Google - Lauren

I feel we’re all a little bit like Dan Firger. I haven’t given myself up completely to Google yet, but I’m guilty of furthering Google’s takeover of the world. I find myself using Google search engine, I use the e-mail services, I use Google Chrome web browser, and I also use Google as a verb. “I don’t know what this is. Google it.” It’s a phrase that you’ll hear nowadays whenever someone is in doubt. There have been other search engines, such as Yahoo, and there have been other information services, such as ChaCha or KGB, that try to compete, but nothing compares to the quick, easy, links of Google that bring you to unimaginable places on the web.


I don’t know anything about Google’s advertising strategies. I know that 99% of Google’s revenue is from advertising. I assume that it advertises itself by just being Google. I also assume that it Google makes money by other companies buying space on Google websites to advertise their products. To me, that would add up pretty quickly considering how big Google is. The best place on the internet to advertise anything would be Google since it’s used the most out of any other website (or so it seems). According to mydigmedia.com Google owns TONS of things. Way more than I expected. This includes things I’ve never heard of. Postini, Feedbumer, Adscape, YouTube, Orion, Picassa, Pyra Labs, ZipDash, Android, and many more. Those include photo sharing sites, blogger sites, video sharing, and other ways to share media. Holy crap. Google is Aptocratic because it hires the best of the best of the best. Nothing relies on social status, gender, or ethnicity anymore. It is now only based on aptitude and answers to standardized tests. The Google world is held up to such standards that would only get it to the place it is now, or better. Google will never die, it shall only stay as it is, or get stronger and take over the world.

Surprisingly, Yahoo is still trekking along. Why? I don’t know. I think Google should just buy it out and become the biggest thing since sliced bread. Apparently Yahoo is coming out with newer, faster, better things. Applications that will run faster, a better Yahoo mail experience, new search experiences, yadda yadda yadda. I don’t believe it. In my personal experience, Yahoo has proven disappointing. I hope that it’s telling the truth, otherwise Google IS going to dominate completely. The one thing I think is going to sell the Yahoo “cool” factor is the app for iPad tablets it’s coming out with. Though even if it ads to the functions of Yahoo, it’s only available to iPad buyers which hasn’t prospered enough to become a huge way to reach consumers. In my opinion, Yahoo is just there sometimes. When we see it on something we’re looking at, we don’t really pay attention, and sometimes we don’t even realize it’s there. I hope Yahoo is good with subliminal messages because right now, they’re not doing a great job of selling the stuff we KNOW is theirs. Yahoo better step up its game because Google is stomping on its face.