Why I’ll never leave Google
by Leigh Whitnall
What's not to love!
Monopolies are a bad thing, we all know that. It is a universal truth that greater consumer choice creates competitive pricing, innovative products and a fairer world for all. Giant corporations that merge, acquire, undercut and annihilate their way to total domination are looked upon with fear and distaste. I remember, as a student, reading ‘No Logo’ by Naomi Klein and being enraged by the plight of the independent coffee shops, delicatessen’s and family run enterprises that had been crushed by the giant corporations.
As a result I, like most people, have an instinctive predilection to root for the plucky underdog as a response to the dominance of a competitor. It is this basic human instinct that companies like Virgin, Apple and Airbus have used to their advantage to become the global corporate giants they are today. In all areas of my life I will always give the little guy my business, even if it takes more of my time and comes at a premium. All areas, that is, except for the search engine I use. When I’m looking for anything online I’ll always choose Google.
Google rules
When it comes to monopolies, there can be few as absolute as that of Google. From its lair in Northern California it has shaped the way we use the internet, unlocking the door to its infinite content. And whilst there are alternative search engines out there, it has been reported that Google enjoys an 80% worldwide market share. Here in the UK, their share is closer to 90%, leaving Yahoo, Lycos, MSN, Excite, Ask and the rest to fight over the scraps.
UK Domination!
Naturally such dominance has created vast wealth for Google, with their market value, driven mainly by advertising revenue, standing at $125 billion as I write this. They currently rank at number 102 in the fortune 500 list just 2 places behind Amazon (the highest ranking internet services company) and way ahead of corporate giants from other sectors like McDonalds, Nike and Capital One. When Google was floated on the US stock market in 2004 its founders; Larry Page and Sergey Brin amassed personal fortunes that would put many countries to shame. And yet throughout they have managed to keep my loyalty and the loyalty of millions more people like me. So how do they do it?
They keep it simple
The Google homepage is a master class in simplicity. When I want to search for something on the web, I’m on a mission and I want information, quickly. What I don’t want, is to know what random piece of information other people might be searching for, what the top news stories of the day might be, how the weather is looking, what companies are currently hiring and what the hot new bikini trend is this year… well maybe the last one. But my point is that Google present you with a choice; land on their homepage and you can simply enter what you’re searching for and away you go. If you want to know what else is happening in the world you can choose; ‘Videos’, ‘Maps’, ‘News, ‘Shopping’ and more from the navigation. It’s the way it should be.
They give more than they take
Google are a business, a highly successful business as I mentioned earlier. And as such, I accept that they need to make money. But the brilliant thing from my perspective is that this never impinges on me when I’m searching. The organic listings occupy by far the largest slice of the page, whilst the pay per click listings are clearly identifiable in their separate sections at the top and side. And that’s it, the sum total of their commercial impact on my life, a simple offer to click on a paid-for link if I wish. In return for this I get access to the unending vastness of content that the web has to offer; hugely useful tools like Google maps and Google earth; Youtube (owned by Google since 2006) and the often brilliant Google doodles, which recently offered me the opportunity of whiling away a few moments on a game of Pacman… genius!
They still feel like an underdog
The Google PR-machine have managed a neat trick; to skilfully manipulate their own image so that, despite their awesome prosperity, in the back of my mind (the part I use for lazy default decisions) I still think of them as an underdog.
Partly, this is due to their business sector taking them into direct conflict with Microsoft. Like Apple, Google have managed to create a self-image that is much cooler than the stuffy, corporate-bully image that continues to dog Microsoft. So regardless of the fact that, when it comes to search, Microsoft is very much the underdog, I still root for Google.
It’s also a generally accepted fact that Google is a brilliant place to work. They regularly feature amongst the top companies in the various best-employer lists that are published worldwide and viral emails hit my inbox with images of happy employees in offices that seem to be nothing more than giant playgrounds. This perpetuates the legend that Google is a collective of happy, talented and youthful individuals trying to compete in a more established corporate world. Add to this the fact that the billionaire owners are still in their 30s and it’s easy to see where this perception comes from.
They make my job more fun
Not since the days before satellite and cable TV have potential customers flocked to one place in such great numbers. And we’ve never been able to target these customers so precisely. ‘Googling’ is how I find almost everything I want, from restaurants and plumbers to my house and next car. The opportunity to market specific goods to consumers at a time that they are in-market is arguably the most important marketing innovation of the past decade and search engine optimisation has become a vital part of the e-marketing mix.
Achieving page 1 ranking in an organic search for our clients has become the Holy Grail in recent years. And creating the web content to achieve that is a challenging, never-ending but always fascinating task, constantly keeping us on our toes.
The future
Will Google’s dominance last? Microsoft are throwing huge amounts of ad spend at their new ‘decision engine’; ‘Bing’ which is already growing quickly in the US. In return Google are taking on Internet Explorer with ‘Chrome’ and are moving into social networking with ‘Google Wave’. Whether these enterprises succeed or fail only time will tell. But in my opinion, when it comes to search, Google have got it all sewn up.
Tags: Airbus, Apple, Digital Marketing Agency, Direct Marketing Agency, Google, Google Adsense Agency, Google Doodles, Internet Advertising, Internet Search Engine, Larry Page, Manchester Advertising Agency, Marketing Agency, Microsoft, Naomi Klein, No Logo, Online Advertising Agency, Pay Per Click Agency, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Marketing Agency, SEO Company, Sergey Brin, Virgin, Youtube
