Google has long been a leader in innovation and technology, but recent events suggest that the company is struggling to keep up with its competitors. One of the most significant challenges that Google is facing is the integration of large language models (LLMs) into search. Microsoft has already integrated OpenAi’s ChatGPT into its search engine, and Google is struggling to catch up.
Internal Struggles Within Google
Praveen Seshadri, the founder of AppSheet, a no-code app development platform that was acquired by Google in 2020, recently shared his insights on what ails Google and how it can turn things around. Seshadri argues that Google’s internal structure, which he calls the “Google System,” is designed to protect the company’s core business of search and ads from external threats and internal mistakes. This system, according to Seshadri, results in 175,000+ capable and well-compensated employees who get little done quarter over quarter, year over year. Seshadri compares Google to Microsoft in the 2000s, when it was also dominant but lost its edge to new competitors like Apple and Amazon. He suggests that Google can reinvent itself by focusing on customer obsession and empowering employees, as Microsoft did under Satya Nadella’s leadership.
Fitbit and Google Search Are Exposing Google’s Issues
One example of Google’s struggles with innovation is the acquisition of Fitbit. Google acquired Fitbit in 2019, and since then, the company has gotten rid of third-party apps, leaving Fitbit users with limited options. However, Google has had significant trouble getting its own first-party apps, Google Maps and Google Wallet installed onto the Fitbit Versa 4 and the Sense 2 smartwatches. Fitbit users have reported struggling to get these apps installed and constantly having issues with them working. Even Google Wallet, which should be a straightforward feature on a smartwatch, has had issues working correctly. Personally, I have also experienced issues with Google Wallet on my Fitbit. I tried to use it at a local business that accepted Google Wallet, but my watch would not work, while my phone did.
These issues are embarrassing but obviously are not priorities at Google. The real priority is their search product. but even that has come under some pretty significant scrutiny in the last few weeks with very public and there is met with Google Bard, Google’s AI answer to the New Bing. Some scientific facts were incorrect in its in its first public demo, a demo that was even put into advertisements for Google. a pretty basic search term like “What is the abbreviation for Nevada?” were coming up widely incorrect for almost two weeks until the company finally fixed it due to a loud outcry from the SEO community on Twitter. At first, I theorized that this may have been an issue due to Google’s hastily trying to best Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri in the voice search arena, it is now becoming more prevalent after reading Seshadri’s blog post chronicling his experience at the company.
Overall, it seems that Google has some troubling times ahead. The company needs to focus on innovation and customer satisfaction, as well as empowering its employees to bring new ideas to the table. If Google can do this, it may be able to turn things around and maintain its position as a leader in technology and innovation. However, if it continues down its current path, it may find itself losing ground to its competitors, just like Microsoft did in the past.
What Does This Mean to Our Clients?
Our clients shouldn’t be concerned at all. If anything, this is an exciting moment in the world of online marketing. This is a moment of potentially loosening the grip that Google has long had on the search marketing space, and we are getting so much needed innovation in the world of search engines. this is also showing the general public how many options there are when it comes to search. There are plenty of viable search engines out there from Microsoft’s Bing, to upstarts like Duckduckgo, Neeva, and Brave Search. Most of which are beating Google to the AI search game.
All this shows the importance and significance of being focused on core principles like search engine optimization without being overly focused on a particular search engine. here at mcnair media, we pride ourselves and sound SEO strategies that will help you on all search engines, not just Google.
