Executive Summary and Conclusion on Google - Admission/Application Essay Example

Executive Summary Launched in the year 1996, Google has since shown a steady growth and has become one of the most widely used search engines as by the year 2004 Google had covered nearly 75% of the search engine market in the US. The major strengths of the company that has helped it to achieve such heights of success are its speed, user-friendly format with a simple human-machine interface, regular updating such as the use of page rank technology which indexes important pages first, and reliability. Apart from providing global information, Google also offers the option of search by location by which users can get information about products and services within their locality. Additionally the search engine also provides software and programs to its consumers. The search engine provides an interface in 88 different languages which has helped to capitalize the global market that too at low operational costs. Google also provides solutions for wireless devices and toolbars, online features such as productivity software and photo/video sharing, and supports offline applications through its Google gears product. Since Google is primarily a web service provider the only product that consumers need is a web browser and Google themselves have come out with their own browser in 2008, Google chrome. Google’s travel guides, Google earth and Google Map’s Street View gives people an opportunity to travel the streets of the favorite countries around the world. The introduction of customized services such as Google Co-op and the traffic analysis software, Google analytics, gave a big boost to Google over other search engines. GTalk, Gmail and Google Toolbar enhanced the communication process between people. While the search engine has several advantages to its credit, on the company front it has lost some talented employees like Tim Armstrong, the company’s former vice-president, over the years. The company is also falling short in the marketing area with its difficulty to sell ads in magazines something which other key players are capitalizing and unless the company puts in additional efforts its will not be able to target consumers through offline ads. Google is also facing problems from the application point of view as many if its products such as Google Reader and Google Video have not been user-friendly. The link-based ranking system without any proper traffic analysis coupled with problems with the search algorithms has made it difficult for those who are interested in marketing their products. Several companies have also launched lawsuits against Google for copyright infringement. While the company suffers from these major drawbacks, it still has several opportunities left including the advertising partnership with Yahoo which has opened up the possibility of mergers that would help the company achieve a mass-market by increasing the number of users. The migration tools and services, enterprise wave along with the extensions under the Google wave has also opened up opportunities for the company. Despite the many opportunities in store for Google, the company SWOT analysis has revealed that it faces threats from other competitive companies. Companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo and other search engines such as Baidu and Yandex are providing stiff competition to Google through better branding and quality services. Start up companies such as Mahalo could also become a major threat to Google as they are backed by capitalists and along with better technological quality or acquisitions to capture users they could be quite a challenge to companies like Google. Other new innovations such as the new operating system from MSN, longhorn, which can search emails and websites without the need for a web browser, could cause serious harm to Google’s market. Google is by no doubt a major player in the internet industry, however, it is under pressure to address its challenges and conquer weaknesses in order to not lose users. In order to achieve the company could choose to enter into collaborations, offer new and improved services such as instant messaging which are both simple to use as well as up to date and also integrating existing services which would be beneficial to the customer. In addition the company engineers should be encouraged to produce innovative products that would help the company’s revenue as well as get a broader customer base. It should also work to keep spammer at bay that would help it to improve its ranking technology. Improved search algorithms would also help to keep out the spammers as will personalized search solutions that would help in establishing a long-term relationship with their customers. Employee retention would also be vital for the growth of the company and this it could do by understanding the needs of the employee and providing competitive salaries, recognition and opportunities for growth. Additionally diversification of income without completely relying on search systems and by avoiding unnecessary lawsuits would definitely help in the growth and success of the company. Conclusion While the success of the Google Company can be seen in it achieving over 75% of the web search market in the US, it does fall short in several vital areas such as less success in offline efforts, ranking policies, under utility of some of its products and the lawsuits that the company is presently facing all together hinder the progress of the company. The company will have to realize that having achieved a good customer base it is also important in this current situation when several competitive companies are making their foray that it cannot afford to make mistakes. The newer companies are banking on better quality and advertising to enhance their market value. Hence Google will have to capitalize on its user-friendly search engine and find ways to improve its working system with more enhanced and updated algorithms. Additionally, it should also concentrate on promoting its other products in a way that would attract the consumers to utilize them along with the search engine facility. This would greatly enable the company to retain users who would get additional benefits from a single browser. Enhanced search options, new services and integrating existing ones, all of which are constantly updated, collaborations or acquisitions could boost the company’s development and help it retain the position of a key player in the market. Another key requirement is retention of the brain force of the company as only when people remain in a company for long will they be more committed and hard working. Thus proper recognition and provision of suitable opportunities for its employees is also a vital area that the company should concentrate. If all this can be achieved the company can definitely achieve greater heights in the near future. Read More