INTERNET Google tops other searches, invites much speculation

More than 31 percent of consumers use Google for their Internet research.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
When looking for information, Sydney Goldstein, executive director for City Arts & amp; Lectures, a San Francisco group that organizes cultural events, invariably goes to Google. Whether she's searching for Spike Lee's mailing address or JetBlue airlines, she's seldom disappointed.
"I use Google every day," Goldstein said. "I just love it."
Millions of Internet users apparently agree. Their devotion has transformed the company into the king of Internet search, surpassing much bigger competitors.
The success has generated a whirl of speculation around Google's future. Will it go public with an initial stock offering, a question that has dogged the company for years? Will it be acquired by Microsoft? Will it buy up other Web sites to add to its growing quiver of online features?
Google isn't talking about any of those issues. David Krane, a company spokesman, said, "No comment across the board."
What is certain is that Google's image within the Internet industry has shifted. What was once mostly seen as a benign but effective research tool has become a potential threat to other businesses.
EBay executives acknowledge that they worry whether Google will somehow steal sellers from their giant online marketplace. Legions of small Web-site owners fret over how high they place in Google's search results, the difference between feast and famine.
Search significance
Chris Sherman, editor of SearchDay, a newsletter about Internet search on the Web site, explained Google's rise as stemming from the failure of Yahoo, Lycos and Excite to focus on search during the late 1990s. They were preoccupied with adding features such as horoscopes and entertainment, he said.
"Most of the major players dropped the ball and opened the door to Google, " said Sherman, whose newsletter appears on the Web site, SearchEngineWatch.com.
But the major portals have since figured out the importance of search, according to Sherman. They have been improving their technology to better compete with some success.
"It's somewhat unfortunate for the other search engines because they have pulled very close [in terms of quality]," Sherman said. "In the blind tests we do, people have trouble telling the difference between some of the engines and Google."
Sherman pointed out that competitors such as Ask Jeeves and Yahoo even have features that Google doesn't. But Google users are unlikely to defect, he said.
Google had a 31.5 percent market share of all online searches in the United States in August, according to ComScore Networks' qSearch. The next nearest rival is Yahoo, which had a 25.7 percent of all searches.
Humble beginning
Google was founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, two Stanford University Ph.D. students in computer science. The duo opened for business in a friend's garage in Menlo Park, before resettling in Mountain View.
Brin and Page are currently co-presidents. Eric Schmidt, formerly of Sun Microsystems and Novell, was named Google's chief executive officer in 2001. None of the top executives was available to comment for this article.
The company has only known dramatic growth. During its brief history, the number of searches on the Web site has surpassed 200 million every day.
Google, which has more than 1,000 employees, is hiring almost as fast as it can. Many employees must eat in tents because the cafeteria at the headquarters, known as the Googleplex, is too small, and there are plans to move to another nearby site soon.
Google makes most of its money by selling advertisements, which appear as blocks of text alongside search results. Companies run ads on certain search keywords, paying Google only when users click on them.
The ads, a big change from Google's early days as a mostly commercial-free zone, are believed to be big money makers. They also appear on partner Web sites Ask Jeeves and America Online.
U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray estimates that Google collected $294 million in revenue in 2002. This year, the total is expected to be about $400 million.