Searching For Change
It would be foolish to assume or even suggest that the recent deal, the recent $900 million deal to be exact, between search giant Google and News Corporation, is insignificant or a bad move for either company. Especially since the deal includes exclusive rights to the search and pay perÂ? click ads onÂ? The Beast known as MySpace. But if there is something that Google itself knows, it’s that searching on the Internet is an ever-evolving process. And while the rewards that will be reaped by both Google andÂ? News Corp.Â? will obviously be great, it will still be more of the same.
What Google has done with search engine technology is amazing, and, if not for their recent track record, this probably wouldn’t even be mentioning. However, pay per click ads, the fuel that has burned the Google fire so well, have been under a great deal of pressure with the industry speculatingÂ? that as much as much as 30 to 40% of clicks being directly related to click-fraud. Google hasn’t had the bad press that Yahoo! had when reports surfaced that Yahoo! had some connection with spyware companies like 180solutions, but Google depends more on that market than Yahoo! does. And with the release of AOL’s search results, there are those already suggesting that Google’s ad revenueÂ? will be affected. If Google starts to slip, especially in any area directly related to their core business, it could spell bad news for the company and the Industry.
Google does have a near monopoly in the search engine market. There are those that even suggest that Google’s share of the search engine market is more than 70%. When it comes to searching, the company obviously knows what it’s doing and does it well. Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, searching on the Internet is evolving. For some specific searches on the Internet, there are much better sources. Digg, IceRocket,Â? and Technorati for blogs andÂ? Healthline for health related searches are perfect examples.
Again, it must be noted that Google is the dominant player in the search engine market. Adding a collection of websites that includes becoming the search engine and advertising companyÂ? on the fastest growing website on the Internet is only going to help that. But as searching changes, more of the same isn’t going to do any good, and there are thoseÂ? that question Google’s choice of wow instead of consistency. With rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft each having their own adaptations to the search engine market, one with custom searchesÂ? while the other tries to bring a third dimension to the search experience, Google may be the company getting too comfortable. One could argue if it aint broke, don’t fix it, but then that’s the exact kind of thinking that allowed Google to become the top search engine, isn’t it?