Google Pushing Hard(er) To Get Webmaster Products Adopted

I was setting up a new domain last year, something I’d done countless times and could do with my eyes closed, when my hosting provider suddenly started pushing several Google products on me. Did I want to use Gmail for my domain? Did I want to use Google Apps for Domains? Well, no, but thanks. I think.

I found out later it was Google pushing those products via the “Google Webmaster Tools Access Provider Program,” which gives web hosting companies easy access to integrate Google products into their hosting services.

Google has announced this week that the program has been expanded to include AdSense, Custom Search, and Site Search; it’s also been renamed to the much more speakable Google Services for Websites. The service makes it easy for web site owners to integrate a variety of Google services into their web sites with just a couple button clicks. And hosting companies can get paid when their customers sign up for AdSense or Google Site Search.

It’s great marketing and visibility for Google, and clearly a convenience for web site owners who want to use these services. But folks in the Google-is-already-too-ubiquitous crowd are probably non-plussed by the whole thing.