GOOGLE

I could not live without Google! Not because of all of the applications, just because I Google everything. Google web, Google images, Google scholar, Google Earth, and Gmail are what I use the most. Google seems to be my gateway to the world sometimes. (In addition, I am going to check out Google Calendar soon.) Google has become the internet for me. Like Kleenex and Jell-O, the brand is the product.

I really do not know much about Google’s strategy with their advertising. I believe they track clicks and destinations in order to target specific information, products, etc at people, so if I am looking up information about dogs, then ads for dog stuff will come up.

As for what Google owns, I had no idea so I went to, of course, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google)! I was amazed. I do not know what most of the companies are, although what I found interesting is Wikipedia lists the acquisition date, the company, the business the company is in, and the value of each acquisition, among a few other things, like how the company is used within Google’s product line. I found this interesting. I think by purchasing companies Google will get bigger, this seems like the most logical form of growth, although, they will grow as our needs grow through innovation too.

I think Yahoo! got behind on innovation and consumers’ needs, then consumers’ recognized this and found Google to fit what they needed. I think Yahoo! will need to pull ahead of Google with innovation. I did not see this as a strategy in the articles. I do not think Yahoo! can gain market share by following Google. Google has a strong brand image, which I think Yahoo! lacks. I do not know much about Yahoo! but it seems that they are not focused on their consumers. Yahoo! seems to be taking what they already do and are trying to make it better, it seems to me this might not be a great strategy because consumers already think that Google does it fine, why switch?