A Closer Look at

Economics Mr. Joshi

Questions for the Google PowerPoint (please copy)

1 – How did Google get started?

2- What was Google’s “big idea”? In other words, why did it come to dominate online searches?

3- How does Google make money for itself?

4-What must it be like to work for Google?

5 –Overall, would you say Google is living up to its motto of “Do no evil”?

6-What did you learn that impressed you about Google?

The Big Picture• Google’s official mission is to “organize the

world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”

• Google’s unofficial slogan is

“Don’t Be Evil” (a knock on Microsoft)

Founded September 1998

Founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Met at Stanford in 1995)

Both are tied for the 9th and 10th richest Americans with a net worth of $20 Billion. They own 16% ofGoogle Inc.

Market Capitalization: $ 248 Billion (2012)

Revenue: ~42 Billion (Last 12 months to June 2012)

Net Income: ~12 Billion (Last 12 months to June 2012)

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AGOOG&fstype=ii&ei=E39zUMDAKcPX0QHW0wE

Total Assets: 86 Billion (2012) Of which is cash: 8 Billion

Employees: 34,000 Worldwide (2011) (Jumped to 54,000) now that it has bought Motorola.

Google Stock Price History

http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1349746484858&chddm=804678&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=NASDAQ:GOOG&ntsp=0&ei=E39zUMDAKcPX0QHW0wE

If you (or I) had bought one share of Google at the beginning, how much would that share be worth today?

Google Worldwide Offices Today…

• http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/address.html

A link to a slideshow about Google’s Multicultural workforce:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/04/12/us/20090412GOOGLE_index.html

A Look at the companies Google has purchased over the years…including Android, Picasa, and YouTubehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google

Google’s Stock Price

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=GOOG+Interactive#chart2:symbol=goog;range=my;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

The Prototype (I used this in 1998!)

A Brief History• Google began in January 1996, as a research project by

Larry Page, who was soon joined by Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California.

• They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better ranking of results than existing techniques, which ranked results according to the number of times the search term appeared on a page.

History (continued)

• They raised $1.1 Million for their business plan.

• A patent describing part of the Google ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on 4 September 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.

How Google Makes $

• In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords. The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed.

• Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and clickthroughs, with bidding starting at US$.05 per click.

A closer look at AdWords

• https://services.google.com/fb/forms/adwordscoupon/?site=na-gdn-ctx-fl&utm_term=gdn-fl-ctx-3uc&utm_source=gdn-fl-ctx-3uc&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=en

Working for

GoogleHeadquarters is a complex of building. The lobby is decorated with a piano, lava lamps, old server clusters, and a projection of search queries on the wall. The hallways are full of exercise balls and bicycles. Each employee has access to the corporate recreation center.

Recreational amenities are scattered throughout the campus and include a workout room with weights and rowing machines, locker rooms, washers and dryers, a massage room, assorted video games, foosball, a baby grand piano, a pool table, and ping pong. In addition to the rec. room, there are snack rooms stocked with various foods and drinks.

Take a look at HQ – in the heart of Silicon Valley

• Of course, we’ll use Google Maps to see the Googleplex (as they call it)

• http://maps.google.com/

More Google Employee Benefits!Plus, Google has their own shuttle bus system that brings workers to and from home! AND, all Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time (one day per week) on projects that interest them.

Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense originated from these independent endeavors. The company stated that their analysis showed that half of the new product launches originated from the 20% time.

Other Unusual Perks at Google

• http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/technology/1201/gallery.best-companies-google-perks.fortune/index.html

• http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2012/01/18/t_bctwf_google_oklahoma.fortune/

Other Google Project (just on the side…)

• http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_thrun_google_s_driverless_car.html

Looking Ahead

Google has bought land where they are building their next generation of computer along hydropower sources to be green (in both senses). River water also acts to cool hot computer parts.

A catalog of Google Products…

http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/index.html

Is Google good for America (nay, the world!)?

• Yes– It allows people everywhere to find resources on the

Internet. It is a one-stop shop for searching.– It is committed to bring information for free worldwide,

all for free – did I mention it was free?!• No

- It has bankrupted many newspapers around the country!

- It keeps all your search data connected to your IP Address.

- It has become the judge of what websites are worthwhile!

- It is a monopoly!

What’s next for Google?

• Let’s read some articles and report out.

HW - What’s the evidence that Google is a bully?

• Read an article from the New York Times about complaints against Google.

• The article is posted online.

And, now some fun with Google Trends…

• http://www.google.com/trends/