Google’s phenomenal success in the search and ad business is widely acknowledged and talked about. Personally I enjoyed very much in the last class listening the many interesting topics that were delivered by Simon of Google.
Although Google is undisputedly the #1 search engine and perhaps the most profitable net business , I wonder to what extent the success of Google is due to Yahoo? We know that there are major differences in the search methodology between Yahoo and Google. Yahoo basically organizes the generic search results where Google optimizes the search relevance. But the question is: Would Google see the importance of search relevance had Yahoo not succeeded in the initial search business? Had Google be the first to popularize the search business, may be Yahoo is the one today that optimizing the search results like what Google does??
That raises an interesting question: In the net business models at least, is it good to be the pioneer or follower? Obviously there are many arguments in favor of either one and it is hard to say which one is actually better. Personally I more inclined to become the follower. The reason is simple: in the increasingly competitive web space, thousands of new ideas flourish and disappear everyday. It is very difficult to hit the right start-up idea but it is relatively easier to follow, and to optimize the idea of the pioneer. Of course you may argue that the successful pioneer would have already accumulated certain mass traffic etc and it would be too late to follow, granted. But yet again we see many successful examples such as eBay, Dell model and arguably Google.
So between pioneer or follower, what’s your choice?
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
