Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AY0oYRAxTPKGZDM1Y2RtZ18xZ2ozNThxZ3c
2011年11月12日 星期六
2011年11月10日 星期四
Economic Impacts of Google Search
By Jeremy Tay
Google's innovations in search technology has made it the No. 1 search engine. However, Google did not start prospering until it started auctioning ads that appear alongside its search results. With a market valuation of slightly under US$200 billion (Forbes, 2011), the economic impacts of Google is certainly something that warrants further discussion.
Before we examine the various economic effects of the Google Search technology, let me briefly explain the technologies that are responsible for the economic influences of Google.
Basically there are two main platforms on Google through which many businesses tap on for their advertising and economic development: Adwords and Adsense. While the two are seemingly similar concepts (online advertising), they actually function in completely opposite ways.
Google Adwords, a technology closely linked to the search engine, allows advertisers to put up their own advertisements on Google search result pages and their websites. The concept is that while businesses personalize their advertisements and choose the relevant keywords associated with their businesses, Google will provide the optimal platform to reach the target audience. When internet users search on Google using one of the keywords, Google will surface their relevant advertisements next to the search results, thereby exposing only interested parties to the advertisements.
On the other hand, Google Adsense is an ad-publishing system that displays Google Adwords and the Google search engine on sites that are not owned by Google. This system functions, firstly, to enhance the user experience by introducing a google search engine on the website. This will, in turn, increase the search traffic of Google and consequently, the traffic volume of the advertisements. Additionally, Google provides monetary incentives to sites which offer their space for utilization. In this sense, Adwords and Adsense actually perform functions which are complimentary and mutually beneficial to each other.
Google derives approximately 99% of its revenue from advertising (Google, 2008). Despite the fact that most of its online products, (i.e. Google Search, Gmail) are free to use, they are all supported by text ads like Adwords and Adsense. The reasons for their success, and consequently, their economic influences, could be attributed to the following reasons. Primarily, Google owes its success in advertising to its powerful and popular search engine. Google search has become an ubiquitous commodity in our world today and is often used as a synonym to describe the action of searching the web. (Eg. “Google it”) Google’s advertising development has therefore, tapped on both the large volume of user traffic as well as Google’s large database of websites. Apart from its extensive resources, Google’s economic contribution in advertising can also be attributed to the fact that their advertising platform is customized according to the customer’s demands. This is evident in the way only advertisements that are related to the user's keyword search are surfaced on the search result page.
Having discussed and comprehended the technologies behind Google search’s economic contributions, I shall now spend the latter part of my critique discussing if Google has indeed positively benefited our economy.
So how has Google search, and accordingly, its advertising arms contributed to the economy?
In a article published in 2009 by Google, Google claimed that it has generated US$54 billion worth of revenue in the United States economy. One key way in which Google has contributed to private businesses is as such: For every dollar that companies invests in advertising on Google Search and Adwords, there will be a profit of $8 generated as users accessing their websites (via the advertisements) consume their products or services.
Owner of an e-commerce site, Medical Coding.Net, Dr Darren Carter, established an online business for the purpose of selling medical coding books, files, softwares. Dr Carter mentioned that in his [medical] industry, people are out looking for a variety of services and products” and this puts Google’s marketing strategy particularly useful for his business. Dr Carter believes that Adwords has opened the gateway for many interested consumers to his website and Adsense provides alternative sites should they not find what they need at his site. He has seen a five-figure return on his advertising investments through Adwords and agreed that Google’a advertising has had a favorable impact on his business.
Therefore, I believe that Google has had a significant impact especially in the manner enterprises carry out their advertising and development. The success rate of their advertising that Google has guaranteed its users suggests that companies have a significantly high chance of growing and developing their business, should they choose to employ the advertising platform provided by Google.
In addition to how Google has directly benefited our economy, another crucial consideration is that our society is becoming increasingly inclined towards the concept of “E-commerce”. Due to the increasingly convenient and availability of online commercial sites, there are greater tendencies for consumers to shop for products and services via the internet. This provides an excellent opportunity for online advertising to capture their respective target audience. Google, with its monopoly over the internet search engine, is in a prime and ideal position to do so. As such, with the growing population of online shoppers, accompanied by their search engine dominance, their economic impact on businesses will definitely be of great significance.
Nevertheless, critiques have questioned if Google has indeed overstated the influences it has on the economy. The primarily criticism is that Google has overestimated the value of actual contribution of its search engine and accompanying advertising systems. By claiming that the profit generated from businesses is solely based on the advertising via Google seems to imply that Google has conveniently taken credit for the economic activity that might have been contributed by other economical agents (apart from advertising). It may be true that advertising plays a pivotal role in the economic development of companies. However, it should also be noted that there are multiple other contributing factors; Google primarily plays only the online advertising role for these enterprises.
In view of the discussion above, I am convinced that the economic influences of Google Search is largely beneficial to both the producers and consumers in the economy. Similar to the manner Google has captured internet users with its unique and effective search engine, Google has redefined the way online advertising should be carried out- leaving competitors like Yahoo and MSN struggling to keep pace behind. Even though online commerce and its advertisements is still a relatively minor aspect of our economy, I believe with the continued advancement and development of informational technology and the internet, there is indeed great potential for Google to have an increasingly significant effect on our economy.
Online References
http://www.forbes.com/sites/leapfrogging/2011/02/03/putting-a-value-on-google-and-facebook/
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_10/b3974071.htm
https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/WsOverview.html?gsessionid=TpwCQPndaQjxxwWoLay12w
http://googlewatch.eweek.com/content/google_philanthropy/google_generated_54b_for_us_in_2009_with_ads_grants_search.html?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Fgoogle_watch+%28Google+Watch%29
Google's innovations in search technology has made it the No. 1 search engine. However, Google did not start prospering until it started auctioning ads that appear alongside its search results. With a market valuation of slightly under US$200 billion (Forbes, 2011), the economic impacts of Google is certainly something that warrants further discussion.
Before we examine the various economic effects of the Google Search technology, let me briefly explain the technologies that are responsible for the economic influences of Google.
Basically there are two main platforms on Google through which many businesses tap on for their advertising and economic development: Adwords and Adsense. While the two are seemingly similar concepts (online advertising), they actually function in completely opposite ways.
Google Adwords, a technology closely linked to the search engine, allows advertisers to put up their own advertisements on Google search result pages and their websites. The concept is that while businesses personalize their advertisements and choose the relevant keywords associated with their businesses, Google will provide the optimal platform to reach the target audience. When internet users search on Google using one of the keywords, Google will surface their relevant advertisements next to the search results, thereby exposing only interested parties to the advertisements.
On the other hand, Google Adsense is an ad-publishing system that displays Google Adwords and the Google search engine on sites that are not owned by Google. This system functions, firstly, to enhance the user experience by introducing a google search engine on the website. This will, in turn, increase the search traffic of Google and consequently, the traffic volume of the advertisements. Additionally, Google provides monetary incentives to sites which offer their space for utilization. In this sense, Adwords and Adsense actually perform functions which are complimentary and mutually beneficial to each other.
Google derives approximately 99% of its revenue from advertising (Google, 2008). Despite the fact that most of its online products, (i.e. Google Search, Gmail) are free to use, they are all supported by text ads like Adwords and Adsense. The reasons for their success, and consequently, their economic influences, could be attributed to the following reasons. Primarily, Google owes its success in advertising to its powerful and popular search engine. Google search has become an ubiquitous commodity in our world today and is often used as a synonym to describe the action of searching the web. (Eg. “Google it”) Google’s advertising development has therefore, tapped on both the large volume of user traffic as well as Google’s large database of websites. Apart from its extensive resources, Google’s economic contribution in advertising can also be attributed to the fact that their advertising platform is customized according to the customer’s demands. This is evident in the way only advertisements that are related to the user's keyword search are surfaced on the search result page.
Having discussed and comprehended the technologies behind Google search’s economic contributions, I shall now spend the latter part of my critique discussing if Google has indeed positively benefited our economy.
So how has Google search, and accordingly, its advertising arms contributed to the economy?
In a article published in 2009 by Google, Google claimed that it has generated US$54 billion worth of revenue in the United States economy. One key way in which Google has contributed to private businesses is as such: For every dollar that companies invests in advertising on Google Search and Adwords, there will be a profit of $8 generated as users accessing their websites (via the advertisements) consume their products or services.
Owner of an e-commerce site, Medical Coding.Net, Dr Darren Carter, established an online business for the purpose of selling medical coding books, files, softwares. Dr Carter mentioned that in his [medical] industry, people are out looking for a variety of services and products” and this puts Google’s marketing strategy particularly useful for his business. Dr Carter believes that Adwords has opened the gateway for many interested consumers to his website and Adsense provides alternative sites should they not find what they need at his site. He has seen a five-figure return on his advertising investments through Adwords and agreed that Google’a advertising has had a favorable impact on his business.
Therefore, I believe that Google has had a significant impact especially in the manner enterprises carry out their advertising and development. The success rate of their advertising that Google has guaranteed its users suggests that companies have a significantly high chance of growing and developing their business, should they choose to employ the advertising platform provided by Google.
In addition to how Google has directly benefited our economy, another crucial consideration is that our society is becoming increasingly inclined towards the concept of “E-commerce”. Due to the increasingly convenient and availability of online commercial sites, there are greater tendencies for consumers to shop for products and services via the internet. This provides an excellent opportunity for online advertising to capture their respective target audience. Google, with its monopoly over the internet search engine, is in a prime and ideal position to do so. As such, with the growing population of online shoppers, accompanied by their search engine dominance, their economic impact on businesses will definitely be of great significance.
Nevertheless, critiques have questioned if Google has indeed overstated the influences it has on the economy. The primarily criticism is that Google has overestimated the value of actual contribution of its search engine and accompanying advertising systems. By claiming that the profit generated from businesses is solely based on the advertising via Google seems to imply that Google has conveniently taken credit for the economic activity that might have been contributed by other economical agents (apart from advertising). It may be true that advertising plays a pivotal role in the economic development of companies. However, it should also be noted that there are multiple other contributing factors; Google primarily plays only the online advertising role for these enterprises.
In view of the discussion above, I am convinced that the economic influences of Google Search is largely beneficial to both the producers and consumers in the economy. Similar to the manner Google has captured internet users with its unique and effective search engine, Google has redefined the way online advertising should be carried out- leaving competitors like Yahoo and MSN struggling to keep pace behind. Even though online commerce and its advertisements is still a relatively minor aspect of our economy, I believe with the continued advancement and development of informational technology and the internet, there is indeed great potential for Google to have an increasingly significant effect on our economy.
Online References
http://www.forbes.com/sites/leapfrogging/2011/02/03/putting-a-value-on-google-and-facebook/
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_10/b3974071.htm
https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/WsOverview.html?gsessionid=TpwCQPndaQjxxwWoLay12w
http://googlewatch.eweek.com/content/google_philanthropy/google_generated_54b_for_us_in_2009_with_ads_grants_search.html?kc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RSS%2Fgoogle_watch+%28Google+Watch%29
2011年11月7日 星期一
Google Search: Technologies and Societal Impact
Google Search: Technologies and Societal Impact
CCST9003 Critique
Tzer-yen Chow 2010522393
“What happened to Steve Jobs!?”
187,000,000 search results within 0.07 seconds. That is how powerful Google Search is.
Google Search is the most popular search engine in the world today and receives several hundred million queries every day. It is ranked first by Alexa rank, supports 124 available languages and is my personal favorite search engine. It has affected enormously on how people collect data and has paradigm shifted the information world into a whole new era.
Google Search is definitely not the first search engine that existed around the market; many questioned why Google Search is so remarkably successful despite not having benefitted from the first mover advantage. In this short critique, I will attempt to answer the question by focusing on PageRank, an algorithm that Google Search implemented which set it apart from its competitors, and more importantly, address its societal impact (intellectually) on the world today.
PageRank algorithm is named after Larry Page but patented under Stanford University. Traditionally, when a query is typed onto a search engine, “relevant” webpages will appear based on keywords but they may be junk or spam webpages that contain lots of tags. With the implementation of PageRank, not only do relevant pages appear, but also the ones that are useful (under normal circumstances[1]). What PageRank does is essentially putting forward the notion of “importance”, ranking different webpages on the graph based on their relative importance, independent of the query. Under PageRank, webpages are treated as nodes and hyperlinks are treated as edges. Each node’s importance is ranked by how many other nodes linked to it. It also assigns different weightings to each hyperlink. Hence, it is also known as a recursive weighted voting approach.
This equation states that the PageRank of a node x is the sum of all the values of PageRank y out of Bx where Bx is the set which contains all the nodes linking to page x, divided by the number of edges from page y.
For example, for the sake of simplicity, assume a small world where only three nodes exist: A, B and C.
Initially, each node is assigned an equal PageRank value, i.e. 1/3. If both B and C link to node A, then:
Suppose now node B also links to node C, then:
Now, if node A also links to node B or node C, it is not hard to perceive recursion taking place. In fact, this is very common in reality where there are millions of nodes and edges.
It is perhaps easier for some to visualize this algorithm:
Some interesting facts to notice from the above diagram is that although node C has a lot fewer edges than node E, but it has a much higher PageRank value because the edge which links it is also a node with very high PageRank value. It is not difficult to observe the recursion taking place where node B points to node C and vice versa.
In fact, by taking into account the damping factor, the algorithm holds even when there is a random surfer that clicks randomly. The damping factor is the probability that a given person will continue surfing and is generally assumed to be around 0.85. By implementing this simple algorithm, Google became one of the dominating multinational corporations within a tremendously short period of time. The success of Google Search has had an enormous impact on the society, both positively and negatively. At first glance, having a powerful search engine means information can be found easily. However, that is not the whole story. As Google Search became more and more frequently used, a hot debate fostered: Does Google Search retard the intellectual development of individuals?
I believe that Google Search will NOT retard the intellectual development of individuals. Hence, the remaining part of this critique will be devoted to argue against the topic of debate.
First, many argued that Google Search diminishes the ability to concentrate and contemplate. In fact, a technology writer Nicholas G. Carr believes “reading on the internet is generally of a shallower form in comparison with reading from printed books in which a more intense and sustained form of reading is exercised.”[2] However, many E-books had in contrast, spread and became widely read with the advent of Google Search. In addition, many books that were previously unavailable physically were all made possible via Google Search. In my opinion, accusing Google Search for society’s decline in motivation or ability to contemplate is unacceptable. Although it is true that Google Search may present information that are less detailed than a book, but any individual (who believes that Google Search will retard the intellectual development and causes lack of concentration and contemplation) can just as well search for information in books, no one is forced to use Google Search. In addition, because Google Search presents many different search results from different authors, it is possible to view the query from many different aspects and perspectives, unlike a book, where you will need faith to believe what the author writes are true.
Second, some believed that the abundance of information on Google Search shifted individual’s professionalism to a superficial knowledge of many subjects rather than a thorough understanding of just a few. However, free access to large amount of information spurs innovation and creativity. For example, before the printing press, access to information is very limited, however, after the printing press; we have observed many positive effects which outweighs the negative. I believe we are in a similar situation now with the advent of Google Search. In addition, say, one day you heard the name Steve Jobs on the television and you want to know a little bit more about him. It is much more convenient to search for him on Google rather than buying a biography book about him. In terms of economics, if Google Search haven’t existed, the cost of finding out a piece of information will be so large (imagine walking out of your nice and comfortable house to a library to find a book about something) such that if the benefit is not as great the cost and benefit analysis will hinder you from finding out the information and jeopardize your intellectual development. Most people will just forget about the question and continue living their lives. However, with Google Search, most questions can be answered and the costs are simply typing a few keywords and wait for less than a second on Google! Google and textbooks are not mutually exclusive, if one is to find detailed information one can always refer back to the library. Hence, an abundance of information is also not a valid argument for Google retarding individual’s intellectual growth.
Lastly, a few critics pointed out that because of vast information stored online accessible using Google Search, the desirability or capability of individual to recall certain types of information diminished. In the long term, individual’s memory will deteriorate and there will be an over-reliance on Google Search. However, I would like to argue that in the age of bits and bytes, the ability for one to find facts and information in a short period of time is perhaps as important as memorizing those facts. In reality, it is impossible for one to memorize all the facts, but one can easily find all the relevant information online. Hence, Ben Worthen, a Wall Street Journal business technology blogger stated “the guy who remembers every fact about a topic may not be as valuable as the guy who knows how to find all of these facts and many others” and I strongly agree with him.
In conclusion, instead of retarding individual’s intellectual development, I believe Google Search spurred knowledge, stimulated innovations, encouraged the spread of ideas and had fostered positive effect on the intellectual development of individuals. Not only because it contains over a trillion of sites, which offers a wide variety of resources, but also because it is free, transparent and can potentially expose all individuals to information or cultures they would otherwise have no access to. Although there are definitely societal costs associated with the advent of Google Search, but I believe the positive effects outweigh the negative and that is perhaps why most people today uses Google Search!
[1] Some are actually paid to mess up the voting system of PageRank
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid? - Magazine - The Atlantic." The Atlantic — News and Analysis on Politics, Business, Culture, Technology, National, International, and Life – TheAtlantic.com. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.
Carr, Nicholas. "The Reality Club: ON "IS GOOGLE MAKING US STUPID" By Nicholas Carr." Edge : Conversations on the Edge of Human Knowledge. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.
"Does Google Make Us Stupid?" Pew Research Center. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.
Google, Blaming. "Debate: Is Google Making Us Stupid? | Debate.org." Debate at Debate.org. Web. 01 Nov. 2011.
"PageRank." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.
2011年11月6日 星期日
Critique on Google search (Poon Cheuk Hong, 3035014440)
Critique on Google Search – How is modern people’s life jeopardized by Google?
Since 1998, human have entered an era of Web 2.0. That year, the best search engine in the world, Google, was launched. Since then, it has been providing a large amount of searching services for free. Except searching websites, there are also images, videos, news and even academic journals. Google has produced a huge impact that people now do not use search engines, they ‘google’ it. [i]
Google search gives humans a lot of advantages, but this advantage is in turn the greatest disadvantage. We have got used to Google search, but getting used to it is the problem. This critique will focus on how people’s ability to think independently is deteriorated by using search engines, especially Google.
This critique does not mean to accuse Google and other search engines of giving rise to these problems. It only means to reflect the negative impacts on human’s behavior and independent thinking from Web 2.0, raise people’s awareness and suggest preventions.
Does Google jeopardize our life? To answer this question, how Google may lead to the downfall of our life quality should be first concerned.
With Google, people’s efficiency should increase, because it greatly reduces our searching time. But, in our daily lives, our efficiency does not increase much. Instead of enhancing productivity, people in turn waste their additional time on the Internet. The most familiar phenomenon is that people browse without a discrete purpose. Through hyperlinks and numerous search results, one may read hundreds of websites in an hour. Many information are crammed into the brains of people in the period, yet they are scattered, unorganized, so in fact people cannot be benefited from such “learning” on the Internet. As time is wasted, people feel guilty; they do not feel happy at all but fell only stressful. In recent years, many netizens are suffering from the stress, it is because in the process of browsing, brain movement is heavily required to comprehend the information, excess exposure to stimulation let people unable to weigh the importance of what they receive. More seriously, some netizens are addicted to the Internet. One common symptom is that people will spend hours online without a purpose, and that they cannot control themselves. Psychological therapies are needed. Although the responsibility does not solely fall on Google search, undoubtedly, the gigantic search engine does constitute the problem.
People being addicted to the Internet using Google as a gate is only a superficial effect. The problem is more serious if people not only put their time, but also their mind in Google. It is easily to be unconscious that we are controlled by the search engine. It is a common phenomenon that people never challenge what they are given in the search result. Some people even claimed that “if it is not found on Google, then it does not exist.”[ii] Google dominates because it is convenient and powerful, but not it being trustworthy. It must be made clear that being trustworthy requires verification from a third party, yet Google Search is never credited for its creditability.
The phenomenon has already cast light on an alarming problem. People just accept what they are given so become idle of independent thinking. In universities, essays are challenged by various parties before passing to ensure that it has covered concerns of different perspectives. Quality thinking requires challenging. So, people trusting Google so much can illustrate that modern people, enjoying the readability to get access to information and technologies, gradually experience a downfall in the spirit of challenging and creating. This is harmful to the world. In the short run, as people do not challenge information they receive, their mind may become messy because contradictions between incoming concepts are never solved. In the long-run, if everybody rely too much on other’s ideas, who will innovate for the improvement of the race of human? So, human relying on convenience Google provides leading to a downfall of human intelligence is a problem to beware.
An even greater problem comes if Google abuse our trust. There are two major technologies used, PageRank and Adsense. PageRank brings more accurate searching results as the most ‘relevant’ website will top the searching list.[iii] Adsense provides advertisement based on peoples’ preference shown using Google Search.[iv] There is probability for Google to manipulate our minds using these technologies. As mentioned, ‘if it is not found on Google, it does not exist.” Staff in Google can limit our thinking by neglecting some websites to be seen. Similarly, as people’s search preference is recorded for Adsense, Google may use or give our ‘profiles’ to third parties to control us. It is fortunate that up to now, Google is trustworthy, nut if people continue to rely on Google, the above threats may become possible and our life quality and independence of thinking will be greatly challenged.
Machines are designed for the convenience of human’s life, so a hierarchy of human controlling machines should be established. Google search is a great, visionary engine, but we must bear the awareness of being controlled. The best way to retain our integrity is to leave the computer for a while and use Google search only in need. Thus, the power of the intelligent engine can be utilized.
[i] Life without Google: A fate worse than death?
[ii] Criticism of Google – Wikipedia
[iii] PageRank – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagerank 12.Nov.2011 12.Nov.2011.
[iv] Adsense – Wikipedia
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