Hi Ratna,
Thanks..am glad you liked it..
Dear all,
Here is the story of Google: how creative and innovative thinking can bring a revolution:
A Phenomenal Success
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998. A few years ago Forbes estimated Larry's net worth at $550 Million. However, since taking Google public in 2004, the combined net worth of the founders is estimated to be nearly $14 Billion.
Google's annual sales exceeded $4.5 Billion in 2004 and it has reached a net market capitalization of $85 Billion in the current year. Google uses more than 10,000 networked computers to comb through almost 3 billion web pages and powers over 75% of the Web searches in the US.
Relevance
AltaVista and Inktomi, the two popular search engines of the mid-nineties were based on the technique of storing the text of every Web page in a fast searchable index. However, this did not deliver the results in the order of relevance. Also, this led to commercial spammers who flooded their web pages with hidden keywords multiple times over. In keywords based searches they would then appear first in a search listing.
Larry and Sergey devised a method to rank a page based on how frequently it was referenced by other pages. This algorithm, along with larger storage capacity and processing power, enabled them to deliver fast and reliable search results.
Gaining Ground
The founders started out with a little over 1 million in seed capital from friends and family, and in 1999 received another 25 Million from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. They trademarked their search algorithm under the name PageRank. In 2001, they hired Eric Scmidt as the CEO. The same year they were named as the number one US search engine by MediaMetrix.
Google kept ahead of competition by introducing new features regularly. Over time they added image search, groups, directory services and news features to their portfolio of offerings.
Going Dutch with Public
In late 2004, the IPO markets were again opening up. The investors who had been shying away from the market in the wake of the dotcom bust of 2000, were returning to it. The founders decided to take Google public. They bypassed the traditional IPO process and chose a modified Dutch auction model. The Dutch auction would set the price of the shares at the lowest successful bid. This enticed investors to bid the maximum price they were willing to pay hoping that they will only have to pay the clearing price.
The Way Ahead
Google has established a strong user base and network of affiliates. However, they need to reconsider whether they wish to remain a provider of directory services and search solutions, or they want to evolve into a portal. There is increased competition from MSN and Yahoo. These fierce competitors would retaliate with new products that can give Google a run for its money. The founders have to put on their thinking caps again to develop new defensible avenues of growth
Success Indicators
Market Capitalization: $85 Billion
Annual Sales (2004) : $4.5 Billion
Net Income (2004) : $1 Billion
Number of Employees : 4000
Trends Encountered
Need for relevance
Explosive growth of Internet use
Opportunities Harnessed
PageRank Algorithm
Fast and reliable search results
Monetization of traffic
Key Decision Makers
Larry Page and Sergey Brin while studying in Stanford, built a unique algorithm to search information within documents. They founded Google in 1998, which soon overtook other search engines in popularity and within eighteen months was named as number one.
Useful Products
Google Search
AdWords
Contextualized Ads
Image Search
Gmail
Current Challenges
Increased competition from Microsoft and Yahoo
Explore new avenues for growth
Evolve into a portal or preserve the search engine model
Cheers,
Rajat Joshi
Thanks..am glad you liked it..
Dear all,
Here is the story of Google: how creative and innovative thinking can bring a revolution:
A Phenomenal Success
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998. A few years ago Forbes estimated Larry's net worth at $550 Million. However, since taking Google public in 2004, the combined net worth of the founders is estimated to be nearly $14 Billion.
Google's annual sales exceeded $4.5 Billion in 2004 and it has reached a net market capitalization of $85 Billion in the current year. Google uses more than 10,000 networked computers to comb through almost 3 billion web pages and powers over 75% of the Web searches in the US.
Relevance
AltaVista and Inktomi, the two popular search engines of the mid-nineties were based on the technique of storing the text of every Web page in a fast searchable index. However, this did not deliver the results in the order of relevance. Also, this led to commercial spammers who flooded their web pages with hidden keywords multiple times over. In keywords based searches they would then appear first in a search listing.
Larry and Sergey devised a method to rank a page based on how frequently it was referenced by other pages. This algorithm, along with larger storage capacity and processing power, enabled them to deliver fast and reliable search results.
Gaining Ground
The founders started out with a little over 1 million in seed capital from friends and family, and in 1999 received another 25 Million from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. They trademarked their search algorithm under the name PageRank. In 2001, they hired Eric Scmidt as the CEO. The same year they were named as the number one US search engine by MediaMetrix.
Google kept ahead of competition by introducing new features regularly. Over time they added image search, groups, directory services and news features to their portfolio of offerings.
Going Dutch with Public
In late 2004, the IPO markets were again opening up. The investors who had been shying away from the market in the wake of the dotcom bust of 2000, were returning to it. The founders decided to take Google public. They bypassed the traditional IPO process and chose a modified Dutch auction model. The Dutch auction would set the price of the shares at the lowest successful bid. This enticed investors to bid the maximum price they were willing to pay hoping that they will only have to pay the clearing price.
The Way Ahead
Google has established a strong user base and network of affiliates. However, they need to reconsider whether they wish to remain a provider of directory services and search solutions, or they want to evolve into a portal. There is increased competition from MSN and Yahoo. These fierce competitors would retaliate with new products that can give Google a run for its money. The founders have to put on their thinking caps again to develop new defensible avenues of growth
Success Indicators
Market Capitalization: $85 Billion
Annual Sales (2004) : $4.5 Billion
Net Income (2004) : $1 Billion
Number of Employees : 4000
Trends Encountered
Need for relevance
Explosive growth of Internet use
Opportunities Harnessed
PageRank Algorithm
Fast and reliable search results
Monetization of traffic
Key Decision Makers
Larry Page and Sergey Brin while studying in Stanford, built a unique algorithm to search information within documents. They founded Google in 1998, which soon overtook other search engines in popularity and within eighteen months was named as number one.
Useful Products
Google Search
AdWords
Contextualized Ads
Image Search
Gmail
Current Challenges
Increased competition from Microsoft and Yahoo
Explore new avenues for growth
Evolve into a portal or preserve the search engine model
Cheers,
Rajat Joshi