A look at how Google's ability to expand its services help customer maintain customer tie-in and the return to search. Slides adapted from originals by Tarleton Gillespie: http://www.tarletongillespie.org/

1. SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS
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3. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
• Google
• 1998: search engine launched
• 2004: public stock offering
• 2006: ‘google’ added to the OED
<link> 3

4. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
<link> 4

5. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
<link> 5

6. <link>
Feb 2010

7. Feb 2011

8. Feb 2012

9. Jan 2014
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10. <link>

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13. <link>

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17. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
• Is the search industry
concentrated?
<link> 17

18. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
• Is the search industry
concentrated?
• 2011
%of UK searches
76.54
3.07
12.93
2.96
1.91
Google UK
Google (com)
Bing
Yahoo UK
Yahoo (com)
<link> 18

19. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
• Is the search industry
concentrated?
• 2012
% of UK searches
2.18
75.74
2.43
4.24
8.06
Google UK
Google
(com)
Bing
Yahoo (UK)
Ask Jeeves
<link> 19

20. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
• Is the search industry
concentrated?
• 2013
% of UK searches
3.29 1.94
88.74
6.03
Google
Bing
Yahoo
Others
<link> 20

21. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
• Is the search industry concentrated?
– Dominated by a few firms
– Capital intensive to compete
– Overwhelmingly supported by ad revenue
– Companies are expanding well beyond search and access
– Overwhelmingly American
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22. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
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• Google accusing Microsoft of
stealing their results

23. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
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• Google accused of “warping”
search results
• Bringing in real-time social
search from Google+
• Ecosystem expansion (Android)
• A ‘filter bubble’? Eli Pariser
(2011)

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25. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
• Is our use of the web
dominated by these
providers?
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26. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
Does concentration matter here?
• Traditional media business: 2 commodities
- Provide content to audience
- Provide audience to advertiser
• Tendency to want to shape content to serve most viewers
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27. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
Does concentration matter here?
• Traditional media business: 2 commodities
- Provide content to audience
- Provide audience to advertiser
• Tendency to want to shape content to serve most viewers
• Search: provide platform for every user to find exactly what
they want
• Generally less interested in the content
• More important to be comprehensive and satisfying
• Automation of search removes some human involvement
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28. Search?
SEO?
Spam?
Down-ranking?
Social?

29. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
What explains the corporate presence in our top
searches?
• Google’s ‘PageRank’ algorithm?
– Search results based on incoming links, not just content
– Wisdom of the crowd?
– Popularity contest?
– Self-affirming, high-ranked links stay high?
• Corporate power over content production, search merely
delivers?
• Do the structures of ‘information access’ shape our
engagement with that information?
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30. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
Does the dependence on ad revenue affect
search?
• DoubleClick: serves up banner ads to web pages
• AdSense: matches ads to webpage content
• AdWords: matches ads to search terms
– Sponsored and affiliated links
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35. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
Are there new implications of concentration in search?
• Established firms curtail innovation?
• Lobbying power?
• Platform lock-in?
Search (+ advertising) + applications
• Ad revenue makes it desirable to keep users coming back
• Google apps feed users back to search engine
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36. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
Search (+ advertising) + applications
• Ad revenue makes it desirable to keep users coming back
• Google apps feed users back to search engine
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37. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
Search (+ advertising) + applications
• Ad revenue makes it desirable to keep users coming back
• Google apps feed users back to search engine
Gmail
News
Reader
Maps
Earth
Android
YouTube
Groups
Docs
Calendar
Books
Scholar
Chrome OS
Goggles
Checkout
Shopping
Images
Desktop
Video
Sketch UP
Picassa
Orkut
Talk
Blogger
Chrome
Desktop
Steet View
Latitude
Android
Wave
Buzz
Voice
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38. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
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42. concentrated search – the pull of advertising – platform lock-in - privacy
Are there new implications of concentration in search?
• Established firm curtails innovation?
• Lobbying power?
• Platform lock-in?
• Information privacy?
– Google saves search queries
– Uses Gmail and Deja as consumer data
– Maps, Street View, Latitude, …
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50. http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/01/10/google-street-view-fails-wins-wtfs/

51. Latitude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Oq-9enE-k
• Check out Aka Aki too:
• http://www.aka-aki.com/
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52. Other stuff
• Google book deal?
• Behaviourial advertising