Superior Search Quality of Google - Coursework Example

Evaluate how the marketing strategy of Google Inc aided its economic rise and sustainability. Where is this success attributed to? Full Title Instructor’s name March 21, 2009 Evaluate how the marketing strategy of Google Inc aided its economic rise and sustainability. Where is this success attributed to? Googles story is familiar to many people: Two Stanford doctoral students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, built a set of algorithms that in 1998 that ignited a quantum leap in Web-search performance. Essentially, what they did was to develop search into a contest of popularity. In addition to measuring a phrases appearance on a Web page, as other engines did, Google evaluated relevance by counting the number and importance of other pages that linked to that page. Superior search quality of Google In order to understand the reason for the superior quality of Google’s search engines, it is important first to understand the aims of its founders in creating Google. The major aim of Google was to improve the quality of web search engines. In the early 1990s, there were people who were convinced that a complete search index would make it possible to search anything simply. However, the Web of 1996 was considerably different compared to what it is now. Anyone who presently uses a search engine can vouch that the completeness of the index is not the only factor in the quality of search results (Bagdikian, 1997). Junk results many times erase any results that a user is interested in. In fact, as of June 1997, merely one of the top three commercial search engines returned its own search page as a response to its name in the top ten results (Kleinberg, 1998). One of the main reasons of this problem was that the number of documents in the indices had been rising by many levels of magnitude, but the users ability to view documents had not. People only wanted to view the first few tens of results. Due to this, as the collection size increases, tools that have very high precision (number of relevant documents returned, e.g. in the top ten of results) are required. Of course, it was desired that the notion of "relevant" only consisted of the very best documents since there could have been tens of thousands of somewhat relevant documents. This considerable accuracy is significant even at the expense of recall (the total number of relevant documents the system is able to return). Recently, there is considerable optimism that the use of more hypertextual information can assist in improving search and other applications. Specifically, link structure and link text supply plenty of information for deciding relevance judgments and quality filtering (Kleinberg, 1998). Incidentally, Google employs both link structure and anchor text. Another significant design aim was to construct systems that a reasonable number of people could actually employ. Usage was significant to Google because they believe that a considerable number of the most exciting research will require leveraging the huge amount of usage data that is available from modern web systems. For instance, there are many tens of millions of searches executed every day. Nevertheless, it is rather complicated to obtain this information, largely because it is considered commercially valuable. Google’s last design aim was to construct an architecture that could support new research activities on huge-scale web data. To take care of new research uses, Google deposits all of the actual documents it crawls in compressed form (Bagdikian, 1997). One of Google’s major objectives in designing Google was to construct an environment where other researchers could come in fast, process huge amount of the web, and create exciting results that would have been very complicated to create otherwise. In the little time the system has been up, there have already been a number of papers using databases constructed by Google, and many others are in the pipeline. Another objective of Google is to construct an environment where researchers or even students can suggest and conduct exciting experiments on Google’s large-scale web data. Thus, the Google search engine has two significant characteristics that help it create high accuracy results. First, it employs the link structure of the Web to calculate a quality ranking for each web page. This ranking is named PageRank. Secondly, Google employs link to develop search results. PageRank The link graph of the web is a critical resource that has hugely gone unemployed in existing web search engines. Google has produced maps consisting of as many as 507 million of these hyperlinks, an essential sample of the total. These maps allow fast calculation of a web pages "PageRank", an objective gauge of its citation significance that imitates and complements well peoples subjective idea of relevance and significance. Because of this complement, PageRank is a superior method to prioritize the results of web keyword searches. For majority of well-known topics, a simple text matching search that is restricted to web page titles executes excellently when PageRank prioritizes the results. For the forms of full text searches in the main Google system, PageRank also assists a huge amount. Thus, Google’ page Rank has produced order to the World Wide Web. Advantage of Google over rivals To this day, Google maintains its title as the undisputable search engine champion. Google relates that it processes more than 153 million searches a day -- and the exact number is likely much higher than that (Miles, 2009). In order for its search engine to be ahead of its competitors, Google has to deliver search results (or information) as fast as possible at as low a cost as possible. To gain a better comprehension of Google and its business model, one can dissect it into three information facts: 1. Relevance of results. 2. Quickness of search. 3. Cost of performing a search query. While Google’s results are not perfect, they are superior over others. Google currently has 63 percent of the total search market (Miles, 2009). Even though a common Google query can often be fruitless, people tolerate it because the results are fast. If people make a mistake, they can just begin all over again. The quicker the results are seen on viewers’ browsers, the less likely they will be to switch to a rival search engine, no matter how great the rival’s search methodology may be. The quicker (and more effective) its infrastructure, the more assuredly Google can continue serving the ad-based money generator. In other words, the company has to ensure that the speed of its search is extremely quick. Currently, any random search on Google ranges between 0.11 to 0.05 seconds. That is extremely fast. Google is able to achieve this by indexing the Internet excellently. The secret is in delivering the search results from this index at extreme speed, and that requires an infrastructure extremely huge amount of bandwidth and specialized hardware that is working efficiently. For this reason, it is completely sensible for Google to construct their own servers, storage systems, Internet switches and possibly even optical transport systems in the future. To recapitulate: Consider connecting thousands of hosts (storage and server systems) at speeds of 10.5 gigabits per second, in a manner that allows any-to-any connections. The quantity of racks, fiber, routers and all else in between is overwhelming. If the system were constructed employing gear from established hardware constructors, it would take an extraordinary effort to allow it all to perform together. In other words, the absolute cost to maintain such a machine running would grab a huge part of the infrastructure. A superior alternative is to have gear that is customized for the processes, those in which it can have a massive operational expenditure advantage. In the telecommunications bubble, large service providers capitulated to large operational expenditures. With the exception of optical systems, Google has constructed or is in the process of constructing the gear. It has been circulated to be a huge purchaser of dark fiber to connect its data centers, which is consistent in explaining why the company spent almost $3.7 billion over the last six to seven quarters on capital expenditures (Bagdikian, 1997). One can argue that constructing customized gear is a costly strategy, but when a company is the scale of Google, it begins to turn to less of an issue. This is because process-optimized infrastructure ensures that Google’s cost of executing a query decreases proportionately. To summarize, Google’s extraordinarily huge infrastructure is the huge barrier to entry for its rivals, and will remain so, as long as the company continues spending billions on it. Furthermore, Google comprehends and sees that its two most critical assets are the attention and trust of its users. If it takes too long to convey results or an additional word of text on the home page is too disturbing, Google endangers its relationship and attention from its users. Similarly, if the search results are poor, or if they are compromised by advertising, it endangers itself to losing peoples trust. Thus, attention and trust are sacred for Google to maintain its superiority. Google likewise comprehends the capacity of the Web to leverage expertise. Its product-engineering accomplishment is similar to an ongoing, discussion with various sources. The site promotes around 11 developing technological projects, majority of which may never become products or services. The technologies are simply there because Google is keen on seeing how people respond. It looks for feedback and insights. Having users employ the technology who understand it conveys to Google earlier whether promising ideas are actually good ideas that will actually be successful. Google’s revenue model Google provides targeted advertising solutions and global Internet search services. Its main products and services include Adwords and Adsense. Google Adwords Google AdWords is a pay per click advertising program of Google created to allow the advertisers to post advertisements to people at the instant the people are searching for information related to what the advertiser has to offer. For example, when a user searches Googles search engine, advertisements for related words are shown as "sponsored link" on the right side of the screen, and at times above the main search results. Google produces most of its revenue from Google AdWords. In mid-2005, Google launched the Google Publication Ads Program through which they circulated their advertisers’ advertisements for publication in magazines (Lardinois, 2009). Google likewise receives as revenue the fees charged advertisers when their advertisements are published in magazines. Pay per Click Advertising: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is an efficient method to allow instant, targeted traffic to an advertiser’s website. It is an online advertising payment model in which payment is dependent on qualifying click-throughs. An advertiser only pays every time his advertisement is clicked. The advertisers choose the relevant keywords to their offer that will display their advertisement and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click for leads brought about by the keyword. Google AdSense AdSense is an online advertisement serving program run by Google. Website proprietors register in this program to permit text, image and, video advertisements from advertisers on their sites. Revenue is based on a per-click or per-thousand-advertisements shown basis and the advertisements are managed by Google. The AdSense program consists of AdSense for search and AdSense for content. AdSense for search was introduced sometime during the second quarter of 2002 and is Google’s service for showing relevant ads from its advertisers for display with search results on the Google network members’ websites. On the other hand, AdSense for content, introduced in the second quarter of 2003, shows ads from Google’s advertisers that are relevant to content on Google network members’ websites (Miles, 2009). Google advertisers are obliged to pay Google a charge for the service each time a user clicks on one of their advertisements shown on Google network members’ websites.  Marketing campaigns: Google’s experiment with new revenue model In 2007, Google introduced and tested a new advertising program that pays site owners based on a payment for a specified action such as purchasing or submitting a form. The program named Cost-Per-Action was introduced through an invitation e-mail from the Google AdSense team to website owners. The innovation offered advertisements with a creative way to earn revenue from their website by hosting advertisements that were paid based on a Cost-Per-Action (CPA) basis. These advertisements were different in that users were able to select among choices to promote the advertisements. The CPA advertisements contrasted from AdSense advertisements in that a website owner gets paid whenever a visitor clicks on an advertisement and performs a specific action, such as purchasing a product from the advertiser. On the other hand, an AdSense text advertisement brings revenue for the website owner if a user simply clicks on the advertisement. According to Google, the CPA ads were not created to compete with AdSense advertisements as they displayed across a "Content Referral" network that is unattached to the AdSense network. Google also emphasized that the CPA advertisements would attract a different type of user. The Cost per Action was discontinued by Google in mid-2008. Importance of Adsense to users The importance of Adsense can be appreciated by understanding how it works. In fact, the concept is not difficult to understand. A java script is entered into a particular website by the publisher or the webmaster. Every time the page is viewed, the java script will admit advertisements from the Adsense program. The advertisements that are targeted must be related to the content that is included on the web page serving the advertisement. When a visitor clicks on an advertisement, the webmaster serving the advertisement earns a percentage of the income that the advertiser is paying the search engine for the click. The tracking and costs are completely managed by the Google search engine, hence allowing an easy method for webmasters to post content-sensitive and targeted advertisements without the managerial complications of marketing. Adsense has already made huge advancements in appreciating the needs of publishers and webmasters. It has also persevered in constantly renovating the appearance of a more advanced system, permitting complete customization of the advertisements. Webmasters praise Adsense because they are given the option to select from many various types of text advertisement composition to better integrate their website and match their webpage layout. However, some webmasters lament that there is a chance of more than one click-through when the visitor is not knowledgeable of what they are really clicking on. Nevertheless, it may also attract the person visiting and he/ she may go on the next action of seeking out more information. This is the method by which the advertisers behind the Adsense get their content read while earning revenues in the process. Another reason for the appeal of Adsense to advertisers is that Adsense publishers can trace not only how their sites are improving, but the revenues are likewise based on the webmaster-defined channels. The current progress in the search engines provides webmasters the ability to track how their advertisements are successfully performing using customizable reports that have the ability to specify page impressions. Webmasters and publishers have experessed appreciation that they can also track detailed advertising plans, color and pages within a website. Similarly, trends are also quickly discovered through these reports. Due to its real time reporting, the capability of any change in Google advertisements can be evaluated fast. It will be understandable to the advertisers what Google visitors are mostly clicking on, hence permitting the webmasters the capacity to meet the changing needs while generating revenues. In addition, webmasters are likewise able to cluster web pages by URL, domain, ad type or category, which allows precise insight on which pages, ads and domains are performing well. Finally, the importance of Adsense is that the advertisers have understood the advantages connected with having their advertisements provided on targeted websites. This raises the chances that a potential web surfer will have an interest in their product and services as a result of the content and its constant maintenance. In contrast to those who are not displaying Adsense in their websites, Adsense advertisers are given the option of having other people create their content for them, allowing them the advantage of saving time to attain successful and revenue generating web sites. As a recommendation, Google should maintain its focus on its core competence: achieving the fastest search speed. In addition, Google can generate more revenues by satisfying its main revenue source by ensuring targeted content for the advertiser. The better targeted the content is, the more targeted the advertisement will be in the search engine for the advertiser. New revenue models such as Cost per Action should be reconsidered so that advertisers are allowed more options to get value for their advertising money. Conclusion/ Main revenue source of Google Among the paid sources of revenue for Google, Adwords brings more than ninety-one percent of the revenue. Hence, the function of adwords to the growth of Google is very significant. If advertisers continue to choose AdWords and the usability of the advertisements increases with regard to the number of users clicking on the advertisements, Google will endure in generating profits. However, this information allows for manipulation in the search results and paid advertisements in order to raise revenues. Likewise, occurrences of click fraud augment the revenue of Google when they are not given due attention. Each year the number of people using Google and its network websites rises. Hand in hand with this, the revenue also increases. In spite of this, Google consistently raises its share of the pie each year. For example, based on statistics, the percentage breakdown between Google and the adsense publisher from the years 2002 to 2004 were: In 2002 it was 87 percent to AdSense publisher and 13 percent to Google For the first half of 2003 it was 83 percent to AdSense publisher and 17 percent to Google By the end of 2003 it was 76% to AdSense publisher and 24 percent to Google For the first half of 2004 it was 75% to AdSense publisher and 25% to Google Clearly, the percentage share of Google is increasing through the years and it is expected that as Google grows bigger, it will require bigger shares over the years. References Bagdikian, B. (1997). The Media Monopoly. 5th Edition. New York: Beacon Kleinberg, J. (1998). Authoritative Sources in a Hyperlinked Environment. Proc. ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 1998. Lardinois, F. (2009). Google introduces Internet based advertising. Read write Web. Retrieved 20 March 2009, from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_introduces_interest- based_ads.php Miles, S. (2009). Google revenue up, but profit down. Pocket Lint. Retrieved 20 March 2009, from http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/news.phtml/20610/21634/google- reveunes-up-profits-down.phtml Read More