Not too far back an alternative design for Google’s China page was tried out, to experiment with the push model (Yahoo/ portal-style) vs the conventional Google.com pull model, see: Google China’s Trying Alternative Homepage Designs!.

Now, the Korean episode entails molding the local search engine service into a graphic-rich style, which suits the Korean tastes much better. However, the Google’s International Project Manager Jung Ki-hyun states, "This is not a Korea-only project. All of Google has been involved in this project, and we are thinking of adopting the same system to other language versions."

Translated Google Korea Page:

So are we beginning to see a change in Google’s philosophy? Moreover,the  multi-column, contents-tailored look is on the anvil for other countries as well, said Jung Ki-hyun.

While too many details have not been let out, Jung Ki-hyun said that user response to the categorized, graphic-rich look is already being monitored in several countries.

The move is also being seen as a measure to compete with the Korean portal websites such as Naver and Daum which are more graphical and replete with images and display news and graphics in different sections.

"We didn’t want to make the Korean site the same as our global site…So we have worked to develop a new user-interface to best suit the Korean Internet users and this is the product" said Google Korea CEO Lee Won-jin, in a press conference in Seoul. While Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular websites in the world, for Korea their search engine market share is only 5%. Both Naver and Daum lead with the search engine market share.

Armed with this newer interface Google expects to distinguish itself from other search engines in Korea. “…growth potential is huge given its broad base of Internet users. We’re not setting any domestic market share target, but we expect the new services will help,” said Lee Won-jin.

It appears that Google is striving to make its presence felt in Korea in a big way. Only a couple of days ago the Korean version of the YouTube was launched as well. Even when Google tries to follow its Korean competitors, the competitors it is reported are going the Google way of being “simpler is better.” Which strategy would work better only time will tell.

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First, the bad news: as reported by Read/WriteWeb’s Richard MacManus, “local search company Naver.com has more than 77 percent of all Web searches originating in South Korea . . . .  Second in the South Korean search market is another local product, Daum.net, with 10.8 percent share, followed by Yahoo’s Korean-language service with 4.4 percent.  Google has only 1.7 percent of Korean Web searches.”

That’s despite a number of “compromises” (some would call them concessions), including a light redesign of the Google Korea home page and the (soon-to-come) implementation of ID-checking practices.

But, as promised, there’s an upside (from Google’s point of view): a new article in The Korea Times states that Naver is growing by just 1.2 percent per month, compared to 4.9 percent for Google.  Now, math-types will be quick to point out (and will be right to do so) that five percent of a small number can be less than one percent of a big one, but that data still has some positive implications.

Also interesting is the fact that “Google Korea has been named the foreign company that most Koreans would like to work for,” according to The Chosun Ilbo.  And it seems that’s even better than being the domestic company that most Koreans would like to work for, because “[s]ome 90.2 percent of the respondents said they wanted to work with a foreign company.”

Is Google Korea doing poorly?  Yes.  Will it continue to do so?  That’s a harder question to answer.

The Korea Times reported the numbers seen by online consultancy KoreanClick were up almost 15 percent for Google from January 2006. Gmail brought in 650,000 uniques for the month too.

Compared to the locals, Google barely registers in Korea. Top Korean search engine Naver saw some 26.6 million people stop by in January. For email, Daum Communications drew 21.1 million visitors.

Trends favoring Google in Korea have been noticed, though. Daum’s numbers reflect a 5.8 percent drop from the previous January. The report cited another trend as well:

“We learned male Internet users aged between 25 and 29 moved from Naver to Google last year for some reason,” a KoreanClick researcher said.

“Google’s customer base is not a match to Naver or Daum. Yet, it is growing quickly. The pace will accelerate thanks to its policy change on Gmail.”

The change referred to means Google’s opening of Gmail to all. Previously, people needed an invitation to join Gmail and enjoy its 2,800 MB and growing storage.

Google values Korea as a market, even if they haven’t been wholly embraced in return. When Google first made its official company blog available in a language besides English, they chose Korean.

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Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz reported on the Yahoo-Naver deal. To be more precise, Naver renewed its partnership with Overture, but Overture is a Yahoo company – on the company’s homepage, it clearly states that “Overture products are now Yahoo! Search Marketing products.”

The corporate connection is reinforced by the fact that Kim James Woo, the “Regional Vice President of Yahoo! Search Marketing in Asia and CEO of Overture Korea,” made an official statement. “Naver’s leadership position as Korea’s most visited online destination provides opportunities for our advertisers,” said Woo. “We are proud to continue working with Naver to connect businesses and consumers at the point of search.”

It appears that there will be quite a few opportunities for Yahoo to connect Korean businesses and consumers. Naver “has 16 million . . . daily visitors and its homepage features 850 million page views.” And if the company’s boasts are to be believed, it “has taken a leading role in developing,” and “is settled as the new paradigm of search service.”

That’s definitely the kind of company with which Yahoo wants to be aligned. Perhaps their new deal will be enough to make Yahoo forget that Korea’s number two portal intends to switch to Google.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

The government’s Information Communication Ethics Committee’s Han Myeong-ho told the Korea Times that though Google was not legally required to verify the age of its users, it would be “proper” for them to do so. The government requires that users be 19 to access adult material.

“Google has to follow the Korean way to carry out business here,” said Han. “It has suffered setbacks because it has not done so, thus failing to be woven into the fabric of Korean society.”

The setbacks Han referred to represent Google’s difficult time emerging as a key player in Korea. Google only holds 1.5 percent of the Korean search market. The rest belong to competing engines Naver, with 70 percent of the market, Daum with 12 percent, and even Yahoo, who does require age verification to access sex-related query results.

A Google representative said that the company used a different method; they filtered out “hard-core adult sites” from the results themselves. Government critics say that method doesn’t work well enough and still holds the possibility that minors could stumble onto explicit material.

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