Google at its best

If only the world was run by Google. I say that tongue in cheek, but there may be some reality to that statement. They essentially invented the search engine as we know it and changed the way businesses work and how customers shop. They defined what it means to search the web. But reading the article “Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability” taught me something new about a company whose service I use every day.

There were several key points that are worth exploring from the article. The first point involves the fact that Google uses the advertisements they get paid for to cultivate market research for themselves. They have devised a system where they are getting paid to get market research that profits their company. The brilliant part of this business model is that there are no losers. It does not hurt the companies that are reaching millions of customers by advertising on Google. It does not hurt the customers who are receiving more targeted, and in theory less annoying, advertisements. And it certainly does not hurt Google itself.

Another point to note was how scientific their approach to develop this technology was. I find that fascinating because marketing studies human behavior and humans, by definition, vary and add a subjective element to this science. But the brilliant minds at Google understood that the vast number of users and hits they were dealing with, which must be well into the billions, has a pattern for a code that can be cracked. They used scientific theories to break the code and invent the type of online auctioning platform they needed to be successful. Their ability to eliminate subjectivity as an obstacle allowed them to succeed with this new technology.

I have to be honest. Even after reading over the article, some parts twice, I still do not fully comprehend how this technology works. I see how it shows itself in my own life by the ads I do see. I understand how their innovative pricing system for the bids allowed bids to increase in their favor. I even understand how they used Game Theory to try and figure out the right code. But there are details of how this system works that are still confusing to me. I think the reason I am having trouble wrapping my mind around this is because Google is inherently user friendly and all online users intimately know the front end of the system. But pulling the curtain back reveals a whole layer of this ingenious innovation that needs to be explored.

While the article states that this technology is not spreading as fast as some would think, I would be surprised if it stays unique to Google for too long. It is such an efficient system, for both Google and the companies that advertise with them, that other companies will be left behind if they don’t adopt it. I don’t believe, however, that Google will let itself be outshone by any other company. If their auction platform becomes the norm, then I look forward to see what new innovation they come up with next that further changes how we use the internet.