Sep 18 2012
Will the act of Googling remain synonymous with searching the internet?
Ask any person with the vaguest familiarity of a computer or “the internet” to Google something and they will know exactly what you are requesting. In case you have been living in a cave or just not paying attention to the relatively recent technological revolution, the act of Googling is synonymous with performing an online search.
So how exactly did Google become the market leading search engine we all know, love and use today?
Google keeps a timeline of their accomplishments and evolution here.
Some events that stand out to me are: Google becoming the world’s largest search engine in June 2000 and the Oxford English Dictionary adding Google as a verb in June 2006.
Although Google is one of many online search engines, does anyone actually routinely use one of Google’s competitors for routine searches?
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is conducting an antitrust investigation into Google’s seemingly monopolistic market power. The results of this investigation are expected to be released in a few weeks.
Although Yahoo and Bing provide search alternatives, they fail to threaten Google’s supremacy and market dominance. In July 2012, the almighty Google captured approximately 66.8% of the search engine market. Bing controlled 15.7% and Yahoo just 13% (Search Engine Watch).
In a recent Forbes magazine article, Hal Singer posits that Google’s largest competition comes from companies such as Apple, Amazon and Facebook rather than traditional search engines.
Singer’s supports his opinion by citing this recent New York Times article.
Even though Google generally dominates the online search market, Amazon and Google are “waging a war to become the pre-eminent online mall“ (New York Times). Currently, it seems that Amazon is winning this war.
- “Forrester Research found that a third of online users started their product searches on Amazon compared to 13 percent who started their search from a traditional search site; and
- comScore found that product searches on Amazon have grown 73 percent over the last year while shopping searches on Google have been flat. (Forbes) “
Google realizes they must take action to retain searches related to the lucrative eCommerce and shopping categories. Look for Google Product Search to become a more prominent part of the Google experience in the near future.
For the past decade, Google has been the premier online search destination for pretty much anything related to the World Wide Web. I expect innovations like Apple’s voice activated Siri to become more commonly used further threatening Google’s dominance.
Also, with Facebook poised to enter the search engine market, expect to see more intense competition in the next few years. Ultimately, as consumers, regardless of what corporations fail and succeed, a more competitive landscape will lead to enhanced innovation pushing boundaries of what was previously conceived as possible. Perhaps a delayed FTC investigation of Google would yield dramatically different results.