Course Project - Google Background

I. Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In 1996, after meeting at Stanford University in 1995, Page and Brin built a search engine that would populate links based on the individuals search preferences. The product was officially launched after a 100,000 check written by Suns co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim in 1998. Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Since 1998, the business has grown to service hundreds of thousands of users and customers around the world.

II. Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses

A. First Organizational Strength

1. Google currently has a strong lead ahead of its competitors in the search engine field. Currently, Google has a new web browser called Google Chrome. As of November 2012, Google Chrome has 35% of users nationwide that has switched from Internet explorer to the new web browser Google Chrome. The browser is currently offered on Android, iOS, Linux, OSX, and Windows XP systems.

2. This is presented as a strength too because Google is ahead of its competitors and keeps up with technological advances very quickly, and as long as they remain consistent they will continue to expand and grow as big, if not bigger than Microsoft.

B. Second Organizational Strength

1. Google Mobile has teamed up with android and has launched apps that are preprogrammed on the phone such as Google Earth. This application allows you to navigate using your fingers to swipe the globe, zoom in and zoom out, as well as tilt the view. The Google Translate app allows you to enter your text and can translate up to 65 different languages, in which 17 of the languages allow you to speak the text instead of typing in the text. Google Currents is another application that delivers beautiful magazine-like editions to your tablet or smartphone for high speed offline reading. These new apps along with apps such as Google+, Gmail, and Google Maps, each having between 5 million - 10 Million downloads a piece have proved that users have definitely boosted Google's popularity. As of Sept. 2012, Android's numbers were at 500 million users.

2. The reason this is a strength is because the push of teaming with android has helped Google brand their applications which helps them become prestigious, and trusted.

C. First Organizational Weakness

1. Copyrighting has been one of the biggest issues that Google has faced. Google has been accused by a few media companies for copyrighting. They felt Google exploits content that does not contain ownership of Google. There have been lawsuits filed, one in France and two in Germany. The courts in France held Google liable for allowing advertisers to select certain trademarked terms as keywords, which Google is currently appealing.

2. This weakness in Google's marketing strategy but on August of 2012, Google made an effort to slow down copyrighting. Google informs that when posting and ad, if it contains copyrighting it will be lower on the search engine where no one will be able to see it. They did this to encourage ad sellers to not copyright.

D. Second Organizational Weakness

1. Google possesses another problem in their employee loyalty department. Although they receive over 1,400 CVs/resumes, and in a year over half a million applicants a year, dedication and loyalty to the staff of Google is a major weakness for Google. The senior executive of Google in May of 2008, Elliot Schrage, decided to leave Google for one of the largest social networks which was Facebook. With Schrage becoming head of Facebook's global communications and public affairs, Google fears that their secrets and trades of their company's success are being shared with other companies as employees come and go. (Shiels, BBC News, 2008).

2. This weakness can be overpowered by Google finding an incentive appreciation plan for their employees to show that they appreciate them as well as make them sign a document to ensure that their information remains discrete.

III. Opportunities/ Threats

A. First Opportunity

1. Keeping up with technology compatibility is the number one overall skill that is need in the General environment when it comes to operating systems, mobile devices, and applications. For the fact that Google is very good at it on a normal basis of how their company is ran, all Google had to do was team up with the right company. One major opportunity that presented itself to Google before they actually launched it was to launch the Chrome operating system. This opportunity helped Google to where they are today. Google had to persuade consumers to use their operating system