Can Google Find Itself A Business Model?

from the searching...-searching... dept

A good article in the NYTimes about Google's search for a business model. The company is doing well, but faces a number of challenges. While Eric Schmidt (the CEO) originally wanted to push forward with an IPO, the board has told him to wait a little while longer. Analysts still seem to like Overture's business model much better (even if the search results are worse). They also point out that Google runs the risk of losing the business it gets from companies like Yahoo! who may realize that Google is quickly turning into a competitor. Of course, Google's search is so far superior to anyone else's that I think Yahoo would be making a huge mistake to switch away from using Google's search engine. Of course, with the moves that Yahoo! has been making lately, it wouldn't surprise if they made such a mistake. The article also points out that Google's culture is fairly arrogant - which could lead to problems.
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  1. identicon
    Chris Dean, 8 Apr 2002 @ 8:18pm

    Google is better?

    I don't think it has been shown that Google's search is better. I'm going to be a overly precise, but the Google search results seem slightly worse than Inktomi's results (to me).
    But as an app www.google.com kicks ass! It's fast with no popups or extra cruft. MSN, AOL, etc are always popping up some crazy ad or paid result ahead of the good Inktomi results.
    This is probably what was meant, but I'm getting a little tired of hearing how great the Google technology is compared to everyone else.
    (And Yahoo using Google as an OEM seems crazy to me also. But I guess that's a different article.)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    mhh5, 8 Apr 2002 @ 8:55pm

    Re: Google is better?

    I agree with you (sorta). But I still only use google...

    ...google also has maps, catalogs, etc. etc.... and google cache....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Mike (profile), 8 Apr 2002 @ 10:03pm

    Re: Google is better?

    I've tried (and continue to experiment) with all the other search engines. I've yet to find any that are anywhere near as useful as Google. I can almost always find what I want with Google. That's very rare with most of the others. I've never found Inktomi's search engine useful at all. It rarely gives very good responses.

    But, I guess that depends on what you're searching for.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Chris Dean, 9 Apr 2002 @ 12:52am

    Re: Google is better?

    Really, which Inktomi engine do you use? I often use AOL search. I find it better when searching for non-technical stuff. YMMV.
    I do agree with the earlier poster who said they like the caching features, etc of Google. I like those features too, and that's why Google is my first stop.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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