Google is the world's largest search engine. The Google's Business Model makes them popular and profitable search engine because it is easy and fast to load, has a reliable search results not always, but most of the time and a powerhouse of the new products. The important product of Google is us, the people. We are the reason why this search engine is still on the top of the best search engine.

Google's Competitors:

Major Competitors:

1. Yahoo! Inc.
2. Microsoft Corporation

Minor Competitors:

1. American Online
2. Baidu

Using Google, and some finely crafted searches we can find a lot of interesting information. Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. It's first step is to online search that quickly spread to information seekers around the globe. Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest search engine -- a free service whose utility and ease of use have made it one of the world's best-known brands almost entirely through word of mouth from satisfied users.

Google's Services:

Google Labs
Google Pack
Google Translate
Google Co-Op
Google Code
Google News
Google Patent Search
Google Blog Search
Google Alerts
Google Catalogs

One of the Google's New Service offered is the Google TiSP.

I think why Google is unique because their company shows a great deal of business in this generation. They have good services offered to the people. And a mission which is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Sources:


http://www.vertygoteam.com/google_marketing_strategy.php
http://scenariothinking.org/wiki/index.php/Who_are_Google%27_s_competitors_%28Core_Business_and_General%29%3F
http://gigaom.com/2007/12/04/google-infrastructure/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-google-services-that-get-no-love/

Google’s business model
Google is a company that started six years ago when its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a new way to do online searching in a Stanford University dorm room. This new idea then spread quickly to many people around the globe seeking information. Googles’ technologies have been able to sort through a large amount of growing information on the web and deliver it to its users for free, a service which returns accurate information in a very short amount of time. They rely on the millions of people who post websites to figure out which other sites have good content. Google uses a technique called PageRank to rank every page. It figures out all of the sites linking to a web page and gives them a value, based in part on the sites which are linked to them. Then Google is able to determine the sites with the most votes meaning they have the best amount of information to those most interested in the information offered. PageRank keeps on improving as the web becomes bigger, since each new website is another set of information which leans to another vote. It is the top search engine in the world, representing eighty percent of all European search page views and forty one percent of all US search page views. Its net income has been increasing, $6,985,000 in 2001, $99,656,000 in 2002, $105,648,000 in 2003, and $399,199,000 in 2004. This company must have done a great job in order to be so successful. When it was first started their web index contained about thirty million documents, and now they index more than eight billion web pages which translates to two hundred and fifty times as much information.
However Google isn’t just a popular search engine it also does many other things that come in hand to many people around the world. Some of Googles’ services include Alerts where you receive news and search results by e mail, Blog Search which finds blogs on people’s favorite topics, Book Search to find text of any books, Images where you can find images on the web, Maps where you find maps and directions, and News where you can find many news stories. Some of Google’s tools include Blogger where you can express yourself online, Earth where you can explore the world from your PC, Translate where you can view web pages in other languages, and Talk where you can IM and call friends from your PC. Google is global, besides its main Google.com it includes one hundred and two other international domains such as Google.de, Googdle.fr, and Google.co.uk. One hundred different languages are available.

1. Who are their competitors?

We all know that Google has its hands in many other projects beyond search, but even in search itself, it is not impossible that another could come along and win people over. Microsoft's trying with Bing, and it could succeed. I'm not saying it will or that it is probable, but it is not impossible.

The rise of social media has put an interesting spin on the whole web dominance game, and has given Google even more to worry about. The company's co-founder Larry Page has acknowledged publicly that Google has to get on board with real-time search, because Twitter search came along and highlighted a need that most people never saw coming, even just a couple years ago.

Another part of the big picture is the government. The New York Times ran a piece, over the weekend looking at this, noting that some analysts say that government opposition could pose the biggest threat to Google.

Miguel Helft of the New York Times

"The Justice Department is examining the hiring practices at Google and other technology companies, and it is investigating a class-action settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers," explains the NYT's' Miguel Helft. "The Federal Trade Commission is looking into ties between the boards of Google and Apple."

You probably also remember the infamous Google-Yahoo deal that never was. You might say that Google's greatest competition comes from Washington. Helft also brings up the negative impact such issues could have on the company's reputation among users who have otherwise viewed Google in a positive light.

According to Helft, Google also says it's competing with sites like Amazon, WebMD and Wikipedia, and in terms of ad dollars, Google is competing with "television, radio, print publications, bus stop benches and milk cartons." If you want to break down every aspect of Google's offerings, you will be able to name a lot more competitors.

Google's Senior Competition Counsel, Dana Wagner tells the NYT that Google could be dethroned if it stops innovating. I would agree with that to an extent, but you would have to throw some other elements into the mix, such as acquisitions and marketing.

Microsoft is throwing tons of money into the marketing of Bing, and so far it has managed to generate quite a bit of interest - perhaps more than the company has ever managed to do in the search industry. The consumer response has been mixed, but much of it has been positive. And Bing isn't the only thing Google has to worry about.

Back in the day, when PC stocks were kings on Wall Street, a pesky college kid named Michael Dell figured out that he could do an end run around the then-established PC makers by developing a smarter way of making and selling boxes. His strategy was simple: get components and PCs from the factories in Asia to the U.S. as fast as possible, but only after he had charged for the machine.

By squeezing the supply chain as hard as he could, he turned Dell into a fearsome (and loathsome) competitor. With his help, the supply chain for the PC era came to consist of foundries, ships, U.S. assembly plants and UPS trucks. Google (GOOG), with over $200 billion in market capitalization, is following a similar strategy, fine tuning and adapting it for the Web & broadband.

Instead of trucks and assembly plants, however, Google’s supply chain is made up of fiber networks, data centers, switches, servers and storage devices. From that perspective, its business model is no different than that of Dell’s (DELL): Google has to deliver search results (information, if you want to be generous about their other projects) as fast as possible at as low a cost as possible.

To better understand Google and its business model, one needs to break it down into three data inputs.

* Relevancy of results.
* Speed of search.
* Cost of executing a search query.

While their results aren’t optimal, they are good enough. Just like Microsoft Windows was good enough to dominate the market. Google, according to Hitwise, now has 64 percent of the total search market. And although a typical Google query can often be an act of futility, we put up with it because the results are fast. If they’re wrong, we can just start all over again.

The faster the results show up on our browsers, the less inclined we’ll be to switch to a rival search engine, no matter how great the rival’s search methodology may be. The faster (and more efficient) its infrastructure, the more easily Google can keep serving the ad-based money machine.

In other words, the company has to make sure that the speed of its search is really, really fast. Any random search on Google these days takes between 0.12 to 0.06 seconds. Now that is really, really fast. Google does this by indexing the Internet quite well. The magic is in delivering the search results from this index at lightening speed, and that requires an infrastructure — oodles of bandwidth and specialized hardware — that is finely tuned, much like a Formula One Car.


2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?

Against this backdrop, it makes perfect sense for Google to build their own servers, storage systems, Internet switches and perhaps, sometime in the future, even optical transport systems. Let me rephrase that: Imagine connecting thousands of hosts (storage and server systems) at speeds of, say, 10 gigabits per second, in a manner that allows any-to-any connections.

The number of racks, fiber, routers and everything in between is mind-boggling. If this system were built using gear from established hardware makers, it would take a superhuman effort to make it all work together. In other words, the sheer cost to keep such a beast going would suck up a major component of the infrastructure.

A better option is to have gear that is customized for your processes, ones in which you have a major operational expenditure advantage. In the telecom bubble, large service providers were brought to their knees by operational expenditures.

With the exception of optical systems, Google has built or is building the gear. It has been rumored to be a big buyer of dark fiber to connect its data centers, which helps explain why the company spent nearly $3.8 billion over the past seven quarters on capital expenditures.

You can argue that building customized gear is an expensive strategy, but when you are the scale of Google, it starts to become less of an issue. Why? Because process-optimized infrastructure ensures that Google’s cost of executing a query keep going down.

To sum it up, Google’s gigantic infrastructure is the big barrier to entry for its rivals, and will remain so, as long as the company keeps spending billions on it. That said, there’s another thing Google could learn from Dell: Maintain the quality of your search results — customers will only put up with shoddiness for so long.

3. How competitive are they in the market?

Given the competitiveness of the market in which PurelyGadgets operates it is necessary for them to be both extremely dynamic and make full use of all AdWords features available to them. This is something which they do to excellent effect, as Lim explains. “We eliminate a lot of unqualified leads with negative keywords…Although it’s a very simple functionality, I find negative keywords extremely useful.”

“We use Google Analytics which is fabulous,” he further comments. “AdWords Editor is very good as well…we change our prices every day…only Google allow us to have that sort of flexibility.”

4. What new services do they offer?


Google insists, over and over, that it has no intention of getting into the content business. So how is it finessing its way into the music business? Very carefully.

The search giant is working on a new service that will provide searchers with streaming music, which sounds a whole lot like a content play at first blush. But Google will only be offering limited bits of music, and it will be relying on other companies to actually provide the tunes. Sources describe the service, which they refer to as “One Box,” as a refined set of answers for music queries. The idea: Punch in, say, “Madonna,” and you’ll be presented with one or more songs, which may be partial clips or full-length versions, then guided to other sites where you can purchase the music.

That is: If you’re looking for Google (GOOG) to launch a rival to Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes or to music streaming services like iMeem and MySpace Music, this isn’t it.

In fact, Google is actually partnering, in a way, with News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace: iLike, the music start-up that MySpace purchased earlier this year, is one of the two services providing music to Google, industry sources tell me. The other is Lala.com, which has a novel streams-plus-cheap-songs concept.

5. What makes them so unique?

One thing that has become evident is that Google grows in an organic fashion, unlike any other company I know of. Google develops tools that are internally useful and then releases them to the world. Google does not develop products to sell to the world. Google does not have external contracts, at least in the traditional sense, as far as I can tell.
Google is obviously best known for search and for ads associated with search. This is in essence Google’s one true product. It is the one feature Google developed for the outside world. When Google developed search it was no different from a small company. It is what Google has done since then that makes Google different.

Google doesn’t answer to any external power. They don’t have anyone they have to deliver a product to. There is no contract with a deadline. Due to not having any external dependencies, Google can continuously iterate over a product until it reaches a state of near perfection. It can stay in internal testing as long as Google wants and no one is going to care. See Gmail, Google Maps, etc. This then allows Google to use the perfect form of the agile process. Continuous iterations and testing and development, continues improvement. Then as Google sees fit, release the products.

Insight:

Google is one of the successful company around the world because of its good strategic plan to make the company more competitive. like what i've research which is you can read above its amazing business.. Google gives some a lot of knowledge to understand well the value of being an IT professional.

http://www.programmersparadox.com/2008/03/17/googles-unique-advantage/
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20091021/google-steps-gingerly-into-music-with-one-box/
https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/adwords/select/success/purelygadgets.html
http://gigaom.com/2007/12/04/google-infrastructure/
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/06/29/google-has-plenty-of-competition

Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model and answer the following questions below. You may add additional information not included in these questions.

Questions :
Explain Google’s business model.
1. Who are their competitors?
2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?
3. How competitive are they in the market?
4. What new services do they offer?
5. What makes them so unique?
6. How competitive are they in the international market?


Google is known to be as a web search engine. And as I have searched the net, these are their competitors in this said field. I have included brief information about them that I also browsed from the internet.

Who are their competitors?
Ask.com

Ask.com had a personality change in 2008 as it re-focused itself on being a question-answering service.
It's actually reasonably good at coming up with answers through web search and being able to gather
questions and answers through its Q&A. Some semantic technology is involved that goes beyond merely
matching on keywords. It has a variety of search tools that includes web search, news, images, video,
blogs. Maps and directions are provided from Microsoft.


Yahoo.com
Yahoo! Search is one of the best for search aids. It has Search Assist at the top with related
searches and suggested concepts to explore, as well as top sites from the search results in the
left side panel. Yahoo signed-in account holders save page and keep notes in the new Search Pad.
Search results are enhanced with deep links and thumbnails of images and videos. All in all, Yahoo
is pleasant to use.

Cuil.com

"Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil"
Cuil was launched in 2008 as the world's biggest search engine. Its founders included some from Google.
Its edge was going to be an ability to examine the context of words to establish their relevance to a
search query. Initially it didn't do this well, but that has changed.

Today categories provide context and specifics: they are well developed and include sub-categories
with examples. Scroll over the links to get previews of top results. Try this with arctic exploration.
But it doesn't do well with more specific queries such as where did john franklin die.

Exalead.com
Exalead is a small alternative search engine. It is based in France and may have somewhat better
coverage of European content. The index has been 8 billion pages for a couple of years. Most notably,
Exalead has function that all other engines abandoned: accepts wildcard characters; and has a NEAR operator to require that words be within 16 words or a number you set.

With regards on how they used information technology to their advantage it is clearly seen that the backbone of the business that Google decided to enter is directly associated to information technology. This is because without a computer, without knowledgeable people browsing the internet, google will not exist at all.
They used information technology wisely. They continue to find ways to improve on giving fast and relevant response to every possible queries that a user may come about. In fact, they developed different algorithms and methods to make their answers significant and reliable.

They also did not rely only in desktop. As a respond to the rapidly developing technologies, they expand there services in cellular phones and other devices that supports internet access.

As I browsed the net for new services that they are offering aside from being a search engine, as I was not surprised seeing a lot. But these new services are mainly under a broad project that they developed which they called "Google Business Solutions".

These are the following services they marked as new:
Google Ad Manager
Sell, schedule, deliver, and measure your directly-sold and network-based ad inventory.

Google enterprise search solutions
Maximize website ROI and internal productivity with Google-powered search for your website or intranet.

Postini services
Protect your email infrastructure with hosted spam and virus protection, archiving, and encryption.


In my personal perspective, google is unique because of its simplicty. Simplicity in terms of its interface and the way the search engine gives its response. This is a good thing for a lot of users especially to those who are not familiar in navigating websites.
Simplicity can be clearly seen in there main page, where you will only see the google logo, a texfield for input, and some options. Unlike from other search engines that i have tried, google focuses on the relevence of their answers and not on how their sites attractive look.

Aside from that, google is also unique in terms on their business oriented services. I am not sure if they are the first in this field but i am pretty much confident that they are leading it. I can say this because I browse the internet a lot and almost every site have there ads on and there advertising power has been very powerfula and in demand nowadays.

Google is very competitive in international market. infact they rank one of highest among the different search engines available based on advancedwebranking.com and other website rankings survey that i have browsed. Because their field is directly independent to internet connectivity, they are able to reach almost every part in the world which made there company very influencial in terms of advertising and business solutions.


Reference:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/competing_with_google_search.php

Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model and answer the following questions below. You may add additional information not included in these questions.

Questions :
Explain Google’s business model.
1. Who are their competitors?
2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?
3. How competitive are they in the market?
4. What new services do they offer?
5. What makes them so unique?

The challenge, and how Google AdWords fits in

Acquiring business and recognition in a highly competitive market was the key initial challenge that PurelyGadgets faced. Initially PurelyGadgets toyed with the idea of taking a hands-off approach to their advertising, by hiring a company who would take care of it for them. This approach wasn’t successful however, as Lim explains. “We believed that we could do this better [than an outside company] because we know our products and services.” Instead, PurelyGadgets turned to Google AdWords to assist them in creating an online presence. “I actually learned about online advertising from Google,” admits Lim. “We find Google very easy to use. The main reason is that we can control the budget so easily. We were a very new start-up company then and we were very concerned with costs and Google let us see…results within twenty-four hours.”
Advancing with AdWords

Having begun trading from home in 2004, as a company of four to five employees, PurelyGadgets now employs over 40 people in their London based offices. “We grew about 700% over the past two years,” declares Lim. “Without using Google we would not grow this fast.”

Expanding further on this point, Lim says “Google initially put us on a par with other big brands…I think Google is a trusted brand…the demographic feels more confident buying from us…because they see us from Google…If you’re looking at increasing market share, branding…and also customer acquisition… Google is a much better choice because it has a much bigger audience.”
Google tools

Given the competitiveness of the market in which PurelyGadgets operates it is necessary for them to be both extremely dynamic and make full use of all AdWords features available to them. This is something which they do to excellent effect, as Lim explains. “We eliminate a lot of unqualified leads with negative keywords…Although it’s a very simple functionality, I find negative keywords extremely useful.”

“We use Google Analytics which is fabulous,” he further comments. “AdWords Editor is very good as well…we change our prices every day…only Google allow us to have that sort of flexibility.”
Future Plans

Not content with entering into new territories from a retail perspective, PurelyGadgets intend to do so geographically as well. At present due to a lack of viable payment platforms, PurelyGadgets restrict their activities to the UK market. However, Lim is enthusiastic and optimistic about the imminent launch of the Google payment platform, Google Checkout. “I think that once the Google Checkout has been launched [we will] have a payment platform all across the world. I think that will open up our market totally’.

Speaking of future plans to continue growing with Google AdWords, Lim states “It feels like you do have somebody working for you in Google…I can’t find anything better.”




Google's Unique Advantage:

The fact can't be denied. Google have achieved a massive success and almost every developer wants to work for. Google is best known for search and for ads associated with search, that was obvious. This is in essence Google’s one true product. It is the one feature Google developed for the outside world. When Google developed search it was no different from a small company. It is what Google has done since then that makes Google different. Google doesn’t answer to any external power. They don’t have anyone they have to deliver a product to. There is no contract with a deadline. Due to not having any external dependencies, Google can continuously iterate over a product until it reaches a state of near perfection. It can stay in internal testing as long as Google wants and no one is going to care. See Gmail, Google Maps, etc. This then allows Google to use the perfect form of the agile process. Continuous iterations and testing and development, continues improvement. Then as Google sees fit, release the products. As they get better and better, more people use them and more money from ads come in. And that's undeniably beautiful! Another thing is that Google hit on the formula for ads before anyone else. They now have such a commanding lead in that arena that to compete with them you need deep pockets of money of your own. That makes it difficult to launch a company and follow Google’s lead of avoiding external dependencies and having the near perfect product development process. Google does have external contracts, especially for serving up ads on other sites. But notice that Google’s contracts are different from most companies’ contracts. Google isn’t developing a product for these companies. All they are doing is giving them an existing product that Google has already completed and released. Development on that product might still be happening, but it happens within Google, not within the realms of the contract. Google is still free to develop how ever they want (Mark Mzyk | March 17, 2008). And i agree to this point that Google has its unique advantage.




Reference:
https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/adwords/select/success/purelygadgets.htmlhttp://www.programmersparadox.com/2008/03/17/googles-unique-advantage/
http://www.atlassian.com/software/crowd/images/features/google_apps_diagram.png" border="0" alt="" />
GOOGLE APPS

I think most people would agree that Google has somehow changed the way people use the internet as a source of information. The Google Company has always been famous because of its search engine web tool where you can search for any information you want in the internet and it will return numerous relevant entries in a second or even less. The technology was so revolutionary that even the word ‘google’ is now somehow synonymous to the word ‘search’ that’s why some people would often say ‘google it’ instead of ‘search for it in the internet’.

But Google is not only famous for being the top web search engine used in the world. They also offer key products that have generated huge revenues for their company such as Google AdWords and Google AdSense which also created an impact on internet world when it comes to web advertising.

Aside from those products and services that I mentioned, among the latest innovations of Google according to THIS website are the following:

1. Google Chrome
2. Google Wave
3. Google Voice
4. Google Powermeter
5. Chromium OS Open Source Project
6. Google Public DNS
7. Google Nexus

Just like any companies, Google also has started from small beginnings. From being a simple research project, it has somehow made its way to be one of the top competitors of famous companies like Microsoft and Yahoo! Inc. Compared to its top competitors, Google has an unorthodox philosophy and culture in their company.

Philosophy of Google

• Focus on the user and all else will follow.
• It's best to do one thing, and do it well.
• Fast is better than slow.
• Democracy on the web works.
• You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
• You can make money without doing evil.
• There's always more information out there.
• The need for information crosses all borders.
• You can be serious without a suit.
• Great just isn't good enough.

Google’s Culture

• Heart of Small Company
• Hand’s on contribution to the Products by each employee
• Flat Hierarchy
• Each employee having several responsibilities in different departments
• Hiring Policy
– Non Discriminatory
– Preference of ability over experience
• Multilingual company environment
• Multidomestic culture
• Recreation along with work
• Common café for all employees


In order to understand how Google has come a long way and achieve this level of success, we must take a look at their business model.

According to David Pollard’s website, Figure 1 is the business model of Google.




Google has reached this level of success because their competitive advantage comes from its core competencies in computer hardware and software engineering which is IT. Google's great IT advantage among its competitors is its ability to build high-performance systems that are cost efficient and that scale to massive workloads. They have achieved this because of their unique philosophy and culture that their employees gladly embrace. They are focused on their mission which is making information “universally accessible and useful” while conforming their vision and ambition. According to IT consultant Stephen Arnold, Google's programmers are 50% to 100% more productive than their peers at other Web companies, a result of the custom libraries Google developed to support programming of massively parallel systems. He estimates the company's competitors have to spend four times as much to keep up.

Behind the seeming simplicity of Google is a mash-up of internally developed software, made-to-order hardware, artificial intelligence, obsession with performance, and an unorthodox approach to people management.


Reference:
http://tusharvickkie.blogspot.com/2010/01/top-10-google-inventions-of-2009.html
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/10/16.html
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300292

Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model and answer the following questions below. You may add additional information not included in these questions



As we have seen and notice right now internet is expanding all over the world and we can’t deny that almost a hundred percent of the people rely in the internet for sustaining their everyday work of living. These proves how internet business spescially Google Inc. is a highly successful Internet business because everyone used it for displaying ads for their businesses , in search services . Its shows how big success does the google had gone in world of internet business . Before we tackle much about Google Inc., we should define it
Google Inc.is a search engine technology, the paid search services (AdWords, AdSense, Partnerships), online display ads, offlince channels, mobile ads and other products, the online advertising market trends and forces. Google Inc., starting from just a smart algorithm, has developed a totally new business model, has become in a few years the world leading search engine, has developed winning applications as Google Earth, Google Video, Google Maps, Gmail, and is enjoying a huge success. Google, starting from scratch, has won the challenge against a giant like Microsoft and against the previous search engine market leaders Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista, Excite.
As I have read the writngs of Keith H. Hammonds in How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows he said that performance is the envy of executives and engineers around the world ... For techno-evangelists, Google is a marvel of Web brilliance ... For Wall Street, it may be the IPO that changes everything (again) ... But Google is also a case study in savvy management -- a company filled with cutting-edge ideas, rigorous accountability, and relentless attention to detail.It shows that even though it started only in 1995 and in 1998 its named as a top engine and as time gone by Google launches many services for the best services of their client and now we by avail Google services through our phone See how amazing , What more in the next year?

Who are their competitors?

Yahoo Inc.- s an American computer services company with a mission to "be the most essential global Internet service for consumers and businesses". It operates an Internet portal, the Yahoo! Directory and a host of other services including the popular Yahoo! Mail.
Microsoft Corporation- Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software, each of which has achieved near ubiquity in the desktop computer market. Microsoft also involves in different fields like online search engine market(www.msn.com), instant messaging(MSN messenger), gaming industry(X-Box) and TV network(MSNBC) etc, its core business is still focused on software manufacture. Its dominance of operating system and office software contributes most to its huge profit.
America Online, or AOL for short, is a U.S.-based online service provider, Internet service provider, and media company operated by Time Warner. Based in Dulles, Virginia, a community in Loudoun County, Virginia, with regional branches around the world, it is by far the most successful proprietary online service, with more than 32 million subscribers at one point in the US, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Latin America (declared bankrupt in 2004), Japan and formerly Russia.
DIRECT COMPETITOR COMPARISON

How have they used information technology to their advantage?
Google was an innovator of the Business Model. Google delivered all these great new products basically for free, enticing and luring million of users worldwide, with the result of building the Brand in an outstanding, quite unbelievable way - and did it so fast.


Google has had success with other products abroad, most notably its Orkut social network which has bombed domestically to its MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn brethren, yet has taken off in huge countries such as India and Brazil soit be careful in delivering their services.
Google should be sensitive to cultural sensitivities and will face different regulatory environments abroad, but the truth is that Google has been remarkably successful internationally in large part due to the international word-of-mouth generated by their product and feature set.


How competitive are they in the market?

Google is a competetive in the market because of the services it offers, .How it helps the other business in promoting it world wide.Google corresponds a structure that has a good objective for their client.Providing them a reliable sources of information.

What new services do they offer?

NEXUS ONE
You understand that the Device will only work on GSM networks and that 3G network availability may depend on your mobile carrier. Please contact your mobile carrier to confirm that it offers a GSM network and that the Device’s technical specifications are compatible with 3G coverage in your area.
Google Flu Trends-
How does this work?
We've found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate current flu activity around the world in near real-time

Google Maps Navigation on your mobile phone
Want a new phone with Google Maps Navigation pre-installed? ... These services are free from Google, but carrier charges may apply. ©2009 Google - Mobile ...

Google Fast Flip
Week in review: All about Apple's iPad, how a tweet revived service. ... BBC News - Eye 'gouging' at Kent rugby match probed by police .... 2009 Google –

Google Voice
Use Google Voice with your existing number new! A

What makes them so unique?

I’ve read a blog and its said that “One thing that has become evident to me is that Google grows in an organic fashion, unlike any other company I know of. Google develops tools that are internally useful and then releases them to the world. Google does not develop products to sell to the world. Google does not have external contracts, at least in the traditional sense, ” “Google is obviously best known for search and for ads associated with search. This is in essence Google’s one true product. It is the one feature Google developed for the outside world. When Google developed search it was no different from a small company. It is what Google has done since then that makes Google different.” “Google doesn’t answer to any external power. They don’t have anyone they have to deliver a product to. There is no contract with a deadline. Due to not having any external dependencies, Google can continuously iterate over a product until it reaches a state of near perfection. It can stay in internal testing as long as Google wants and no one is going to care. See Gmail, Google Maps, etc. This then allows Google to use the perfect form of the agile process. Continuous iterations and testing and development, continues improvement. Then as Google sees fit, release the products. As they get better and better, more people use them and more money from ads come in. It’s beautiful.”
It is so true statement of a writer and I agree with that ,Infact google services expand more every year google has just a simple .Google Inc. is a complex one, and involves more factors. It's a mix of smart decisions, excellent marketing strategy, great advisors, highly innovative and risky business model, and great products.

How competitive are they in the international market?

Obviously, Google has had success in the international environment, including greater market share than in the domestic market, that every Internet company would covet. This analysis delves deeper into Google's international efforts.They are competetive in the international market by giving much effort in their services, and give provide client a good services and a reliable sources of information .
Google should continue to grow their in-country teams significantly in order to best overcome cultural and sales hurdles and take advantage of unique opportunities and the gigantic world market that is growing at a quicker pace than the U.S. market. Recent stats point to European e-commerce in a position to surge past U.S. e-commerce.



References:
http://www.glgroup.com/News/Google-International--Greater-Market-Share-Now-Distancing-from-the-Pack-to-Come-18168.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/69/google.html
http://www.vertygoteam.com/google_marketing_strategy.php
http://www.programmersparadox.com/2008/03/17/googles-unique-advantage/
http://www.googlelabs.com/?q=google new services as of 2009&apps=Search Labs
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=GOOG




Visit my blog :
http://gleizelle.blogspot.com/

“.. Its performance is the envy of executives and engineers around the world ... For techno-evangelists, Google is a marvel of Web brilliance ... For Wall Street, it may be the IPO that changes everything (again) ... But Google is also a case study in savvy management -- a company filled with cutting-edge ideas, rigorous accountability, and relentless attention to detail ... Here's a search for the growth secrets of one of the world's most exciting young companies -- a company from which every company can learn...”


Profile..

Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related
to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking,
and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same
technologies. The Google headquarters, the Googleplex, is located in Mountain View,
California. As of March 31, 2009, the company has 20,164 full-time employees. Google
was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford
University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on
September 4, 1998. The initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004,
raising US$1.67 billion, implying a value for the entire corporation of US$23
billion. Google has continued its growth through a series of new product developments,
acquisitions, and partnerships. Environmentalism, philanthropy and positive employee
relations have been important tenets during the growth of Google. The company has been
identified multiple times as Fortune Magazine's #1 Best Place to Work, and as the most
powerful brand in the world (according to the Millward Brown Group). Google's mission
is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
" The unofficial company slogan, coined by former employee and Gmail's first engineer
Paul Buchheit, is "Don't be evil". Criticism of Google includes concerns regarding the
privacy of personal information, copyright, and censorship.

Competitiveness….

Google is particularly known for its relaxed corporate culture, reminiscent of the Dot-com boom. In January 2007, it was cited by Fortune Magazine as the #1 (of 100) best company to work for. Google's corporate philosophy is based on many casual principles including, "You can make money without doing evil", "You can be serious without a suit," and "Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun." A complete list of corporate fundamentals is available on Google's website. Google's relaxed corporate culture can also be seen externally through their holiday variations of the Google logo.Google has been criticized for having salaries below industry standards. For example, some system administrators earn no more than $35,000 per year – considered to be quite low for the Bay Area job market. However, Google's stock performance following its IPO has enabled many early employees to be competitively compensated by participation in the corporation's remarkable equity growth. Google implemented other employee incentives in 2005, such as the Google Founders' Award, in addition to offering higher salaries to new employees. Google's workplace amenities, culture, global popularity, and strong brand recognition have also attracted potential applicants.After the company's IPO in August 2004, it was reported that founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and CEO Eric Schmidt, requested that their base salary be cut to $1.00. Subsequent offers by the company to increase their salaries have been turned down, primarily because, "their primary compensation continues to come from returns on their ownership stakes in Google. As significant stockholders, their personal wealth is tied directly to sustained stock price appreciation and performance, which provides direct alignment with stockholder interests." Prior to 2004, Schmidt was making $250,000 per year, and Page and Brin each earned a salary of $150,000.[63]They have all declined recent offers of bonuses and increases in compensation by Google's board of directors. In a 2007 report of the United States' richest people, Forbes reported that Sergey Brin and Larry Page were tied for #5 with a net worth of $18.5 billion each.

Competitors..

1.Yahoo! Inc.
2. Pvt1 (MSN) – Privately held
3. AOL, Inc.
4. Industry (Internet Information Provider)
5. Disney Online

Uniqueness…

Google is obviously best known for search and for ads associated with search. This is in essence Google’s one true product. It is the one feature Google developed for the outside world. When Google developed search it was no different from a small company. It is what Google has done since then that makes Google different.
Google doesn’t answer to any external power. They don’t have anyone they have to deliver a product to. There is no contract with a deadline. Due to not having any external dependencies, Google can continuously iterate over a product until it reaches a state of near perfection. It can stay in internal testing as long as Google wants and no one is going to care. See Gmail, Google Maps, etc. This then allows Google to use the perfect form of the agile process. Continuous iterations and testing and development, continues improvement. Then as Google sees fit, release the products. As they get better and better, more people use them and more money from ads come in. It’s beautiful.
It’s also unlikely any other company is going to be able to pull this off. Google hit on the formula for ads before anyone else. They now have such a commanding lead in that arena that to compete with them you need deep pockets of money of your own. That makes it difficult to launch a company and follow Google’s lead of avoiding external dependencies and having the near perfect product development process.
At this point, you might be screaming at me that I’m wrong, because Google does have external contracts, especially for serving up ads on other sites. But notice that Google’s contracts are different from most companies’ contracts. Google isn’t developing a product for these companies. All they are doing is giving them an existing product that Google has already completed and released. Development on that product might still be happening, but it happens within Google, not within the realms of the contract. Google is still free to develop how ever they want.
For almost everyone else, you’re going to have to create a product and then drive sales of that product or else sign a contract and then deliver a custom product to the customer. You’ll have external dependencies that will force an outside reality upon you that Google simply doesn’t have. You can argue that Google is dependent upon ads, but at this point Google has captured such a large share of that market and is steadily capturing more of it, that it really isn’t a dependency for Google. Sure, Google should probably diversify, just in case the ad market tanks, but at this point Google has so much money they can afford to take their time.
So now you see. It’s unlikely you or anyone else is going to emulate Google. Kiss that dream goodbye.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from Google. Copy the good things that Google does and adapt them to your business. What you shouldn’t do is force the practices of Google on your business simple because they are what Google does. Google is a product of a very specific evolution and your business will be the product of a different evolution.
And when your developers come to you and say that they want to be exactly like Google, you now have an argument to explain why your business can’t be exactly like Google.
Still, there’s nothing preventing you from being the next great company after Google. That prize is still there for the taking.


New services offer…

1. New Storage Service

Google Inc has announced its very own cloud-based online storage service which will allow Google Docs users to upload any type of file of up to 250 MB while they will have access to a total storage capacity of 1GB.
(14 January, 2010, by Desire Athow)

2. Google Nexus One

Yesterday Google wasn’t in the business of selling mobile phones. Today, they are. The Nexus One smartphone has arrived and on sale at Google.com/phone.
(January 5th 2010 by Michael Arrington)

3. Google Click-to-Call (Billing) in Ads on Mobile Devices

Google sent out notification to its AdWords advertisers that this month “your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your business just as easily as they click to visit your website. You’ll be charged for clicks to call, same as you are for clicks to visit your website.”
(Jan 5, 2010 at 7:59am ET by Greg Sterling)

4. Google Goggles

A new service that promises to make searching the internet as easy as taking a photo. The application, which will premier on Android devices, will let a user snap a photo of anything and then Google will deliver search results based on that image.
(December 7th, 2009 by Stefan Constantinescu)

5. Free DNS Service

Google just released their newest service which is public DNS. DNS is one of the most important services when it comes to using the internet. The main reason to use the service is reliability, speed and increased security. Google has put in other measures to help with overall security.

http://searchengineland.com/google-to-introduce-click-to-call-billing-in-ads-on-mobile-devices-32831
http://www.programmersparadox.com/2008/03/17/googles-unique-advantage/
http://www.serverninjas.com/free-dns-service-offered-by-google
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=GOOG
http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/1/14/microsoft-teases-google-over-new-storage-service/

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Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model and answer the following questions below. You may add additional information not included in these questions.

Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model and answer the following questions below. You may add additional information not included in these questions.

Questions:
Explain Google’s business model.
1. Who are their competitors?
2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?
3. How competitive are they in the market?
4. What new services do they offer?
5. What makes them so unique?
6. How competitive are they in the international market?

Google’s Profile:
Google Incorporation is one company that earns its profit mainly from advertising using their very own Google search engine, Gmail e-mail service, Google Maps, Google Apps, Orkut social networking and Youtube video sharing, which are all offered to the public for free. It is a public corporation of the Americans and Googleplex, its headquarter is located at Mountain View, California since 2003. This company continues to grow very well and was being ranked number one by Fortune Magazine's as the "Best Place to Work In" for multiple times. The name "Google" was originated from the word "googol" which means 10 raised to the power of hundred or 1 with a hundred of zeroes, and "googol" was often misspelled as "google". Since this term has been increasingly used in our everyday language, "google" was added into the dictionaries, carrying the meaning of "obtaining information using the Internet through Google Search Engine".

Google’s Business Model

Google is a corporation that is becoming more profitable by the day. This massive internet giant has a continuous growth that has made it one of the richest technology based companies in the world. It currently employs thousands of people has has stretched itself across the four corners of the cyber world. This all begs the question; how are Google achieving this? Google's business model boils down to two primary focuses advertising and innovation. Google's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have said themselves that the current pre-dominant business model for commercial search engines is advertising. Google Ads went from a means to generate the necessary revenue to keep the budding search engine on its feet to a profit machine that became a key focus in Google's business plans. This form of advertising is cheap for businesses to buy, easy for Google to distribute and highly profitable. On top of all this, the ingenuity of it is that it allows other individuals to generate their own money by getting other web users to click on the advertisements when they visit their web site. Within no time businesses and indivduals alike wanted a piece of the Google Ads action. This sudden popularity was used as part of the model and therefore allowed Google to get its own name around the cyber world, quickly gaining the title of biggest search giant. It has been growing ever since. The other side of Google's hugely successful business plan is innovation. The Google brand became one of the internets most well known names within just years of it being in operation. The advertisement system and the quality of Google's search algorithms set the search engine at the top of its game. Realising that their success couldn't just stop there, Google turned to innovation. The company quickly expanded, providing endless services to the individual; Google News, Google Maps, Google Earth, Froogle, Google Scholar, Google Products the list goes on an on. Innovation became a key part of Google's business plan as it allowed them to expand at the rate they do.

In summary, simplistic as they are, these two foundations of the Google business model have been extra-ordinarily successful, and their continuing ingenuity will probably provide growth for this vast company for a long time.

Google’s Competitors:
1. Apple
2. Microsoft
3. Amazon
4. Facebook
5. Twitter
6. Mozilla
7. Yahoo
8. Cisco
9. IBM
10. Nokia

Googles Business strategy and competative advantage
Google's advantage is more of a company philosophy than a technical
advantage. Thus far they have simply remembered what works on the
Internet. I have read an article frm net. It goes like this .When people talk about Google as a corporate entity, they often talk—jealously, at times—about the company’s innovative culture, with its sprawling campus, free meals and endless amenities. One of the people at the forefront of that culture is Google’s CIO. Ben Fried believes that IT plays a pivotal role in building a great culture—and subsequently a great company—and he puts it into practice in a number of ways. One part of that is making technology accessible and open. By giving users what they want—instead of what the company believes is best—Fried believes CIOs can empower employees to do more. “It’s almost insulting to people when they hear, ‘We know better than you how it’s best for you to work,’” he says. And the company benefits not only from the increased productivity and morale, but also when recruiting talented support professionals.

But it also puts a good face on IT. In an era in which business users believe their IT organizations take too long and spend too much for products and services that don’t meet their needs, CIOs and their teams need to make smarter decisions, he says. Fried has gleaned these and other lessons from his time at Google, and from his previous work as an infrastructure architect at Morgan Stanley. Fried spoke recently about his IT leadership philosophy with CIO Insight Editor in Chief Brian P. Watson.

How competitive are they in the market?
I have read news from net and it says “The latest data released from comScore explains global search results for 2009, with some very familiar trends, as well as some very interesting new trends. The most obvious and familiar trend is Google retaining its lead among the search made worldwide, however the most surprising new trend is that Microsoft has increased its market share considerably. Of the top three major search engines Yahoo got the lowest percentage change, year on year, for 2009. Google had 87.8 billion searches in 2009 which is a 58% increase from 2008, a lo0ng way behind came Yahoo with 9.4 billion searches and a 13% increase from 2009. The main surprise of the new data is Microsoft who came in fourth place with 4.1 billion searches – a huge 70% leap from 2008 search market data…”

Using Google Analytics Aggregated data Google can collect statistics regarding other search engines and how they refer you to sites.


In effect what keywords they refer, vs. what keywords others refer. They also can get raw counts in the number of unique visitors and total visitors by referrer This is only possible because Google Analytics is a centralized web application maintained and operated by Google vs. AWStats another common used analytics platform which is installed maintained and operated by the webmaster. Food for thought: What other web applications have shifted paradigms and what effect and potential does all this newly related aggregated data worth.

• Imagine that Google Spreadsheets can be used to aggregate related ideas in effect creating a sort of GoogleSets.
• Imagine that GoogleTalk can be used to aggregate written context in effect creating Artificial Intelligence Chatbots with similar effects of Jabberwacky.com and beyond
• Imagine that Google Writeley can be used to aggregate thought, not just necessarily of what you write but more specifically what you write, when you write it, how you write, and revise including the whole process etc
• Imagine in effect borrowing the collective intelligence from its users.

Google Offers New Services

Here are the lists:

New Storage Service
Google Inc has announced its very own cloud-based online storage service which will allow Google Docs users to upload any type of file of up to 250 MB while they will have access to a total storage capacity of 1GB.
(14 January, 2010, by Desire Athow)

Google Click-to-Call (Billing) in Ads on Mobile Devices
Google sent out notification to its AdWords advertisers that this month “your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your business just as easily as they click to visit your website. You’ll be charged for clicks to call, same as you are for clicks to visit your website.”
(Jan 5, 2010 at 7:59am ET by Greg Sterling)

Google Goggles
A new service that promises to make searching the internet as easy as taking a photo. The application, which will premier on Android devices, will let a user snap a photo of anything and then Google will deliver search results based on that image.
(December 7th, 2009 by Stefan Constantinescu)

Free DNS Service
Google just released their newest service which is public DNS. DNS is one of the most important services when it comes to using the internet. The main reason to use the service is reliability, speed and increased security. Google has put in other measures to help with overall security.
(December 5th 2009 by serverguy)

Google Phone – Nexus One -
Nexus One is expected to display the latest generation of Linux-based open sourceAndroid operating system. In fact, this is also first phone that will be marketed directly by Google, in turn setting up extremely higher expectations for the product. Engadget has already reviewed the phone before the launch and it beings some interesting set of information you might link to know. The phone is also said to bring tough competition for Apple iPhone.

Google’s Caffeine Search Engine -
Caffeine is the next version of Google’s search-engine infrastructure and will soon be available to the wider audience. Caffeine engine is expected to offer technology to deliver faster and more accurate results. This version was available for test and there is no specific date for launch given yet, but Google is sure to develop it fully in early 2010

Google’s Ebook Store -
Google has always been fond of books and have encouraged it reader to take part often. With that love Google now plans to launch an online store for ebooks, which is expected to come in the first half of 2010. Google Ebook store will have half a million books initially in partner will few publishers. On the launch it is expected to have more than 500,000 books ready to be purchased from online stores such as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

Google Chrome OS -
Google Chrome Brower was a great hit and recently it also moved ahead of Apple Safari. And next in store we have Google Chrome OS – an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted only at netbooks. Google has planned to open-source its code, and will make Google Chrome OS available to users in the second half of 2010

5. Google Drive – GDrive
Users usually have complained of not having enough space for them to store emails, photos, and files. With that in mind, Google came up the idea of Gdrive included in Google pack – online file backup and storage service from Google that integrated with Google services like Gmail, Picasa Web Albums, Google Calendars, and many others. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device – be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone. Google Drive is highly anticipated and expected to be released in 2010 but it will only be an extended version of Google Docs. Instead of sending attachments, you’ll be able to upload files to Google Drive from Gmail.


What makes google unigue?
Based on my readings from the internet, the things which makes google a unigue one is that Google grows in a natural fashion, unlike any other company I know of. Google develops tools that are internally useful and then releases them to the world. Google does not develop products to sell to the world. Google does not have external contracts, at least in the traditional sense, as far as I can tell. Google is obviously best known for search and for ads associated with search. This is in essence Google’s one true product. It is the one feature Google developed for the outside world. When Google developed search it was no different from a small company. It is what Google has done since then that makes Google different. Google doesn’t answer to any external power. They don’t have anyone they have to deliver a product to. There is no contract with a deadline. Due to not having any external dependencies, Google can continuously iterate over a product until it reaches a state of near perfection. It can stay in internal testing as long as Google wants and no one is going to care. See Gmail, Google Maps, etc. This then allows Google to use the perfect form of the alert process. Continuous iterations and testing and development, continues improvement. Then as Google sees fit, release the products. As they get better and better, more people use them and more money from ads comes in. It’s also unlikely any other company is going to be able to pull this off. Google hit on the formula for ads before anyone else. They now have such a commanding lead in that arena that to compete with them you need deep pockets of money of your own. That makes it difficult to launch a company and follow Google’s lead of avoiding external dependencies and having the near perfect product development process. Google’s contracts are different from most companies’ contracts. Google isn’t developing a product for these companies. All they are doing is giving them an existing product that Google has already completed and released. Development on that product might still be happening, but it happens within Google, not within the kingdom of the contract. Google is still free to develop how ever they want.



References:
http://google.com/
http://www.google-search-engine-optimization.com/2009/01/google-incorporation.html
http://scenariothinking.org/wiki/images/2/2d/GoogleBizModel.png
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/02/09/google-launches-competitor-to-twitter-then-facebook-called-google-
http://www.reportlinker.com/p053261/Google-Company-Profile.html
http://www.seoconsult.co.uk/SEO-News/search-engine-marketing/microsoft-increases-market-share-but-google-are-still-top-of-the-search-tree.html
http://mashable.com/2009/08/03/bing-market-share/

Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model and answer the following questions below. You may add additional information not included in these questions.

Questions:

Questions :
Explain Google’s business model.
1. Who are their competitors?
2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?
3. How competitive are they in the market?
4. What new services do they offer?
5. What makes them so unique?
6. How competitive are they in the international market?



Solution:

1. Who are their competitors?

Google is one such name in the Technology arena that is well poised to rule. Talking of past decade, it’s been all the way up for Google and undoubtedly they have been ruling the internet economy. Google have had its impact in the industry with more than 150 products and will continue to grow with its ever increasing portfolio of products. This is likely to happen but for these 10 companies which have poised some serious competition to Google.


1. Apple

Being from partners to rivals, Apple is one of the stringent opponents for Google in the year 2010. Today, Apple and Google have been locking their horns in the field of Smartphone, Mobile App Store, OS, Mobile Ad, and Online Music and so on. Likewise, Apple is more than up to the task of battling Google in these areas as well as browsers, where Google Chrome competes against Apple Safari. But battle between will intensify, as the market for the digital music and SmartPhones is all set for growth in 2010. Google’s music search along with its partner MySpace and Pandora are looking to compete with Apple’s iTunes, which was the No 1 music retailer in United States in 2009. Further, Google’s Android will have tough time as Apple’s iPhones continues to grab hold of the market all round the globe.


2. Microsoft

Microsoft is a company that have had one of the most dominant impacts in the IT industry. So without a doubt it is Google’s biggest adversary in 2010 and these two giants will be locking their horns for market supremacy in areas such as search, collaboration tools and browsers. Talking of these two giants, Google has reigned as leaders in search, but with release of BING in May 2009, Microsoft has raised few questions amongst in Google’s management team. With features such as ranking search results based on relevancy to other users, Microsoft has inked Bing-related deals with Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo.

Microsoft continued to enhance Bing, adding image search and mapping. But in response Google have unveiled real time search. In December, Google also added a photo search capability, a dictionary and a translator that finds relevant content in 40 languages. Entering 2010, Google still dominates search, with more than 70% of the market. Apart from search, the battle is likely to focus on cloud based collaboration tool.

Google Apps is designed to undercut sales of Microsoft products, including Exchange and SharePoint. Microsoft has responded with Office Web Apps, free Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are due out in 2010. Last but not the least; the browser war between these two is giants are likely to heat up in 2010. So 2010 awaits the answer if ever so popular Microsoft’s premier browser’s market share could be brought down by Google’s Chrome.


3. Amazon

In 2009, Google’s effort of scanning millions of out-of-print books and incorporating them in online search did gain up some momentum and helped themselves to publish over 500000 digital books for free to customers of Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, which is due in January. Further, there claims of opening up Google Editions, an e-book store, has opened up new rivalry with Amazon.

Amazon with its Kindle e-book reader is one of the leaders in e-book reader’s market. The other area where Google is taking on Amazon is in cloud computing. Google’s Apps Engine, a newbie cloud computing platform that allows developers to create their own Web applications and run them on Google’s infrastructure will be competing with Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) which has already grab hold of market with its several upgrade after its release in 2006. So it will be a great battle to watch when these two giants fight for market supremacy on Cloud computing and E-book readership.



4. Facebook

Facebook, probably the most popular stuff in the internet right now, has attracted
350 million active users in just six years and is subject of interest for the guys at Google too. In 2010, Google and Facebook rivalry is likely to heat up based on question that where will people find there information in future in Search or Social Network? With ever increasing use of social networking and the rise of Facebook, Google’s worry seems to a viable one. So, in 2010 Google with its ORKUT will be in battle with Facebook.

Orkut offers Google Friend Connect, a tool for Web publishers to add social networking content to their sites, in direct competition with similarly named Facebook Connect. Meanwhile, Facebook has sought out relationships with several arch-enemies of Google, including Microsoft and Yahoo. So its for sure that this battle is worth taking a note off in 2010.



5. Twitter

No doubt if Facebook is in rise, than it’s no difference with Twitter. If social networking is the way to go, then Google will certainly find Twitter in its way. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, has in a way revolutionized the way we communicate these days.

So, Google’s Friend Connect will face tough competitions for Twitter’s Connect in 2010 as Twitter looks to move up the rank in the areas of Social Networking. Other areas where these two find themselves competing are Real time search. Google’s real time search and Twitter’s will be trying to outperform each other in 2010. So, this battle will be a good one to watch for in 2010.



6. Mozilla

With release of Google Chrome, Google has stepped into ever so popular browse battle. Mozilla has been in the markets for years and now this step from Google is likely to create the conflict of interest between these two.

Of late the war between the two has heated up even more. The battle has now gone to default search. Mozilla now has shown intent to kick Google out from its default search engine status. The latest rumours on the internet show that Mozilla is now eyeing to get a deal with Microsoft to make Bing as its default search engine in Firefox.

This may not impact Google immediately but eventually this move, if comes true, is likely to decrease Google’s share of the search market. Hence, Google now has Mozilla on a double war zone; first the obvious browser war and now the war over default searches.



7. Yahoo

When it comes to search, one of Google’s biggest competitors besides Microsoft is Yahoo. Yahoo has been in the market with variety of products in areas of email, Messenger, News, Search and Analytics services. So without doubt it will be a fearsome competitor for Google. In 2009, Yahoo made some improvements in 2009 by integrating search with its rich content. Users can watch videos or stream music straight from the Yahoo search results page.

Yahoo also helps users find travel deals and compare product prices. Further, Yahoo has recently added Twitter to its search Page and if a joint search and advertising deal between Yahoo and Microsoft is approved by federal regulators. This could prove costly to Google so the 2010 is the year to watch as other competitor look to outperform Google in the market with different joint forces being formed by their rivals.



8. Cisco

Google definitely has a tough challenge against Cisco. With years of experience on web based collaborative platfomr, WebEx, and superior VOIP service, Cisco poses a threat to Google’s Wave and Voice. In addition to this, Cisco also is looking to enhance its video conferencing quality by focusing on collaboration through intenret video, desktop video and consumer Telepresence.

In addition to this, Cisco’s presence in Cloud is another leading edge it has over Google. As Google is looking to take everything to the web, it certainly will face a good competition from Cisco on this front.

Moreover, according to Networkworld, Cisco is looking to enter into Smartphone market in the very near future (actually by mid-2010). Its recent acquisition of Pure Digital and Flip shows Cisco’s intent to take video to the mobile phone. Thus, we might see Cisco giving a hard time to Google’s Nexus One in the coming days.



9. IBM

By now it’s quite crystal clear that 2010 will the year where big internet giants will be trying to gain whole lot of market share that will be up for grab in areas of collaboration tools. So, 2010 is likely to reopen Google’s rivalry with IBM with the release of new collaboration tools such as Google Wave. Google has stepped into the battle field with its low cost hosted collaboration tools such as Google Apps. Google will compete against IBM’s Lotus Lives, which has attracted more than 2 million businesses in the last two years.


10. Nokia

Today, Nokia has had grab hold of the mobile phone market with 4 out of 10 mobiles sold. With increase in use of smart phones, means the IT giants Google will be in rivalry with Nokia in periphery of operating systems for Smartphones. Symbian Open source operating system will be competing with Google’s Android. Nokia with recent deals with Microsoft is all set to bring Office Mobile to Symbian devices. With claim of releasing improved version of Symbian in 2010 means Google Android will have to face off tough battle. But, Google’s Android is poised for major developments in 2010 and with commitments from Acer, Sony Ericcson, HTC and Motorola this will be a worthwhile battle to watch in 2010 and years to come.

So, at this point one may feel Google has tough battle to fight in 2010. Most of the arch rivals are gearing up to poise serious threats either single handed or with collaboration. So, 10 line ups of interesting battle is all set to keep the 2010 interesting enough for us to watch and keep the Google on their toes.





2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?


Arguably the most popular search engine available today, Google is widely known for its
unparalleled search engine technology, embodied in the web page ranking algorithm, PageRanki
and running on an efficient distributed computer system. In fact, the verb “to Google” has
ingrained itself in the vernacular as a synonym of “[performing] a web search.”1 The key to
Google’s success has been its strategic use of both software and hardware information
technologies. The IT infrastructure behind the search engine includes huge storage databases
and numerous server farms to produce significant computational processing power. These
critical IT components are distributed across multiple independent computers that provide
parallel computing resources. This architecture has allowed Google’s business to reach a market
capital over $100 billion and become one of the most respected and admirable companies in the
world.

MARKET ENVIRONMENTS
Search Engine
Internet search engines were first developed in the early 1990s to facilitate the sharing of
information among researchers. The original effort to develop a tool for information search
occurred simultaneously across multiple universities is shown in Table 1. Although
functionalities of these systems were very limited, they provided the foundation for future webbased
search engines.


Search Industry
During the 1990s, the Internet experienced exponential growth with thousands of new web pages
being created daily. Online document search became the chief method of navigating the everexpanding
World Wide Web, as Internet users sought useful information among the largely
disorganized pages. As a result, the online search industry was born.
Early web-based search engine had roots in university-based research, with the exception of
AltaVista . WebCrawler was known as the first search engine to perform full-text web
search as opposed to searching library indices. In 1996, increased competition between search
engines triggered the search engine size wars, as the companies competed to index the largest
number of textual documents over the Internet. AltaVista was the first forefront search engine
winner, becoming the most successful and widely adored search engine in the mid 1990s.

The focus of information technology at Google for both software and hardware is speed and cost.
These two metrics are valued more than any other criteria such as reliability of machines or highperformance
enterprise computing hardware. Ultimately, the result must transform a response
time of user query using Google’s search engine to be completed within a one second time-frame.
Started in Larry Page’s dormitory room, the information technology at Google has transformed
into a full-blown large cluster PC network that functions similar to a computing grid.iv Even
though information technology infrastructure has changed dramatically over the years, the model
of IT use at Google has stayed the same. This model follows the original principles adopted by
the co-founders of building a prototype system that uses commodity hardware and intelligent
software. The shift of computer industry with PCs becoming commodity electronic hardware
over the years has worked in favor of Google’s IT strategy in getting the best cost performance
ratio (Patterson & Hennessy, 2004). Thus, instead of purchasing the latest microprocessors,
Google IT performs calculations to look for the best value of processing power per dollar and
purchasing many PCs that are only a few months old in the market, but at a much lower
discounted price. This is suitable for Google because the framework of their search engine is
built around parallelizing many user query requests across multiple machines and if more
processing is required, the system can simply increase more machines to serve even greater user
requests. The overall price per performance is more important than individual peak
performances, and this enables Google to achieve superior speed at a fraction of the cost rather
than using a few, but expensive high-end server systems. The end equation for Google’s IT in
selecting machines is calculated by the cost per query, and is derived by the sum of capital
expenses and operating costs divided by performance. For accuracy, the calculation takes into
inherent effects due to hardware depreciation and maintenance repairs. At the data centers, the
primary cost factor is capital expenditure credited to hardware, followed by personnel and
hosting costs.


3. How competitive are they in the market?


Google vs. Microsoft

Even as Microsoft won a victory recently against its new and increasingly agile young competitor Google in the case of Kai-Fu Lee, Google continues to nibble at the margins of Microsoft's more existential questions - the need for its software in the first place in an age when Web development architecture has taken the "Web 2.0" route offered by schemes like AJAX.

On the Lee case, Microsoft has said it wants the case to be decided in the state of Washington, where a judge ruled last month that the hiring can proceed, with the stipulation Kai-Fu Lee cannot recruit from Microsoft. Google is attempting to keep the case in California where non-compete agreements are said to be viewed with less rigidity.

Microsoft initially filed suit in Seattle's King County Superior Court in July, claiming Kai-Fu Lee violated that agreement when the search giant hired him. Google then countersued Microsoft in California, in an attempt to have the noncompete clause declared invalid.

The battle for Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice president with the software giant, underlines a growing animosity between the two companies, with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer allegedly pitching such a fit after losing one executive in 2004 that he threatened to "kill Google" over the continued poaching of Redmond's top brass, even flinging furniture and dropping more F-bombs than I've heard tell in awhile.

Well, Microsoft won its latest round in the fight that has at la

Well, Microsoft won its latest round in the fight that has at last made explicit the smoldering rivalr
ry between the tetween the two otherwise mostly indirect competitors.

But announcements between Google and Sun have indicated Google's interest in helping partners like Sun compete head to head with Microsoft in the office suite market with the recent release by Sun of OpenOffice.org 2.0 - a significant upgrade to the prior version which, if reviews are to be believed, is a virtual replacement (for free under the open source GPL) for MS-Office. According to Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's president:

“OpenOffice.org is on a path toward being the most popular office suite the world has ever seen; providing users with safety, choice, and an opportunity to participate in one of the broadest community efforts the Internet has ever seen. As a member of that community, I’d like to offer my heartiest congratulations.”

For sure, it gives Sun a new lease on life after a very tough few years after being the dot in the dot-com crash. McNealy was in full effect with his "network is the computer" mantra, so much exemplified by Google's strategy. If you can call it that: Eric Schmidt, who used to work for Sun and is now Google's CEO (after jumping ship a few years ago from the sinking Novell) even mentioned how he delights in the absence of a strategy... well, I guess. No matter how underwhelming the actual announcement, it creates powerful symbolism in the marketplace where Microsoft has left an opening.

Still, OpenOffice.org has Microsoft running scared from OpenDocument - a revolutionary file format that could at last end the Word/Excel/PowerPoint tyranny even more than PDF has done. Which is why, perhaps, Microsoft licensed PDF support for next year's release of the the updated MS-Office suite. But their enthusiasm for SaaS (Software as a Service) is palpable amid McNealy’s remarks about Windows being the last, sad representative of the old client/server computing world and is ”so last millennium.”

Microsoft's reaction to the announcement took the move in stride, but the evidence lies in nothing less than Google's patents that they've got Microsoft squarely sighted in, as it "builds a patent fence" around search and takes on Yahoo first, then leveraging cutting edge user interface design technologies present in Google Maps (which could challenge PowerPoint) and Gmail (the RTF technology already offering about 70 percent of the functionality behind Word). Deployed on the "Googleplex" platform Google has created as its supercomputer-like infrastructure, calling into question Microsoft's very necessity isn't far around the corner.

Of course, Microsoft has seen such threats before - when Netscape challenged the idea that an OS was even necessary and applications could be run in Sun's Java within the browser. We all know how that ended... despite continuing market share battles with Mozilla Foundation's open source alternative to Internet Explorer (which I use myself), in Firefox.

But Redmond won't go down for the count easily. They've just reorganized decisively to take on such threats. And, while Microsoft might not have invented the idea of "embrace and extend"; they do seem to have perfected it.



4. What new services do they offer?

Our Experimental Fiber Network

Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture. Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible. We've urged the FCC to look at new and creative ways to get there in its National Broadband Plan – and today we're announcing an experiment of our own.

We're planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:

* Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.
* New deployment techniques: We'll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we'll share key lessons learned with the world.
* Openness and choice: We'll operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we'll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

Like our WiFi network in Mountain View, the purpose of this project is to experiment and learn. Network providers are making real progress to expand and improve high-speed Internet access, but there's still more to be done. We don't think we have all the answers – but through our trial, we hope to make a meaningful contribution to the shared goal of delivering faster and better Internet for everyone.

As a first step, today we're putting out a request for information (RFI) to help identify interested communities. We welcome responses from local government, as well as members of the public.


5. What makes them so unique?

Google's Unique Advantage

Needless to say, it all adds up to a lot of Google on the brain. Google, at the moment, is held up as the gold standard of software companies. They have achieved massive success and are the company almost every developer wants to work for. Ask someone in the software industry which company they want to emulate and they will likely say Google.

Obviously, if it was easy to emulate Google, everyone would have done it or would be doing it by now. The more I think about Google, the more and more I think it is going to be impossible to emulate them. Certainly you can steal some of their ideas and what they’ve pioneered and put it to use in your company, but outright copying Google is going to be near impossible.

Having touched on Google’s corporate culture, let’s look at something else that makes Google even more unique: how it grows.

One thing that has become evident to me is that Google grows in an organic fashion, unlike any other company I know of. Google develops tools that are internally useful and then releases them to the world. Google does not develop products to sell to the world. Google does not have external contracts, at least in the traditional sense, as far as I can tell.

Let me elaborate on this. Google is obviously best known for search and for ads associated with search. This is in essence Google’s one true product. It is the one feature Google developed for the outside world. When Google developed search it was no different from a small company. It is what Google has done since then that makes Google different.

Google doesn’t answer to any external power. They don’t have anyone they have to deliver a product to. There is no contract with a deadline. Due to not having any external dependencies, Google can continuously iterate over a product until it reaches a state of near perfection. It can stay in internal testing as long as Google wants and no one is going to care. See Gmail, Google Maps, etc. This then allows Google to use the perfect form of the agile process. Continuous iterations and testing and development, continues improvement. Then as Google sees fit, release the products. As they get better and better, more people use them and more money from ads come in. It’s beautiful.

It’s also unlikely any other company is going to be able to pull this off. Google hit on the formula for ads before anyone else. They now have such a commanding lead in that arena that to compete with them you need deep pockets of money of your own. That makes it difficult to launch a company and follow Google’s lead of avoiding external dependencies and having the near perfect product development process.

At this point, you might be screaming at me that I’m wrong, because Google does have external contracts, especially for serving up ads on other sites. But notice that Google’s contracts are different from most companies’ contracts. Google isn’t developing a product for these companies. All they are doing is giving them an existing product that Google has already completed and released. Development on that product might still be happening, but it happens within Google, not within the realms of the contract. Google is still free to develop how ever they want.

For almost everyone else, you’re going to have to create a product and then drive sales of that product or else sign a contract and then deliver a custom product to the customer. You’ll have external dependencies that will force an outside reality upon you that Google simply doesn’t have. You can argue that Google is dependent upon ads, but at this point Google has captured such a large share of that market and is steadily capturing more of it, that it really isn’t a dependency for Google. Sure, Google should probably diversify, just in case the ad market tanks, but at this point Google has so much money they can afford to take their time.

So now you see. It’s unlikely you or anyone else is going to emulate Google. Kiss that dream goodbye.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from Google. Copy the good things that Google does and adapt them to your business. What you shouldn’t do is force the practices of Google on your business simple because they are what Google does. Google is a product of a very specific evolution and your business will be the product of a different evolution.

And when your developers come to you and say that they want to be exactly like Google, you now have an argument to explain why your business can’t be exactly like Google.

Still, there’s nothing preventing you from being the next great company after Google. That prize is still there for the taking.


6. How competitive are they in the international market?



The assertion that Google has a lot to learn in its international efforts couldn't be more over-stated. Google has had success in the international environment, including greater market share than in the domestic market, that every Internet company would covet. This analysis delves deeper into Google's international efforts.

Having studied Google abroad somewhat significantly, I believe this article provides a very naïve view on Google’s success abroad. Absolutely, Google, as any American company, needs to be extremely aware of the impression they make when entering foreign grounds, as the risk as being seen as arrogant – the ugly American – is omnipresent. And, yes, Google should continue to grow their in-country teams significantly in order to best overcome cultural and sales hurdles and take advantage of unique opportunities and the gigantic world market that is growing at a quicker pace than the U.S. market. Recent stats point to European e-commerce in a position to surge past U.S. e-commerce.

Yet, don’t attempt to fool anyone here: Google has enormous international market share. Though I’m on a plane and not able to access these stats immediately, I believe that Google has approximately a 10-point higher share of search in Europe than they do in the States. I attended an online and multi-channel retail conference in London earlier this year, and Google was constantly mentioned, and never in a bad light. I am attempting to arrange a dinner in Paris later this year or early next with top French e-commerce companies, and Google is the likely sponsor, due to their relationship with the French agency that I am in contact with and their relationship with the likely invitees. Google is dominant in most countries, with their distant following to Baidu in China and the Russian example in the article notable exceptions.

In the UK, Amazon.com and eBay have also taken off after some early slips and command a dominant share of the market. Of course, they face hurdles, most notably eBay’s fraud and trust problem, but these American brands have also experienced tremendous success abroad. And there are other huge hurdles across Europe, such as Germany’s reliance on non-credit card payments and their language and cultural barriers. The European Union is still quite segmented, and pan-European plays will rarely be successful. Yet, the world continues to flatten, and American brands can have success abroad with fewer hurdles as can international brands have success in the States.

Google has had success with other products abroad, most notably its Orkut social network which has bombed domestically to its MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn brethren, yet has taken off in huge countries such as India and Brazil. So, sure, Google should be sensitive to cultural sensitivities and will face different regulatory environments abroad, but the truth is that Google has been remarkably successful internationally in large part due to the international word-of-mouth generated by their product and feature set.