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How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows
orangerobot writes "The latest issue of Fast Company has an article about how Google has managed to survive beyond its peers and develop a culture of openness and innovation. The article also mentions Google memes and spin-offs such as: Googlewhack, Googlebombing, Googleshare, Googlism and Google Smackdown."
Indeed. Are we at the point yet where we declare Google a monopoly and start rooting for a competing search engine just because?
Seriously, though, apart from the barriers to entry (namely having the computing power, storage, and bandwidth to spider the entire web) there are a wide range of ways that Google could be bested. The only reason they weren't before is that the major competitors saw search engines as a money losing proposition, and started throwing all their money behind duplicating Yahoo, making online communities, auctions, etc.
Google just seems to "get it".
They took a simple idea and kept it simple, yet making it extremely powerful.
When your company name becomes a verb (google): to search for something; I'm going to google for that computer part you know that you're onto something.
Google has survived the dot.com bubble burst because they offer a great service that people want. The natural thing for most companies (brick and mortar or otherwise) is to spin-off and leverage the successful business model into something that will grow their company.
The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. -- Calvin & Hobbes
I happened to use Yahoo! earlier today, since they have news on their site, and links to other useful tools like yahoo maps, and free email... It also seems to work.
"I only speak the truth"
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'ta
Same way as kleenex,xerox and hormel(spam) have done.
All done for the reasons that want to keep the word for business use and don't want thier competitors to be able to use thier brand name as something else.
In the case you mentioned they had/have Google down as a synonym for search, a verb which cannot be protected. If Google did not protect their name they would have no more rights to use the word then Yahoo, or alta vista would to use the word.
IIRC, they finally solved the problem by mentioning that Google was a protected word of the Google corporation.
Interestingly enough, Apple has started a trend by building in a Google search widget into their new safari browser.
Imagine what would happen if MS tried this tactic and built in, say, AltaVista into the next release of IE. Popularity would skyrocket overnight ...
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
but did Google make Apple's OS?
Did Google FORCE Apple to put that widget on there?
Did Google FORCE computer manufactorers to NOT put OTHER search engine widgets on the computers?
No. It's an Internet site that does what it is supposed to and does it well.
well, in IE if you type something random into the URL bar it does a search on MSN already and I don't really think that MSN search is that popular.
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Just because it's a good product doesn't prevent it from being a monopoly.
Correct, monopoly is defined as somebody who can block normal competition by financial means or market position.
And although Google basically "owns" the market, I just can't see how Google could "block" somebody who would want to compete.
After all, it's the customers who choose every day to go to Google without any manipulation from Google (apart from a good service).
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