Web 3.0 & Google (Part 2)

Vertical Strategy

Google has adamantly maintained that a magically simple, clean User Interface is part of its key to world domination. This year, however, we have started seeing a clear trend towards verticalization of the web. In fact, my entire Web 3.0 thesis is based on verticalization, and Vertical Search, in particular, is a key component of my Web 3.0 formula. So let’s take a look at how Google is approaching the whole verticalization movement.

Search
Google WebSearch enables people to find what they are looking for on the Web. Google has also employed the Web Search technology into Image Search, Google News, Google Product Search, Blog Search, Google Groups, Google Maps and more. All these, although still approached with a horizontal search mindset, contain remarkable technology innovation.

News
Google News gathers information from thousands of news sources worldwide and presents news stories in a searchable format within minutes of their publication on the Web. The stories are presented as headlines on the user-customizable Google News home page. Google News is a 100% algorithms-generated site that gathers all types of news from more than 4,500 English – language sources worldwide, and is an important traffic source for all media companies.

Communication, Collaboration and Communities
Google Docs and Spreadsheets allow its users to create, view and edit documents and spreadsheets from anywhere using a browser. Google Calendar is a free online sharable calendar service that allows its users to keep track of the important events, appointments and special occasions. In addition, Websites and groups with an online presence can use Google Calendar to create public calendars, which are automatically indexed and searchable on Google.

Gmail is Google’s free Webmail service that comes with built-in Google search technology for searching e-mails and over 2,800 megabytes of storage. Google Groups is a free service that helps groups of people connect to information and people that interest them. Orkut enables users to search and connect to other users through networks of trusted friends. Users can create, join, or manage online communities, personal mailboxes, photos and a profile. Orkut is widely used in Brazil and India.

Blogger is a Web-based publishing tool that gives people the ability to publish to the Web instantly using Weblogs (blogs). Blogger features spam protection and is available in nine languages.

With this suite of free, ad-supported tools, Google has staked its claim to be a compelling alternative to Microsoft, especially for the much courted Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) segment.

Google GEO
Google Earth lets users see and explore the world from their desktop. Users can fly virtually to a specific location and learn about that area through detailed satellite and aerial images, 3D topography, street maps and millions of data points describing the location of businesses, schools, parks and other points of interest around the globe.

Google Maps helps people get directions and other mapping services. Google Sketchup is a free 3D modeling tool that helps modeling 3D buildings and can be used as a tool for populating Google Earth with architectural content. The Pro version of this tool is sold to professional designers and includes additional features.

Google’s various mapping applications have become extremely popular, and is an important cornerstone for the company’s recent entry into Local Search and Local Advertising, a business that was largely in the hands of the Yellow Pages industry until recently.

Books
Google Books gives users an opportunity to search for books by just typing the related keywords. It provides information on various sources to purchase the books online. One also can see “inside” selected books online, as part of an ambitious but controversial library digitization effort.

Google allows authors to list their books on the search engine at no cost. Authors just need to have a Google account.

Videos
Google Video has millions of videos indexed for viewing. To improve its video sharing services and expand its market share, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in late 2006. At YouTube, one can search for and watch the most updated collection of TV shows, movie clips, music videos, documentaries, personal productions and more over the Web. According to ComScore, YouTube had 28% market share in Online Video market with 2.6 billion videos viewed in September 2007.

Finance
Google Finance provides financial information and news on companies. The site provides the latest data and news from the financial industry. However, the site lags Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money and CNN Money in terms of content.

Photo Sharing
Picasa Web Albums is Google’s attempted answer to Flickr. Picasa allows users to locate, upload, organize and share photographs and albums. Picasa, however, ain’t no Flickr.

Gaps in the Google Portfolio
Besides its evident weakness in Finance and Photo, two of the web’s largest verticals, Google is also absent from most of the other big verticals like Jobs, Auto, Travel, Real Estate, Health, Personals. Its Product Search offering has also been met with a series of lukewarm reaction from users. This, in my opinion, is going to be a massive issue going into 2008, which we shall discuss in more detail. But to summarize the issue, if you are looking for airline tickets, hotels and car rentals for an upcoming trip, and you know vertical search engine Kayak, you have no reason, absolutely no reason, to go to Google.

Thus, if the Vertical Search movement gains as much momentum as I expect it would over the next 3 years, Google will slowly lose big chunks of users in important Contexts such as Travel, Jobs, etc. To address this issue, Google needs to either acquire, or invent.

(To Be Continued)

[Part 1]

This segment is part 2 in the series : Web 3.0 & Google
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