Is Google Invincible?

Google is powerful. Of course. But is it invincible? According to Hitwise, Google accounted for 64.49% of all U.S. Searches in the four weeks ending October 27, 2007. According to RimmKaufman, Google controls 79% of the pay-per-click ad market. Google derives 99% of its revenue from advertising.

Deal Radar 2008: Kayak Consolidates Travel

As we have discussed, Online Travel is a large category, and active in entrepreneurship. Web 1.0 produced giant companies (Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline), and in Web 2.0 we have a couple of vertical search engines that are pulling ahead. Kayak, the world’s largest travel search engine, receives more than 6 million unique visitors per month.

Read Full Article »

Web 3.0 & Google (Part 5)

Conclusion Google is a global technology leader focused on providing people access to information. The Company’s website is a top Internet destination and its brand name is one of the most recognized. Google generates revenues by delivering relevant online advertising to its users, mainly through sponsored search ads. The Company is a clear leader in

Read Full Article »

Web 3.0 & Google (Part 4)

Acquisition Strategy Google has made several acquisitions this year. The key acquisitions were Adscape, Trendalyzer, Marratech, FeedBurner, PeakStream, GrandCentral, Postini and Jaiku. Google is yet to complete its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick Inc., a global leader in digital marketing technology and services. Google’s acquisition strategy is different from most other companies. Google has mostly

Read Full Article »

Web 3.0 & Google (Part 3)

Web 3.0 Framework discussion Below is a quick overview of the Web 3.0 framework for the Google sites. This is, in fact, an interesting analysis, since Google’s horizontal approach is pretty much against the grain of the vertical nature of my Web 3.0 framework.

Web 3.0 & Google (Part 2)

Vertical Strategy Google has adamantly maintained that a magically simple, clean User Interface is part of its key to world domination. This year, however, we have started seeing a clear trend towards verticalization of the web. In fact, my entire Web 3.0 thesis is based on verticalization, and Vertical Search, in particular, is a key

Read Full Article »

Web 3.0 & Google (Part 1)

Introduction Google is the world’s largest search engine and online advertising network. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. It is the largest American company (by market capitalization over $217 billion) that is not part of the Dow

Read Full Article »

Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 5)

Conclusion We have reviewed Amazon’s strategy in the upcoming Web 3.0 world over the last few days. Amazon has been focusing on enhancing its technology, introducing new categories of products and services (recently introduced, Amazon MP3 and Grocery), increasing depth of selection in each category, opening new markets (UK, Germany, Japan), offering better shopping tools

Read Full Article »