Google is everyone's darling business right now. The stock price is high, the company was rated the best company to work for, and it generates an enormous amount of positive media coverage. But it's worth analyzing the company to try to see through the hype (if it is hype). Nick Carr has written a thoughtful article about Google.
A NYT article on 2/1/08 discussed the importance of network effects to Google's success.
A Business Week article discussed the ad words auction used by Google.
A New Yorker article gives an overview of Google's business and its impact on competitors (Auletta 2008).1
Here's a quote from a May 6, 2008 New York Times article2 that explains the different segments of the online advertising market:
…with its acquisition of DoubleClick this year, [Google] is going after the market for online banners and graphical ads, which is Yahoo’s bread and butter….Even in graphical advertisements online — the banners, video ads and social network ads, that marketers use to create brand awareness — Google remains a relatively small player. It is an important market that is expected to some day match the search advertising business in size. “Search is great, but you can’t advertise Coca-Cola in search,” said Peter Sealey, a former chief marketing officer at the Coca-Cola Company. “Google is going to try to compete there, but they don’t have the same algorithm that they had in search.”
Google Supports Television Advertising
Google is now an intermediary in television advertising. According to a November 25, 2008 article, Google makes the process easier and allows control of spending3. Google's approach to TV is explained on its website.
Google Gets into Display Advertising
Google launched a display ad exchange in September 2009, based on the technology it acquired from DoubleClick.
