Problems and Opportunities of Google - Research Paper Example

Problems The simple truth about being on top is that it’s only a matter of time before someone takes you down. Such is the case of search engine giant Google. Founded in 1998 by Stanford graduates Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the odd-sounding .com has flourished into the market as the preferred site for searching just about anything. This technology started when Digital Equipment Corporation found a way to store Web pages indexed that was linked for search connections through stored words.

The search engine became a popular home page during its time until the entrance of Google into the mix. By the year 2000, it was the site to beat with Yahoo lagging behind as Microsoft was left sleeping. A major profit generator for the multi-billion dollar company was when initiated charging advertisers only when a user clicks on its link. A marketing approach copied from the firm Overture. By 2007, Google rakes in $15 billion annually where almost $4 billion is solely profit (Freedman, p. 40).

Contributed mostly to a lack of insight, other more popular and welloff websites was overtaken by Google. But as Global Equipment Research analyst Trip Chowdry puts it, “Google has won the first stages of the Web-searching race. It won’t win the next one” (Freedman, p.40). the fickle market shows trend that none of this websites could last forever unless it holds a tight grip onto their lead with many other companies and even governments take lengths to give alternative to the wandering internet population.

It becomes a not-so farfetched idea that mere years from now, people will even wonder what was so great about Google. There is no question that the website has become synonymous with search engine with the majority of the world market relying on it for fast search results for the most trivial to the most imperative queries they could conjure. Many organizations are already on the works on how to sweep over Google through a third generation search engine overhaul. There is no deficiency on the amount of innovations that could be integrated to these new buzz generators and there are just as many individuals who would like to be the authors to the next Google.

Yahoo is among them as being the first in its introduction of new tweaks into their search box where term suggestions are already provided as soon as a few letters were already typed in it. A way to avoid being repetitive for searches you might have already done before and or offer suggestions to avoid typing different phrases to find results. There are also those which offer link to the most popular searches and following up on them (Freedman, p.40). Yahoo and Microsoft Lurks Microsoft is probably Google’s biggest competitor with its coffer running deep.

Its primary goal is to merge its existing Windos Live Search to other computer tasks. Brad Goldberg, search chief for Microsoft discloses that they are trying to take full advantage of their assets by integrating search into its full potential. “We’re working on ways to capture what the user is doing and carry it into the search experience,” he says. Freedman maintans that the biggest problem for these companies is the common fact that comparatively few people use their search engine as much as google.

Customer satisfaction still makes Google the prevalent choice among users. Yet, local competition hinders Google in a number of countries. South Korea, with its internet-heavy using population gets only 2% while China is only at 17%. Russia also prefers local search engines but Western Europe, mostly Germany, records a whopping 82%. To counteract this, the German government has alloted $165 million while the French government has allocated $122 to produce search engine research. There are almost a 1,000 contenders ready and eager to take a large chunk of Google’s consumers (p.41). Microsoft’s Bing has proven itself to be a worthy opponent ready to capitalize on its Google envy.

BlindSearch, a study by Michael Kordahi allows a user to vote on the best search engine by providing in the window three search results from Google, Yahoo and Bing. The user will not initially know which is which but he will have to pick one which he think best provided the most appropriate result for his search from the columns. It is quite interesting to note that there is no actual reign of one from the other. Parr in his crude test found that Google still leads at 44% according to BlindSearch with Bing at second with 32% and Yahoo in third at 24% (Parr, par.9-10). China and Censorship International relations also creates conflict with China’s censorship policies.

The competition between Google and Baidu, the most popular search site in China, takes a turn with the two entities continually butting heads. Google’s mantra of being the good guy led it to a dispute with the communist country’s censorship policies. In the hopes of promoting human rights by being able to provide links to various sites without prohibition has been included in the company’s advocates. The gmail accounts of some known government critics have been hacked in December last year.

Google threats of pulling out of China unless human rights is enforced through censorship creates the admiration of many web users for Google. This is seen as a means to protect the Chinese employees of Google from the possiblity of being persecuted by the government. Cyber attacks and censorship has been the main cause for concern since Google established itself in China (Heaven, par.4-5). Opportunities With the money coming in, and company harmony still carefully intact, Google is not about to give up its place without a fight.

Beyond its minimalistic homepage layout, Google has features which makes it more than just a search engine. It has continued to redefine how we use the internet and just how far it can take us. With its GoogleEarth, GoogleMap, GoogleBooks, Gmail and the new GoogleScholar, the company has integrated just about anything and everything necessary for a website. The possibility for advertisement revenue is very imminent for the company. With its line of marketing that expands from the current hits basis that is implemented.

It could easily integrate the various aspects of the website to create revenue generating concepts. One of its branches, Google AdSense is one great idea which capitalizes on an individual’s desire to generate income in a most convenient way. Here, a web user can register to AdSense and connect it to a website tha he/she maintains. Its theme and content is upon the discretion of the user. The website automatically associates it to the most appropriate advertisers that is applicable to the personal site which usually comprises of blogs.

Guided by the search engine’s marketing principle, this integrates the participation of every internet resident to take part in the dot com boom. Visitors of the blog or website is recorded statistically where the advertiser would pay for every click on the links that AdSense has posted on the web page. Popular websites then become more than a way to pass time but a means to be able to earn through it. There are five things that a new generation engine should include to make it marketable according to Charles Knight of AltSearchEngines.

These are; word smarts, editing, focus, guided queries and community. It should have a sense of what the user is really looking for which goes beyond the words typed in the box and providing the most appropriate results based on their content. Like other search engines that incorporate human editing into their process, personal sense oftentimes prevail over computer generated ones. The broad results that Google provides makes up one of its weaknesses and this is where focus comes in. Fewer pages equal to more relevant results.

The feature of being able to suggest terms as it is internally hard to figure out the best search queries can also make for a strong search engine. The strength of online communities has also become an apparent feature of the internet. Google poses several Achilles’ heel as it could just be as easy to switch to a better search engine site as typing in a new webpage (Freedman, pp. 41-42). Bibliography Freedman, David H. "Searching for the Best Engine." Newsweek (2007): 38-40. Heaven, Will.

Google vs. China: Does the Internet Giant Really Deserve Our Praise? 13 January 2010. 18 June 2010 . Parr, Ben. Google vs. Bing: The Blind Taste Test. 17 June 2010 .