Academia de Studii Economice Facultatea de Marketing

Profesor:

Studenti:

Bucuresti,2011

Body of Content: I) Introduction....pg. 3 II) Google search engine....pg. 5 III) Googleplex...pg. 6 IV) xpansion.............................................................pg ! Conclusion...............pg. "# Bi$liography.....pg. ""

Introduction
2

A long time ago, a very wise man told us that knowledge means power. At that time we were too young to understand the implications of this statement, but as we grew up and the world started to slowly unravel its mysteries and secrets, those words proved their value. Stepping into the digital era, information became more accessible. At first the big problem was getting the information to the people, because there was the concept of internet and computers, but no reliable link between the two. The world needed some kind of software to access the internet via their personal computers and benefit from these innovations at a relatively fast speed and with more ease than in the past. In principle, who ever could harness the information on the internet and get it to the user in an efficient manner, would gain power in this field. Naturally, many people saw an opportunity in this situation and this was really a time when people could become paper millionaires overnight. All it took was a touch of inspiration and basic training in computer programming. Slowly but surely, some underdogs rose from the ranks and took over different sections of this new market, and I think we all know who Im talking about !icrosoft took over the operating systems market, "ahoo#s revenue were the internet communications and last, but not least, $oogle proved to be the most reliable internet search engine of its time. %or our pro&ect, we chose to talk about the last company on that list, because even today, '( years later, it remains one of the most productive and profitable businesses in the world and even more important than that, they found a niche to reconcile big money making with moral ethics. !yself, I am a relatively moral person, or at least thats what I like to think, so this topic kind of reached out to me. I cant really put it in words, but I think you get the big picture. Today, $oogle.com is one of the most visited pages in the web, and the company no longer focuses solely on the search engine technology that made it famous, its products and applications now varying from online video streaming to social networks and even desktop applications, to list &ust a few. All things considered, despite the fact that $oogle is essentially all about big business, it likes to keep in touch with its users every now and then and entertain them, the most famous of which being the April %ools )ay *oa+es, which never comes up short and always leaves people fooled.

%ig '.' $oogle name,changing hoa+ -April ', ./'/0

Google search engine

3

Think big. Then again, why stop there1 Think bigger. !atter of fact, think googol# $oogle began in '223 as a research pro&ect by 4arry 5age, who was later &oined by Sergey 6rin, while they were both 5h) students at Stanford 7niversity in 8alifornia. At that time, the market was saturated with search engines that simply calculated the number of appearances of the typed keyword within the web page, and organi9e these results accordingly, in a list. The real problem with this method of sorting is relevance. If someone were to type a verb or any other word, the logical thing to assume would be that that particular person is looking for information on that sub&ect keyword, but with this sorting techni:ue the relevant pages would not be listed first, because there may be other sites with a larger but non,relevant content, which includes the keyword more than the relevant ones.

Fig 2.1 Examples of internet search engines from 1997 The two Stanford students found an ingenious way around this problem. They hypothesi9ed that the relevance of a website is determined by the number of links on other web pages that point to that particular article. Also, they incorporated an algorithm to determine the relevance of the site that backlinks. 5ractically, they e+plained that if a web page is linked on another relevant site, such as the New "ork Times website, it should be ranked better in the search results list, than a web page that has the same number of backlinks. ;n this principle, 4arry 5age and Sergey 6rin originally named their pro&ect <6ack=ub>. The name <$oogle> originates from a misspelling of the word <googol>, the number one followed by one hundred 9eros, and its meant to signify the huge amount of information and numbers that the search engine has to deal with on a daily basis. Also, the original internet domain for $oogle was google.stanford.edu, under the 7niversitys official domain, but this was the case for only two years, until September ?, '22@, when the now world famous google.com internet domain was bought and the servers were moved in a garage in !enlo 5ark, 8alifornia, property of a friend of the two founders.

Since that time, $oogle has further refined its sorting techni:ues but the basic principle remains unchanged and patented. Along with changes in the base code of the algorithm, the 4

company staff also implemented more subtle, but efficient ways for the user to filter the search results we can now search for exact hrases, or search onl! on a single "e# age and e$en s"itch #et"een normal search to $ideo or image search . And the clever thing about it is the ease with which you slide from one option to the other, using &ust one click, facilitating the &ob at hand. ;ther common problems people might face during a search would be miss elling of the ke!"ord, a linguistic #arrier -not being able to read different articles because they were written in a foreign language0 or the desired "e# age is tem oraril! offline , but using $oogle, these problems represent only minor obstacles, as depicted in the image.

%ig ... $oogle internet search engine options, as e+plained in the highlighted te+t

Googleplex
After their huge success on the market with their new and innovative search engine, in the year .///, the company founders were ultimately persuaded to start advertising. The method they came up with is :uite simple, if you think about it, but thats e+actly what makes it so good instead of having &ust a couple of static advertisements, they integrated them in the engines search results, basically splitting the screen down the middle and posting not one, but two result columns, one for the actual search, the left one, nicknamed <natural search>, and one for the publicity, related to the search, which they called <organic search>.

%ig A.' Sign at $oogleple+

6ecause this new method of publicity demanded pay by the click, at first, both sides of the deal were a bit distrustful of the results, but with $oogles popularity e+ceeding all e+pectations, the advertising plan turned into a huge success. After outgrowing a couple of locations, $oogle decided to buy a more permanent head:uarters, which would symboli9e their supremacy on the market. They managed to lease a (//./// s:uare feet comple+ in !ountain Biew, 8alifornia, which they called $oogleple+, the name being misspelled -as they did with the company name0 from the mathematical term <googolple+>, the e:uivalent of the number googol times ten. 6asically, $oogleple+ became the crown,&ewel to the companys empire, its employees being treated like royalty as reward for their endeavors. To name &ust a few of the spoils $oogle offers its workers is a cafeteria and a recreational center where they can play sports, have massages, play video games and many other. Though it may appear a little too e+travagant and unnecessary, its all a part of the firms plan to keep its employers happy, thus creative, and so far, it looks as if this plan worked. In an effort to boost productivity, workers are allowed one day out of five working days of the week to pursue their personal pro&ects, independent from the company pro&ects, though still under its name. Sounds good doesnt it1 %ig A... $oogleple+

So the real :uestion here, we think, is <how does someone get to work here1> ;f course you have to have some deep knowledge in computer programming and a very solid rCsumC, but that may not be enough. All good so far, but at one point, the company adopted a new strategy to distinguish the really good applicants from the rest of the flock. 6asically, besides the standard employing procedure, they posted huge billboards on the side of some big freeways with an e:uation and whoever solved it and introduced the answer into an internet browser followed by the <.com> e+tension would automatically be redirected to the official $oogle,&obs website. Although it may seem like working for $oogle is a dream come true, there were cases, and not a few, where workers :uit due to a low salary level and rigorous and long employment process, compared to other rival companies. So why do other workers stay1 %ig A.A D:uation billboard The ma&ority of $oogles staff share the companies believes and goals and stay there to see this dream slowly becoming reality. $oogle is renowned as a strong supporter of many humanitarian efforts, including its own google.org foundation. The main goal of the firm is to make information widely accessible to the general public, but in doing so, they are sworn to do good by their unofficial motto, <)ont be evil>. ;f course, running a highly profitable business and at the same time funding numerous humanitarian pro&ects at the same is highly doubtful for any business to succeed, so its 2/E about the message they send to the world. Sometimes its all about the small things that count. %or e+ample, in the past few years, $oogle has &oined the worldwide energy saving phenomena and, step by step, they are telling the world a simple message >*ey, Im $oogle, you know me, Im now going green, &oin me#> As part of their efforts, in .//3, the company announced their intention to install thousands of solar panels all around $oogleple+, to help save energy, and then, in .//2 they brought goats to save energy while cutting grass on the property. All in all, nothing shocked the world as much as 5ages and 6rins company on !arch A', this year, when word broke out that $oogle has ac:uired a patent for a highly efficient method of isotope separation, the e:uivalent of a cook book to making nuclear, green, energy. Is our belief that they sent a pretty clear message to the world.

xpansion
As previously stated, the companys main goal was and still is to organi9e the worlds information and make in universally accessible and useful. *aving already con:uered the search engine market, the team at $oogle set its sights on other domains in their line of business, but alas, 4ady 4uck did not visit them the second time and without a ground breaking idea on which to construct a viable and useful new product, the companys future seemed not as bright as previously anticipated, in a very fast growing and shape shifting IT industry. Fith their backs against the wall, the team had no choice but to risk buying new, cutting edge technology from the market, by using their now superior financial status, and to incorporate it accordingly in their new line of products. ;bviously, by this time, $oogle had recruited some of the worlds best programmers and knew that if they had a starting point, it would be inevitable not to strike gold. Therefore, this was yet another brilliant move by the firm to buy new, unprocessed, raw technology at a relatively low price, and simply build around it. Now they had everything they needed to start building an entire network of applications that could answer the users every need. %ig ?.' $oogle product logos ;ne of the first notable purchases was a technology that gave the user a A,) view of Darth, which would be later implemented into the $oogle Darth application. Although very simple in principle, $oogle Darth proved to be a very useful tool, when combined with the $oogle search engine, identifying target locations and giving a map picture of its surroundings. The ne+t big purchase by $oogle was Android, an operation system for mobile devices, based on a modified version of 4inu+ kernel. In November .//3, $oogle announced the ac:uisition of one of the most visited and also controversial websites on the internet, "ouTube, for the sum of '.3( billion G. "ouTube is one of the most popular websites because it allows users to upload and share videos, though it has faced some controversy because of fre:uent copyright violation.

%ig?.. 8hrome logo %ig ?.A "ouTube logo

%ig ?.A Android logo 8

%inally, on )ecember '', .//@, $oogle launched yet another product that inherited the same characteristic as the search engine speed. This new product, called $oogle 8hrome, is a high speed web browser and also one of the four viable and key products along with "ouTube, $oogle search and the Android platform, which the company needed to form the network of programs. Together, these programs brought to the table utility, mobility, entertainment and functionality, all key elements for stabile consumer fidelity. ;f course, trying to take over the whole market, $oogle has made some formidable rivals among which the partnership of "ahoo and !icrosoft being the most resilient, but others suck as Twitter or !o9illa are not to be taken likely either. Although the rivalry between !icrosoft and $oogle is not a direct one, and since both are big players on the market, they sensed danger is close by and acted accordingly. This war is however close to starting, because while !icrosoft is still fi+ing security bugs for its base products, $oogle is already testing new, efficient, and possibly life changing technology. ;ne of the most awaited products from this firm is $oogle 8hrome ;S an open source operating system designed especially for notebooks and people who spend most of their time on the internet. Though this might not be threatening to !icrosoft, its a second step towards efficient operating systems that $oogle took, after Android, specifying that in the past, there was no internet, and the operating systems werent properly optimi9ed for it. Techcrunch.com compared the launch of $oogle 8hrome ;S, to dropping a nuclear bomb on !icrosoft, and on a funny note, having said earlier that $oogle might be planning to build a nuclear energy plant, !icrosoft should be considering putting up an offer for the 8heyenne !ountain 8omple+ to survive the war. *owever, this is not the most ambitious pro&ect $oogle has. Sticking true to their believes, $oogle plans to make all books public, on a pro&ect called $oogle 6ooks. To this day, the pro&ect is on hold due to copyright debates, but the idea remains on the table. The plan is to make all books available on the internet, on a virtual library, free of charge to visuali9e.

%ig ?.( $oogle vs. !icrosoft drawing

Conclusion
%ifteen years after its original conception, $oogle Inc. remains one of the worlds leading software producers, but more importantly, its goal seems closer then ever. Fith more and more programs hitting the internet, $oogles e+pansion appears unstoppable and as a conse:uence, the information takes less and less to get from the source to the user, via this network of programs. To better e+emplify this system of interlinking programs I suggest we consider the following scenario someone posts on their Internet 6logSpot blog an article about a new "ouTube feature that is soon to be released, and monitor the plausible &ourney this information takes before I get word of it. Suppose I dont read that particular blog on a daily basis, but a friend of mine does, and further assuming Im not directly reachable through conventional methods, my friend uses the $oogle 6u99 social program to leave me a message. !eanwhile, Im in a dilemma, and access the same companys search engine, through $oogle 8hrome web browser, for clarification. 7nwillingly I see my account at $mail and decide to check my Inbo+. *ere I spot my friends bu99 -because I think this is the e:uivalent term of a tweet using this application0 and from there on, the information in that article is &ust one click away. All in all, seven $oogle were products used for the entire process. !yself, Im not such a devoted user of all $oogle applications, though they are all great, because, frankly, I feel they still have a long way to go before reaching their full potential. )ont get me wrong, but there are still other products on the market with a far greater e+perience in certain domains, and until $oogle comes up with something better on a general note, I see no motive in changing the applications I am using at the moment. Nonetheless, I believe in competition, and since looking back, I now reali9e thats what initially fueled this digital market in the first placeH maybe its better to keep my options open, rather than putting all my eggs in one basket, but for now, well &ust have to see where the current takes us and &ust hope the future is nice and sunny.

10

Bi$liography % &ise' (a)id' *alseed' *ar+' (elacorte /ress' 0##51

,he

Google -tory.'

%-tross' 2andall' 3/lanet Google: 4ne Co5pany6s 7udacious /lan ,o 4rgani8e )erything &e 9no:.' ;ree /ress' 0##!1 % Girard' Bernard' 3,he Google &ay: <o: 4ne Co5pany Is 2e)olutioni8ing *anage5ent as &e 9no: It.' =o -tarch /ress' 0##>1 %7uletta' 9en' 3Googled: ,he nd of the &orld 7s &e 9no: It.' /enguin /ress <C' 0##>.

11