Over the holidays, the writer read the book, The Google Way by Bernard Girard, no starch press, San Francisco, 2009. In the book, Mr.Girard examines the management system of Google to see how it is run and if you can link it to either your company or companies you follow. Could they be like Google?

Google has one of the best search engines in the world and makes money from advertising, although the front page has no advertising.

Part of the reason why Google is a successful is the company is patterned after university professor management system. Google started in an university (Stanford), maintains good relations with the scientific community and tries to solve its problems with a combination of programming theory involving solving math problems and network sociology. When Google started it was blessed with an environment for innovation. Studies show the more serial entrepreneurs that are located within an area, the more successful companies will exist. The area around San Francisco is teaming with successful start ups. In California, the absence of non compete clauses allowed for job mobility so  ideas and people moved between companies to exploit ideas. At the time Google started, the IT business was not patenting every procedure. This lead everyone using the the same system, only made better – Windows copied Macintosh which copied Xerox Star’s windowed interface.

The Google economic model is to offer free search and then get paid from the advertising. Advertisers pay a fee each time someone clicks a link to their website. Also advertisers bid on keywords or phrases – ads that are clicked more often, using the same keywords tend to appear higher on the search page. In addition, Google sells adwords – the ads on the side of the page which look like classified ads. These ads are called informative ads and you either click on them or you do not. To place an ad, the process is automated which reduces the cost of sales.

There will be more parts in the coming posts for Google continues to be profitable and a growing influence.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time to raising questions