When few years back Google emerged on screen it was having ugly kid designed logo of "Google". And quite blank page with search box only.At that time it was not having any other kind of products like adsense,adwords,gmail,gbrowser(next),orkut(community),froogle etc. But after the passage of time it developed not only good repute but also good wealth with tag of Super Search Engine. Now it has new things to show on their main page like you have noticed "Personalized Home","Sign in" and many more to come steadily. Now it is earning millions with their Adwords product only. Probably when these uni guys developed SE logic they were not having idea of hiring Vint Cerf and popularity and repute of Adsense. But as Microsoft has seen its peak days.Certainly Google will face it or facing (may be) . Google has changed internet marketing or can be said as re-shaped or has given shape to it. As we know every big Giant has its own values and effects on the market.We are witnessing it. But the question is what will be the next face of Google? How it will affect us ? Who will be wise to get benefit from it? as Google is getting from Microsoft's current situation (hiring its key personals etc ).
I don't think Google has seen its best days yet...they have too much money and power to just fall off any time soon. Maybe in 5+ years, but not in the near future. brandon
Ain't it ironic that below your posting is a small block "Ads by Google - Google Urchin - Google Web Analytics - Google Affiliate - Google this+that..."? Google is still more or less a cute little ugly kid that everyone likes. Even though it has the monopoly and money of a Microsoft (that nobody likes). I wonder how / if Googles image among the webmasters will move in the direction of Micro$$oft. Or does the sense of "comunity" ("bunch of uni geeks" vs. a bunch of bookkeepers buying out the next trendy company) help work against that? One thing is sure, change is here to stay
I think Google will continue to do well as long as the founding members stay in power. Once they leave the company, everything will be fed to the sharks (read: shareholders), and the company will be no better than Microsoft. Of course, Microsoft will have the same fate as IBM. They will go from a big, evil corporation to a consumer-friendly, flowers and puppies image. All it'll take is Bill and Steve to go away.
Google has big areas to cover.Both partners are young and energetic.And i expect more than 20 years as Google's time.
Are they preparing for Google Base (http://base.google.com) or Google Purchases (www.google.com/purchases)??? Hmmm!
I wish google all the best. I was there when they had this kiddy-toysaurus style logo and there are blatant proof that no matter how modest start you can have, a good concept never fails over time.
Heh, talking about the new face of google.. it's a baby face! Imagine that you're ten years in past and someone travels back from 2005 to your time and says that the next biggest internet company is gonna be called "Google". I bet you'd laugh. I mean, what kind of a name that is? It is what babies first say when they're able to "say" anything.. They "google". This baby-face image may be the reason why they weren't too hard to create this nice and cute image of themselves. Still, nothing is eternal and especially in the corporate world everything is taintable. So, if this cute "little" google goes the wrong way (let's say Microsoft way) we won't think of the word "google" or anything "googlistic" as cute. Cheers Daniel