Company Assessment: Google – The Premium Fuel Search Engine

Authors: Janet Cleary, Director, Product Analyst; Susan Brown, Senior Analyst

Google has won over consumer Internet users with its search engine, and is dipping its feet into the corporate search market and news aggregation spaces. This Briefing analyzes Google's search, technology, and content strategies and prospects for success. Google faces some challenges in the corporate market for news information, where buyers are more sensitive to obtaining specific, authorized sources in regular frequencies, but it is clearly a threat to established news vendors such as Factiva, LexisNexis, and Dialog NewsEdge. The Briefing also reviews fundamental company information, recent corporate acquisitions and events, and examines Google's primary products and revenue streams. For commercial content vendors, the Briefing provides insight into Google's strategies in the corporate market. For content deployment professionals, it suggests ways that Google's news and search services fit into a complete portfolio of content offerings.