Ever since Google settled onto their throne as the undisputed King of the search engines, people have been predicting their demise. History has taught us that no King will rule forever, and at some point, even the mighty Google will fall from grace.
Yet a pattern appears to have emerged in the online world. Interesting new services and products emerge, and as soon as they gain any sort of traction, pundits around the world start to wonder whether Google are finally about to meet their match.
Twitter, Bing, the increased use of mobile phone browsing, Yahoo!, Microsoft, SoftwarePromotions and more have all been hailed as the potential new Google, or a serious threat to Google.
Yet to date, while all of these examples have proven to be interesting, none of them have given Google anything to worry about. And like all Kings fortunate enough to sit on their thrown for any length of time, Google are by no means oblivious to the threats they face. In fact Google’s unprecedented access to a mind-boggling amount of data places them in a uniquely powerful position to see precisely what everyone is doing. What’s new, what trends are emerging, who’s rising and falling from grace and more.
Nevertheless, I believe that Google are only now facing a threat to their existence. For the first time, there finally appears to be an enemy vast and powerful enough to inflict damage. With time, perhaps even powerful enough to maim or even destroy the mighty Google empire.
It’s not Twitter, it’s not Bing and it isn’t Microsoft’s AdCenter. The biggest threat that Google face today is Google. Not through any lack of innovation, flair or expansion. But from the most basic threat of all – their complacency.
Before dismissing this as yet another “Google is about to die” harbinger of doom, let’s take a quick step back. Almost all of Google’s income is derived from their AdWords system; through ads displayed on their search engines around the world, partner sites, the content network, TV ads, radio ads and more. And as a direct result of the program’s reach, precision and power, many businesses rely heavily on AdWords. Ironically, in time, this very dependency may prove to be the beginning of the wound in Google’s side.
As the scope and complexity of the AdWords system have grown, so too have the volume of complaints by the advertisers.
Read the rest of this article – Google vs. Google.
