Marlee McManus
MKTG 433
Dr. Sciulli
Google Case Analysis
Due Via D2l: 2/6/15

1. Provide a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of Google. Incorporate items from the articles as well as your own ideas.
Strengths:
It is Google’s efficient and effective user friendly interface, and the output of impeccably accurate results, that makes the company the frontrunners of the global search engine market. The company constantly updates and upgrades its technology and search algorithms to produce the best results possible. In 2001, Google implemented image search capabilities, which has come to expand to include the capability of searching for videos, news data, documents, books, and many other forms of “rich data”. With the launch of Google Instant in 2010, a program that predicts a user’s search query based on what they are typing, Google further enhanced the efficiency of the user’s search experience. Their position as the leading global internet database is further reinforced by their ability to produce results in various languages, and output localized search results. Furthermore, the fact that Google’s employees are required to spend 20% of their time developing their own projects acts as a perpetual catalyst to innovation--which always keeps the company one step ahead of their competitors.
Weaknesses:
Google relies primarily on advertisements as the source of their revenue. The problem with this is that advertisers’ spending patterns reflect the overall economic conditions. Deprived economic conditions may cause advertisers to reduce their investments in their ads, which would result in adverse effects on the revenue that Google is pulling from their advertisers. Google has also failed in establishing themselves as a podium for social media. The struggle that Google has had in implementing a successful social media platform also threatens their ad revenue as more and more advertisers are buying their spots on social media sites (like Facebook).
Opportunities:
The opportunities for Google are endless. With the creation of AdWords, a pay-per-click advertising service, and AdSense, a program that allows website publishers to earn a portion of the advertising revenue produced by the Google sponsored links on their site, are major revenue producing services, as well as customer attraction programs. Collaboration with other internet media sites and platforms further broaden Google’s reach. The demand for video media has skyrocketed, and operating such a site as YouTube pushes Google to the front of the pack in video providers. Google has also collaborated with media platforms such as Android and Picasa, further broadening the scope of the services it offers as well as the audience they reach.
Threats:
While Google has managed to evolve with its rapidly growing industry, so has the competition. It not only faces competition from other general search engines like Yahoo and Bing, but also from specified search engines (like WebMD), e-commerce sites (like eBay and Amazon), and social media sites (like Facebook)--all of which threaten Google’s established user base, but more so threaten the ad revenue of the company. Other mediums that threaten Google’s advertisement revenue are magazines, radio, television, and any other platform that hosts as a stage for advertisers. Google is also more than ten years old, and while this undoubtedly serves as reinforcement when it comes to user trust in the company, it also means that users may lose interest and be inclined to try an emerging new search engine (or one with new features), should Google slack on their innovativeness.

2. Describe in depth how Google's AdWords works. Is this a good strategy? Explain.
Essentially, Google AdWords is an advertising service provided by Google that allows website owners to place search results for their website on a search engine results page (SERP) for a fee--as opposed to waiting (and, more often than not, hoping) for their site to organically work its way up the rankings. However, the process is a little more complicated than that. Let us take a closer look at how it all works:
First, the website owner (or advertisers for the website) picks keywords that someone might be likely to enter into Google’s search engine and applies them to their account, then, they create an advertisement associated with those keywords, and then place an amount of money they would like to spend for a bid on that ad being placed on the search engine results page (SERP). Then, when someone enters a query into the search engine at Google, the company submits the keywords from the query (or, in some cases, keywords that are directly relevant to the query) to AdWords, where whether or not an auction will take place will be determined. If there is one or more bidder on the keywords submitted, an auction will ensue.
During the auction phase, Google enters the relevant keywords from members’ accounts, along with the associated ad, for the bid assigned to it. Once the bids are pooled and entered into the auction, Google considers two factors in deciding where the ad ranks: 1) The maximum bid, and 2) the quality score of the member. A member’s quality score is determined by how relevant the ad is to the user. The maximum bid multiplied by the quality score determines the ad rank of that member for that specific pool. The member with the highest ad rank is chosen to have their ad placed on Google’s SERP. Once the position of the ad is sold, the Cost-Per-Click (CPC), which is the amount the advertiser pays for every time a user clicks on that ad, is determined.
The CPC that an advertiser pays is determined by dividing the ad rank of the second highest ranking member for that pool, by their quality score added onto by $0.01. For example, suppose that you have been chosen to have your ad placed on Google’s SERP: your quality score for that auction is 10, and you won the auction with an ad rank of 20, and the member closest to your ranking had an ad rank of 16. Therefore, your CPC is 16/10+0.01=$1.61.
This strategy is successful because it does not only serve as a beneficiary to a sole party, or to a single end of the transaction. This system benefits the company advertising, the consumer being advertised to, and the appeal of being able to refine their market segment has generated a steady flow of participating advertisers, which has enhanced ad revenue for Google. Overall, the system serves only as a beneficiary to all that interact with it.

3. Do you feel Google and Social Media in general are using tactics which are an invasion of your privacy? Use facts from the articles to support and explain your answer.
I believe that yes, search engines in general (not just Google), as well as Social Media platforms, use tactics that are an invasion of privacy. However, couldn’t all market research be considered somewhat an “invasion of privacy”? And data mining is merely a form of just that: market research. As Joel Stein, the author of the article entitled “Data Mining: How Companies Know Everything About You”, points out: “Taking your information without asking and then profiting from it isn’t new: it’s the idea behind the phone book, junk mail, and telemarketing”, and, according to the CEO of Bizo, a data mining company geared towards business executives, it is the “newness” of his industry that scares people, not the concept.
Essentially, data mining is designed to help--both companies and consumers. Companies are able to directly target people with specific products or services tailored specifically to the individual, and consumers have less junk to filter through in order to find what they want--albeit, the junk is not eliminated. For example, after doing research on the economy in Costa Rica for my international business class, I was presented with ads for Costa Rican property listings and vacation opportunities for about two weeks--both (unfortunately) are not purchases I am interested (or, should I say, capable) of making. While the research collected by data mining may sometimes result in bad ads, they are undoubtedly a step up from messy pop-up ads, pesky telemarketers, and annoying junk mail. Plus, the results aren’t always bad: I often find myself appreciating the “Recommended for You” service provided by sites such as Amazon, especially when it comes to recommendations such as books for example. The company is able to predict my preferences based on my past purchases, and many (if not all) companies that operate online have adopted this model.
The thing that freaks people out about the whole concept is the image of someone, or a group of people, “spying” on their personal lives. But, Stein says we should look at it like this: The fact of the matter is that data mining is an “algorithm designed to give [us] more useful, specific ads”, not some maniac or conspiring group of people preparing to infiltrate our lives, which, by the way, Stein supports are “not all that interesting”--and I could not agree more. If companies want to track my patterns on the internet to produce more useful results, I am happy to let them. There is no human on the other end learning about my life and judging me--and if there is, I have provided them with the information to judge by the information that I share online. Furthermore, Google, and many other search engines and social media sites, have enabled “opt-out” possibilities that prevent companies from data mining for their users. While our information will never be private (and never was), I don’t think data mining serves as a threat to the general public. However, as argued by Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney for the digital rights advocacy group, Electronic Frontier Foundation: “at the very least, we’re responsible to protect special groups”. While this is true, at the heart of it all is this: If we want to continue to access the world’s information, we must contribute to that pool of information ourselves.

4. Discuss products that are appropriate (from an ethical perspective) for on line advertising. Next, discuss products that should not be advertised on line. Explain.
The products and services that should be available to us online should be the same as those that we can walk into a brick-and-mortar store and buy. Sure, there are specialty items online (a signed Michael Jordan basketball, or recordings from the Beatles’ private jam session), but, essentially, we could walk into a brick-and-mortar store and buy these things. Placing them online is merely cheaper, and reached a broader scope of potential buyers. The products and services that should not be offered online are the same products and services that should not be offered to us in the physical world. If a potential purchase poses as an obvious threat to us or to others, it is not a product or a service that should be bought (illegal weapons, hitmen, illegal drugs, child pornography etc.). However, there are people that still buy them...and there always has been. Before the internet, people had to wander down back alleys and hide in the shadows to acquire these things, but they were still acquired. The Deep Web serves as the back alley and the shadows to hide in for illegal and unethical dealings over the internet.
Picture this: you are walking through town square, surrounding you is flashing lights and arrows, obnoxious billboards, and flashing digital advertisements, enticing you to buy this and go there (all for ethically sound products and services). But, as you wander the street, someone emerges from a side dark alleyway and tells you he has some “good stuff”, and would you be interested? Being of sane and sound mind, you would say “No, thanks”, and you would move on. Nobody sponsored that person to attempt to entice you with the “good stuff” he/she had, they were just kind of there with it. And, engrained with good-decision making skills, we should be able to establish the “good stuff” this person has as bad stuff, and we should be able to resist the product or service. The Deep Web acts very similar to the person emerging from the alley with the “good (bad) stuff”, and we must be smart and strong enough to resist the temptation to browse it for the sake of unethical purchase making--just as we must do the same in the real world by not wandering down back alleys and making illegal transactions in the shadows.