In an article that was designed as much to coin a new term as it was to add a new string to the marketing department’s bow, trendwatching.com are urging business to get "counter-googling".
The idea is that, just as consumers look up companies in Google, businesses should Google their clients or consumers. Google probably has more information on individuals than customer databases do. Hence, to offer a targeted, personalised service, it is better to glean information on an individual by Googling -- sorry, counter-googling -- them.
"Ask your sales department for a list of 25 recent first-time customers (names and addresses), start counter-Googling, and be amazed at what you'll find, learn and dream up!"
The real-world examples Trendwatching cites are pretty lame. For example: "The Bel Air Hotel in LA already Googles first-time guests upon arrival, based on their reservation details (name and address), leading to personalized services like assigning guests a room with morning sun if Googling shows the guest enjoys jogging early in the day."
Hmmm... I don't buy it. If you look up someone expecting information as specific as whether or not they are morning joggers, you are likely to be disappointed.
I agree that companies may well find information -- by counter-Googling individuals -- that is valuable to them. One of the first things you can find out about someone this way is what type of job they are in (and, from this, you can at least guess salaries).
But I don't think many companies will have the time and resources to read through a person's (often dull, endless) blog entries simply to find out what their tastes/dislikes are; what their socioeconomic background is; etc.
Thus, we may well see third-party counter-Googlers. That is, I could imagine companies offering a lookup service, which they would carry out by "scraping" information on individuals from the web.
This reminds me of Googlism, which uses counter-Googling and information scraping in an automated (and subsequently humourous) way.
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