Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

Google 211drives its proliferation. In 2000 Google adopted keywordbasedadvertising. (This was not a new idea, but Googlewas the first to really make it work.) Basically, advertisersbid for the right to have their ad accompany the results of asearch that contains a given word, on a per “click through”basis—that is, how often the user clicks on the ad to go tothe advertiser’s site. Advertisers are prioritized accordingto how much they bid, their previous click-through rate,and their ad’s relevance to the search. If someone searches,for example, “widget” and Acme Widget Co. is in line forplacement, the Acme ad is shown. If the user then clicks onit, Acme makes a payment to Google (and hopes to somebusiness).The power of keyword-based and other “contextual”advertising is that, by definition, any accompanying ad istargeted to someone who is quite probably already lookingfor what one is selling. And what makes this such arevenue-maker for Google is that, since the company servesover half of all Web searches, anyone wanting an ad toreach the biggest share of its potential audience will have toturn to Google.Google’s ability to offer more precisely targeted advertisinghas been enhanced in several ways:• AdSense, which can be installed on a Web site whereit displays ads keyed to the site’s content. Revenue isshared by Google and the site owner.• Advertisers can specify an AdWord and Google willplace it on participating sites in its “content network”that it believes are relevant. The advertiser pays perthousand viewings of the ads (“impressions”).• Specialized shopping-oriented searches such asGoogle Product Search, which returns lists of sellersand a price comparison.• Searches can also be local (particularly useful formobile devices) and results can be keyed to maps.Other ApplicationsGoogle has greatly expanded beyond its core business ofsearch and accompanying advertising. In general, the companyhas been emphasizing acquiring or developing toolsthat help users create content and collaborate. These offeringinclude:• Blogger, an easy-to-use blogging tool (see blogs andblogging)• JotSpot, developer of wiki collaboration tools (seewikis and Wikipedia)• YouTube, the largest video-sharing service, acquiredby Google in 2006 (see YouTube)• Gmail, a free e-mail service• Google Apps, which provides a Web-based office environmentincluding a calendar and Google Docs &Spreadsheets. (The standard edition is free and representsa competitive challenge for Microsoft Office, particularlyfor small businesses and simpler applications.)In addition to office and collaboration tools, Google hasseveral other prominent applications that do not easily fit inone category:• google News provides a constantly updated newspaperlikeformat that groups stories under headlines.• google Book Search offers access to thousands ofpublic-domain books and summaries or limited previewsof copyrighted works (see e-books and digitallibraries)• Google Maps and Google Earth are vast troves of mapinformation, satellite imagery, and even street-levelviews of some cities.A key to the growth of Google’s new Web services is thatmany of them come with programming interfaces that canbe used to integrate them into Web sites and applications.It is relatively easy, for example, to combine maps and dataabout stores or other locations (see mashups).CriticismAs of mid-2008 Google had more than 19,500 full-timeemployees. The company’s workplace culture at its MountainView “Googleplex” is famous for its gourmet food,elaborate recreation center, and other perks. (In 2007 Fortunemagazine rated Google first in the nation as a place towork.)Google has a market capitalization of about $180 billion,ahead of such giants as Hewlett-Packard and IBM. In 2008Google took in $16.6 billion, with $4.2 billion in profit.Google’s impact on the online world has been immense.As of mid-2007 Google was processing 54 percent of allInternet search requests, followed distantly by Yahoo! at 20percent and Microsoft at 13 percent.Google sets a high standard for itself. Its mission statementis “to organize the world’s information and make ituniversally accessible and useful.” A corporate motto is“don’t be evil” in the pursuit of success. A number of criticshave suggested, however, that Google has fallen short of itsstandards in a number of respects:• google Book Search had led to accusations of copyrightviolations by publishers and authors. Google hasalso been accused of benefiting from rampant copyingof copyrighted content on its YouTube subsidiary.• Google has been criticized for aiding China in censoringsearch results (see censorship and the Internet).• The detailed imagery available from Google Earth hasbeen criticized by some nations on security grounds,and street-level views have raised privacy questions.• Some Google practices, including the extensive use ofcookies and analysis of users’ e-mail and other content,have also aroused privacy concerns (see cookiesand data mining).• Google has also been criticized for keeping its Page-Rank system secret, making it hard to determine if itis treating users fairly.