Search Engine in the Global Business (Essay Sample)

Search Engine in the Global Business
Name
Institution
Instructor
Course
Date
Search Engines in the Global Business
Compare and contrast the top five search engines in global business
Technology is one of the fundamental factors in modern business. In particular, the internet has emerged as an important aspect in any given business organization. Perhaps, the importance of the internet in business is amplified with search engines. These are programs that are used in retrieving data from a network or database, especially the Internet. The programs allow users to search for information from the World Wide Web. Undoubtedly, various search engines have been developed since the discovery of the internet technology. However, the most common in the global business include: Yahoo!Search, Google Search, Bing, Ask, and DuckDuckGo.
Yahoo search engine was created almost more than a decade ago. It is fully owned and run by Yahoo Inc. It is second largest search engine globally, after Google. It records query volume of about 6.43% (Emerald, 2012). The search engine has gone through a series of evolutions, before becoming what it is today. Initially, Inktomi powered the searchable index, and later on by Google, before it eventually became independent in 2004. It was updated in 2007 to be in line with the present appearance Yahoo home page. Besides, Search Assist, which offers instantaneous query suggestions, was added. Other features that were added included: SearchScan, Yahoo Directory, Yahoo BOSS, and Yahoo Next. The popularity of Yahoo Search increased in 2009, following the partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft, for the search engine to be powered by Bing. A point to note is that in addition to being a search engine, Yahoo Search is also a serves as a shopping center, news aggregator, games center, horoscope, as well as travel directory (Emerald, 2012).
Google Search, which is owned by Google Inc., is the leading search engine worldwide. It was developed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1997. It is approximated that Google Search handles billions of searches on a daily basis. The program offers numerous preferences for customized search. The major purpose of this search engine is to search for text in freely reachable documents provided by web servers. Perhaps, Google Search’s popularity globally is attributed to the fact that it offers more than 21 distinct features in addition to the word-search capability. Such features include: time zones, weather forecasts, maps, stock quotes, airports, movie showtime, earthquake, sports scores, and home listings (Levene, 2013). It is because of this diversification that Google Search has become to be regarded as the leader of "Spartan searching." However, it does not provide Yahoo!’s shopping center features. In addition to offering a variety of features, like Yahoo!, Google Search offers security to users through its alert message, "This site may harm your computer" (Emerald, 2012)
Bing is the third most popular search engine. Bing, a Microsoft owned search engine, was initially known as MSN Search. It was introduced in the market in 2009, and most people perceive its introduction as a direct competition for Google Search. Following its introduction, its market share rose by approximately 13%, at the expense of Google and Yahoo. It has shown a steady growth as compared to Google and Yahoo, and it is believed to be closely fighting with Yahoo for the second position (Levene, 2013). Bing underwent significant upgrading in 2012 following the introduction of a three-column display. The traditional search results are shown in the first column. In the second column, the "Snapshot," comprise of the structured data of Bing and permits various actions such as getting directions or making purchases. In the third column, it provides data from social networks especially Twitter and Facebook. The three column display, together with other features differentiates Bing from its competitors (Levene, 2013).
Ask.com, initially Ask Jeeves, was established in 1996 by Warthen David and Gruener Garrett. Unlike other search engines, Ask.com is a question answering-focused search engine. Due to fierce competition from the market leaders such as Google, Ask.com was forced to subcontract its web search technology (Thurow, 2003). However, Ask.com has a disadvantage in the sense that it has a malware toolbar, which is furtively shoved in with genuine program installations. Once installed, it is difficult to uninstall it from most browsers. Besides, unlike Yahoo!, Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, Ask.Com does not offer a variety of features (Levene, 2013).
Lastly, DuckDuckGo is different from the above four search engines in different ways. For instance, DuckDuckGo puts emphasis on protection of the privacy of the searchers, as well as shunning the "filter bubble" of tailored search results. Furthermore, it does not profile its users and by purposefully show all the users similar outcomes for a given search word. Unlike the other search engines, it only stresses on accessing information not most sources, but only the best sources. Although DuckDuckGo is one of the latest players to join the market, its popularity, especially in the United States, is increasing rapidly (Levene, 2013). Within today's changing global business, what do you see happening in the next five years regarding search engines and country specific issues?
Global business has received significant boost from technological innovations. This has driven many search engines, such as Google, to compete intensively for the market in terms of advertisements. However, these trends have encountered various challenges with critics claiming that in the next five years or so they will bring businesses down. Social networking on these search engines has become very common and people are getting bored with the things they offer. This has brought about the realization that search engines will gradually decline at a steady pace over the next five years as many stakeholders have vested in their services (Kuhn & Hacking, 2012).
There are some who believe that search engines will continue dominating the markets due to the fact that they help emerging market establish their foundation. Leaders involved in the markets that emerge every now and then represent a major shift in the global competitive landscape. Therefore, supporters of these arguments believe that search engines will grow stronger and establish dominance as they seek new opportunities. Similarly, they also argue that emerging markets and businesses are required to serve the market, which means that they have to apply the same strategies and techniques as their competitors. This will involve adaptation the trends used in evolving market place in order to excel (Bryman & Bell, 2007).
On the other hand, critics believe that the current search engines will bring down the market. This is due to the fact that the adaptation of technology will render many people jobless and revitalize customers. Search engines are very keen on the advertisements business. However, online ads will decline over the next five years due to the fact that technology has brought about more detailed gadgets that allow people to acquire the relevant information on their mobile phones (Kuhn & Hacking, 2012). Research conducted by e-Marketer indicated that advertising will still be in full growth. However, much of the ads will be taken over by TVs while online advertising will decline and take second position. This decline will be attributed to mobile services that will have taken over by...