google search and Google maps as part of the equation, it may at last become worthwhile visiting the site and trying to find a business in your area. We can only hope.