1) How did Google’s stance
provide the company with an advantage
over
its competition?
Google upholds the position as the dominant search engine in the world,
with 65 percent of the total search market, according to Hitwise. To maintain
Google's competitive advantage, the company has developed an infrastructure
that guarantees a fast and efficient search engine, as well as branching out
their efforts in other directions beyond search.
Google’s competitive edge is
traced to the fact that they’ve built their own infrastructure of servers,
storage systems, bandwidth and hardware that supports the fastest search on the
web.
While the cost for the company is high, as Google spends billions of
dollars in development and upkeep, this competitive strategy builds a
formidable wall for other general search engines, such as Bing (formerly MSN
Search) which is merging with Yahoo!. At the same time, the cost of building
the advanced infrastructure is an investment for Google to ensure that the cost
of conducting a query keeps going down.
Google's advantage over competitors is its rapid speed that keeps users
coming back. The results of the search may vary, but because of the incredible
speed, a user can search another key phrase with minimal sacrifice and
therefore be less inclined to switch to a competitor.
Not only does Google provide a fast search, but the company also employs
tools and services such as the Google toolbar, Google Maps, Google Earth and
Google News. The toolbar presents a way for users to conduct a search without
leaving their homepage. It also simplifies navigation by recounting the most
searched-for web pages by each user. Services such as Google Maps and Google
News provide another type of support on top of the general search engine.
Google has also expanded to mobile phones with the Android operating
system, which delivers Google services and features as mobile applications.
These strategies allow for Google to reach out to consumers and create a
competitive advantage.
Reference:
Smart Advantage Inc.(2012)
Available at:
http://blog.smartadvantage.com/competitive-advantage-blog/bid/44872/How-Google-Maintains-Its-Competitive-Advantage
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