Google 10K: New Emphasis On Mobile Platforms, Monetizing Content

One way to track a company’s growth and strategic evloution is to look at how the language changes from one annual report to the next. Google’s efforts to shift from an online search company relying on search advertising to fuel its growth becomes even more apparent in the 10K filed today. The annual report highlights mobile as an additional platform, new advertising areans as potential sources of growth, and the company desire to become an online content distribution and payment powerhouse. Some examples:
– This year’s 10K adds “multiple access platforms” to the list of “key benefits” Google offers users. The emphasis is on mobile phones, described as “a fundamental development platform for us. … We have continued to invest in improving mobile search and recently introduced the beta of Google Local for Mobile-a downloadable application for mobile phones that combines maps, directions, and satellite imagery to let people find relevant information when and where they need it, even if they are not close to a computer.”

– The current report emphasizes “content targeting” for AdWords as well as access to a “broader range of media.” The latter includes the purchase of dMarc, the testing of ad placement in mobile search in Japan, and the print tests underway.

– The report also emphasizes Google’s development of “new storage, management, and access technologies to allow content owners and producers to distribute and, if they wish, monetize more types of online and offline content.”

– Litigation is one of Google’s risk factors — both IP and copyright. “Generally speaking, any time that we have a product or service that links to or hosts material in which others allege to own copyrights, we face the risk of being sued for copyright infringement or related claims.” One of the current claims was dismissed today; a judge said Google’s Usenet archives and caching did not directly infringe on online publisher Gordon Ray Parker’s Snodgrass Publishing Group.
A couple of factoids: — Google added 34 international domains between 10Ks.

– Last 10k, Google claimed to index more than 8 billion pages; now the claim is just “billions of pages.”

Comments have been disabled for this post