1.Who are their competitors?
Yahoo.com/Ask.com/Alltheweb.com/Aolsearch.com/Hotbot.com/Altavista.com/Gigablast.com
Live.com/Looksmart.com/Lycos.com/Search.netscape.com/dmoz.org
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Case Study No.1
1. Who are their competitors?Even as Google keeps growing, competitors are taking aim at theInternet's top search service.America Online recently signed a contract for Google to providesearch results to its members, starting this summer — which couldadd 34 million to the legions worldwide who already make Google.comtheir first stop when searching for information among the Web'sbillions of pages or looking for bulletin-board posts on specifictopics among Usenet's thousands of newsgroups.But a recent wave of competitors has surfaced to try to providealternatives to one of the Web's biggest success stories."There's lots of room for others," insists Paul Gardi of competitorAsk.com, which owns Ask Jeeves and Direct Hit and recently launchedTeoma. "You may love Coca-Cola, but you wouldn't want to drink it atevery meal."Google, founded in 1998, has come to redefine — and to dominate —searching for data on the Net. Its results are widely consideredsuperior and more relevant than those from older competitors. Googleusage has grown 54% over the past six months. It's No. 6 on JupiterMedia Metrix's monthly rankings, reaching 33 million users in March —more than other top sites such as eBay and Amazon.A new study from Onestat.com finds nearly half of all searchesglobally go through Google; second-place Yahoo (which actuallylicenses Google to provide its Web searches) draws about one in five.Google's results are based in part on popularity: Those sites thatare linked to most often from other Web pages, and those that getthe most hits, tend to rise to the top of the search rankings. Newcompetitors build upon and refine that concept:Teoma (Gaelic for "expert") also offers input from specialized sitescreated by experts. A search for "June weddings" on Teoma displayedresults for planner associations and advice sites with FAQs on theins and outs of the ceremony.Wisenut, owned by Look Smart (which also supplies search technologyto MSN), helps users with multiple ways to reword their searches tocome up with better results. A query on "roller-blading" brings uplinks to sites for equipment makers, articles and books on thesport, and also suggests refinements such as "skateblading," "inline skating" and "roller blades."Alltheweb.com, owned by the Norwegian firm Fast Search and Transfer,tries to out-Google Google by offering specific search engines forMP3s, video and photographs on its little-advertised "technologyshowcase" site. Like Wisenut, it offers category refinements to makethe search easier."The last thing anyone wants is for the only search player to beGoogle," says Danny Sullivan, the editor of Search Engine Watch, anonline newsletter. "Having competition makes them better."Google's response to the new entries: Bring them on. "We're glad tohave companies focusing on Web search, and we hope it will raisegeneral awareness about the value of search engines," says Google'sCraig Silverstein. "When we started, not all companies were focusedon that."Google recently unveiled two new services. For really toughquestions, Google now offers answers from experts for a fee,starting at $5. It also added a free news search tool to its engine,allowing users to go beyond Web pages and discussion groups withreal-time indexing of newspaper and magazine articles.Yahoo offers a similar service, but only as part of its directory,which points to a specific group of newspapers. A recent search forBill Clinton on news.yahoo .com retrieved topical articles from theAssociated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, USA TODAY and theArizona Republic. The reach at news.google.com went much wider, withpapers from Iran, the United Kingdom, Singapore, North Carolina,Seattle and Miami, plus CNN, Reuters and E!"We are always considering new services," Silverstein says. "Ourgoal is to find all the world's information and get it to people. Anews service is one part of that."While Google has attracted millions of users, the search enginereaping the most profit these days is Overture (formerly Goto.com),one of the few publicly traded dot-coms to post positive financialresults. Last year it made $20 million on $288 million in revenues.Most users probably haven't heard of Overture, but they come acrossit all the time, thanks to the behind-the-scenes partnerships commonin the search industry.Overture offers advertisers paid placement on Web sites. While youwon't see a "Brought to you by Overture" blurb, its results are seenat the top of searches performed at America Online (where it willsoon be replaced by Google), MSN, Yahoo and AltaVista, among others.For example, a search for "Mother's Day" on Yahoo puts "sponsormatches" first, then offers to buy flowers and gifts, followed byeditorial links about the history of the day and famous moms."We're like search meets the Yellow Pages," says Overture's HarryChandler. "If someone is looking for information, the fact that anadvertiser is paying is irrelevant."Of the top search firms, the only one that doesn't have a deal withOverture is Google, which has its own paid listings program.Overture has filed a patent infringement suit, claiming Google isstealing its pay-for-placement technology. Google denies it;Overture won't discuss the suit.Besides text-based ads and sponsored listings, Google makes money bylicensing technology to other sites (searches on washingtonpost.comare provided by Google, for example). Its contract with Yahoo is upnext month, and Yahoo hasn't said how it plans to proceed.Google rivals are already lining up to challenge Google's Yahoodeal. Fast is already making its pitch: "You better believe it,"says Fast's Stephen Baker.Fast powers Lycos, but doesn't advertise its own alltheweb.com,despite its growing reputation, because "that would put us inconflict with our customers," Baker says. "If I'm Yahoo, I wantpeople searching at my site, not at Google."Sullivan calls Fast technology the up-and-comer, "No. 2 to Google,in terms of relevancy (of results)." But he doesn't believe Googlecan be toppled soon. "The real fight will be who can be No. 2.There's a lot of duking it out to be had."2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?We stand alone in our focus on developing the "perfect searchengine," defined by co-founder Larry Page as somethingthat, "understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactlywhat you want." To that end, we have persistently pursued innovationand refused to accept the limitations of existing models. As aresult, we developed our serving infrastructure and breakthroughPageRank™ technology that changed the way searches are conducted.From the beginning, our developers recognized that providing thefastest, most accurate results required a new kind of server setup.Whereas most search engines ran off a handful of large servers thatoften slowed under peak loads, ours employed linked PCs to quicklyfind each query's answer. The innovation paid off in faster responsetimes, greater scalability and lower costs. It's an idea that othershave since copied, while we have continued to refine our back-endtechnology to make it even more efficient.The software behind our search technology conducts a series ofsimultaneous calculations requiring only a fraction of a second.Traditional search engines rely heavily on how often a word appearson a web page. We use more than 200 signals, including our patentedPageRank™ algorithm, to examine the entire link structure of the weband determine which pages are most important. We then conducthypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant tothe specific search being conducted. By combining overall importanceand query-specific relevance, we're able to put the most relevantand reliable results first.• PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of theimportance of web pages by considering more than 500 millionvariables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are importantpages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at thetop of the search results.PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts avote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value,thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken apragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create usefulproducts, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of theweb to determine a page's importance.• Hypertext-Matching Analysis: Our search engine also analyzespage content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-basedtext (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), our technology analyzes the full content of a page andfactors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of eachword. We also analyze the content of neighboring web pages to ensurethe results returned are the most relevant to a user's query.Our innovations don't stop at the desktop. To give people access tothe information they need, whenever and wherever they need it, wecontinue to develop new mobile applications and services that aremore accessible and customizable. And we're partnering with industry-leading carriers and device manufacturers to deliver theseinnovative services globally. We're working with many of theseindustry leaders through the Open Handset Alliance to developAndroid, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform, whichwill offer people a less expensive and better mobile experience.3. How competitive are they in the market?Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make ituniversally accessible and useful.As a first step to fulfilling that mission, Google's founders LarryPage and Sergey Brin developed a new approach to online search thattook root in a Stanford University dorm room and quickly spread toinformation seekers around the globe. Google is now widelyrecognized as the world's largest search engine -- an easy-to-usefree service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction ofa second.When you visit www.google.com or one of the dozens of other Googledomains, you'll be able to find information in many differentlanguages; check stock quotes, maps, and news headlines; lookupphonebook listings for every city in the United States; searchbillions of images and peruse the world's largest archive of Usenetmessages -- more than 1 billion posts dating back to 1981.We also provide ways to access all this information without making aspecial trip to the Google homepage. The Google Toolbar enables youto conduct a Google search from anywhere on the web. And for thosetimes when you're away from your PC altogether, Google can be usedfrom a number of wireless platforms including WAP and i-mode phones.Google's utility and ease of use have made it one of the world'sbest known brands almost entirely through word of mouth fromsatisfied users. As a business, Google generates revenue byproviding advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable,cost-effective online advertising that is relevant to theinformation displayed on any given page. This makes the advertisinguseful to you as well as to the advertiser placing it. We believeyou should know when someone has paid to put a message in front ofyou, so we always distinguish ads from the search results or othercontent on a page. We don't sell placement in the search resultsthemselves, or allow people to pay for a higher ranking there.Thousands of advertisers use our Google AdWords program to promotetheir products and services on the web with targeted advertising,and we believe AdWords is the largest program of its kind. Inaddition, thousands of web site managers take advantage of ourGoogle AdSense program to deliver ads relevant to the content ontheir sites, improving their ability to generate revenue andenhancing the experience for their users.To learn more about Google, click on the link at the left for thearea that most interests you. Or type what you want to find into oursearch box and hit enter. Once you do, you'll be on your way tounderstanding why others say, "Google is the closest thing the Webhas to an ultimate answer machine."What's a Google?"Googol" is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Theterm was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematicianEdward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, "Mathematics and theImagination" by Kasner and James Newman. Google's play on the termreflects the company's mission to organize the immense amount ofinformation available on the web.4. What new services do they offer?A single search reveals four elements that separate us from ourcompetition: comprehensiveness, relevance, speed and userexperience. Almost as soon as www.google.com or an internationalGoogle URL is entered, the homepage appears on the screen. The cleandesign of our site makes it abundantly clear how to proceed andoffers little to distract someone in search of information. Searchresults are clearly separated from advertising, which is identifiedas "sponsored links."The speed with which the results are returned is even moreimpressive. We examine billions of web pages to find the mostrelevant pages for any query and typically return those results inless than half a second.Though a basic Google search answers most questions, it is possibleto customize everything from the language of the interface to theformat of the results pages. You can search for images, multiplefile types, pages in Czech or Turkish, news archives, books,patents, phone numbers, airline flight info or maps and drivingdirections — and that's just the beginning. By using the preferencespage, you can also select the number of results returned and filterout adult content.There's much more to what we offer, from an amazing spell checker totools for translating web pages from one language to another or fromHTML to a format readable by most mobile devices. Other searchfeatures include:To use Google's built-in calculator function, simply enter thecalculation you'd like done into the search box.example:To use Google to find street maps, enter a U.S. street address,including zip code or city/state in the Google search box.example:5. What makes them so unique?Never settle for the best"The perfect search engine," says Google co-founder LarryPage, "would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactlywhat you want." Given the state of search technology today, that's afar-reaching vision requiring research, development and innovationto realize. Google is committed to blazing that trail. Thoughacknowledged as the world's leading search technology company,Google's goal is to provide a much higher level of service to allthose who seek information, whether they're at a desk in Boston,driving through Bonn, or strolling in Bangkok.To that end, Google has persistently pursued innovation and pushedthe limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate andeasy-to-use search service that can be accessed from anywhere. Tofully understand Google, it's helpful to understand all the ways inwhich the company has helped to redefine how individuals, businessesand technologists view the Internet.Ten things Google has found to be true1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best userexperience possible. While many companies claim to put theircustomers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make smallsacrifices to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastlyrefused to make any change that does not offer a benefit to theusers who come to the site:• The interface is clear and simple.• Pages load instantly.• Placement in search results is never sold to anyone.• Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and notbe a distraction.By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has builtthe most loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come notthrough TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from onesatisfied user to another.2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.Google does search. With one of the world's largest research groupsfocused exclusively on solving search problems, we know what we dowell, and how we could do it better. Through continued iteration ondifficult problems, we've been able to solve complex issues andprovide continuous improvements to a service already considered thebest on the web at making finding information a fast and seamlessexperience for millions of users. Our dedication to improving searchhas also allowed us to apply what we've learned to new products,including Gmail, Google Desktop, and Google Maps. As we continue tobuild new products* while making search better, our hope is to bringthe power of search to previously unexplored areas, and to helpusers access and use even more of the ever-expanding information intheir lives.3. Fast is better than slow.Google believes in instant gratification. You want answers and youwant them right now. Who are we to argue? Google may be the onlycompany in the world whose stated goal is to have users leave itswebsite as quickly as possible. By fanatically obsessing on shavingevery excess bit and byte from our pages and increasing theefficiency of our serving environment, Google has broken its ownspeed records time and again. Others assumed large servers were thefastest way to handle massive amounts of data. Google foundnetworked PCs to be faster. Where others accepted apparent speedlimits imposed by search algorithms, Google wrote new algorithmsthat proved there were no limits. And Google continues to work onmaking it all go even faster.4. Democracy on the web works.Google works because it relies on the millions of individualsposting websites to determine which other sites offer content ofvalue. Instead of relying on a group of editors or solely on thefrequency with which certain terms appear, Google ranks every webpage using a breakthrough technique called PageRank™. PageRankevaluates all of the sites linking to a web page and assigns them avalue, based in part on the sites linking to them. By analyzing thefull structure of the web, Google is able to determine which siteshave been "voted" the best sources of information by those mostinterested in the information they offer. This technique actuallyimproves as the web gets bigger, as each new site is another pointof information and another vote to be counted.5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.The world is increasingly mobile and unwilling to be constrained toa fixed location. Whether it's through their PDAs, their wirelessphones or even their automobiles, people want information to come tothem. Google's innovations in this area include Google NumberSearch, which reduces the number of keypad strokes required to finddata from a web-enabled cellular phone and an on-the-fly translationsystem that converts pages written in HTML to a format that can beread by phone browsers. This system opens up billions of pages forviewing from devices that would otherwise not be able to displaythem, including Palm PDAs and Japanese i-mode, J-Sky, and EZWebdevices. Wherever search is likely to help users obtain theinformation they seek, Google is pioneering new technologies andoffering new solutions.6. You can make money without doing evil.Google is a business. The revenue the company generates is derivedfrom offering its search technology to companies and from the saleof advertising displayed on Google and on other sites across theweb. However, you may have never seen an ad on Google. That'sbecause Google does not allow ads to be displayed on our resultspages unless they're relevant to the results page on which they'reshown. So, only certain searches produce sponsored links above or tothe right of the results. Google firmly believes that ads canprovide useful information if, and only if, they are relevant towhat you wish to find.Google has also proven that advertising can be effective withoutbeing flashy. Google does not accept pop-up advertising, whichinterferes with your ability to see the content you've requested.We've found that text ads (AdWords) that are relevant to the personreading them draw much higher clickthrough rates than ads appearingrandomly. Google's maximization group works with advertisers toimprove clickthrough rates over the life of a campaign, because highclickthrough rates are an indication that ads are relevant to auser's interests. Any advertiser, no matter how small or how large,can take advantage of this highly targeted medium, whether throughour self-service advertising program that puts ads online withinminutes, or with the assistance of a Google advertisingrepresentative.Advertising on Google is always clearly identified as a "SponsoredLink." It is a core value for Google that there be no compromisingof the integrity of our results. We never manipulate rankings to putour partners higher in our search results. No one can buy betterPageRank. Our users trust Google's objectivity and no short-termgain could ever justify breaching that trust.Thousands of advertisers use our Google AdWords program to promotetheir products; we believe AdWords is the largest program of itskind. In addition, thousands of web site managers take advantage ofour Google AdSense program to deliver ads relevant to the content ontheir sites, improving their ability to generate revenue andenhancing the experience for their users.7. There's always more information out there.Once Google had indexed more of the HTML pages on the Internet thanany other search service, our engineers turned their attention toinformation that was not as readily accessible. Sometimes it wasjust a matter of integrating new databases, such as adding a phonenumber and address lookup and a business directory. Other effortsrequired a bit more creativity, like adding the ability to searchbillions of images and a way to view pages that were originallycreated as PDF files. The popularity of PDF results led us to expandthe list of file types searched to include documents produced in adozen formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Forwireless users, Google developed a unique way to translate HTMLformatted files into a format that could be read by mobile devices.The list is not likely to end there as Google's researchers continuelooking into ways to bring all the world's information to usersseeking answers.8. The need for information crosses all borders.Though Google is headquartered in California, our mission is tofacilitate access to information for the entire world, so we haveoffices around the globe. To that end we maintain dozens of Internetdomains and serve more than half of our results to users livingoutside the United States. Google search results can be restrictedto pages written in more than 35 languages according to a user'spreference. We also offer a translation feature to make contentavailable to users regardless of their native tongue and for thosewho prefer not to search in English, Google's interface can becustomized into more than 100 languages. To accelerate the additionof new languages, Google offers volunteers the opportunity to helpin the translation through an automated tool available on theGoogle.com website. This process has greatly improved both thevariety and quality of service we're able to offer users in even themost far flung corners of the globe.9. You can be serious without a suit.Google's founders have often stated that the company is not seriousabout anything but search. They built a company around the idea thatwork should be challenging and the challenge should be fun. To thatend, Google's culture is unlike any in corporate America, and it'snot because of the ubiquitous lava lamps and large rubber balls, orthe fact that the company's chef used to cook for the Grateful Dead.In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to our onlineservice, Google Inc. puts employees first when it comes to dailylife in our Googleplex headquarters. There is an emphasis on teamachievements and pride in individual accomplishments that contributeto the company's overall success. Ideas are traded, tested and putinto practice with an alacrity that can be dizzying. Meetings thatwould take hours elsewhere are frequently little more than aconversation in line for lunch and few walls separate those whowrite the code from those who write the checks. This highlycommunicative environment fosters a productivity and camaraderiefueled by the realization that millions of people rely on Googleresults. Give the proper tools to a group of people who like to makea difference, and they will.10. Great just isn't good enough.Always deliver more than expected. Google does not accept being thebest as an endpoint, but a starting point. Through innovation anditeration, Google takes something that works well and improves uponit in unexpected ways. Search works well for properly spelled words,but what about typos? One engineer saw a need and created a spellchecker that seems to read a user's mind. It takes too long tosearch from a WAP phone? Our wireless group developed Google NumberSearch to reduce entries from three keystrokes per letter to one.With a user base in the millions, Google is able to identify pointsof friction quickly and smooth them out. Google's point ofdistinction however, is anticipating needs not yet articulated byour global audience, then meeting them with products and servicesthat set new standards. This constant dissatisfaction with the waythings are is ultimately the driving force behind the world's bestsearch engine.6. How competitive are they in the international market?As with its technology, Google has chosen to ignore conventionalwisdom in designing its business. The company started with seedmoney from angel investors and brought together two competingventure capital firms to fund its first equity round. While thedotcom boom exploded around it and competitors spent millions onmarketing campaigns to "build brand," Google focused instead onquietly building a better search engine.The word quickly spread from one satisfied user to another. Withsuperior search technology and a high volume of traffic at itsGoogle.com site, Google's managers identified two initialopportunities for generating revenue: search services andadvertising.Google grows and business bloomsOver time, these two business lines evolved into complementarynetworks. Google AdWords advertisers create ads to drive qualifiedtraffic to their sites and generate leads. Google publishingpartners deliver those ads targeted to relevant search resultspowered by Google AdSense. With AdSense, the publisher shares in therevenue generated when readers click on the ads.For sites wishing to have more control over their intranet or sitesearches, Google developed the Google Search Appliance, a scalableand secure appliance that delivers accurate search results acrossany number of documents.Google continues to think about ways in which technology can improveupon existing ways of doing business. New areas are explored, ideasprototyped and budding services nurtured to make them more useful toadvertisers and publishers. However, no matter how distant Google'sbusiness model grows from its origins, the root remains providinguseful and relevant information to those who are the most importantpart of the ecosystem – the millions of individuals around the worldwho rely on Google search to provide the answers they are seeking.Google AdWords for AdvertisersGoogle designed AdWords for advertisers who want to reach aqualified audience as efficiently as possible. Advertisers selecttheir own target keywords and only pay when customers click on theirads. It's easy to create ad text and manage online advertisingaccounts with no large upfront payment required. All that's neededis five minutes and a credit card. The ads appear across Google'sgrowing roster of partners, including thousands of sites fromAmerica Online to the Washington Post, and are targeted to relevantsearch and content pages.Google's experienced sales and service team optimize campaigns forour larger advertisers. Our staff of AdWords experts work withadvertisers to select the appropriate keywords and generate thematching creative, then carefully monitor the campaign to improveits performance over time by winnowing keywords and rewriting copybased on what is most effective. There's no limit to the number ofkeywords that an advertiser can select and each keyword can bematched with a different creative execution. Recent advertisersinclude Amazon, Cisco Systems and Staples.Google provides all of its advertisers with a full complement ofreporting services to enable fine tuning of campaigns and real-timeintelligence about which components are performing best. Advertiserscan further increase efficiencies by targeting their campaigns tospecific geographies or languages.Google AdSense and Web Site ServicesGoogle believes relevant advertising can be as useful as searchresults or other forms of content. And that advertising can enhancethe experience for visitors to a publisher's website, while helpingpublishers recover some of their investment in creating content ofvalue. Google AdSense™ combines Google Search technology with ourbase of keyword advertisers to deliver ads that precisely targetsearch results or the content on a site's pages, no matter howspecialized the subject matter. Advertisers, publishers, andinformation seekers all profit as a result.Signing up for AdSense is easy -- it only takes a few minutes toapply. And our sales team helps customize the program for sitesreceiving more than 20 million page views a month.• AdSense serves relevant ads on content pages search resultand content pages as well as dormant domain pages.Google SearchServices enable publishers to provide Google web search on their ownpages – results that can be used to generate revenue with theAdSense for Search program The Google Search Appliance, a scalableand secure device that provides Google quality search across anindividual website or intranet.• Google Wireless Services deliver Google search results via
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