I'm hearing about Google releasing some new product almost every day now, and it makes me wonder...are they starting to abandon their search engine? Is it no longer the top priority? Are they taking advantage of it's popularity now to get people involved with their other products so they'll retain them despite their search engine being filled with spam and other crap and being generally useless? I for example am going to stop using Google Search, unless Yahoo or MSN doesn't give me what I want (I find Yahoo a lot more relevant now, suprisingly) or I'm looking for images. But I will never stop using gMail.
That would be like Microsoft pulling the plug on Vista... No one in their right mind is going to abandon their core competence. Forget about it. All their other stuff are search related, or at least info organisation related. Those lab things help improve search in a way by thinking out of the box.
No Google only makes money from Search, all the other products and crap they are offering is irrelevant as far as revenue or they are just things to bolster Adwords/Adsense like Gmail. Eric
Yeah, right Eric... Not! Most of their tools provide addition ad space to them, Google Maps etc. are great potential earners. Maybe not during Beta, but remember, Google is a commercial entity who needs to please their investors or their management will be replaced. EVERYTHING they do is somehow targeted to increase revenue or profits.
Apple's doing it, they campaigned their product line on the iPod. They were failing as a company, when it comes to taking a large piece of the pie when it comes to computers owned. However they'er now using the iPod (which is undeniably the most popular portable music device out there) to sell the "iLife". I don't see how any of the stuff is "search related". Even gmail for instance, which is amazing imo, but just because they stuck a search field up there doesn't make it a search related in my opinion It's 7 am here been up since 5 wish I could be more eloquent and well researched, but you get the idea.
Many of their "side-projects" dare I say so, look like they can potentially become payable at the right moment. In case Google loses its market share as far as PPC search is concerned they can always try to compensate that by making Google Base or Google Local a paid service (like greedy dime-pinchers yahoo are doing with their local search). Let alone Google Analytics that gives more functionalty than any log analyzers or ROI trackers I ever came across.
Apple was failing, Google isn't. Despite all the angry webmasters, their profit and loss accounts + forecasts are rather good. Of course they are looking at the neighbour's lawn, where the grass seems greener, but no way will they abandon search. That's a silly thought IMO. If you think about what 'search' is from Google's perspective, you'll see why they're all search related. It's all about data storage, mining and retrieval. That's Search, that's GMail, that's maps, that's Checkout that's everything Google does. Store it, retrieve it, and when it's displayed, show ads next to it. The more ads they can show, the more they will earn. Google's biggets problem is not having enough ad space. Example: http://www.google.co.uk/sponsoredlinks?q=web+hosting&hl=en&lr=&start=80&sa=N That's page 8 already... That means 80+ ads of which only 10-20 get seen on search. That's why Google launches Local, Maps, GMail, Writely etc. etc. Create more adspace to maximize exposure. They have an almost infinite amount of ads they can only show on a finite amount of pages. They need more space, that;s what all the new tools are about. Side effect is increased IP.
Well how about Google Base (part of it former Froogle) or Google Local or the web marketer's diamond Google Analytics? or Google Checkout for that matter - "For every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free through Google Checkout." all are referred to search in this way or the other. with Analytics you can easily come to realize that no other PPC gives better ROI than Adwords so it encourages you to increase your ad spend
The reason why Google isn't failing yet is because the general public doesn't know, or care. Google isn't going to create a press release talking about "bad data pushes" or whatever. They'll release quarterly earnings, which have (I assume gone up), that in turn will make people think that the search is only getting better, when it's not. These aren't relating it though. It's just creating little eggs to entice people to cross-over and use more of their platforms. What about blogspot? Google pages?
No, they haven't abandoned search, they've just broadened their business goals. I got the inside scoop from a Google employee at a networking event a few months ago. Their ultimate goal is a 'free' world, where nothing is paid for by the consumer, all by advertisers. You see it already with free wifi in their area. They've signed contracts with many cities to do the same. They hope eventually that even things like cell phones, TV, and others can be offloaded to paying advertisers. That's all the info he could give me
Then why censor their information in other countries? I guess a democratic internet is beyond the reach of even Google.
So you really believe that Google, as a company, is failing? Even if they went back to the algo and index of summer last year, they;d still be a profitable company and wouldn't fail. Even if the BBC did a documentary on the many Google glitches we talk about and got 100% viewing rates, there still wouldn't be any issues. Google has not been in serious trouble yet, from a market point of view. We are all crying because we look at it from our own little angle - one that Google and many of its investors hardly care about because it doesn't make or break their business. They couldn't care less. Google is a healthy business and they will not abandon search in the next decade.
Well I guess "failing" is too harsh of a word to use. I do feel like they're going down in quality though (search), and using their current popularity to capture other markets.
I think NO. But search engine is very imbalance today .. Google has too much share. And it can shack anyone. and it is very bad.
Declining search quality, if true, and comnpany success aren't related 1:1. And blogspot is more of the same. Ad Space. Google Pages. Ad Space. Google Base. Ad Space. Froogle. Ad Space. Wouldn't you say it's a wonderful problem to have? 1000s of advertisers willing to spend billions but not having enough places to stick their ads? I would LOVE to see a SUM of all the daily budgets and then a SUM of all the daily spends. I would not be surprised if there is a GAPING hole worth a billion a month or more.
For me or Google? Which is why I think they're spreading out and losing focus on the quality of the thing that made them what they are, search.
I am prone to thinking their recent spreading out is aimed at creating "cushions" in case Vista gives a serious boost to MSN search. If their pricing for google local or analytics is competitive these products will be hot anyways.
Haven't you heard their 70/20/10 mantra? That 70 is the percent dedicated to search. At least that's what they say.
Actually a recent article I saw had Google re-focusing in a big way on their core business. Look for it to be their primary focus for the next several years.
I believe it's not intentional, but I think Google is suffering from some brain drain. It's not because they don't care. It's because there are only so many PhDs. I believe Google is trying to create other services to make their service more "sticky." It's a common sense marketing approach. Google is making sure that, even if they lose the performance/relevancy crown briefly, that they have other services to make people stay regardless. One can assign a lifetime value to every customer acquisition, and an opportunity cost to every loss. A common login that works for several services has just that effect. It fosters loyalty. It's why Yahoo survives with mediocre search results, even today. I totally agree with what Google is doing from a marketing point of view. But seriously, their search engine isn't as good as it used to be, and at the same time, by ignoring search, they might be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, and testing their hypothesis that these integrated services will ensure customers' loyalty. We all know how fast Altavista and Hotbot lost customers.