Google Case Analysis

February 06, 2013
Google’s search technology began in January of 1996 when Larry Page and Sergey Bring teamed up to develop a new search engine. Originally named BackRub for its ability to rate websites for relevancy by examining the number of back links pointing to the website, the website had many loyal users by 1997. BackRub was later renamed Google in reflections to the creators mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the Internet. The company gained investors and began to see success in the future. Google recorded success at what appeared to be super-speed and continued to wow investors. Google continued to grow and innovate. In 2000, they added wireless search technology, search capabilities in 10 languages, and the Google Toolbar for browsers. By 2004 they added News, Product Search, Scholar, and Local to their list of search methods. They also added a mobile technology that allowed phone uses to text in a Google search. The company’s mission is to re-organize the world’s information and it make universally accessible and useful. Google’s business model has evolved since the start of their company and now includes revenue beyond the licensing fees charged to corporations needing search capabilities on company intranets or websites. The addition of advertising revenue from the ads they created to match up with people’s search requests has increased their revenue by millions. Google is a very strong company with numerous strengths. The simple look and easy to use format is a major strength for Google. Users know they will not have any problem typing in and finding what they need from the site. The daily logo change of the website every day is also a strength, it draws people in because they just have to see what Google’s image of the day is. The search engine is also extremely fast and brings up tons of information in seconds. Google can look up information in various languages, and localize searches. Google keeps their information very organized so you do not have to browse 20 search results to find what you are looking for. Of course, with strengths come weaknesses. One of Google’s major weaknesses is that the website cannot check the creditability of the sites that it brings up in a search. All of the information that Google brings a user may not be the best information, so some information is worth not getting from Google. Another weakness is that Google brings in much of their revenues from advertising, and while this is working so far it could decline quickly if the need for web advertising declines. Google has some strong opportunities ahead of them. Trends are popping up every day in the world of technology and internet use. Google Plus is a good place to combine all of Google’s services and become the best social network and internet tool out there. All of Google’s tools are go-to places for information, but having them all on one place would be better. Google Plus could link shopping information between friends, use Google Maps to help friends locate each other, help co-workers share the latest news stories and financial reports. Google Books go become a much bigger deal and expand into E-Books and there could be one super Google tablet for everything. Even though Google is doing very well, all companies have threats that they have to watch for. Google’s threats include the competition. Other search engines like Yahoo! and Bing are working very hard to match Google’s popularity. Yahoo! is coming in strong with their major agenda being expecting more quality results. Google has been around for a while now, compared to other websites, so any new flashy search engine will catch a uses attention for at least one search or two. Lawsuits also seem to be a major threat to Google. Google is spending a very large amount of money defending themselves in court, spending almost two billion dollars in 2010 alone. Google’s main goal needs to be to keep up