Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that’s taken over our lives.
Need anything from the store?
Google/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNETThe most powerful tech companies have become utilities.
To many, Google is search. Just as Amazon is online shopping.
This seems to depress Google somewhat. How dare Amazon perform such a swift takeover of something Google would itself quite like to own?
So here’s a new campaign that — only with slight subtlety — tries to discourage you from shopping on Amazon.
Instead, use Google Express. The service features many famous brands and doesn’t involve a $99 Amazon Prime-like membership. However, you’ll have meet retailer minimums in order to get free shipping.
The ad tries to be soft and human — not always aspects associated with Amazon. Here, humans are asking other humans to order things for them. Because the asking humans are themselves far too busy.
This goes on for almost a minute before the simple line “need anything from the store?” appears. And then the final promise: “All your stores in one place.”
Which might, in some minds, incite the question: “Wait, isn’t that what Amazon is anyway?” And with Amazon, you can bundle everything in one big Pantry box that arrives on your doorstep.
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s fascinating, though, how Google is consistently trying to encroach upon spaces in which Amazon appears ahead.
Tomorrow, Google is likely to launch new smart speakers, directly challenging Amazon’s attempts to reach so far into your home that it can hear you pull the flush in the restroom.
Amazon hasn’t take over too many homes yet, but it’s desperately throwing as much at the effort as it can. While it can.
The problem is, as Google itself knows, that once people believe your brand is the natural one to go to, it’s very difficult to shift behavior.
People are lazy. Technology merely encourages that.
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