Googling
Published November 20, 2003
The Wharton School takes a look at Google from a business standpoint:
- Although countless web surfers use Google each day, the nature of the company's product causes some to wonder whether it shouldn't simply be, well, part of something else. After all, its main function, search, can be added on to a web browser or other software.
Not so fast, says Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader. "It's easy to justify Google's being a stand-alone company. If you look at all the things it's doing — search-word optimization, news, 'Froogle,' etc. — it's a set of services that are mutually consistent. It leaves open the possibility that the company can just keep adding best-in-class unique services. So I can definitely see Google competing with Yahoo! as a complete portal solution. The first thing I do on my own computers and on the computers in my classroom is change the homepage to Google. It's inconceivable that I'd consider doing that with any of the others."
Raffi Amit, professor of entrepreneurship and management at Wharton, agrees. "Look back at the early days of Yahoo!, eBay, and other companies, and look where they are today," he notes. "No one thought the eBay auction engine would make it as a stand-alone product, for instance. Google already has news and other features. So the company can develop the search engine, the paid listings, the rankings optimization, and so on, and turn it into a major portal. The question is whether Microsoft can do to Google what it did with Netscape — that is, with its marketing and technology power, develop an algorithm, add it to Internet Explorer and crush Google. That's the risk an investor takes."
So far, Google has been amazingly resistant to rival threats. "About every six months you see some new offering that's trying to compete with Google, like Teoma and others," says Fader. "But there's been no reason to switch. Microsoft really can't compete with Google on that basis. It occupies a relatively small niche. Even if it's selling keywords, no one's talking about Google as the 900-pound gorilla. What's especially valuable is the goodwill it has accumulated. Microsoft doesn't have that installed user base, nor does it have carte blanche to do whatever it likes. If Google is perceived as selling out, however, people will turn on it."
"There are lots of competitors in this space, and Google still manages to win, based on its technology and its brand," adds Wharton legal studies professor Dan Hunter. "The built-in-the-browser issue is a non-starter, since the desktop search button is available to all systems that provide for plug-ins. Google has this, and it's been a big success for them. Microsoft could block plug-ins of this sort, but then they'll face an antitrust claim that would be a strong one against them. Since they just went through a bruising antitrust loss on the browser side, I wonder whether they would want to push their luck again with the Department of Justice. I doubt it, but no one ever went broke betting on Microsoft's using its monopoly powers."
- Googling
- Published: November 20, 2003
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Whoa, that's a problem many wish they had!
I'm number one for my name, too. I never know if people find my site because they want to see my site or if they're looking for the composer Tom Johnson (I assume the latter, more people know him, I think.) I believe there may be a photographer with my name too. We're everywhere.
Indeed, there's an exceptionally talented photographer named after me, too. We all have our own reasons for blogging and while I don't mind who reads my blog, I don't necessarily want them there because Google led them there with a search for "Yao Ming's Penis" or "stinky farts", ya' know?
I have no such compunctions whatsoever - every Google straggler is another potential reader.
I google all the time, but not without keeping a wary eye on 'Google Watch' and the like while I'm at it. You never know what they're doing with you while you make use of them. ;)
I think part of your point is made, Eric, by the very fact that I can't think offhand of any other places apart from Google and Amazon which have Hack books in their own right as sites.
Google is great for doing research on software technologies. the funny thing about it is that i can be looking for some info on, say, how to use microsoft .net remoting...and it's easier (and faster) to google it rather than use micosofts pathetic search tool inside of a locally installed MSDN.
funny, but not surprising.
I find it amazing how quickly "Google" has become synonymous with with "web search."
Actually, it's not so amazing. They became obsessed with the concept of relative searches. When people use the search it is kind of important that they get results that mean something. Yahoo became all too concerned with being a portal and being the jack of all trades and thus became the master of none.
Ok, well, they probably have a few good services but I rarely use them for anything.
Google, on the other hand, well I have their deskbar and toolbar running and use them frequently.
Yahoo! still uses Google for their searches, but that is supposedly coming to an end
another odd search angle: since our own search engine only works on text within posts, not comments, not author names, I'm not sure about post titles, sometimes the best way to find something in our own site is to "google it."
Eric, point noted. Will consider switching our search box to use Google's engine instead. While I've always thought that searching the titles and bodies of posts would be what I would want, I did find myself wanting to search for a particular comment the other day myself. ;-)
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I really dig Google but I do have a peeve with them as a blogger. Do a name search for me and the number one result is my blog. Fine and dandy, but I've placed a robots.txt file in my index directory and have anti-robot metadata on my index page. Google has a delisting service but it's only good for 90 days. Supposedly, after delisting if you have the anticrawler measures in effect you should be left alone, but my experience has proved otherwise. Some people like the exposure their blog gets from Google, but I don't necessarily want my own information that readily available.