This panel including participants Kevin Ryan (Vice President, Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch), Mike Grehan (Global KDM Officer, Acronym MediaSpeakers), John Battelle (CEO, Federated Media),  James Lamberti (Senior Vice President, Search and Media, comScore, Inc),  Lyndsay Menzies (Managing Director, Big Mouth Media), and Jack Menzel (PM for Universal Search, Google) was fiery at times as it felt like a Google interrogation led by Jack Battelle posing the question: Is Google becoming a media company?

Universal Search, Blended Search, Search Multiplicity, 3-D, etc… is not a new approach to serving results, but how and the implications of this have set the stage for a panel crossfire. Discussed at length was the concern that Google’s recent click decrease may also be tied to the multiple search results that are siphoning clicks away from the traditional top and right rails of paid search.

Video, Images, News, and Maps are just some of the blended media results at the top of the page a user may see upon query. Jack Menzel from Google discussed how the reduction of inventory dollars may be offset by higher CPCs which will drive higher quality content thus increasing the conversion rates. Further forcing the hand of quality, this will clear the way for the most relevant advertisers in order to heighten the users’ experience.

Menzel was questioned multiple times about Google’s process of posting the blended results since many times it’s another Google property behind the click, i.e., YouTube. Menzel consistently responded that Google has not strayed from its intent to serve the most relevant results to the user regardless of the content provider.

Battelle dug deeper into the pursuit of relevancy, by disclosing his recent conversation with Damon Wayans who was on a panel that Battelle was moderating. Wayans spoke about his upcoming launch of his comedy Web-TV show disclosing the details of his contract with YouTube, who apparently has guaranteed Wayans’ show 16MM impressions. Guaranteed? Menzel, the rest of the panel and the entire ballroom took pause while Battlelle introduced the idea of Google’s transformation into a media company.