Full Text: Open Debate

Donna Bogatin

"Digital Markets" blogger at ZDNet; founder of VIPOffers.com and UrbanSavings.com

Danny Sullivan

Editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com; Internet-search market analyst for 11 years

Resolved: Google is overrated.

Bogatin: By its own acknowledgement, Google is not a well-rounded company. Google declares it does "one thing really, really well": Search. Google is dependent on search for 99% of its revenues, inspiring Wall Street to deem it a "one-trick stallion."

Google's search stallion has driven GOOG to a 400%-plus appreciation in just two years. Google's stock price is not sustainable long term, and neither is its domination in search.

Google touts its PageRank software is "democratic," retrieving the most "relevant" information on the Web. New, valuable Websites, however, are relegated to Google's penalty "sandbox," far from searchers' eyes.

Search advertisers are put in the Google "black box" dark with AdWords auctions prompting them to bid up their own advertising rates. Google grows its oversized profit margins, and its market cap, at the expense of customer ROI.

Advertisers will not stay blinded by Google indefinitely and users will seek more comprehensive search results, elsewhere.

Sullivan: I suppose TV stations aren't well rounded for only broadcasting TV. One product is fine if it grows and has limited competition. Search is growing, moving into devices like phones and PVRs. Google's a "search utility company" providing search services. It's hard to compete--just ask Microsoft, which still has yet to catch Google.

Comparing democracy statements to how results can sometimes be gamed is fun. But other search engines share similar weaknesses in what they say and how they operate.

The proof is in the results. Google's results are as good or better than the competition. Good is also good enough. If the results are good enough-- and they are--people won't seek alternatives. Beyond results, they trust Google and won't seek out "stranger" competitors easily.

Black box pricing is disturbing. But oversized profit margins? Search ad ROI is far above other forms of advertising. Search marketers aren't fools. They won't buy what they can't afford.

Bogatin: Google claims the "perfect search engine" and a pompous mission to "organize the world's information." Google's ambitions are unrealizable, but dangerous. People may "trust Google" now, but "Google 2084" is close at hand.

Google is aiming for its "computer in the cloud" to house "the information that you use everyday" and is targeting every piece of data worldwide, including personal, private communications. Google has dibs on our email, office correspondence, financial spreadsheets, health records…and wants to hoard it all, "forever." The vaunted Google "search utility" will know more about us than we will know about ourselves!

Google's manifest destiny takes aim at intellectual capital worldwide, or "all books in all languages." Google envelopes its "Library Project" in "fair use" bravado, while seeking to "digitally scan every book in the world" for archiving at Google in perpetuity.

Google is en route to becoming the world's librarian, and every individual's data keeper.

Sullivan: Google as scary big brother is a fun debate but entirely different from this one--is it overrated and overvalued?

Still, if the scaremongering or pessimism is true, then Google's plenty valuable. Having so much data opens up huge possibilities for commercial products and services.

Overall, people want to find things on and off the web. Google its helping them do that. That's largely a good thing. Ask the millions who voluntarily depend on Google every day.

There are indeed real concerns about the sanctity of our data. Those concerns potentially may slow Google's growth, especially if there's a serious data spill or leak. Then again, plenty of other companies have had leaks and not been devalued.

Google could do more to address concerns. But we really need laws to better protect our search privacy and other data. Despite its power, Google can't provide those laws.

Bogatin: People are eager to dismiss talk of Google's encroachment on the intellectual and personal assets of the world as "scaremongering," and that is what Google is banking on, literally.