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INK supplied Yahoo/Hotbot
Excite supplied AOL
Infoseek was stand-alone
AV was stand-alone
Only INK/AV are alive now.. And AV barely has a pulse..
No matter what anybody says about AV today, from '97-2000, they were "the" search engine. The techies loved them, everyone raved about them. "Sound Familiar"?
Google has two choices, stay completely away from becoming a portal,and compete with Inktomi and FAST, or completely become a portal. There is no middle ground, as AV found out the hard way.
People can rave "on and on" about Google being this and that, but the bottom line is, they are a business, and alliances/partnerships on the web, change at the speed of light.
Excite had good market share for their stand-alone portal, and supplied results to AOL. Where are they today? Many of you weren't active on the web in '99, but we raved on about Excite, because they were a great "traffic" source.
If Google's algo was to change to the point that it was not easily influenced, and the traffic dramatically decreased, players here would be singing a different tune.
Anyone that thinks that Google has more presence than Yahoo on the web, is badly mistaken. Portal entry points to the web drive traffic, and supply search engines with search requests, not stand alone SE's.. Yahoo/AOL/MSN are successful portals, where ISP providers such as Earthlink (Google), and Time-Warner RoadRunner Broadband (LookSmart) are not.
How many referrals do you get from Earthlink Google searches? Next to nothing..
Google either steps up, and takes on Yahoo and AOL, or they back off. Ask AV about trying to "ride the fence"...
I agree with most of what your point is.
I truly think we are seeing the peak of Google at this time. This new update was not to impressive. Almost fast/intkomi like results.
I've been meaning to sticky you about this RZ, but now, since the kiddies are all around the campfire swapping horror stories about the latest Google update, wanna tell them about Black Monday?
Seriously though, I can't see any reason for Yahoo to drop Google. You have the best portal teamed up with the best search engine. Both make money off of each other and together they provide 90% of my traffic. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I know it is hard to convince CEO's of that but it almost always holds true.
Google is a much different beast. Look at their strategy, partnerships, etc. and then think about where AV was 3 years ago when black monday hit.
AV made a big mistake. So much so, that their business is about toast.
Enter Google. They haven't (yet) made that caliber of mistake, and have forged partnerships the like of which only Overture has matched in the search business, and the difference between the revenue potential for the two companies could be huge, but it could also be very similar.
Given that, I have to say the comparison was more apt about a year ago. Now, Google more resembles Overture.
And -> Yahoo already has a deal with Overture, too. So, Yahoo will keep Google, for money, and for investment return.
"Google has revenue" where? and how is Yahoo making money from Google? Isn't Yahoo paying Google for the search service?
Also I think Inktomi is willing to pay Yahoo to use thier search service b/c the are making money from the CPC and PFI.
AV's fall from grace IMHO, was
1. it's rush to portalization, which slowed down loading times, and introduced very obvious commercial spins ( "Buy products about "your query here" indeed! ) which "branded" AV to the consumer as a shopping portal rather than a search portal. Google is far more subtle in their commercialization.
AND
2. They were outcompeted and outbranded by an ever improving google in terms of quality of SERPS, business focus, and a more "consumer friendly and targeted" brand which understood the dissatisfactions of consumers with Web delivery and talked in their language rather than the typical "big biz down" method. Im an older person so Google's trendy everyman brand personality did not work as well with me personally as say tecchies and younger people, but I sure see why it was a success.
AND
3. Sticking to the knitting: AV's brand of "the search company" and "Smart is beautiful" suffered badly in a gap of crdibility. Brand integrity was low. They over-diversfied. Even though Google is braodening to news search, they are sticking to Search. What do you want to search for today?
AND
4. AV had a reactive conservative strategy. Google has a proactive bolder strategy,made even more bolder in that it was implemented in a time of panic for many internet ventures.
So i beg to differ that Google is in the same position as AV, other than their respective high market share for free indexing in their own times. I really dont think Black Monday had a major effect compared to those above.
[edited by: chiyo at 2:40 am (utc) on Oct. 3, 2002]
"Google has revenue" where?
1. Adwords: noticed how they are increasing at a very fast rate? Notice how in many cases, they are not exactly cheap?
2. Selling/licensing of technology and databases to the likes of AOL and their search services to many smaller companies and institutions for own site search.
3. Premium Listings: again, not exactly cheap
4. boxes, etc. etc. guess they arent selling merchandise yet :)
Other than revenue, uncosted but what must be large amounts of equity for consumer goodwill and the brand.
Google is proving itself to be the "take a popular topic and provide a quality search for it company."
1. Provide a search system for sites that are picked up on a voting/topical/keyword method.
2. Provide a directory system pulled from another directory and ranked according to step 1.
3. Provide users the option to search for images on their topic, minus some topics.
4. Provide users with access to addresses and maps.
5. Provide users with access to special documents.
6. Provide users access to newsgroups.
7. Provide users with text-based ads.
8. Provide users a catalog search system.
9. Provide users with an answering service.
10. Provide users a news search.
What's possibly next?
A. Provide users with a search service to on-line shopping services.
B. Provide users with personalized results.
C. Provide users with online voice-activated browsing.
Google has some of the top online data mining / AI specialists onboard. They are NOT the AV and Excite of the past. They are Google.
Whether or not we like it, we depend on them and so will many companies out there. If they are to be compared with anyone, it should not be some hasbeen search engine of the past or present, it should be Microsoft. And the only difference there is between them, is that Google is not rushing in on everything.
Google is moving towards being the prime source of IR whether feeded or not. Sure they won't become some big portal but they will sure offer unique and separate searches to those areas that portals offer now.
It's been reported that Yahoo owns part of Google.
