Why Googling Instead of Yahooing? - Where Else is Google Strong?
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Google may not be as strong in other areas as it is in search, but its strength in search is unquestionable. That’s why people started saying “to google” rather than “to search,” and it’s that widespread usage that Merriam-Webster acknowledged when it defined “google” as “to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.” Thomas Pitoniak, the associate editor and composition manager for Merriam-Webster, explained as much to CNET News.com when he said that “A noun turns into a verb very often. Google is a unique case. Because they have achieved so much prominence in the world of search, people have been using the word google as a generic verb now.”
Google of course is also strong in search advertising, and Merrill Lynch thinks that Google Checkout will help that strength. Remember, when Google introduced the system, it awarded Google Checkout merchants a discount on transaction fees based on how much they spent on AdWords. Google Checkout will supposedly have other benefits, such as decreasing shopping cart abandonment (and thus increasing conversions), as well as allowing Google to better target ads because it will gain broad information about users’ buying habits.
It’s no wonder, then, that Merrill Lynch revised its second-quarter revenue and profit estimates for the search engine well ahead of the company's releasing its Q2 results. It expected Google’s revenue to total $1.64 billion, up about $50 million from its previous estimate. Merrill Lynch also expected profits to reach $2.18 a share, a rise of $.08 a share. In fact, Google's revenues reached $2.4 billion, and earnings per share was either $2.33 or $2.39, depending on whether you're looking at diluted or basic figures.
So Google’s technological and economic might has helped change our language. Will it also change our laws? The company has been embroiled in court battles involving copyright issues, unfavorably came to the notice of Capitol Hill thanks to its self-censorship regarding China, and is now vehemently fighting what could be a losing battle to prevent telecom companies from creating a bandwidth-based tiered pricing system on the Internet. Time will tell whether the search engine will affect our lives even more deeply – or even if we’ll still be googling 50 years from now.
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