Google is in the business of online search. The company maintains a website which is one of the most visited websites in the world. Google has indexed more than 8 billion web pages on the web and is the most popular search engine on the web today. Anyone with an Internet connection can use the website to look for information that s/he needs. Google has become one of the most recognized brands of today because of its vastly popular search engine. The google interface is available in more than 100 languages to users worldwide. The company generates revenue through the advertising programs. The advertising program consists of advertisers advertising with google and then google uses its search technology selecting which web page should host the ad. Every time someone clicks the ad revenue is shared between google and the publisher of page where the ad is being hosted.
Google Search appliance is another source through which google generates its revenues. The search appliance is a hardware and software solution that companies can use to implement google search technology to their internal and external information.
To support these programs google maintains 25 sales offices in 14 countries and specialized sales teams are deployed in 13 vertical markets. Apart from providing support to existing users there exists direct sales teams. These teams target advertisers with large advertising budgets and are more in a role of relationship building than one off sales.
Competition
Google faces intense competition for its primary search business and Microsoft and Yahoo! are its two main competitors.
The groups in which the company competes can be classified in three main groups -
• Users for the search engines.
• Advertisers wh ...