Free Google Strengths and Weaknesses Essay Sample
Google is a multinational company that is based in the United States. It was started as a research project by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1996 when they were pursuing their doctoral degree at Stanford University, California. In 1997, the company registered its domain name “google.com” before being incorporated as a privately owned company in 1998. The initial public offering of this organization took place in 2004. The organization has invested heavily on advertising technologies, internet search and cloud computing. Guided by its mission “to organize the world’s information and make it accessible and useful,” Google has grown by leaps and bounds to become the world’s biggest web search and advertising Services Company (Google, nd). At the moment, Google provides a myriad of products and services that range from online productivity software and social networking tools such as Gmail to desktop products and mobile operating systems such as android O.S.
Despite the fact that the organization is a dominant player in web advertising and search services industry, it has to compete with its rivals, especially yahoo. In conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), Google can become aware of its position in the market by holding and improving on its strengths, addressing its weaknesses, exploiting opportunities, and being cognizant of threats. It is imperative to understand that the strengths and weaknesses are sources that impact an organization’s internal environment, while opportunities and threats are external factors that impact an organization. The most significant strength of Google culminates from the company’s successful brand equity. As a result of an established brand name, this firm has successively distinguished its products and services from others. A strong brand name is has enabled the company to achieve brand loyalty, high awareness and perceived quality. Moreover, branding has made Google the most trusted and used searched engine in the market. Recent efforts by Google’s competitors to revolutionize web searching have been futile because they have failed to unseat the company, which enjoys a massive 65 percent of Americas’ online users.
Another strength that makes this company to dominate this industry is its tailored advertising strategies. Even in times of economic difficulties and distressing recession, the company remains profitable because of its advertising scheme. Advertising is an obvious strength for this company because it contributes immensely to the company’s earnings and profits. Through its Adword advertising program, thousands of businesses and companies are able to display their goods and services that appear as links in search results that are relates to a user’s search. It is because of its successive advertising scheme that many businesses aspire to market their services through Google.
Despite its strengths, Google has several weaknesses that have tarnished its name. Two weaknesses that have been exposed in recent years are issues concerning filtering of material and technology. When it comes to technology, it has been revealed that the company’s technology has compromised the security of its search engine through different sources, such as the Gmail email service. It is claimed that the server that stores users’ messages does not allow them to delete unwanted messages. Moreover, Google search engine allows the users to access their past search results and request, thus creating a computer loophole that could prove fatal as well as embarrassing to the users. Google can minimize this weakness by improving on the security features of its search engine so that the consumers can be protected. Another weakness of Google service is the filtering of material supplied. As a result, millions of children can easily access explicit online content. To address this weakness, Google should tailor their search engine so that they can filter explicit content.
Google has numerous unexploited opportunities that can be exploited for the well being of the company. With the recent surge for online books, Google should seize this opportunity and alter the manner in which consumer’s access books. By partnering with publishers and book authors, Google users can access online books quickly and at an affordable rate. Another opportunity that Google can exploit is the manufacture of telecommunication products. A partnership with android-based smart phone manufacturers such as Verizon will enhance Google’s profitability.
Jarvis assert that although Google has monopolized the field of search engine for many years, the recent introduction of Bing is as a big threat to this monopoly. It is argued that as compared to Google, Bing has an edge over the later because of their image and product quality, both in quality and usability respectively. Another threat to this firm culminates from the current economic crisis. Almost every company is feeling the pinch through benefit t losses and other hardships. At the moment, Google is laying off at least 10,000 strong and experienced contact staff. It goes without saying that lying-off experienced staff affects productivity, which leads to fall in profitability.