Google's business model

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

Chromium is the open source web browser project from which Google Chrome draws its source code.The Google-authored portion of it is released under the BSD license,with other parts being subject to a variety of different permissive open-source licenses, including the MIT License, the LGPL, the Ms-PL, and an MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license.It implements the same feature set as Google Chrome, but has a slightly different logo. Versions of Mac and Linux Google Chrome based on Chromium were released to the development channel for Google Chrome on 4 June 2009. According to the developer documentation, "'Chromium' is the name of the project, not the product, and should never appear in code in variable names, API names etc.
One of the major aims of the project is for Chrome to be a tabbed window manager, or shell for the web, as opposed to it being a traditional browser application. The idea is for the application to be minimalist in the same way Windows Explorer or Mac OS X's Finder are minimalist. The developers state that it "should feel lightweight (cognitively and physically) and fast".

2. Google Wave

Google Wave is an online software application product from Google, described as a "personal communication and collaboration tool".[cite this quote] It was first announced at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009. It is a web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. It has a strong collaborative and real-time focus supported by extensions that can provide, for example, spelling/grammar checking, automated translation among 40 languages, and numerous other extensions. Initially released only to developers, a preview release of Google Wave was extended to 100,000 users in September 2009, each allowed to invite additional users. On the 29th of November 2009, Google accepted most requests submitted soon after the extended release of the technical preview in September 2009.

3. Google Voice

Google Voice is a telecommunications service by Google launched on March 11, 2009. The service is provided to a U.S. phone number, chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes, free of charge to each user account. Inbound calls to this number are forwarded to other phone numbers of the subscriber. Outbound calls may be placed to domestic and international destinations by dialing the Google Voice number or from a web-based application. Inbound and outbound calls to U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada are free of charge. International calls are billed according to a schedule posted on the Google Voice website.

The service is configured and maintained by the user in a web-based application, styled after Google's e-mail service, Gmail. Users must have an established U.S. telephone service to activate Google Voice. Users must configure this and optionally, additional phone numbers that ring simultaneously when the Google Voice number receives a call. The user may answer and receive the call on any of the ringing phones. Google Voice provides additional features such as voicemail, call history, conference calling, call screening, blocking of unwanted calls, and voice transcription to text of voicemail messages. Received calls may be moved between configured telephones during a call.

4. Google Powermeter

Google PowerMeter is a software application being developed by Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org to help consumers track their home electricity usage. The development of the software is part of an effort by Google to invest in renewable energy, electricity grid upgrades and other measures that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The software will be able to record the user's electricity usage in near real-time. Users would be able to track their electricity and gas use through a chart, and access that information from a widget on their iGoogle home page. It is hoped that this tool will raise the home-owner's awareness of how much energy they use and make users more energy efficient. According to the company, if half of America's homes' energy use was cut by ten percent, it would equal taking eight million cars off the road.
PowerMeter depends on the use of a smart meter which is able to track electricity usage much more accurately than standard electric meters. According to Google, there are approximately 40 million smart meters in use worldwide.

5. Chromium OS Open Source Project

Chromium OS is the open source development version of Google's Chrome OS. Chrome OS's source code was released on November 19, 2009 under the BSD license as Chromium OS. The alpha release includes an applications page, launched by a button in the upper-left corner of the screen. The page links to Google web applications, including Gmail, Google Apps, and YouTube, as well as other applications, such as Yahoo mail, Pandora, Hulu, Facebook, and Twitter. Chromium currently also provides a calculator, clock, battery indicator, and network status indicator. The function key F12 brings up a multi-window view, with the option to open additional browser windows and switch between them. The F8 key toggles a keyboard overlay that shows the function of all the shortcut keys, including task and memory managers comparable to those found on the Chrome browser, and a command-line interface that accepts common Linux commands.

6. Google Public DNS

Google Public DNS is a free DNS (Domain Name System) service announced on 3 December 2009, as part of Google's effort to make the web faster.
The service is still experimental. It does not use third party DNS management software such as BIND, instead relying on a homegrown implementation, with limited IPv6 support, which conforms to the DNS standards set forth by the IETF

7. Google Nexus

The Nexus One is a smartphone from Google that uses the Android open source mobile operating system. The device is manufactured by Taiwan's HTC Corporation, and became available on January 5, 2010. Features of the phone include the ability to transcribe voice to text, noise canceling dual microphones, and GPS guided turn-by-turn voice directions to drivers.

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.

Although Google has able to establish a strong throne in the internet community, this could also happen to Google’s top competitors.
The following are Google’s top competitors for the year 2010 according to THIS website:

1. Apple

Being from partners to rivals, Apple is one of the toughest 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 has one of the most dominant impact 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 linked Bing-related deals with Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo.
Microsoft have enhanced 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 about the way people will find their information in future. With ever increasing use of social networking and the rise of Facebook, Google’s worry seems to be a viable one.
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.

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 the 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 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 the use of smart phones, 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 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.

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.

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.

Figure 1

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
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_OS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Public_DNS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)
http://technology.globalthoughtz.com/index.php/10-toughest-competitors-of-google-in-2010/

Note:

This is a response to MIS 2 Subject Assignment # 7.

Assignment # 7

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?