Google Search Engine

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW:

The upside of computers and the Internet is that the public has greater access to more information than ever before in human history. The downside: with so much content out there, it can be impossible to find anything. The business of Internet search has become one of the fastest growing sectors in the online industry, with sales expected to top $13 billion in 2006. Unlike other kinds of Web content that is typically created by writers and editors, search engines employ technology to retrieve and index information stored on servers across the Internet. Then when someone searches for a word or phrase, it will return links to Web pages that contain matching keywords. Most search engines also try to rank their search results so that links to the most relevant information are returned first. Many companies that operate Internet search sites generate revenue primarily through advertising. The Internet search market is dominated primary by three companies: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. The champion of online search engines, Google, rose to prominence on the power of its search routines, its accurate results, and its geeky approach to business. MSN, an online service of software maker Microsoft, is a relative newcomer to the search business (it previously licensed Google's search engine for its site) but comes to the party with a dedicated and loyal audience that has been using its news and information portal, chat programs, and free e-mail for years. Stuck somewhere in the middle is Yahoo!, a pioneer of Internet navigation services that offered one of the first and most comprehensive Web site directories that has now developed its own search technology. Rounding out the industry are such companies as IAC Search & Media (which operates Ask.com), Lycos (owned by South Korea's Daum Communications), and LookSmart. Most of these Web sites serve international markets through localized versions of their English sites, but there are some search companies targeting non-English speaking audiences, such as China's upstart Baidu.com and Lycos Europe. Sponsored Internet search has been around for some time, but the dot-com bust put the viability of ad supported content into some doubt. Then in 2001 Google launched its advertising services, AdWords and AdSense, which use the search engine's highly accurate results and matching capabilities to target ads not only on its own site but also on third-party sites. For instance, a person searching for "Asian travel" might see ads for travel agencies or special ticket prices on flights to Japan and respond to those links. The new technology spurred renewed interest in online ads, both on the buying and selling sides. Following in Google's footsteps, Yahoo!, MSN, and IAC Search & Media have all launched or announced plans to introduce similar targeted ad services. Internet search technology has also expanded beyond finding documents to power a host of new services. Comparison shopping services such as Shopping.com, Shopzilla, and Google's Froogle index e-commerce sites and help consumers find the lowest prices on products, and the combination of localized search results and detailed maps gives users new ways to find information close to home. Perhaps more importantly, indexed news services such as Google News and Topix (operated by Zandica) gives the public greater access to more news and information sources than ever before. With new innovations being rapidly introduced, it is clear that the potential for search technology has been barely breached. Google has started indexing multimedia content on the Web, an idea that has sent shockwaves through Hollywood, and Yahoo! has launched a service to search subscription content from such providers as Factiva, LexisNexis, and The Wall Street Journal Online. Meanwhile, new desktop search applications not only help computer users find data hidden in folders on their PCs, but they are starting to bridge the gap (or grey the line) between the computer desktop and the Internet. These kinds of technologies could help search engines to become the ultimate gatekeepers in a future of ubiquitous access to information.

Verizon Wireless

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW:

It's not your father's phone company. And your grandkids won't likely recognize it. The revolution in our ability to transport data (communications) and our ability to manage it actually are converging to make even the term "telecommunications" seem obsolete. Bound too for the etymological dustbins are terms like dial-up, Baby Bell, third-generation (3G), long-distance, and even local. When I was a kid, my father used a code system to let my grandmother know we had made it home from a visit to her house. He would call her and let the phone ring twice before hanging up. That way our grandmother knew we were home safely and Pop saved the cost of a long-distance phone call. But competition has forced down the cost of long-distance and we no longer need to use the code system. When the antitrust busters broke up AT&T Corp. in 1984 (creating new Regional Bell Operating Companies, often called Baby Bells), the company held about 70% of the US long-distance market. A brief 20 years later, what was once the country's phone company had given up on consumer phone services altogether and has been acquired by a former offspring (Texas-based SBC Communications) to create a new AT&T Inc. The two other major long-distance carriers -- Sprint and MCI -- have differing stories. As a result of competitive pressures and falling revenue, both have moved away from local and long-distance services. Much like Ma Bell, MCI has focused on its transport network services for global corporate business. And like AT&T, MCI has been taken over by Verizon Communications, another former Baby Bell. Sprint has focused on its wireless business and recently has acquired rival Nextel Communications to form Sprint Nextel). Will traditional local calling be the next line of business to go the way of long-distance? It's happening. Local phone service providers, especially CLECs like Birch Telecom and McLeodUSA but even Baby Bells like Qwest Communications and BellSouth, are hurting in their bottom lines because of shrinking revenues (and customer numbers) from local calling business. Consumers no longer require multiple lines to accommodate extensions or Internet service connections and many are giving up even the single old copper phone lines and choosing wireless carriers. Traditional and competitive local phone companies are feeling competitive pressure from others, too. Cable TV operators are finally getting some share of the phone business and utilities are trying to gain entrance into the market. Yet concepts like "local" and "long-distance" are being voided by VoIP. With the advent of packet switching and Internet protocol (IP) networks like the one operated by Level 3 Communications, consumers have alternatives to traditional phone companies and their first-generation of competitors. Companies like Vonage and Skype promise to further revolutionize the industry. The biggest competitive advantage a traditional phone company can have is some corner on the market for wireless services. Cingular Wireless, the US market leader after its acquisition of AT&T Wireless, is shared by BellSouth and AT&T. Verizon Communications owns a share of #2 Verizon Wireless, its joint venture with UK-based wireless giant Vodafone Group. The nation's third-largest wireless carrier, Sprint, has substantially increased its size with the acquisition of former #5 carrier Nextel Communications. And the new Sprint Nextel has the future of communications in mind as it develops technology for what has been described as the future of telecommunications -- wireless broadband. What will our grandkids' phone company look like? It is impossible to accurately predict the future but it is a safe bet that phones with cameras and computers that make phone calls will one day be as old-fashioned as rotary handsets and telephone poles.