Every so often a war arises. No, I don't mean a military conflict like Vietnam or Iraq but a business one. A business war is similar to a military one with fewer casualtiesthe winner becomes the (industry) leader for years to come. In years past we've had a host of business wars. Decades ago it was the big three automobile companies. In the 1980s, the cola companies were wrestling with each other. In the mid 1990s there were the browser wars: Microsoft's Internet Explorer versus Netscape Navigator. We all know who won. This time around it's the search wars. And in less than six months, the battle between Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft will be won. And if you write papers or "research" Paris Hilton, the result will likely affect you. Google ought to win because it represents a potent cocktail of market dominance, innovative solutions, and anti-Microsoft-ness.
There are over 10 billion websites online. If we are living in the information age, surely our search engines are the gateways. With so many internet sites, you were lucky to find any relevant websites matching your searches. Search engines allow us to drill down into the over 10 billion pages like water being poured into a funnel. Since its inception, the internet was been like the wild west; search engines help us tame it.
Some have fallen out of popular usage: Lycos, Excite, Dogpile, Altavista. Sure, these engines still exist, but when was the last time you didn't use Google? Thus, the stakes are high, and other companies are aiming for Google.
Started by some Stanford graduate students, Google is the market leader with 40.9 percent market share. Yahoo! comes in second with 27.4 percent and Microsoft's MSN is third with 19.6 percent. And Google's advantage is growing. The company's success is based on its technology. The search engine uses a democratic way of finding internet sites that match your search. When you enter "Britney Spears," the first site listed will be Britney Spears' official website. Google does this by determining how many websites link to Britney Spears' website. The more links you have to your website, the higher your ranking. It's hardly rocket science, but then again neither is Britney Spears music, and the former is a highly successful search engine method.
Here's the problem for Google: Microsoft is developing a similar search procedure, and Yahoo! just released its service. So you'll be able to access virtually the same information from any of the three engines. Google and Yahoo! actually used to be business partners but Yahoo! dumped Google on Feb. 18 because Yahoo! wanted to in-source their search features as opposed to outsourcing it to Google. Yahoo! has made some inroads on Google in that it now offers much of the same stuff Google does: localized advertisements, a page rank feature, and a powerful search toolbar.
Then there is the beastMicrosoft. It will release its new MSN engine in July. Microsoft is using its battle-tested formula: If at first a product doesn't succeed, integrate it with Microsoft Windows. In other words, Microsoft will most likely make its new search engine an integral part of Windows, so you can search from your desktop. With a 90% market share of operating systems, this could be the death nail for Google. But I don't think so. Google already has consumer preference working for it. How many of us are used to typing "Google" in the address bar? And Google is only going to get better. In fact, soon you'll be able to try Gmail -- e-mail Google style. Google gives everyone one Gigabyte of webmail. And when it comes to the information technology industry, if it's one gigabyte today, tomorrow it will be one hundred.
Another innovative solution is Project Ocean, Google's attempt to digitize the entire Stanford Library collection published before 1923. These books don't have copyright restrictions. If they succeed, we Google users will be able to access millions of digitized books. Employees at Google are hoping to merge their search features with cell phones so you can search from Baker Tower or Bangladesh.
Finally, Google isn't Microsoft. For years people have tried to claim the "better-than-Microsoft" throne just as Kobe and A.I. tried to take Michael Jordan's throne. But Google has something that other Microsoft competitors never had: a mainstream following. Forget the geeks like me who use Linux or feed readers. You, your roommate, and even your parents use Google. And if Google gets better, we'll use it even more.
