by Head of Search
Andrew Girdwood
Google have appointed Dennis Woodside in the role of Managing Director for the search engine's operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Benelux. Woodside replaces Kate Burns who was Google's first employee outside the States and previously held a role at search engine AltaVista. Andrew Girdwood
Dennis Woodside has been with Google for three years and previously held the role of Director of Emerging Markets. As the Director of Emerging Markets Woodside has been responsible for Google's push into Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East. Google faces stiff competition from the likes of Yandex and Rambler in Russia.
"I am looking forward to working with the team. Together we can help build search marketing in the UK - for the benefit of advertisers and users. I'm also excited about pioneering new, innovative forms of advertising in these markets - such as mobile and click-to-play video ads. Both have huge potential." Woodside said.
Woodside will face competition from Yahoo and MSN as well as Miva and the search engine Mirago. MSN is heavily promoting adCenter which allows search marketing agencies to target specific demographic groups as well as geographic groups differently. Google's AdWords does not yet offer the same range of targeting capabilities as adCenter.
Google's Enterprise Search competition comes in the form of companies like FAST and Endeca who have mature and established products and a healthy market share.
The UK searcher is a target for Google's Video service as broadband penetration is higher in the United Kingdom than in the emerging markets. Similarly, Google's SMS services enjoy a market with a SMS savvy population.
Online spending has increased in the UK by 350% in the last five years and search advertising, Google's primary offering, has also grown. Woodside comes to the media giant at a time of declining high street shopping and increased online competition.
"The UK online market is growing very quickly. Dennis will be working closely with the advertising industry to help British business make the most of this opportunity." Said Nikesh Arora, vice-president of European Operations for Google.
