My latest Searchengineland column: effects of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Category:searchengineland
As you may know I have a monthly column on Searchengineland. There I discuss search in Europe. The column is meant to have people actually learn things. Just telling them they should use different title tags and different translators for each country is something many already do, so I try to put in a different angle.
In my latest column I looked at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. You should know I studied history so I always have an interest in historical facts and especially in historical relationships. In my latest column I tried to connect that what happened in 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall, to how we do search these days.
No, the column isn’t a scientifically proven paper in which you can see the results measured, but it was fun trying to connect the events in 1989 to the way we work now. I do believe there is a connection between the two and I strongly believe that if you look at the background of what happened when you will benefit from it in search.
Some of the elements I took out:
Money: East Germany was almost bankrupt just before the Wall came down. The fall meant a shift in finance in Europe. Germany became one and Eastern Europe became capitalistic.
Europe grew: In one day, Europe suddenly became much bigger, the potential market is now more than twice size. Countries like Poland, Czech and Romania now are big growing markets, especially on the affiliate marketing front.
European Union: before 1989 the European Union, then European Economic Community (EEC) was quite small. After the wall came down the Union grew in size to what it is now: almost all of Europe. The European Union now is responsible for many rules which affect the way we can do business in Europe these days.
The Euro: because French president Mitterand was afraid of the strong German Mark he pushed through the Euro which became reality in the early 90s.
Politics: The fall of the Wall meant many political changes which still have their effect on things. Germany for example united.
Yandex and Seznam: Eastern European searchengines like Yandex and Seznam would probably have played a different part if the situation in Eastern Europe hadn’t changed in the late 80s.
You can read the entire column on Searchengineland and listen to SEM Synergy where I discussed the matter with Virginia Nussey.
