At the beginning of the year we read and made predictions for 2008 – and some of these referred to the decline of Google. In the second month of the year we need to revise some of our assertions and beliefs, as new facts emerge.

There are enough companies with great potential – some I’d dare say even greater than Google on many levels. The problem is that these companies lack the most important quality that makes a company great on the Internet: vision.

I said many times that Google is evil and I will not reiterate the whys. Enough has been said in that Google seems to grab everything that moves online and make them its own. The more I think about it, despite the strong anti-trust beliefs I have, there is a lot to learn from this strategy and in the end this is what actually makes Google “invincible.”

I just read the news about Yahoo! buying Maven Networks. Apparently Yahoo was planning to acquire this company long before Microsoft came up with the offensive 44.6 billion bid – so let’s not see this move as a “smart strategy” to force Microsoft return with a higher offer. Also, let’s not label the move as stupid either – let’s just say that this is not what Yahoo! needed now.

Maven does have some exquisite clients including Walt Disney, Nike and Sony but I doubt that the products and services offered by this relatively nameless company justify the merger. Yahoo! can certainly use Maven – and it would have been easier to do it as a client instead of investing in something that will not bring the needed immediate results.

Yahoo! bought the technology that will power video advertisements on its own networks – what an unexpected, extraordinary move! In translation: instead of reaching out, Yahoo! is trying to make its declining network shinier for the already existing users. I doubt that anyone at Yahoo! is so naive to believe that a tool that defines itself as an “intelligent and dynamic video ad insertion engine” will impact positively its declining stock value or add value to the Yahoo! brand. Yahoo!’s new strategic mistake is just one example of how and why no Internet company so far has the strategic intelligence that will dethrone Google.

Google might still lose in the search sector, but it will definitely remain the king of the Web and here is why:

• As I said, no company has the strategic intelligence, or the vision to get involved in mergers that could shake Google’s position in a given field;
• No other online venture has business partners of the strength and caliber Google does (NASA, Oxford, Harvard, etc);
• No other company has the brand power and brand authority (and the credibility that comes with it) to determine the people to follow;
• Google was officially the best place to work in 2007 (and they managed to keep that position in 2008 too);
• No other company’s name is an active verb in the daily routine of so many people - we don’t always search, but we “google” and in many countries and cultures people don’t Xerox, but copy (which means that Xeros is losing its touch)
• No other company (in the search field) has a market share, or a market reach as powerful as Google.

image courtesy Market Share

These points are enough to make us all see that despite the pros and cons, Google knows its business and it’s also very self aware and self confident – for good reasons. If the strategists from Microsoft and Yahoo! would spend at least half the time they use to look for new ventures - on analyzing what it is that makes Google so powerful - we’d probably be now spectators to a fight worth watching. However, these wannabes are kindergarten children in comparison to Google.