How is Google reacting to the crisis?

Johannes Beus
There is no need for a crystal ball to predict that, for a majority of companies, the next quarters will not hold up to the expectations that were set in the beginning of the year. There is also the consensus that the web-industry will be affected, too. The way in which Google – who is, after all, flush with money and on top of the industry – is adjusting to this situation is something that I think is very interesting.

On the one hand, they are trying to increase revenues on many different fronts: they are allowing advertisements for beer and, by now, also for hight-proof alcohol, Google is allowing gambling AdWords in England, we are also seeing advertisements pop up on Google Maps, yesterday AdSense opened up to domainparking and it seems that they are even trying to hasten the commercialization of YouTube. On the other hand, Google is cutting costs. It was quite a surprise when Google announced that they are letting temporary workers go (where it is interesting to note that, of the 30.000 employees, 1/3 are temporary workers).

It is exciting to see if this move has any influence on the innovativeness and the development at Google. This is an area where Google has an enormous advantage over competitors of about the same company-size and I can imagine that if Google shows any weakness, many interesting chances will open up.
Johannes Beus - on Fri (12/12/2008) at 10:04 AM

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