Google: The search party is over by Fortune Magazine wrote a large piece on Google and their business. In part, they wrote:
It looks a lot like the midday break at some elite college campus. But almost 12 years after it was launched by precocious Stanford grad students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google and its founders are grappling with a very grownup set of problems. Google's core business, online search, is slowing. That is partly due to Google's own success; it's hard to keep posting record growth rates when you dominate a business so thoroughly -- Google sites lead the U.S. market with 64% of all searches conducted. But more crucially, the web has changed significantly since Google became a verb. There is (at long last) fresh competition from Microsoft's Bing, and also a new wave of sites and services that offer alternatives for consumers' time and attention -- and the advertisers that follow them.
The web is changing and some believe Google isn't changing fast enough with the web.
A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this article. Some are floored by the article, one person said, "Wow that must be one of the most stupid articles I ever read." Moderator, incredibill wrote, "He lost me when he compared Apple and Google stock, apple's and oranges, pun not intended." Another member said, "I guess Fortune is more likely the one in trouble and just trying desperately to get some attention."
Eurydice said we currently live in a Google world, but before the Google world, no one saw Google coming. Now, Facebook is the big buzz, "Google can't change that, no more than the portals could force the attention to stay on portals," said the WebmasterWorld member. Eurydice added, "Social won't be the final stage. Facebook will have its day in the sun. And in 5-7 years, the next phase will come along."
What is your take?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
