Google Gyrates to the Beat of Life
"Google It and see what's available," says the boss who's in a hurry for information about the climate in Costa Rica or the price of perfume in France. Google then is one of America's new verbs. An hour later the same office: "Get me an aerial photo of Costa Rica from Google Earth! I paid $400 to use it. Now get some utilization out of that resource!" Instantly the assistant finds and downloads the required crisp, clear photos in time for the company's next board meeting too.
Yet another company somewhere in Iowa with a start- up business located in the basement of a farmhouse. It recently moved there after being kicked out of the living room by other less sympathetic family members. Two college freshmen are sorting through product--used video games--to be shipped to their alarmingly large client list. A fly on the wall or perhaps the farmer upstairs overhears snippets of conversation:" Wow can you believe we got this many orders this month!" His partner replies," If this keeps up we have to hire help. I guess adding SEO articles to the website helped." Yet another cryptic abbreviation adds to the confusing collection of those commonly used in America. Search engine optimization (SEO) writing; that is writing in a repetitive way articles which contain certain keywords that direct potential buyers from engines like
Google to websites; has become a new career field.
Someone researching blogs finds Google's business bloggers and their current rantings about ad sense listed on another popular search engine Technorati (listing blogs--online journals). Moving on to a Google Chat room he reads: Is anyone getting enough hits from Google Ad sense? Most of the responses are positive. More small businesses are using ad sense ad words to make money from one of the newest forms of virtual advertising.
Throughout America and the world there is scarcely a home or business that can get through the day without some area of the Google realm rolling off the lips or the fingertips of nearly everyone who owns a personal computer and uses the internet. There is scarcely an active trader or investor in the world today who will not say the words "Google IPO" by the end of the week. The IPO--initial public offering--affect which normally hits astronomical numbers but settles back to earth soon after hasn't ended yet. Google is still trading at really large numbers with dollars signs in front of them.
Originally, Google and its nerdy counterpart Google Scholar only directed users from their humble site to the web sites of others. Today a Google of Google itself leads the reader to pages of self aggrandizing topics. It seems that Google has become long winded on the topic of Google. Like a film star known by only its first name, Google is omnipresent and universally recognized.
But will success ruin humble Google? It doesn't seem likely. The business is, in a word: golden. In a crowded field this one is dominating almost causing the extinction of others. Mergers of other search engines who failed have already occurred very likely because of Google's success. Why? Despite perfectly clever logos and advertising those search engines simply didn't have enough stuff. It wasn't a matter of having the right stuff or the wrong stuff it was a matter of not having enough features to bring surfers back time and again. The result is the highly successful business that we see today. Like a grocery store supplier who knows that the best way to dominate the sells figures is to dominate the linier feet of shelving with copious variety, Google offers a greater variety of products.
The company with the funny name has no one laughing on Wall Street. In an era of crumbling old tech and still older manufacturing failures this business continues to thrive. Google makes investors giggle if they have it in their portfolios. But if they had some of the others that aren't making the grade Google is considered the wolf in sheep's clothing. Entrepreneurs everywhere are scrambling to find solutions to tougher business dilemmas than ever. Google makes success look effortless.
By David Renfro 10.4.06
