Telecom Circle

We may not realize but search is the most useful tool on the internet and no session is complete without a visit to a search engine. Google is the undisputed king of ‘search’ with over 65% market share followed by Yahoo and Microsoft. The success of Google is attributed to its successful search business model. No wonder, companies like Microsoft and Yahoo are trying hard to gain share of the search business. Microsoft had bid for Yahoo last year to get its search assets and is now all set for announcing a new search engine next week. Yahoo is also understood to be developing a new version of search engine that would improve answers to search queries by better classifying the data scattered all over the web. Both Microsoft and Yahoo are trying to minimize the time and clicks it takes to reach the desired information.

What is it about the business model of Google that has made search a cornerstone of internet strategy of any company? Google has been able to successfully integrate search with its other offerings. According to Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine, “Google is in the business of organization and knowledge businesses”. This means that Google knows about what we do and also knows well what we do with this information. This helps Google in its main business of advertising. Google is able to do targeted advertisement due to the fact that it is in the business of search and knows that exactly are we doing and hence knows what could be our potential needs.

Google ability to organize the scattered data on the web and push the search results in real time to the surfers has been the reason for its success. Its early mover advantage and continuous improvement effort saw it capture a huge market share. Google is the most sought after search engine for listing for any new website. When I started to blog, I did not even bother to get the blog listed on any search engine other than Google. Google acquired the advertising company call Double Click to be able to monetize its search functionality. Google allows the individual website owners to register for displaying the ads. Google in a way buys space from individual website owners, places the ads of its clients on the websites and shares the ad revenues with the website owners. The CTR (click thru rate) depends on how targeted the advertisement is and here comes the expertise of Google and its insights from the search business. It knows what that the surfer is looking for and what has been its web history. The higher the CTR, higher are the ad rates it is able to charge to its clients. Google not only shares the revenue with the website owners but also provides traffic to their website that further helps them earn more through Google Ads. This is like a circular reference with a win-win for everybody.

Other companies like Microsoft and Yahoo have understood that for a successful venture in the internet space, it is critical to control the search business. They are trying out newer things to come up with innovative and useful search functionality. Yahoo plans to add specific data like photos, addresses and other information in the search results rather than simple links to the web pages. A new Microsoft search engine, code-named Kumo, has been undergoing testing by company employees. It is said it will group results of a search into smaller categories, thus potentially cutting down on the time needed for Web searches. Both Microsoft and Yahoo have renewed talks on collaboration on search to take on Google.

Another space that is gaining prominance is local search and mobile search using mobile features of camera and location. Local search is the natural evolution of traditional off-line advertising, typically distributed by newspaper publishers and TV and radio broadcasters, to the Web. Consumers are increasingly using the web to find local products and services. Change in consumer preference has lead to advent of several local search engines. Several providers have been experimenting with providing local search for mobile devices. Some of these are location aware. Yellow pages are fast losing their sheen.

Mobile phones have an inherent advantage when it comes to search as it has features like camera and GPS. Experiments are being conducted on a new technology called “Point and Search” on mobile phones. In order to receive information about a point of interest, users simply point their cell phone at a building, landmark, or other identifiable location and click. On-demand location-specific information is then sent to the user’s handset over the wireless network. Initial target applications include self-guided tours, mobile real estate search, pedestrian navigation, and city guides. Geo Vector and iPoint are one of the few technology providers for “Point and Search”.  Intrinsic in all of these applications is the opportunity to also include highly targeted location-sensitive advertising. This means that if one is in front of Louvre museum in Paris, by pointing the camera of the mobile to the museum, one can find out about the museum like its history, time of opening, entry fee, etc and can even buy the tickets using mobile payments. This technology would be a big boost to the travel industry. “Point and Search” technology can also be used for Mobile Ticketing (A video demonstrating the mobile ticketing using this technology and QR codes is there in one of my previous posts). Other similar uses of this could be scan a barcode with your camera phone to get the latest product information, reviews and to find out where to find the lowest prices online.

Search has come a long way since its initial days of Archie, Veronica and AltaVista. Google has changed the face of search and it will be very difficult for any company to gain share from Google.

Also Read: Google – Has it hit the growth ceiling

                    Will Google Voice create barriers for Android

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