The latest Economist has the headline “Who’s Afraid of Google?” In this first article, apparently everyone is afraid of Google and all its information it has on “us”. I thought this article was a little harsh ending by calling Google’s slogan, “Don’t be Evil”, “trite”.
But, actually it wasn’t the first article that I wanted to talk about it was the second article, “Inside the Googleplex” because it touches on the corner stone of Google’s power and dominance. Which, is (a) its ability to garner huge amounts of traffic, while (b) providing perceived relevance to both consumer (web user) and advertiser. “Linking” these two up is what Google does best!
First, Google’s share of web searches must remain stable. Thanks to its brand, this looks manageable. Google’s share has steadily increased over the years. It was about 64% in America in July, according to Hitwise. That is almost three times the volume of its nearest rival, Yahoo!. In parts of Europe, India and Latin America, Google’s share is even higher. Only in South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the Czech Republic does it trail local incumbents.
Brand! Maintaining brand is the most important part - loss of perceived relevance of searches or any other level of trust would definitely have a negative impact on Google, both amongst consumers and advertisers. If Google misuses information that it gathers from search, email, document applications etc, it will hurt - and hurt bad! The depth of the pain will depend on what excatly happens, how it happens and when.
1 Comment » Posted on September 5th, 2007 by Saul Wainwright
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