Business Model
Google generates revenue primarily through two programs: highly targeted advertising and online search services.Google offers a highly effective advertising program that is widely recognized as one of the Web's most efficient advertising vehicles.
| • | Pricing | Auction based pricing based on the value (cost-per-click or CPC) an advertiser assigns to particular keywords. An ad's position on the page is determined by a combination of the CPC and the click-through rate (number of times the ad is clicked on by users) so that the most relevant ads are displayed more prominently. The cost of creating an account is $5 and there is no minimum ad spend required. |
| • | Technology | Prices for some clicks are adjusted based on their expected value to help ensure better performance for advertisers and an automated discounter keeps the cost of each click at the lowest amount possible in order to hold its position above a competitor's ad. ad targeting by location, and numerous tools for optimizing accounts, including a keyword suggestion tool and daily budget management. |
| • | Format | Messages appear adjacent to web search results on Google.com and partner sites. Labeled as "sponsored links.” May appear on targeted content pages across the web. |
| • | Targeting | Based on advertiser selected keywords or sophisticated content analysis algorithms, so ads always appear in context with other information on the page. |
| • | Support | Two options: Advertisers sign up online and manage their own accounts, which are activated with a credit card. For our larger advertisers, our full service account team sets up accounts, designs campaigns based on the advertiser's defined metrics and then monitors creative and click-through rates to continuously optimize those campaigns. |
| • | Customers | Recent advertisers include: Sony, Cisco, Alamo Car Rental, Ameritrade, Amazon.com, Canon, Disney, General Motors, L.L. Bean, Nordstrom, Sears, Smith & Hawken, Sprint, Volvo and Xerox. |
| Google AdSense and Web Site Services |
Google AdSense serves relevant ads on search result and content pages.
| • | Technology | Innovations include the ability to target relevant advertising based on keywords provided by a searcher or to dynamically analyze content and select relevant ads to display on a page. |
| • | Support | Two options: Publishers can manage their own accounts, which are activated through an online application process and implemented by simply cutting and pasting some HTML onto their web pages. A dedicated sales team customizes programs for sites receiving more than 20 million page views per month. |
| • | Customers | USATODAY.com, ABC.com, Forbes.com and 60% of the comScore Media Metrix top 100 sites, as well as thousands of other specialty content sites. |
Google Search Services enable publishers to provide Google web and site search on their own pages – results that can be used to generate revenue with the AdSense for Search program.
| • | Technology | Google search is based on a continuously evolving set of technologies that offer innovations in every aspect of information retrieval and provide users with the most relevant results. |
| • | Support | Hosted by Google, with results customized to customer's specifications. Results available via HTTP and can be formatted in XML or Google's proprietary protocol. |
| • | Updates | Conducted on a regular basis to ensure fresh content. |
| • | Reporting | Reports on daily number of traffic, top queries, top keywords searched, and other information. |
| • | Indexing | More than 8 billion pages, the largest index on the web. |
| • | Features | Searches can be narrowed to a specific domain/subdomain or a specific language. Google also supports OR operators, keyword exclusion and phrase searching if quotation marks are used. |
| • | Customers | Washingtonpost.com, AOL/Netscape, Palm, Fujitsu NIFTY (Japan), NEC BIGLOBE (Japan), NetEase (China),Yam.com (Taiwan), Vodafone Global Platform and Internet Services Group (U.K.), Retivision (Spain), Sapo (Portugal), and Virgilio (Italy). |
The Google Search Appliance, a scalable and secure device that provides Google quality search across an individual website or intranet.
| • | Technology | Google search is based on a continuously evolving set of technologies that offer innovations in every aspect of information retrieval and provide users with the most relevant results. |
| • | Delivery | Hosted at the customer's location on the Google Search Appliance, with results customized to customer's specifications. Three models offer search across any size collection up to 15 million documents. |
| • | Updates | Crawls available on a schedule set by the customer. Password protected or secure pages can be indexed in most cases. Google's caching technology makes it possible for users to access pages even if the hosting server is busy or down. |
| • | Reporting | Reports on daily number of traffic, top queries, top keywords searched, and other information. |
| • | Indexing | Customers can elect to offer different segments of their index to different users (e.g., by language, country, etc.) |
| • | Features | Searches can be narrowed to a specific domain/subdomain or a specific language. International language support enables search over documents in the following languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish. Google also supports OR operators, keyword exclusion and phrase searching if quotation marks are used. Partners can set a specific URL or set of URLs to be returned at the top of a list of returned queries. |
| • | Support | 24/7 technical support |
| • | Customers | PBS, The World Bank, Procter & Gamble, Cisco Systems, Boeing, Stanford University , Nextel and Kaiser Permanente |
Google Wireless Services deliver Google search results via PDAs, wireless phones and other mobile devices powered by many of the world's leading wireless service providers.
| • | Technology | Google's proprietary on-the-fly conversion system translates web pages into a language understood by handheld devices, so users can access the world's largest index of web pages. Google Wireless Search supports WML, HDML, HTML, and i-mode and J-Sky compatible HTML mobile internet standards. |
| • | Delivery | Hosted by Google, with results customized to customer's specifications. Results available via HTTP and can be formatted in XML or Google's proprietary protocol. |
| • | Updates | Crawls available daily or weekly. Password protected or secure pages can be indexed in most cases. Google's cache makes it possible for users to access pages even if the hosting server is busy or down. |
| • | Reporting | Reports on daily number of traffic, top queries, top keywords searched, and other information. |
| • | Revenue Opportunities | Targeted keyword advertising that can be sold by customer. |
| • | Indexing | More than 8 billion pages, the largest index on the web. Customers can elect to offer different segments of their index to different users (e.g., by language, country, etc.) |
| • | Features | Google Number Search (GNS): One-tap technology to facilitate text entry on web-ready phones. Example: Enter the numbers 466453 for Google instead of 4666666455533. Search results offered in 35 languages. Search by specific language, by topic, by customized URLs submitted to Google, safe search of English HTML pages. |
| • | Support | 24/7 technical support. |
| • | Customers | Sprint, Cingular, Qwest, Nextel, Bell Mobility (Canada), Vizzavi, Sprint PCS, Nextel, Palm, Handspring and Omnisky. |
Google AdSense for domains serves ads on dormant domain pages.