An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes

The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "Googol," which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros. Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb, "google," was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning, "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet. The term of "Googol" was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, "Mathematics and the Imagination" by Kasner and James Newman. Google's play on the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web.

Google began in January 1996, as a research project by Larry Page, who has soon joined by Sergery Brin, two Ph.D, students at Stanford University in California and company was 1st incorporation as a privately held company on 4 September 1998.

Google was an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search. e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking and video sharing services as well as selling advertising free version of the same technologies. Google has continued its growth through a series of new product developments, acquisitions and partnerships. Environmentalism, philanthropy and the positive employee relations have been important tenets during growth of Google.

The key reasons for Google's success is a belief that good ideas can and should come from anywhere.
Google's early success is based on several key factors:

• Technology
• Along with its innovative approach to page ranking, Google is a purpose-built hardware company, building all its own servers from components it buys directly for their manufacturers. According to Drummond (Google's General Counsel), Google now operates the world's largest distributed computer system.


• Business Model Innovation
• By perfecting the nature of targeted ads, Google not only has created a highly effective revenue generator, it has produced what it hopes to be a better experience for its users. It is Google's goal to make their targeted ads at least as relevant and useful to users as the search results themselves.

• Brand
• According to Drummond, a European study recently determined Google to be the number one most recognized worldwide brand. Indeed, Google has become a verb ("I can't wait to get home and Google him") which poses real challenges to a company seeking to protect the strength of its mark.

• Focus On The User Experience
• Product decisions at Google are driven by optimizing for the user experience first and for revenue second. The folks at Google firmly believe that the better the user experience, the more easily money will follow.

• Bottom up Approach
• Nurturing great ideas from all levels of the company, not just the top.

• Creativity
• Demand creativity by giving employees "free thinking time" to develop pet projects, no matter how far from the company's central vision.

• Managing Innovation
• Google management adopted unconventional management style. Engineers are encouraged to work in a small team to improve productivity. Management is always available to employees so that their idea can be heard.

I believe that all of these are important factors in developing any great technology company. Powerful customer-focused technology with an eye towards making money -- that's pretty much the formula. Even brand, which can be prohibitively expensive to develop ahead of customer traction, will likely follow product leadership. Google's success isn't rocket science, it's just good old fashion company building. Good for them for the discipline. It's an excellent model to follow.