Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Talking about google

Google is a multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. It hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its Ad Words program. Today it has greatly impacted people’s work and life, more than any other companies associated with e-commerce. As such a company is so popular and successful, it is pretty valuable to analyse how it gives rise to its global influence. Therefore discussing about its characters, products, business incomes, and operations are quite necessary for making comment on Google companies.

Advertisements in Google
Advertisements appear to the search results are the sponsored links, which is a paid advertisement in the form of a hypertext link that shows up on search results pages. The ads are typically for products and services that are generally or very specifically related to the keywords in the search query, and appear adjacent to or above organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site.( David Szetela, "Customers Now", Business2.0 2009) A keyword advertising system in which ads appear as "sponsored links" on the Google results pages as well as the results pages of Google's partners, such as AOL and Ask.com. The advertiser chooses keywords and a short one- or two-line text ad, which is displayed on the results pages when the ad keywords match up with the search keywords.

For example, when someone types in “flower” in search engine, there will be a few advertisements for flower growing companies and flower delivering partnerships appear in “sponsored links”, such as “Easy Flowers Australia”, “flowers.com.au” and “send flowers to Sydney”, either flower providers or delivery companies. These entities built business relationship with Google, therefore they earn benefits by disseminating through Google advertisement links.

Google spreadsheets
Google Spreadsheets is a Web-based application that allows users to create, update and modify spreadsheets and share the data live online. The service is officially supported on recent versions of the Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome browsers running on Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux operating systems.( "Getting to know Google Docs: System requirements". Google.com. Retrieved 2009-06-1) The Ajax-based program is compatible with Microsoft Excel and CSV files. Spreadsheets can also be saved as HTML.

Google is trying to reinvent the spreadsheet as a web-based application that makes it simple for users to input and share data. Google's product offers typical spreadsheet features, such as the ability to add, delete and sort rows and columns. Users can upload spreadsheets directly from their computers.

The spreadsheet is a free web-based application that can be shared with up to 10 users simultaneously, overcoming a key limitation of Microsoft’s Excel.
The application enables multiple, geographically dispersed users to collaborate on a spreadsheet in real time and chat through a built-in instant messaging program.

Equipped with a rich Internet application user experience, the best web based online spreadsheets have many of the features seen in desktop spreadsheet applications. Some of them have strong multi-user collaboration features, and some of them offer real time updates from remote sources such as stock prices and currency exchange rates.

Google has updated their Spreadsheets app with a new powerful feature related to importing content from other files. The company said that with this update they are offering pretty strong options on importing data.

Importing a CSV file would allow the user to create a new worksheet or add the content to an existing one. They can also create a brand new spreadsheet with it or replace the current one. Users also get a preview of how the data would look like after the import process.

Enterprise Search

The term "enterprise search" is used to describe the application of search technology to information within an organization, though the search function and its results may still be public. This is in contrast to the other two main types of horizontal search environment: web search and desktop search, though the areas overlap, and systems may address these scenarios as well.

It offers the potential of cutting much of the complexity accumulated in applications and intranet sites throughout an organization. Enterprise search takes advantage of available metadata and provides access control, simple and advanced search, and browser-based administration. They also can support HTML, PDF, and the usual office file formats and European, Arabic, and Asian languages.

Enterprise searches can be integrated with other application to improve performance. An enterprise search identifies and enables specific content across the enterprise to be indexed, searched, and displayed to authorized users.

Potential revenue models in Google

The prime source of revenue generated by Google is from the Advertising Revenue Model. Google Ad Words, it is a pay per click advertising program. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is an online advertising payment model in which payment is based on qualifying click-throughs. Google Ad Sense is an advertising serving program run by Google. An advertiser has to pay every time his ad receives a click. (Shuman Ghosemajumder , March 18, 2008, "Using data to help prevent fraud", Google Blog, Retrieved May 18, 2010) This program includes local, national, and international distribution. In addition, for advertisers, they can easily reach people when they are actively looking for their product and services.

Contextual Advertising is considered as potential revenue model in that the rates may be determined in CPM or CPC but in this case the ads are served through a third party, such as Google Ad Sense, is matched based on the content of the particular website or web page in which the advertisement appears. This revenue model requires much less work. As a third party, Google is doing all of the selling, billing and fulfilment for retailers and the only work required may be adding and modifying code of an existing web page. Of course, Google is not performing these services for free so overall income for retailers may be significantly less.

It is probable for Google tendering via reverse auctions. For big buyers, private or public, they are probably using a tendering system to make their major purchases. In a request for quote, the buyer indicates a desire to receive bids on a particular item when they visit Google auction website, and interested sellers bid on this subject. In recent days, Google is planning a mega auction centre in the new Arizona location in a bid to launch Google Auctions, in direct competition with Yahoo, MSN and eBay.

Google uses affiliate marketing, using one website to drive traffic to another—is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers(Prussakov, Evgenii, 2007, "A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing", pp.16-17, 2007, ISBN 0-9791927-0-6). It provides a highlighted web address or images that link to another website. Every time a customer clicks on the banner, moves to the advertiser’s Web site, and makes a purchase the advertiser pays a commission of 3 to 15% to the host site. In this way, businesses can turn the hot sites into their virtual commissioned sales force.

For example, Froogle is a service from Google that makes it easy to find information about products for sale online. It is a price engine website launched by Google Inc. It neither charges any fees for listings, accepts payment for products to show up first nor make any commission on sales. Any company can submit product information to be included in the engine.

Product and service customization: customization, in marketing, manufacturing, call centres and management, is the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Those systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization. ( Tseng, M.M.; Jiao, J. 2010, Mass Customization, in: Handbook of Industrial Engineering, Technology and Operation Management, 3rd edition, New York, NY: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-33057-4) with customization, a product or service is created according to the buyer’s specifications. What is new is the ability to quickly configure customized products online for consumers at costs not much higher than non-customized counterparts. In these areas Google does better than other search engines for they acquaint themselves with customer information through multiple channels include various free customer services and products. Moreover when visitors search Google, the engine can realize whatever customers are interested in, and provide most suitable products for them.

E-marketplace is an electronic exchange marketplace where firms register as sellers or buyers to communicate and conduct business over the Google websites.(Efraim turban, Linda Volonino, 2010,`Information Technology for Management,P10:Four Representative business Models of the Digital age,7thedn,Wiley,USA) Most of the E-marketplaces with online stores are offering competing products. There is huge number of enterprises and customers freely registered on the web, therefore buyers are able to choose products best matching their needs, while sellers also own a tremendous market through the trading platform provided by Google.

Benefits Kaiser has obtained from Google
Kaiser uses Google Search Appliance to enable the HMO to index 150000 documents across the Kaiser network, therefore the storage volume has increased significantly.
Clinicians now search the site in situations that range from leisurely research to urgent care, from the exam room to the emergency room. It’s quite convenient for them to search by themselves and decrease the workload of staffs in hospital.

Doctors and nurses use the search engine to help them reach diagnoses and specify treatments, check the side effects of new medications, and consult clinical research studies and other medical publications, which can reduce the research time and work more effectively.
Google’s spell-checking capability is especially useful in the medical profession: Doctor’s handwriting can be problematic, and pharmaceutical product names are difficult for small businesses, which avoid the trouble of misunderstanding, helpful for accurate communication.

A Web2.0 Company

Google is treated as Web2.0 for it has many characteristics of Web2.0. It has the ability to tap into the collective intelligence of users. There are countless users of Google all over the world, and their contributions in it make Google popular and valuable. It has brought together the contributions of millions of people and made their work, opinions, and identity matter.

Google makes data available in new or never intended ways. (O'Brien, J. & Marakas, G.M., 2008, “Managment Information Systems, pp. 239”, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin) For example, Google Product Search is a search engine for online shopping; Google Wireless includes Maps, Gmail, SMS, and Google Groups are all advanced search engines for users doing research conveniently. These search tools are competitive products of Google for controlling the global market.

It uses user-generated and controlled content and data, user-created content is major characteristic of Web2.0, as is the emergence of social networking. (O'Brien, J. & Marakas, G.M., 2008, “Management Information Systems, pp. 291”, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin)When someone asks questions online, anyone else knows the answer can add it on the website. Also it has the presence of lightweight programming techniques and tools that lets nearly anyone act as a developer.

The virtual elimination of software-upgrade cycles makes everything a perpetual beta or work in progress and allows rapid prototyping using the Web as a platform for developing applications.
Google networks are used as platforms delivering and allowing users to use applications entirely through a browser. (O'Brien, J. & Marakas, G.M.,2008, “Managment Information Systems, pp. 239”, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin) Architecture of participation and digital democracy encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.

New business models are rapidly and continuously being created. It is about innovative application of existing technologies. In 2007, in an attempt to compete with Wikipedia, Google launched its Google Knol.

There is a major emphasis of Google on social networks. Products related to Social Networking and Web 2.0, and Google is very active in these areas. It has the creation of industry disruptors. A rich interactive, users-friendly interface based on Ajax or similar frameworks is often used.
Google is tightly related to social networking because it provides free services for people to create their own space, or home pages, on which they write blogs, post pictures, videos, or music; share ideas, and link to other Web locations they find interesting. For example, Orkut is a social-networking service that competes in one of the fastest-growing Internet market, it is the website connect people through networks of friends or business contacts to find new friends or contacts. People have to sign up for using it.

Wireless activities
Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is wireless, and is commonly associated with a telecommunications network whose interconnections between nodes are implemented without the use of wires.( "Overview of Wireless Communications". cambridge.org. Retrieved 2008-02-08) Wireless telecommunications networks are generally implemented with some type of remote information transmission system that use selectromagnetic waves, such as radio waves, for the carrier and this implementation usually takes place at the physical level or "layer" of the network.

Wireless has become has become a generic and all-encompassing word used to describe communications in which electromagnetic waves or RF carry a signal over part or the entire communication path. :( O'Brien, J. & Marakas, G.M.(2008) Management Information Systems (pp. 239). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin) Common examples of wireless equipment in use
today include:

Professional LMR and SMR typically used by business, industrial and Public Safety entities.
Consumer Two-way radio, includes FRS Family Radio Service, GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) and Citizens band ("CB") radios.

The Amateur Radio Service: Consumer and professional Marine VHF radios
Cellular telephones and pagers: provide connectivity for portable and mobile applications, both personal and business.
Global Positioning System (GPS): allows drivers of cars and trucks, captains of boats and ships, and pilots of aircraft to ascertain their location anywhere on earth.
Cordless computer peripherals: the cordless mouse is a common example; keyboards and printers can also be linked to a computer via wireless. Cordless telephone sets: these are limited-range devices, not to be confused with cell phones.
Satellite television: allows viewers in almost any location to select from hundreds of channels.
Other related terminologies are, enhanced messaging service, which is extension of SMS; multimedia messaging service, which can deliver rich media; personal digital assistant, a small portable computer; smart phones, internet-enabled cell phones supporting mobile applications; WAP and WLAN which are all technologies that offers internet browsing.
Wireless networking is used to meet many needs. Perhaps the most common use is to connect laptop users who travel from location to location. Another common use is for mobile networks that connect via satellite. ("Heinrich Rudolf Hertz", chem.ch.huji.ac.il, Retrieved 2008-03-16)

Wireless transmission method is a logical choice to network a LAN segment that must frequently change locations. The following situations justify the use of wireless technology:
To span a distance beyond the capabilities of typical cabling; to provide a backup communications link in case of normal network failure; to link portable or temporary workstations; to overcome situations where normal cabling is difficult or financially impractical, or to remotely connect mobile users or networks.

Wireless communication can be via:
Radio frequency communication, microwave communication, for example long-range line-of-sight via highly directional antennas, or short-range communication, or
Infrared short-range communication, for example it is from remote controls or via Infrared Data Association. Applications may involve point-to-point communication, point-to-multipoint communication, broadcasting, cellular networks and other wireless networks.

Cordless is generally used to refer to powered electrical or electronic devices that are able to operate from a portable power source without any cable or cord to limit the mobility of the cordless device through a connection to the mains power supply. Some cordless devices, such as cordless telephones, are also wireless devices in the sense that information is transferred from the cordless telephone to the telephone's base unit via some type of wireless communications link. (Story, Alfred Thomas (1904). “A story of wireless telegraphy”, New York, D. Appleton and Co)

Applications of wireless technology:

Security systems: Wireless technology may supplement or replace hard wired implementations in security systems for homes or office buildings.
Television remote control: Modern televisions use wireless (generally infrared) remote control units. Now radio waves are also used.
Cellular telephone: The best known example of wireless technology is the cellular telephone and modems. These instruments use radio waves to enable the operator to make phone calls from many locations worldwide. They can be used anywhere that there is a cellular telephone site to house the equipment that is required to transmit and receive the signal that is used to transfer both voice and data to and from these instruments.

Computer interface devices: recent generations have used small, high quality devices, some even incorporating Bluetooth. These systems have become so ubiquitous that some users have begun complaining about a lack of wired peripherals. Wireless devices tend to have a slightly slower response time than their wired counterparts, however the gap is decreasing. Initial concerns about the security of wireless keyboards have also been addressed with the maturation of the technology.

Wireless energy transfer is a process whereby electrical energy is transmitted from a power source to an electrical load that does not have a built-in power source, without the use of interconnecting wires. ("Wireless Communication", sintef. no, Retrieved 2008-03-16)

These products bellow can be accessed through a browser on a mobile device, and they are all Google mobile products:
Blogger Mobile: It’s only available on some US networks allowing people to update their Blogger blog from a mobile device.
Documents: View documents on a mobile device.
Gmail: Access a Gmail account from a mobile device using a standard mobile web browser. Alternatively, Google provides a specific mobile application to access and download Gmail messages quicker.
iGoogle: Mobile version of iGoogle that can be easily customised with modules.
Orkut: Connect and share with friends on the go, and it connects people through networks of friends or contacts.
Product Search: It updated version of the previous Froogle Mobile that allows users to easily search for information about a product.
Mobile search: Search web pages, images, local listings and mobile-specific web pages through the Google search engine. Mobile view is enabled by default.
Google Maps Navigation: An Android navigation application for GPS-enabled mobile devices with 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting.

There’re also downloadable mobile products:
Some of these products must be downloaded and run from a mobile device.
Gmail is a downloadable application that has many advantages over accessing Gmail through a web on a mobile such as the ability to interact with Gmail features including labels and archiving. Requires a properly configured Java Virtual Machine, which is not available by default on some platforms.
Google Maps is a mobile application for viewing maps on a mobile device. The application lets you find addresses and plot directions. Teamed with a GPS the application can use geolocation and show current location on the map. People can also share current location with friends through Latitude. The device must have either a specific application to use Google maps or any phone with a properly configured Java Virtual Machine.
Talk: VoIP and text application exclusively for BlackBerry and Android smart phones. The Android version is lacking the VoIP function present in BlackBerry version and is text only.
YouTube: A downloadable application for viewing YouTube videos on selected devices.
Listen: A downloadable application for subscribing to and streaming podcasts and Web audio.

Google Wi-Fi is a municipal wireless network deployed in Mountain View, California. It is entirely funded by Google and installed primarily on Mountain View light posts. Google is committed to keeping the service free until 2010.Wi-Fi approaches speeds of some types of wired Ethernet. Some businesses charge customers a monthly fee for service, while others have begun offering it for free in an effort to increase the sales of their goods. (O'Brien, J. & Marakas, G.M., 2008, “Managment Information Systems, pp. 239”, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin)

Free services
The approach of super ads and that being the reason Google wants their own network is not unreasonable. They could even demand businesses to purchase ads in order to access the network. Also, with people signing in to the network, you can push ads their way, even forcing them to interact with the ad and, of course, with powerful analysis Google will know which individuals to target with what ads, and will be able to do so right when they get online.

However, Google should not go at it by itself. They should work with one of the small networkers to speed up the process and focus themselves in tightening the whole internet offer to the future users, including the super ads. If, in their arrogance, they fly solo then this project will never be a reality.

Google has the ranking of competitive prices, it uses little investment to bring enterprises a lot of potential clients, and effectively enhance the sales volume of the company. There’re more than 1 billion people search for information in Google, and after the enterprises sign up for the key words which are relevant to their products, they will be found out by clients who are searching for those products. The ranking for tendering counts fees according to how many potential clients visit the company’s sites, and the enterprise can flexibly control investments into web advertisements, and then obtain the maximum profits.

Google applications attract a huge number of visitors. They are spreading rapidly, and many of them cater to a specific segment of the population. In the future the large proportion of the young visitors will grow up and will have more money to spend. Therefore Google networks will play a major role in the future of e-commerce.

Because the services provided by Google is free, it has the competitive advantage comparing to other enterprises, such as Yahoo or wiki, and some of them need to charge fees although they work rapidly and effectively. Therefore customers are more willing to use the free ones, and
Google can own a much larger market than other competitors. Its major revenue comes from advertisements, so the more customers come to all kinds of site, the more possible they will trade online with retailers or companies who have commercial contracts with them. Hence
Google can own more income through attracting consumers by providing free services.
Retailers stand to benefit from Google online communities in several important ways, so Google will get profits from those supported retailers and investors through this way:

As long as Google provide free services, more customers will use their products, and they have more chances to communicate with customers, and consumers can be a source of feedback on existing product features, new product design, features on marketing as well as advertising campaigns, and how well customers service and support are performing, which can lead to innovation for Google products and services.

Brand awareness is a major objective of many companies, including Google. Many products, such as Google Print, Google desktop need people to aware their functions, and have a try in its Microsoft. This way the social aspects are maintained and the commercial objectives are also achieved.

Increased web site traffic, a common effect of viral marketing, inevitably brings with Google more ad dollars. The more people visit the web pages, the more Google can develop their site traffic, and the more they are able to own from advertisement.

Increased sales can come from harnessing techniques based on personal preferences such as collaborative filtering; at a more advanced level, Google can probably strive for a higher degree of relevance in matching the knowledge of one person to someone of like interests who has a need to know, so Google save the money for providing knowledge but still attract visitors.

There are some other ways Google networks generate revenues: offer premium service for a monthly or per service fee; partner organizations with the social networks, paying them a monthly service fee; provide local physical venues where members can meet.

There are 3 direct ways to monetize Google networks: advertising, subscriptions and commissions.

Some indirect ways that lead to revenue growth, user growth, and increased resistance to competition, which in turn lead to increased subscription, advertising, and commission revenue:
Strategic acquisition, identifying and acquiring Google companies which are on the exponential growth curve before the rest of the market realizes what they’re worth. When consumers are searching economic news about internet companies there will be big chances they realize Google ones are more optimized internet corporations.

Maintaining control of hard to recreate data sources, let users access everything, but do not let them keep it, such as Google’s providing access to their search index only over the web.

Building attention trust by being fair with customer data and leveraging users’ loyalty, people can get them to share more information about themselves, which in turn leads to much better products and services tailored to them. Turning applications into platforms, online platforms are actually easy to monetize, but having compelling content or services first is a prerequisite. Fully automated online customer self-service, let users get what they want, when they want it, without help.

Google E-commerce

One of the Google E-commerce activities is Gmail, it’s a free, advertising-supported webmail, POP3, and IMAP service provided by Google.
(Google, "How do I enable IMAP?". 2007-10-23,
)

It is useful for clients or customers to communicate with business partners, suppliers or retailers. Although its function is always useful to the general public, the free service is still quite cheap for business contact and it protect people’s privacy very much.
Gmail significantly increased the webmail standard for free storage from the 2 to 4 MBits competitors such as Hotmail offered at that time. (Craddock, Dirk, 2010-08-27, "A short history of Hotmail"<>)

Gmail could include business to business model, business to customer model and customer to customer model, for its convenience of contacting between individuals as well as entities. Gmail runs on Google GFE/2.0 on Linux. (Wei, Coach K.. "AJAX: Asynchronous Java + XML?", www.developer.com, 2008-11-13)

Google Mini is a cost-effective appliance business used to deploy corporate searches that mimic the main Google web search engine. The Google Mini offers the simplicity and power of Google's universal search technology at a great price. An integrated hardware and software solution, the Mini offers true plug-and-play installation and can be purchased online.

Product customization is one of e-commerce business model. Customers use Google to self-configure products or services. Supporting entities then price them and fulfil them quickly. Google product search is a product-comparison search engine for online shopping. A similar search tool is Google Catalogs which searches a database of mail-order Catalogs. It greatly help vendors understand what kind of products customers need.

Orkut is a social-networking service that competes in one of the fastest-growing Internet markets—websites that connect people through networks of business contacts to find new contacts in order to own more clients and get more financial support from investors, or obtain more resource suppliers. It is a good channel for businessmen to communicate for developing their business facilities.

It can be considered that enterprise searches provided by Google could be integrated with other applications to improve performance for enterprises. It is used to describe the application of search technology to information within an organization, though the search function and its results may still be public. Kaiser Permanente uses this Google search appliance so that it enables indexing documents, searching information for clinicians, doctors and nurses. It collects, processes, analyses, stores and distributes information for improving the hospital work more effectively.

Electronic marketplaces and exchanges: no matter Google itself, or the supported entities sell their products, they will conduct transactions efficiently in virtual marketplaces with customers. They show pictures of products and introduction videos about the products. The Google Video can help clients to search for products suitable for them, for sellers to publish the advertisements for their products and also the introduction for functions to use their products. It is quite vivid to use video as the channel as commerce use for customers will be greatly impressed by those products in the video and they will probably buy it and try to use it finally.

Online Auctions is also one of the e-commerce models here. Companies or individuals run auctions of various types on the Internet, it is fast and inexpensive way to sell or liquidate items. Relating to this is electronic tendering system, it is conducted online, requesting quotes from suppliers, used in B2B with a reverse auction mechanism.

Google Groups is a service from Google Inc. that supports discussion groups, including many Usenet newsgroups, based on common interests. Membership in Google Groups is free of charge and many groups are anonymous. They can discuss about a certain product or company they are concentrating on and communicate with the sellers and participate in business conversations, either through a web interface or by e-mail.(Google Groups Help Centre, "How do I create my own group?", 2010-08-10) They can supports reading and posting to Usenet groups. (Google Groups Help Centre, "What is a Usenet Newsgroup?", 2010-08-10) Users can also set up mailing list archives for e-mail lists that are hosted elsewhere.

Affiliate marketing is the e-commerce model. Google’s pay-per-click model shows when vendors ask Google to place logos on Google search engine. If customers click on logo, go to vendor’s site and buy, then vendors pays commissions to Google. This model is the most common one used in Google.

In summary, it is inevitable that a company like Google is most popular and successful one for its free internet services, multiple use products, and huge advertising supports by various organizations. As a social networking company, it still has much potential to develop in the future as the vast online marketplace. Insisting principle of reciprocity when they are doing business, it benefits customers by providing free services and provides chances for small business entities, it will always get profit from both sides.