The Laughable Question, “Is Google Over?”
The cover of the August 16 issue of Fortune Magazine features this laughable question, “Is Google Over?” They go on by saying, “It’s still a juggernaut, but with online search slowing and new competition looming, Google’s best days may be behind it.”
I say it’s laughable because the way they approach that cover story seems to be completely wrong. They try to claim that online search is slowing, but it seems that the opposite is true. In fact, how many of you have Google set as your homepage? Beyond that, isn’t it worth noting that almost all of Google’s income is generated from Ad sales via their Adwords and Adsense programs.
In fact, last quarter they profited over 2.5 Billions dollars giving them an effective annual profit of over 10 billion dollars. According to Business Insider, they currently have $27 Billion in the bank right now. Their profit is growing. Their ad sales are growing… all in the midst of a national…err…global recession. Imagine how they’ll be doing when the economy starts ticking higher.
The truth is that Google is innovative and we should be learning from them. They started out as a search engine and have developed into the GE of the online world. They’re now a conglomerate providing search engine services, advertising, online word processing, email, shopping, blogging, rss feed processing, online library services, and much more. This company is constantly reinventing the wheel and developing new ways to accomplish new tasks.
I’ve always believed in paying cash for my vehicles. I really don’t enjoy being tied down to debt, but when Google launched their IPO, I was on the edge of taking out the biggest loan I could get against my vehicle and dumping it all into Google’s stock. I probably could have gotten about $10,000 on it. They launched their stock at $80 per share and now it’s been floating between $400 and $600. Why didn’t I just risk it all.
Google is innovative and they’re going to be around for a while. They’ve got what it takes to adapt to the changing online climate. The question is…do you?
Viva la Google.
… Maybe now I should open the magazine and see what they have to say in the article.
Nabeel | Create Your First Website said:
It is laughable. I mean Google is here to stay.
But it would be interesting to see the whole article. If you do get a chance to see the article, please do share your thoughts and excerpts of the article.
Kindest,
Nabeel
SmallDogTrainingEtc said:
Love your ending! It’s always nice to start out my day with a chuckle. It will be interesting to see what’s inside the article of which you speak. I’ll locate and read it today. Hope you write a followup to this post so I can see if we’re still of the same opinion.
Cheers!!
D’Marie
Micke Hasselqvist said:
Haha, agreed about it being a laughable question! I still remember when Altavista was the king of searching, but those days are long gone. And since Google has expanded into so many areas, I have a hard time picturing they will go down anytime soon!
But I’m all up for comptetitors! Don’t make Google too cocky, give them a run for their money! That way they will be forced themselves to improve, just as it should be.
And yeah, nice ending to your post!
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Onibalusi Bamidele said:
Really great post Nick,
You’re absolutely right. I don’t use any other search engines beside Google and I don’t think Google’s days are comeing to an end…people will always say something but Google is the king of the web…still!
Thanks a lot for the great post,
-Onibalusi
Daniel Sumner said:
Hi Nick,
I have actually been floating from Yahoo and Goofle searches. I don’t know about you but I find Yahoo lately is producing better results for me.
I can’t see Google slowing down at all. They are continually improving their business model and moving with the changing times as the Internet itself moves into adulthood.
They are here to stay for a long time to come I feel.
Nice post Nick thanks
Daniel Sumner said:
Sorry Nick I meant to say Google not Goofle lol. iPhone key pad to damn small
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing said:
never say never.
Just as Google buried some, there is ALWAYS someone/thing “coming around the corner.
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PurpleB said:
just to answer i have google set as my homepage and couldn’t live without it….i also use google adsense and love google. just want to put in my 2 cents. thanks for the post.
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roezer said:
What I cannot understand about Google is that since they got into the Browser market and one of the first browser extensions you see advertised for chrome is ad block,So if they fund chrome with adsense revenue and advertise ad lock how can they fund the project ?
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Ron Leyba said:
Tell us Nick what the article says and who the writer is (maybe the writer works with some Google competitors eh? lol)
Whatever happens, Google is here to stay.Period.
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Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella said:
I agree with you. Google is innovative. They aren’t just a “search engine”. They’ve got their fingers in a lot of pies and they are always looking for more. I think they have a sweet tooth or something.
Is Google over? What a laughable question. You might as well try and convince me that the sun is going to burn out tomorrow! :p
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Kathy said:
I think that the Adwords program has been losing steam in terms of total revenue. A lot of the big advertisers have cut back realizing that there are other ways of getting better ROI. Still, the Adwords program is not even close to saturating the market for small family owned business advertising.
A huge percentage of these businesses still haven’t dabbled in it at all. That means that Google will be gaining a lot of new customers in the next 5-10 years even if the amount spent per customer is less.
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Silas DeProgramma said:
With no doubt that Google SE is the best out there and I don’t think they will wipe out in this century unless something happens(of which I’ll prefer to keep the thought to myself).
Nice post Nico.
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u.r.s. jOsé said:
dear nichOlas . dear readers
i absOlutely agree !
who has read the (german) kult.boOk *wir nennen es arbeit* (holm friebe | sascha lObo) knOws that the internet already has been taken over by the future . which is . hOpefully (in my opinion : clearly !) peacefull and green
the common sense that much people in the open scene (i.e. open source | creative cOMmons | etc.) have developed (or remembered) spread & installed in the internet is amazing . and at least : groOowing !
soOo internet.firms which develOp tOols that unify peOple thru the net are in resOncance which sOMething that is called *cOsMic alignement* in the perspective of the cosmig mayas …
however . sOMething. which has made me really thinking of is a phrase of christoph pfluger (editor of http://www.zeitpunkt.ch) : what, when THEY (who.EVER.this.is!) plug OFF the pOwer ? what, if we are cut off in 2 similar ways : internet is made crushing (maybe by cutting off the physical cables !) or by turning off the real power which makes all our *login.tools* (hopefully *mac* ?) going down ? because we are (are we ?) right now still depending on the power of the plug.socket ? are we ? …
how do we bridge that ?
or are there already sOMe coOol freaks making power out of NOTHING ? like the genius allrOunder TESLA ?
i am very curiOus for answers …
warm greetings frOM *downtown*
|| switzerland ||
u.r.s. josé // KIN94
-> folloOw the white rabbit !
follow the floOow -> maya132O
ps : english.website is coming in the near.future …
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Reza Winandar said:
Google never say die, and Googlers too.
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Joe | Carpet Cleaning Bend said:
I would love to hear Google’s response to that article. Google is a giant among giants and looks like it will be around for awhile, but the bigger they are the harder they fall. Pardon the cliche, but things can change pretty quick on the Internet. Thanks,
Joe
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Mandeep said:
I would agree with what you have to say, Google isn’t going to go anywhere anytime soon, even though they may face competition from the chinese Baidu search engine which is growing rapidly. I also trade stocks the thing is: during an IPO it’s hard to say which way the stock is going to go (in the long run). As for Google, we all wish we had a piece of that pie.
Jasmine Henry from J Station X said:
It’s ridiculous to think that Google will ever be ‘brought down’, the day that happens is when everyone manages to remember where everything is on the Internet and although our brains are about 10 terrabytes worth of data, it would take about 10 brains to store everything that’s on the World Wide Web.
As a blogger this shows me how to write headlines and what better way to get people to talk about your writing than to say something completely outrageous that creates controversy. It’s those sort of posts (when done occasionally) that will get you traffic.
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Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing said:
“It’s ridiculous to think that Google will ever be ‘brought down’”
They said that about Yahoo, then came Google. You really believe it could NEVER happen again?
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Tony M said:
Google is a top business as you mentioned. They started as a search engine and now they have branched out into many other markets.
Just like Verizon didn’t always sell cable tv. Google is an example of success.
Drake said:
Google isn’t going ANYWHERE! ! !
Viva la Google !!!
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Mike said:
After the net neutrality flip flop in their deal with Verizon, I could easily see Google dying out in a few years.
They’ve betrayed the entire American public, if you still use them you’re an idiot. Stop cuddling up next to big brother when he slaps you in the face.
I’ve switched all my services to Microsoft (weird that they’re the good guys again), and you should too if freedom on the internet means anything to you
mk akan said:
i agree nick,
Google will be very relevant for a long time..even if search dies (i seriously doubt that because i use Google search daily) they still have other great services and tools people cannot do without.they will stay relevant for a long time to come.
Google rocks
Edward said:
This post, as well as most of the comments, missed the point of the article. Honestly, you really should read something before you comment on it. The point was that Google’s growth is slowing, and despite getting into a lot of areas where it is successful from a market share standpoint (gmail, youtube, Android), none of those are generating the type of income to replace the slowing growth in online search. That doesn’t mean one of them won’t become a huge revenue driver, but as of now it is not even clear that they will combine to be more than 10% or so of Google’s revenue. Furthermore, as users spend more time on Social Media platforms (Twitter, Facebook), and finding information through apps on their phones, Google could potentially become much less relevant. If you can find most of the info you need through apps or recommendations from Friends, are you really going to need to search as much?
Edward said:
On the other hand, with market share like this in the mobile search space, it’s possible that it could drive sufficient revenue growth:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/29/google-mobile-search-market-share/
But the numbers I’ve seen size wise on mobile advertising suggest that it may be a while before it’s large enough to be Google’s second “cash cow”
Cinehan said:
I just can’t agree more! Google will definitely can and will stay as long as the internet exists. They will stay no matter what and will provide better services. Expect for it and be ready always.
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