Focus at Google

It is obvious that Google has overall been an extremely successful competitor in each of its developed services, offered largely through the Internet. The company acts as an “infomediary,” mainly supplying large amounts of information to a mass consumer base, consisting of a multi-sided platform of consumers and merchants. Its main mission and respective strength or value is the ability “to make all the world’s information accessible and useful.” Therefore, it is recommended that Google focus its efforts on developing superior search solutions and monetizing them through targeted advertising.

Google already has the necessary tools to develop superior search tools. The company is known for its innovative engineers, who continually enhance algorithms, creating accomplished services such as Personalized Search, Search History as well as local and vertical search. Furthermore, the company heavily invested in its ability to produce lightening-fast returns on search queries. Additionally, Google refused to compromise the integrity of its search results, helping to build its invaluable loyal consumer base, as its success relies on a network of people and companies.

Advertisers were initially drawn to Google because its network offered more search traffic and allowed lower minimum CPC bids, yielding high switching costs. The company also acquired DoubleClick to increase effectiveness in placing display advertisements. Although this was true, estimates of click fraud varied widely and advertisers began to question both charges and ad placements. Therefore, it is vital that Google effectively advertise in a trustworthy manner, ensuring that both consumers and merchants feel secure. The company could develop a tracking system to show merchants the vitality of Google advertising based on a weighted cost-per-click ratio. Additionally, the company should continue pursuing efforts to target local advertisers, showcasing their ads to specific consumers in a particular region and increasing brand awareness and user acquisition. Most importantly, Google should charge merchants based on a versioning model, tailoring to each unique customer need. This will allow Google to produce customer- specific information, locking-in merchants.

Furthermore, the outlined suggestions will provide Google with the most promising opportunities over the next 5-10 years. Due to the growth and development of the World Wide Web, search has broadened to include print, video, mobile and potentially much more in the near future. Google could implement targeted advertising techniques on YouTube to grow its consumer and merchant base, since it has access to billions of consumers. Thus, there are numerous possibilities to utilize these avenues to develop and supply a more diverse and effective search tool, allowing Google to increase its user base to monetize through target advertising and ultimately continue to dominate the Internet world.