The Google Brand
I was reading an article yesterday morning in the Seattle Times about the recently announced search engine partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo. The writers made the claim that to win in the search world, continuous innovation is the name of the game. I agree with this statement. Google wouldn’t have the market share they have today without being on top of their game.The author then went on to state that Google is #1 because it produces the best search results, a statement which I disagree. Don’t misunderstand me, Google is my preferred search engine, but I wouldn’t say it is the “best” in terms of search results.
Here is an easy test. Go to http://blindsearch.fejus.com/. Type in your search query of choice. Then pick the column that best matches what you were looking for. Was your pick the search engine that you expected? Maybe, maybe not. Personally I found that Yahoo matched my searches best . Even so, the results vary on the keyword chosen and the information you are looking for. My point here is that each search engine works a little different, but none (at least between Google, Yahoo, and Bing) are significantly inferior. Similarly, people become less sensitive to marginal improvements in search technology, so simply having a slightly better search engine does not guarantee your market dominance. So how did Google get to be so strong? My theory is a stronger brand and a “whole product solution”.
“Google it!”
Google is widely used as a verb, which shows the strength of the brand. They achieved all this without any extensive marketing efforts, while competitor Bing has launched a multimillion dollar advertising campaign to attempt the same (so far, with weaker results). Google also provides what is called a whole product solution, or at least more so than Yahoo and Microsoft. Google is not just about search anymore. It contains a suite of services: Gmail, Docs, iGoogle, Analytics Reader, Calendar, the list goes on. Google has managed to recognize the habits and activities of its users, and developed its product to accompany a user’s entire internet experience. When your search engine provides all of these added value features, you are much less likely to switch search engines.
Between the strength of the Google brand and the complete solution that the company provides its users, the battle for producing the best search results becomes less crucial. My point is that there is more to Google’s success than simply search results. What do you think?
