Google | The World's Biggest Internet Search Company

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1995 and its mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google’s business Model is based on the four functions namely SEARCH – ADS – APPS – MOBILE as shown from the video above.

In this post, we will analyze the three current issues or threats that Google is currently facing or might be facing in the future which would threaten its position.

TOP ON THE LIST - ANTI-TRUST REGULATION

Google, the largest advertising agency, ad network, search engine, online videos and web email provider, has raised discussions regarding anti-trust issues of its dominating position in many industries.

Microsoft argued that Mozilla’s Firefox derives bulk of its revenue from driving Web traffic to Google’s search engine and also the possibility of having Google Chrome OS on Windows PCs, would lead to an overall domination of Google in search advertising. Microsoft further added that Google Books tend to lock in business partners and content, and exclude competitors, thereby undermining competition. Recently, Gary Reback, who almost single-handedly brought the antitrust regulation on Microsoft, is now contending Google to air the Foundem couple’s complaint that Google’s “objective” algorithms search that dropped Foundem intentionally in Google’s search results. Also FTC is enquiring the antitrust implications of the ties between the boards of Google and Apple, sharing of director. To make things worse, the privacy issue from Wi-Fi sniffing further aggravated the mistrust between Google and federal regulators.

With all the above mentioned issues, the federal government is examining Google’s acquisitions and actions in closer details and this would, from my opinion dampened Google’s sustainability and more so on its further expansion as they would have to be more careful before making a move. Failure to do so would result in monetary and reputation loss which will drastically affects Google’s competitive advantage, and a direct loss in market share.

SECOND ON THE LIST – THE RISE OF THE MOBILE INTERNET

Google has succeeded in becoming leader for web navigation which is also the most popular type of web navigation, namely search. However, with the introduction of mobile internet, coupled with Apple's early dominance in this market, the concept of web search is truly threatened for the first time. The smartphones — especially the iPhone with so many specialized apps (Yelp iPhone app to search for local restaurants, Linkedin app for quick people search etc) and no qwerty keyboard compel consumers not to used Google in searching information. However, even smartphone with full qwerty keyboard like BlackBerry, typing is still far slower than pointing, scrolling, and selecting apps. The convenience provided by iPhone might lead to behaviour habit of users reaching for the smartphone instead of the laptop in search for information, would reduce the number of people using Google’s search engine. However, the main issue currently face is the difficulty of finding the right app one amongst so many apps. This issue is definitely not a showstopper and it is a matter of time when an appropriate solution is introduced. Thereafter, the smartphones industry would become the most widespread global computing platform and maybe this is the main reason behind Google’s efforts in making Android successful with the strengths of AdMob.

LAST ON THE LIST – TOO MANY DIFFERENT MARKETS?

Without any doubts, Google is definitely the leader in search. However, Google in trying to achieve its mission of organizing the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful has led it to a diverse range of products which inevitably create a whole new set of competitors across the digital media and technological spectrum. In fact, Google is into so many businesses that it is hard to track all of them. Below is a summary of Google’s possible competitors (not an exhaustive list) and their corresponding products.

Apple – Smartphone (iPhone), online music (iTunes), Browser (Safari)
Google – Google Android, MySpace and Pandora, Google Chrome

Microsoft – Brower (Bing)
Google – Google Chrome

Amazon – e-book store, Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2)
Google – Google Book, Google’s Apps Engine

Facebook – Facebook connect
Google – Orkut offers Google Friend Connect

Yahoo – Search and Advertising (Joint deal between Yahoo and Microsoft), watch videos or stream music
Google – Google Chrome, Youtube, MySpace and Pandora

Mozilla – Browser and default search engine
Google – Google Chrome

Nokia – Smartphone (recent deals with Microsoft is all set to bring Office Mobile to Symbian devices)
Google – Google Android

IBM – Areas of collaboration tools (Lotus Lives)
Google – Google Wave

Most of the competitors are ready to poise serious threats either alone or in collaborations against Google. And Google’s revenue and reputation might be at stake if not dealt with properly.