But growth slows with the bleak conditions

It is the "New York Times" which revealed the case. Last month took the largest legal campaign of all time. More than 200 newspapers around the world in 70 languages, received a strange request for legal notice (1). This was to prevent the authors from around the world that Google would archive their book and that they should make themselves known to possibly refuse to appear in its files or share the gain of the consultation of the work, following a decision of justice last October. , New York poetry books britannique à Le Cook Island news des des îles Falkland, New York poetry, îles des Falkland de la britannique, New York Poetry Books britannique à le Cook Island News des des îles Falkland, New York Poetry, îles des Falkland de la britannique, New York "Poetry Books" British "Cook Island News" New York Poetry Books britannique à le Cook Island News des des îles Falkland, New York Poetry, îles des Falkland de la britannique of des des îles Falkland, New York Poetry, îles des Falkland de la britannique des îles Falkland, New York Poetry, îles des Falkland de la britannique des îles Falkland, New York Poetry, îles des Falkland de la britannique des Islands Falkland, New York Poetry, des Falkland Islands of the de la britannique britannique Pacific, all received the same request. A challenge to the extent of Google. Nothing less that try to get in touch with all the writers of the Earth.

Recently Eric Schmidt, CEO of the California-based firm, has estimated that it would take approximately three hundred years his company to check all the information of the world (2). That is important! But Google will still be there in three hundred years The information technology we were accustomed to meteoric trajectories, where a generation hunting the other. After the time of IBM, digital, HP or Microsoft, the Internet age is 10 years Google. Site most visited of the canvas, point switch required of those seeking their way on the Net. Born in 1998, the firm has married the spectacular development of the Web. Last year, the Google hive sounded the foraging of its 20,000 workers busy to produce about 22 billion dollars of income and more than 4 billion profit.

But a new wave arrives on the horizon of technology information. It is worn by the emergence of the Internet on mobile phones and especially by the virtualization intends to replace personal computers or those of his business by "clouds" of computers grouped in factories specialized and accessible by Internet. This is the reason for which happens not a week that Google announced a new initiative. There in the direction of mobile phones, with its software Androïd, here with the commissioning of desktop applications on the Internet (Google Apps) or a competing browser from Microsoft (chromium), and there even with a telephony system integrated (Google Voice). In addition to the very long list of services on the Net, 20, that the Corporation has already implemented. This activism has a goal: keep control of the network and of course the profits that come with, so that all actors in the sector urge around the "clouds", rare growth of computing in the crisis area.

To understand the unique position of Google, but also its weaknesses, it must go back to the source of his power. The success of the company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford polards, rests on three strong pillars: its algorithm, its computers and its mission. In Google it venerates the algorithm as a God. It is the mathematical formula that allows to optimize the search on the Internet. The stroke of genius of the two forts in theme has been to develop a software that not only will search the Web pages related to the application but more will be classified according to their popularity, i.e. of the number of links on any canvas, return to this site. The result is a degree of relevance never reached, yet without any human intervention.

It is the "inhumanity" which allowed the company to grow without difficulty since growth was more dependent on the number of available "brains". Then this algorithm has been adapted to match ads wanted words, or the content of partner sites. The only limit of the algorithm is computational power.

It is precisely the second pillar of the success of Google: his interest in the material. Rather entrust the management of its computers to others, the firm has, since its birth, always manufactured its own machines with standard components of computers. They are mostly much cheaper and more rustic than material trade, but adapted to its needs. Over the past three years, Google has built a 10 factories of this type, at the four corners of America. A 600 million piece, it has thus erected in very little time a huge barrier to entry of his craft. Google is not a virtual company, but now probably the largest owner of computers in the world. It is therefore at the centre of this new computer, which as electricity is dematerialised for some (users) and very centrally for others.

The third factor of success is the goal. It is huge, as the vision: organize, classify the information in the world! It is an obsession of engineer, not a businessman. From the beginning, the business concern was second. Need to check all Web and part, all the books and not the most requested. It is the mission, in the religious sense of the term, which is the bedrock of the Google corporate culture.

In view of this, the company has three interrelated problems. His mathematical tropism certainly allows expansion without limits, but it makes it difficult to apprehend solutions with a high human content, such as the classification of the information in a newspaper or social networks. A shift that has missed the firm, which has failed to develop a credible competitor to Facebook. A universe in addition closed while Google cannot thrive in a world where open its search engine can circulate without hindrance.

Where, is the second obstacle, the difficulty for Google out of its core business, pure research. Of course he has created dozens of services, but almost ' none reached the same level of hegemony and the same profitability than the search engine. Today, almost four years after the launch of its first diversification, the advertising research still accounts for 97 of the revenues of Google. It is the only area where it is really essential. But growth slows with the bleak conditions. Then, the company has tapped into its Treasury bloated to catch up by buying more imaginative, first small and large companies, such as YouTube (video sharing) in 2006, or Double Click (Web advertising) last year. But for the moment without large financial result. And even in the mobile, it remains largely outpaced by Apple and Nokia (read decryption in the "voices" of March 4).

Finally last trap that requires that to close, the grumbles that monte. This House of Engineers don't like neither merchants nor money, but his activism to save everything for the good of everyone has angered both its potential partners, in particular the producers of content (books, newspapers, movies), but also individuals concerned about the intrusive attitude of the company in their private life, including with advertising. Of course, the hatred of the competitors has never stopped Microsoft to thrive. But as and as that maturity is looming, with weaker growth, stock market course less attractive to new recruits and more imaginative and strong challengers, Google must learn to cultivate its ecosystem. It is the key to the companies that last.