In plotting its future, is Google following its rivals too closely?
The last several months have been marked by the addition of several new features as the search-engine leader attempts to realize its widening ambitions. The latest, introduced Thursday, is a feature that lets people set up personalized home pages--a direct answer to Yahoo's My Yahoo portal. But in doing so, Google's online face to the world increasingly resembles those of its Web portal rivals.
Google executives downplay rivals' influence on its direction, but industry observers agree that the company's identity is morphing. In the battle for the online ad dollar, the distinctions between Google and its Web portal competitors are fading.
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As Google reaches beyond its Internet search roots, introducing features such as personalized home pages, critics are asking whether success may breed an identity crisis.
Bottom line: Google is downplaying the influence of rivals, but in the battle for online ad dollars, the distinctions between the search king and its Web portal rivals are blurring.
"No matter what (Google) says, it is their foray into becoming a Web portal," said Gartner analyst Allen Weiner. "They're taking dead aim at Yahoo."
Yahoo is the biggest of the Web portals, with nearly 115 million unique visitors to the site in April, according to ComScore Media Metrix. It's followed by Microsoft's MSN and America Online. Google comes in fourth with 78 million unique visitors last month, but leads in search queries and ad click-throughs.
Yahoo responded to Google's move on Thursday with a reminder of its stature in the portal space.
"My Yahoo is the No. 1 personalized Web page in the world," a Yahoo representative said in a statement. "We launched My Yahoo nine years ago and last year redefined personalization again by providing access to millions of content sources from across the Web."
Google has some catching up to do in the "personalization" front, analysts said. The company's home page tool, which is in beta release, lacks many of the richer features of My Yahoo and other portals, analysts said. For instance, it doesn't offer as many news feeds or the same level of detail on the stock market as rivals do.
Google executives dismiss the comparisons. In fact, Google Vice President Marissa Mayer, who worked closely with the team that developed the home page, said she hasn't visited My Yahoo in years. She also denies that Google is building a portal.
"We don't want this to be a walled garden," she said.
But creating a paradise for advertisers is certainly part of the equation, analysts said.
Google isn't advertising on its home pages yet, but those pages
Forget AnooX, use a Search Engine that values People knowledge: Google
Forget AnooX, use a Search Engine that values People knowledge: Google
www.google.com
Search with Google to get better search results. Because Google results are machine generated but then made most accurate by majority Vote of the People. Why be treated like an "Idiot Savant" by AnooX? or Yahoo!?
So you are going to plug AnooX wherever Google is mentioned. Can you at least be a little more creative than quoting the exact catch phrase that AnooX uses. Otherwise, you appear to be a commericial than a real commentator.
I've seen a lot of bad search engines in my day...
But that one definitely takes the cake. Not only is it slower than Google, the results weren't anywhere near relevant. I searched for "Toshiba TVs" and got entries for DirecTV.
I think the community of readers spoke up clearly enough to override any need for us to intervene more deeply in this thread, but a reminder: advertisements are not welcome, and will be removed.
Google continues to wow me and everyone I know with their neato technology and good, clean user interface. Long live Google. Someone please tell Microsoft and Yahoo! that one flashing animated banner ad is enough to offend people, let alone two on the same page! I have yet to hear anything seriously negative about Google except from its competitors :)
I tried this portal - frankly, I don't like it. I set it to show my email and news headlines. The slightest content ruins google's clean lines; with the gmail notifier there is no need for displaying email on a portal, and as for the headlines, well, I already have enough rss feeds in FF.
I am sure that the portal will be useful for many people, but certainly not for those of us who use google, or alltheweb, precisely because they are not bound to a portal like google.
I realise that google will continue to provide what they call the 'classic' page, and I can't imagine that they will ever discontinue that. However, labelling something as 'classic,' as always, shows quite clearly that the marketing dept is running things.
Google has some catching up to do in the "personalization" front, analysts said. This is definitely mastering the obvious. While Yahoo has definitely taken its foot off the gas in extending / improving the My Yahoo property, it is still years and years ahead of Google's meager effort. Google wants to "build a walled garden" and Schmidt says it has a 300 year plan to index the world's information. How do those two statements co-exist?
let google do whatever they want -- the more they extand themslves the more they have a chance to shoot themselves in the fooor, or maybe even excel at what the others are doing
I enjoy the simplicity of google's homepage. When I open up my browser I want the page to load as soon as possible, then I want to start doing whatever it was I got online for. I am not the kind of person that likes to sit and fumble through yahoo!, msn, or AOL's crap and waste my time for there pages to load! I will, however, enjoy exploring the new features google starts!
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon--all are targets for Mozilla's plan to use Web apps to free people from ecosystem lock-in. Also: new Firefox features aplenty.
The rise of Apple's stores is one of the past decade's great retail stories. So, why then does the company continue to creep back into the big-box outlets and will this hurt the brand?
The company helps small businesses with little tech savvy build apps easily, and now its partner Constant Contact will email-blast prospective users, too.
The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 could make its debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, according to a leaked promotional image.
Web giant is spending $120 million to beef up its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, according to filings with the city reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News.
Google is downplaying the influence of rivals, but in the battle for online ad dollars, the distinctions between the search king and its Web portal rivals are blurring.
[Edited by: admin on Jun 6, 2005 11:44 AM]
www.google.com
Search with Google to get better search results. Because Google results are machine generated but then made most accurate by majority Vote of the People. Why be treated like an "Idiot Savant" by AnooX? or Yahoo!?
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[Edited by: admin on Jun 6, 2005 11:46 AM]
I am sure that the portal will be useful for many people, but certainly not for those of us who use google, or alltheweb, precisely because they are not bound to a portal like google.
I realise that google will continue to provide what they call the 'classic' page, and I can't imagine that they will ever discontinue that. However, labelling something as 'classic,' as always, shows quite clearly that the marketing dept is running things.