Google continues to impress me with their suite of tools to empower the small business owner.

There’s not a lot there now, but I expect Google to highlight products and enhancements that can help your small business grow. This is definitely a site every small business owner should add to their reading list.

With Google Tags, you can maintain weekly specials or do “real-time” coupons all for $25 per month. Add this tothe free promotion offered by Google Places and this gives small businesses an incredibly powerful and cost effective tool to find new customers.

5 is still a bit limiting (Omniture allows up to 50), but overcomes a major blocker to using Google Analytics in the past. Interestingly, Google Analytics allows 3 different types of custom metrics: Page-level, Session-level and Visitor-level Custom Variables.

To test these out, I created a page name custom variable on each page. But more advanced implementations could include tracking by author, site section, logged in status, etc. Google Analytics just changed the game again with custom variables.

The first example is their Google Chrome OS introduction which was done by Epipheo Studios:

They’ve also released a set of videos called Search Stories, which gives search a human side (not sure if these are from an agency or internal):

At any rate, I think Google has realized that people (for some reason) still use Hotmail and Ask.com, and in order to reach those people, they need to simplify their message.

Additionally, you can categorize your business, add photos and videos, specify your hours and payment options and even offer coupons.

1. Mozilla Firefox 3.0 – 27.9%
2. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 – 26.8%
3. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 – 18.9%
4. Google Chrome Beta – 8.8%

I doubt Chrome can sustain those numbers in the short term, but after playing around with it (and making it my default browser) I think the reduced CPU usage alone could launch it ahead of Firefox very quickly.

Since Google and media buyers don’t care where the page view originates, tens of thousands of page view farming sites have cropped up. From the blatant parked domain and plagiarized “blog” to the “link blog” and “copy blog” (featuring a quick comment on whatever is hot online today), these sites are easy to create and even easier to profit from (if you throw up enough of them). But I don’t care how good Google’s algorithms are, a click from a visitor to the parked domain, “cellphones.com” is not valuable to anyone other than the guy that owns the domain.

Even legitimate sites and blogs are guilty of occasional page view farming. Top 10 lists of irrelevant content, hot gadget reviews even though 10,000 other sites posted a similar review and gossip/celebrity slander drive massive amounts of page views. Eventually, advertisers (I know they’re typically way behind the curve, but the Internet has ways of educating even the oldest dinosaurs) will catch on.

Steve Rubel recently commented on this trend coining it “The Lazysphere and the Decline of Deep Blogging” calling for a return of less-frequent, unique reporting. What Rubel seemed to miss was the motivating factor in the “Lazysphere”—easy money.

Uncov, a wonderful anti-web2.0 blog helps make my point:

“Robert Scoble loses his Facebook account… [and] Google Blog Search has 7,156 results for “scoble facebook”. Evidently, this was (and still is) the talk of the web. I have news for you, though. In the rest of the world, it was business as usual… I didn’t see it in newsstands at the airport. So, look out your office window, take a deep breath, and realize that nobody cares but you.”

Why in the world would over 7,100 people comment on Robert Scoble’s boot from Facebook? Because it drives easy page views. As long as people’s wasted time can be easily monetized, this problem will persist. Whether it’s typing at home, virtual gold farming or adding to the noise of CES coverage, people will always try to make a quick buck. Unfortunately, page view farming is diluting the value of quality, original content (and may even be putting it out of business) and could become the basis of an internet advertising recession if marketers don’t start changing their ways.

There’s a lot more to be said here, but my profit per word is dwindling. Stay tuned for my next post, “Robert Scoble at CES Reviews the Ice-Pooping Robot”.

Apparently 10% of time at Google is devoted to “new and unrelated businesses” and this position would be responsible for ushering that time into tangible initiatives, products and services.

I can’t even imaging the volume of resumes pouring into HR’s inbox for this one, so rather than sending mine to the black hole, I’ll let this blog post serve as notice of my interest in the position. So if you’re listening Google, give me a call. (via Tech Dispenser)