Is Google a Search Engine or Your Biggest Competitor?
Perhaps the key to answering this question lies in the title of a book published a couple of years ago: What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis. What has Google done, what will they do in the future? To summarize the book-length answer, Google will do just about anything to become the “fastest growing company in history,” as Jarvis noted in the book. Google is no longer just a search engine. In fact, all the evidence points to the fact that Google hasn’t been just a search engine for a long time.
As you evaluate how to feel about Google’s direction, keep in mind that Jarvis’s correctly credits this massive Internet-based company with completely changing the way many businesses do business. In essence, many established companies and a whole lot of new companies are thriving with a new philosophy: Charge as little as possible to stay alive.
This flies in the face of the “old” business model of charging as much as the market will bear. Stated another way: Free is a good business model. Of course, consumers eventually pay, but the amount is smaller up front and continues over a long period of time.
All those great free tools come at a price
Google through the years has developed convenient products and tools, usually in the ‘free’ category: Google Analytics, Google Chrome, Google keyword research tools, Gmail , Google Alerts, Google Insights, Google Checkout, Chrome Operating System and Android (Google’s Cell Phone Operating System). The entire list can be found here. Most are free to the user, and profitable to Google. Since Google’s only source of revenue is advertising, you want the user to stay on your internet property for as long as possible, so it makes sense to offer users more and more opportunities to spend their time with you. Sounds like smart business to me. Google keeps us users happy by giving us faster, better, and free tools, dominating the market.
Google advertises these free tools using its own search engine, a search engine with an estimated 70% of US market share according to Hitwise. Is this really fair? Google putting their free products within the search results (typically in the #1 spot), when someone else offering that product has been paying Google for advertising all these years. In business, it is not a strong model to compete with your clients. But anyone competing with Google on one of these free products cannot afford to stop advertising with their new competitor, since Google controls most of the search market. They can’t survive without Google. They have no choice but to share the market with Google, once a portal now a competitor. Yes, this is capitalism, survival of the fittest. But longevity in business also includes keeping your clients happy, and I am not happy to give my money to someone that is now my competitor. The second I could make a move, I would do it.
I won’t spend money with Google Adwords once they compete with me, but…
…it’s not just advertising revenue that Google’s competitors are giving them. It’s data and information. Google has now acquired ITA Software, a company that develops software for the airline industry and travel agencies, among others. Marissa Mayer, vice president for geographic and local services at Google, wrote, “Once we’ve completed our acquisition of ITA, we’ll work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket.” Sounds like Expedia, Travelocity, or countless other very large PPC clients of Google.
And how will Google build its reputation as the internet’s #1 travel resource? Besides being able to control the top piece of real estate in paid and natural results, let’s just ask TripAdvisor what they think. TripAdvisor recently temporarily pulled Google’s access to their user reviews.
What’s wrong with Trip Advisor sharing the reviews in Google Places results? After all, it links straight to the TripAdvisor site. Well, TripAdvisor has spent years collecting that data. Why should they help Google in their quest to become not just a search engine that lists travel sites, but as destination themselves, a potential Google Travel that could replace TripAdvisor. Brilliant move on TA’s part, but a shame they did not stick to their guns because they quickly allowed their reviews to be used once again.
Google Retail: Amazon take notice
Google has the market share, why not start selling stuff? Surely they would not start selling actual products as another stream of revenue. But as a matter of fact, Google has a Fashion Web site. Boutiques.com you didn’t know that? Here’s some interesting text from Boutiques.com, “a personalized shopping experience, brought to you by Google. Boutiques.com uses visual technology to help fashionistas discover and shop their look and creates the opportunity for designers to showcase their collections and latest inspirations online.”
If the company extends this type of front door to flowers, gifts, wine, etc., would that make it another Amazon? Should Amazon be leary?
Absolutely, Google is considering putting up a successful fight against Kindle, the e-book reader and application. According to iReaderreview.com, Google is moving toward selling all the books available in the Kindle Store and “also giving away a ton of books.” That sounds very “Amazonish” to me.
Providing Google with money and information could put you out of business.
An important distinction that is not often talked about: spending money on PPC, directly giving money to Google who has now become or has potential to become your competitor, is only a piece of the puzzle. Even if Google’s clients/competitors are not spending PPC budget on Google Adwords, just letting Googlebot visit your site, gather and return data to its users, helps this company grow and thrive. Think about it: If you support their search engine, you are supporting the business model. Google’s world domination business model is not sounding as ‘tin foil hat’ as it used to.
I’ll leave you with this hopeful stirring thought. How about this scenario: Imagine if Google was not the biggest search engine. Imagine if 20 of the largest web properties in a particular industry all blocked Googlebot from their site. Then Google’s results are no longer relevant. People stop using Google. The giant tumbles. YOUR competitor tumbles. This is capitalism after all.
Article first published as Is Google a Search Engine or Your Biggest Competitor? on Technorati.
