Google--what you get for $400 a share
The company's engineers are dabbling in dozens of projects beyond the mainstay search service, from digitized books to local maps. Here's a guide.
Google--what you get for $400 a share
By Elinor Mills
Staff writer, CNET News.com
Published: November 28, 2005, 4:00 AM PST
Search giant Google is hardly just about search anymore. Its engineers are dabbling in dozens of projects, ranging from digitizing books to mapping your neighborhood. With a stock price topping $400 per share, a market cap of more than $100 billion and a war chest nearing $7 billion, Google is the "it" tech company of the moment. The search giant posted record revenue of $1.58 billion for the third quarter, up nearly 100 percent from a year ago. Certainly, Google's roots are in search, but the Mountain View, Calif., company is expanding its offerings at such a rapid clip that news headlines can barely keep up.
Google is simultaneously making waves in the publishing industry with its Google Book Search project, shaking up the classifieds market with its mysterious Google Base service, scaring instant message and telecommunications companies with Google Talk, wowing Web surfers with its 3D Google Earth mapping service and being a vague threat to numerous other companies with its forays into video, e-mail and desktop search.
Though many of the services are free, Google will no doubt figure out a way to charge for some of them so it's not so dependent on advertising. Right now, the company gets nearly all its revenue from advertising, either keyword-based search advertising or contextual display ads on partner Web sites.
| Product | What | Money | Rivals | Potential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search | The bread-and-butter search business | Advertising | Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Ask Jeeves | The U.S. search market is worth an estimated $4.2 billion in advertising this year. That's expected to grow to $7.5 billion by 2010, according to JupiterResearch. |
| AdWords | A service that sells keyword-based ads next to search results and on pages of AdSense publisher sites | Advertisers bid on words and pay per click or impression | MSN Keywords, Yahoo Sponsored Search | It's tapping into the same advertising market, which could be worth $7.5 billion in five years. |
| AdSense Web site Publisher Program | A service that sells keyword-based text and image ads on Web sites that work with Google | Advertisers bid on cost per click or cost per impression, and Google shares revenue with the partner sites | MSN adCenter, Yahoo Content Match | Hard to pinpoint because of revenue-sharing deals, but could also be worth billions |
| Google Book Search, Google Publisher Project | A service for searching digitized books | Advertising revenue shared with publishers in Publisher Project | Yahoo, MSN and the Internet Archive; Amazon.com; Project Gutenberg, ebrary and Random House | Hard to say. Google could sell ads or charge transaction fees |
| Google Base | A hosted Web service that lets people post any information they want to make publicly searchable | Free | Possibly eBay, Craigslist and local newspapers | U.S. online classified ads are worth $2.6 billion this year, climbing to $4.1 billion by 2010, according to JupiterResearch |
| Google Local/Maps | A mapping and local search service | Advertising | Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Amazon.com | The U.S. local search market could be worth $3.4 billion in four years, according to The Kelsey Group |
| Google Earth | A 3D, interactive mapping service | Free | MSN Virtual Earth | Could tap into the general or local ad sales market |
| Froogle | A comparison shopping service | Advertising | Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Amazon.com, eBay | It taps into the same general ad sales market |
| Google Mini, Google Search Appliance | Search appliance for corporate intranets and for a company's public Web site | Google charges $3,000 to more than $30,000 per appliance, based on the size of the intranet or site | Autonomy, Fast Search & Transfer | Worldwide enterprise information access, including search, is worth an estimated $338 million this year, according to Gartner |
| Desktop search | A consumer and corporate desktop and Web search service, which can personalize data through a feature called Sidebar | Free | Windows Desktop Search, Yahoo Desktop Search | Google could sell ads against it |
| Google Groups | Hosted discussion groups, e-mail lists | Free | Yahoo Groups, MSN Groups and AOL Message Boards | It could enlarge the audience for possible subscription or ad-based services |
| Google Video | Video hosting and search | Free | AOL, Blinkx, Truveo and MSN | Google could charge for ads, subscription or pay-per-view |
| Google News | News aggregation pages | Free | Yahoo, MSN, AOL, news Web sites | Google could sell ads, or even search links to other media outlets |
| Blogger | A blog publishing tool | Advertising revenue shared with publishers | Yahoo 360, MSN Spaces, AOL's Weblogs, Type Pad and Moveable Type | It taps into that hard-to-define contextual display ad market |
| Gmail | A free Web-based e-mail program | Advertising | Yahoo Mail, MSN Hotmail and AOL Mail | It also taps into the contextual display ad market |
| Google Talk | A voice-enabled instant messaging program | Free | eBay's Skype, Yahoo, AOL and MSN | Enlarge the audience and sell ads |
| Picasa | A photo-sharing service | Free | Yahoo's Flickr, Shutterfly and Kodak EasyShare Gallery | Google could charge transaction fees or sell ads |