Why Google Makes Everyone Else Nervous

Calif. - Google Inc. first gained notice early in the
decade. as a small and quirky start-up with a disarmingly simple
Internet search engine and an idealistic slogan. Today the maverick company. adored by online shoppers and Internet
surfers. has emerged as one of the most disruptive forces in the
business world. Its secret sauce: a technology that lets business
customers link targeted ads to search results and Web content.
By rolling out a spate of free search products. from Google Maps to
Google News to Google Calendar. the company is doing more than building
its consumer base. It's also building an alternative environment for
software. and Internet content that is challenging the
business models and eroding the revenue of everyone from publishers to
software makers to Internet service providers.
"Google is causing disruption in a variety of areas." said Anthea
Stratigos. cofounder and chief executive of Outsell Inc.. research firm. "It's pushing advertising revenue online. It's
creating a model where software can be hosted by ad funding. Because of
Google. things that have long been fee-based now have the potential to
be free to consumers and supported by ads."
The effect can be seen in falling profits. and
programming changes in the media industry. but the changes brought
about by the Google model may be only beginning. "As they go forward.
you're going to see the corporate jets disappear for the executives of
NBC and the Internet service providers." predicted John Katsaros.
principal at the Internet Research Group in Los Altos. Calif. "You're
going to see slow. agonizing deaths or reevaluation of businesses."
At a Google press day held earlier this month at the company's
Googleplex campus here. the presentations focused almost entirely on
new search products and services the company is offering at no charge
to consumers: Google Co-Op for specialists. Google Trends for
researchers. Google Notebook for people who like to scribble notes.
Google executives avoided talking about their competitors. other than
to profess that there is room for more than one company in the
expanding Internet market. "I do believe the winner. or winners if
there's more than one. will be those companies that innovate most
rapidly." said Eric Schmidt. the company's chief executive.
whose rapid-fire product releases have dazzled and
dizzied computer users. has been the clearest winner. At the same time.
many of its rivals - from Microsoft Corp. to traditional print media
companies - have seen their growth rates flattening.
while down from their peak. have more than quadrupled
in the less than two years since its initial public offering. which was
a celebrated event from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.
With its profits enjoying double-digit growth. up 26 percent in the
first quarter. Google has grown into a financial juggernaut. Last year.
its operating income climbed 33 percent to $2 billion. and its employee rolls 88 percent to 5. The once cuddly image of its founders. Sergey Brin and Larry Page. the
Stanford University grad students who developed their search technology
in dorm rooms and incorporated Google in 1998. has been largely erased
by their newfound success and assertiveness.
That assertiveness was notable at the press gathering at Google earlier
this month. when Brin addressed his company's concern that Microsoft
would use its operating system to unfair advantage by steering
customers to Microsoft's search engine. Brin said that Google
recognized it was dealing with "a convicted monopolist" with a history
of "behaving anticompetitively."
In lobbying to prevent Internet service providers from charging content
companies for access and refusing to apologize for bowing to Chinese
government restrictions on Internet content. Google has been
demonstrating a greater willingness to throw around its weight in the
political arena and put its commercial interests front and center.
Research firms are only now beginning to take the measure of the
company's influence. A recent study by Outsell showed that 80 percent
of advertisers now use the Internet. with the adoption rate projected
to hit 90 percent by 2008. While search engine advertising is expected
to increase 26 percent this year. with Google raking in the largest
share. spending is projected to grow 2 percent for newspaper and
magazine ads and 2.4 percent for radio and television ads.
the Google effect has reduced Internet service companies -
who'd once hoped to be gateways to the Internet that profited from
Internet services - to "pipe companies" that build networks and charge
businesses and consumers for access.
and word-processing products are
pioneering an ad-supported Internet delivery model that threatens the
desktop licensing model of Microsoft and other proprietary software
companies. and could appeal to their "enterprise" market of businesses
and other organizations. Aiding Google's efforts to deliver robust
software on the Internet. and faster search results. is a worldwide
network of between 300. according to
analysts' estimates; Google itself declines to specify its number of
servers.
Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. are working to counter Google. with Yahoo
concentrating more on original content and Microsoft developing its own
search capabilities and ad-supported Internet software. But the biggest
threat to Google could be the proliferation of local and smaller
vertical search engines - in fields like travel. and retail -
that could offer even more targeted advertising. Many newspapers. are developing local search technology.
"If you want to attack Google. you're more likely to succeed by peeling
off searches that are vertically oriented." said Fredrick Marckini.
chief executive of search engine marketing firm iProspect of Watertown.
a division of London-based Aegis Isobar Worldwide.
Marckini said Google is fighting back by deputizing "contributors."
specialists who can provide niche-oriented searches. and by offering
advertisers more information on what people search for.
Google's newest product offerings could be especially attractive to
advertisers. said Sapna Satagopan. search analyst for JupiterKagan
Inc.. a San Francisco research firm. "Every one of these new releases
seems to be going in that direction of creating small groups of
consumers so they can offer them to advertisers.