Google has turned its beady eyes on Liverpool for a first go at roadshowing in a UK city, to encourage more entrepreneurs to go online.
The full story is in North West Business Insider which also keeps a beady pair of eyes on the region. There are plans for a 'Google juice bar' to tour the city, giving 'digital health checks' to business people who may not be getting as much from the net as they could.
Liverpool has not been as quick off the mark as Manchester and Leeds to launch cyber-business, although its extra-strong sense of community and close networks among entrepreneurs should help. It also has big and perhaps unexpected players with international clout: Sir Paul McCartney and the Duke of Westminster may not be quite as famous 'brands' as the mighty search engine, but they're not far off.
One way of cementing any relationship pops up if, appropriately, you put 'Liverpool' and 'Google' together in a Google search. It's a lively blog called Fresh Egg run by a company which specialises in search engine optimisation from snug little Worthing in West Sussex.
The entry by Alan Bisset suggests that Google should spend some of its cash reserves on buying Liverpool FC, arguing with impeccable logic:
There are obvious marketing synergies in a Google – Liverpool linkage.
No-one in the SEO world really, absolutely, positively knows just how the Google algorithm works (not even people within Google I suspect).No-one in the football world is really certain as to whether there is, in fact, any team strategy at all behind Liverpool's recent play.
Mind you, this was nearly a year ago during the final crisis of the Gillett/Hicks ownership. But you never know...
