By now, most of you have likely seen both the kgb Super Bowl ad, and Google’s. To my view, Google’s ad actually went a long way toward defining the fundamental difference between kgb — find, and google — search.
The Google ad features a searcher — what you see is the pointer, words being typed into the search field, and the first three or four results. The searcher is sitting at a desktop, and “surfing” as we used to say. That’s fun, useful, and I always learn something new when I do exactly that. We used to call this behavior of finding related information “serendipitous discovery,” and it can be a very cool way to spend time.
kgb, however, provides an immediate answer to a specific question, in minutes, when you need it. You don’t have to be at a desktop, you can be anywhere your mobile phone works, and a human agent answers your question accurately, quickly, and with panache.
So it isn’t one or the other. It’s different.
Thomas Falconer
kgb
