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Last weekend I went hunting. One foot inside the territory, I was flush with anticipation as I scanned the horizon. Clearly, this was shoe Nirvana. I could almost smell the Merrell sneakers I’d been lusting after. But as I skulked around the store in pursuit of my prey, the enormity of the inventory began to bear down upon me. Soon the thrill of the hunt was gone, and fatigue and frustration set in. By the time I had looped every aisle and scaled every floor of the ginormous footwear store, I was ready to abandon the hunt and run from the building screaming. Talk about overkill.

Needless to say, my little shopping excursion petered out rather quickly, and left me empty-handed and more than a little annoyed. Apparently, too much of a good thing really can be a bad thing. But as I sit here brooding over the still-empty spot in my closet reserved for those damned sneakers, I can’t help but wonder if things might have turned-out differently if I had approached my shopping with a strategy.

Why should you care about my shopping ordeal? In some ways, the jillion offerings of a superstore remind me of the vast array of products now offered by Google. Just getting a handle on what’s available can be overwhelming at times. It seems like every time we turn around, Google is announcing a new offering, partnership, or enhancement. Just in the past few months they’ve made the headlines by partnering with eBay for Google Checkout, and with ValPack to launch Google Coupons.

Unfortunately, Google’s latest and greatest offerings go largely unnoticed by the majority of search users. Just the other day I was explaining to a friend of mine about Google’s “invisible tabs,” and the fact that most searchers know very little about Google’s products beyond the one search box and image search. Ironically, neither did he. He knew nothing of Google Finance, Google Co-Op, Google Base, or Google News for that matter. Perhaps this pervasive lack of awareness helps explain why the one search box has 80% share of activity among all of Google’s products (according to HitWise), while their image search is a very distant second at 8.5%.

Search engine users may be mostly unaware of Google’s latest developments, but industry pundits haven’t missed a beat. In fact, there’s actually been a lot of criticism in the marketplace about Google developing new products, quickly rolling them out, and then seeing what sticks. Jupiter’s “Understanding Google” report in March, 2006 took a stab at the search titan for its “haphazard approach to launching products.” Even industry guru Danny Sullivan penned an article earlier this year entitled 25 Things I Hate About Google in which he criticized the company for going in many different directions even though they have unfinished, incorrect or broken offerings. (To be fair, he also wrote another piece about the 25 things he loves about them… but that’s another story). Haphazard or not, one thing’s for sure, Google’s innovations haven’t gone unnoticed by industry observers – just take a peek at their press page http://googlepress.blogspot.com.

Given the onslaught of new Google offerings constantly popping-up, it’s easy to understand why marketers might be a bit dazed and confused about which products to utilize. More often than not, marketers are left scratching their heads and wondering: “What is Google Co-op?” “Can I get into Maps?” “Do I need to be concerned about Video?” Clearly, making sense of it all can be a daunting task. So what’s a marketer to do? First off, don’t get overwhelmed like I did in the shoe store and run. All you need is a strategy, and the first step in that direction is assessing which Google products have the potential to enhance your business results -- but first take some time to review each of the product offerings.

But as you assess the various products, keep in mind that there is one fundamental change that marketers need to be aware. Quite simply, we’re in the midst of a paradigm shift in terms of the first Google search engine results page (SERP). If things weren’t confusing enough, Google has complicated matters by pre-empting natural results with information from their other products (a/k/a invisible tabs). For example, I’m sure you’ve seen News results pop up if you search on current events. Likewise, you might see Froogle shopping results appear when you search for a new pair of Nike Air Max sneakers. While most users don’t normally navigate directly to the invisible tabs, the pre-emptive results provide search engine users with additional relevant content, and expose them to some of Google’s other product offerings that come from these tabs. Given this shift, marketers can no longer afford to ignore Google’s other product offerings.

While making adjustments to your online marketing plans to capitalize on this shift will provide you with the most benefit, bear in mind that there are no hard and fast rules pertaining to how and when pre-emptive results appear. Therefore, concentrate on those tabs that make sense to your site and your business, and on the tabs that are presented at the forefront of Google: Maps, Images, News and Video. Quite honestly, the other products are gravy. If you have the time and resources, go ahead and dabble a bit, but first focus on the most prominent pre-emptive results.

Also, be mindful of the fact that all of these products are not necessarily equal. For example, according to HitWise, Image Search on Google is second in readership only to the one search box. Given that rank, why not tag all of the images on your site so they show up both in the image tab and in pre-emptive results? This is especially important for retailers. Think about it. Why not provide a visual of the product that you are selling? In a search results page that’s all text, an image has a great opportunity to stand out.

Research by iProspect and Jupiter indicates that search engine users believe that the companies whose websites are returned at the top of the search results are the top companies in that field. So why not capitalize on every opportunity to reinforce that perception? Google’s pre-emptive results provide marketers with the means to do just that. Quite simply, with all of the different result sets listed by Google, a search engine user is bound to be confused about which is the number one result. This confusion spells opportunity for the marketer. In the end, if you’ve done your job right, a query for your brand could result in a listing in the paid results, the News pre-emptive results, and the organic listings. Clearly, optimizing for numerous tabs not only provides marketers will the opportunity to dominate the search results, it could also translate into a competitive advantage.

If you are still scratching your head, here are a few pointers for tackling Google’s plethora of products:

* Spend some time investigating the various offerings by reading Google’s product summaries. (http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/)

* As you review the summaries, think objectively about which ones may apply to what your site has to offer. For example, if the company consistently communicates with the public by means of press releases, ensuring that these press releases are distributed to the news search engines is essential.

* Come up with a short-term and long-term plan for leveraging the different opportunities, and test them. But be generous with your testing metrics; as with any new product, the traction may take a while to come along.

The search marketing landscape is complex, dynamic, and ever-changing. Today, marketers need to continually survey the territory for new products they can leverage effectively. While on the surface Google’s never-ending array of product offerings may just seem to complicate things, smart marketers should realize that they are really opportunities in waiting.

And while too much of a good thing really can be a bad thing – trust me, I know -- don’t let the range of Google’s products overwhelm you. It’s just Google’s attempt to classify the world’s information. If you have information on your site that can be leveraged, you should take full advantage of that opportunity. But remember to approach it strategically. Have a plan. Otherwise, it’ll just seem like overkill.

Erica Schmidt is Client Services Director at search marketing firm iProspect and is responsible for overseeing the activities of a number of client-facing search teams. She can be reached at e.schmidt@iprospect.com