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Just as Google announces it’s working to sell TV ads for NBC Universal, the Wall Street Journal reports the U.S. Justice Department has hired a lawyer to investigate Google for antitrust violations in its advertising business. We’re not going to examine the merits of the case itself. Instead, we’re going to look at what such an investigation means to you and your business.

Whether the case has merit or not - and at this point, calling it a “case” is premature - doesn’t matter. Companies under investigation - or post-investigation sanction - by the U.S. government inevitably lose focus. The Microsoft-DOJ battle of a decade ago, and its aftermath, shows what happens after companies go through these sorts of distractions. Not only did Microsoft’s product introductions lag during the immediate period following the case, young competitors suddenly found the will to enter markets Microsoft once ruled. What happened as a result? Microsoft, while still a massive player in the technology space, isn’t the immovable object/irresistable force it once was: Google is. Or is it only coincidental both the antitrust action against Microsoft and Google celebrate tenth anniversaries this year? For that matter, Microsoft itself emerged as a dominant player in the aftermath of the U.S. antitrust case against IBM of the 1970’s.

Google may already be showing heightened concerns of government action. The company has announced several changes to its privacy practices in just the last few days (here and here), potentially to deflate government concerns about harm to consumers. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the government is swayed by arguments like Nick Carr’s,

“…Google collects more data on consumers’ needs and behavior and can tailor its ads more precisely, strengthening its competitive advantage and further increasing its income …[Even its beta products increase this effect] by generating advertising revenue and producing valuable data on customer behavior.”

Why should you care?

Small, niche-focused businesses will always need search for a chunk of their business. It’s inevitable. As customers increasingly turn to search as their first source to find what they’re looking for, your business’ results will depend, in some part, on search. Unfortunately, due to its dominance in the search space, when Google sneezes, thousands of small businesses catch cold. The question is, is it time for you to get a flu shot?

Yes. And no.

Even if this thing turns into a real case, and a real distraction for Google, alternative search engines likely will fill the void. As noted above, these actions usually result in new players coming on the scene. So, continue to make sure your company’s site shows up in search results. But, also consider how much of your business should come from search (see Mike Moran’s thoughts, too). And how much search comes from Google. If all your eggs are in Google’s basket, it’s time to get some other baskets, too.

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Vinton Cerf - who is as close to the father of the Internet as exists - recently offered his opinion on where the Internet is going. Along with his views on the societal changes the internet will bring, Cerf notes (and Blumenthal highlights):

“We’re nearing the tipping point for mobile computing to deliver timely, geographically and socially relevant information.”

But whether it’s things like cloud-based computing for your iPhone or Nokia’s amazing - though imperfect - N96 mobile phone (actually more of a palm computer), the abilities available, literally, in the palm of your customer’s hand increase daily.

And it’s not just phones. For all the ink (literal and digital) spent on the launch of phones such as Apple’s iPhone or Nokia’s N96, the emergence of devices like Amazon’s Kindle also will change the way people interact with the Internet. By far, its most innovative feature is its free, “always-on” network connection. Amazon includes connectivity to make it easy for customers to purchase books. But once customers have constant connectivity - for any of these devices - the game changes. Mike Moran thinks the cost of network connectivity is what’s holding back the mobile web. Generally speaking, I agree.

It’s not just cost, of course. But the other limitations are fading fast. Connectivity options are increasing. Popular web applications such as search and social networking exist. The U.S., according to one study, is even on pace to top the mobile web market (understandable given that they’re teaching college kids to live with these devices).

OK. In theory this is all good news for your business. But what should you do about it today? How can you benefit from these changes? We have looked at how to use the mobile web to grow your business before (here, too).

Remember, the ones most likely to win will have answered these 3 questions:

• Can customers find you?
• Can customers browse you?
• Can customers contact you?

As the market matures, it’s the folks who’ve laid the foundations today who will benefit. Plan to be one of them.

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Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Reviewed by the New York Times here.

Now that the political conventions are over, the Olympics behind us and the kids are back in school, it’s time for a little back-to-school learning for the rest of us. Here are a handful of posts to help you cram for the finals:

• No reason not to learn from the masters. Few know as much about brand building as consumer packaged goods producers. And no one knows more about paid search than Google. So, how great is it that the Official Google CPG Blog offers up its lessons on “The Branding Value of a Search Impression?”
• Not to be outdone, the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog also offers a back-to-school theme, explaining how “Search Engines Are Like Your College Professor”.
• Google is the Big Man on Campus, though. So, it’s worthwhile to check out the new webinars offered on the Inside AdWords blog.
• Part of going back to school, of course, is learning some new skills. Drew McLellan’s Marketing Minute blog asks guest poster Gaurav Mishra to explain “How to market to the anti-consumer”.
• One last new skill to think about is mobile. TechCrunch reviews Billing Revolution’s ‘single-click’ mobile billing and payment service. Mobile will change your business in the coming years. Good idea to bone up your skills now.

Enjoy your weekend everyone. See you back here at thinks next week.

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There’s an old joke that says, “the great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.” But making sure your website complies with web development standards forms a key part of any successful online strategy. While we don’t normally get up to our elbows in the gory details of how to build websites here, every business can benefit from knowing enough to ask the right questions whether you build the site yourself, select an outside agency or use a hosted service. Standards compliance means using things like the right version of HTML along with CSS to provide your information to customers. Why does it matter? Here are the top 5 reasons:

1. SEO benefit - We all want our sites listed in Google, Yahoo and Live, right? Why make it hard for those sites’ crawlers to access your content? Sites that aren’t standards compliant can easily limit Google’s access to your content - which limits your access to customers.
2. Ease of maintenance/lower cost of ownership - Change is inevitable and never more so on the web. Want proof? Check this out:
   • The folks at BusinessWeek point out Engadget gets 96% of its mobile traffic from iPhones. iPhones didn’t exist 18 months ago. By extension, neither did most mobile traffic.
   • Consumers are increasingly choosing Firefox on Windows and both Safari and Firefox on the Mac over Internet Explorer. IE now comprises around 70% of internet traffic. And it’s falling fast. Can you afford to turn off 30% of your visitors?
   • Microsoft is bringing out a new version of its browser with all kinds of special tricks in it. Sadly one of those tricks appears to be screwing with standards, but I don’t expect that to last.
   • Why not? Google introduced its own browser. Think your visitors won’t use that? Me neither.

   That’s just this week’s news. You don’t want to be in the business of worrying about whether your site keeps up. Standards compliance takes that worry away. Plus, building compliant sites gets easier with practice. So what are you waiting for?

3. Support for disabled customers - Many of the same standards that make it easy for Google’s crawler to find your site also make it easy for customers with disabilities to use your site. And when you consider how many individuals deal with some challenge, it represents a huge market opportunity. It can also limit legal risk. And, at the end of the day, it’s just the right thing to do for your customers.
4. Improve your site’s speed/lower page weight - OK, this is the gory, techy one. But, with folks like Comcast planning to limit bandwidth for its customers and the impact that slow sites can have on Google Quality Scores (i.e., reduced rankings and higher costs for paid search) and the hosting cost for high bandwidth sites - to say nothing of the negative brand perception your customers may have if your site is too slow - improving your site’s speed with clean, standardized code is a Very Good Thing.
5. Reach more customers - Finally, more than anything else, you care about ensuring customers can access your information. When you limit customers’ options - whether to certain browsers, operating systems or devices - you limit your sales opportunities. Ultimately, standards compliance makes it easier for more customers to see your site. And that’s the only thing that matters.

Standards compliance doesn’t look sexy at first glance. It’s not in your face. And no one will acquire your business or push you to go public just for maintaining a standards compliant site. But it can save you money and drive more sales. And that might do the trick.

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“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” is a damned entertaining video. It’s a (I swear I’m not making this up) musical superhero story built around a meek villian’s blog, with punchlines and pathos both. In fact, it’s one of the most enjoyable “TV shows” I’ve seen in a while. One of my favorite scenes? When mild villian Dr. Horrible asks his milder minion, Moist, about his date the previous night:

Dr. Horrible: “Conflict Diamond told me you were doubling with Bait ‘n’ Switch”

Moist: “Yeah…”
Dr. Horrible: “Yeah…?”
Moist: “It was alright. I kind of thought I was supposed to end up with Bait…”

The thing is, bait ‘n’ switch only works as a punchline. Otherwise it’s a punch in the gut. For your bottom line, too. Robert Gorell at GrokDotCom talked a while back about how last-minute price jumps can kill conversion.

I’m dealing with a similar thing now. I’m a big fan of Mozy, a low-cost online backup utility for Windows and MacOS. Pay a few dollars each month and backups just happen in the background. But here’s the thing. What the folks at Mozy didn’t tell me before I signed up is how challenging it is to restore. Their preferred method for getting my archived data back to me? Ship me DVDs, at a cost of roughly $100. That’s not a terribly high price to pay for backups. If you look at productivity costs, it’s fairly inexpensive. And, as long term readers know, quality backups can save your business.

But nowhere in their sign-up materials does the company make clear this back-end cost. And it’s considerably more than the $2.40 monthly charge I’ve been paying to have my data archived. So, instead, I’m using their (painfully slow) download service. I’ve been working on restoring files for the last 7 hours and, so far, have restored 650 MB of files to my new hard drive. Out of 40GB. At that pace, I’ll be completely restored in 18 days. Am I happy? Not particularly. But mainly because no one told me up front what to expect.

Your service is valuable to your customers, too. It meets their needs, satisfies, and delights. Save the surprises and twist endings for cop shows. And for superhero musical blogs.