Google's secret weapon is a four letter word

Robert Cringley says “In fact, they probably control it already and we just haven't noticed.” I have noticed, at this Digital Markets Blog. 

In fact, Google itself told me last month “Google is often used as the gateway to the Internet.” SEE “Microsoft vs. Google: Who commands our ‘hearts and souls’?”

The ramifications of Google’s search dominance permeate the Web’s ecosystem: Google is a factor in the success or failure of virtually every Website.

How has Google amassed such power, and commensurate wealth, in a very short period of time? Does Google rule due to superior technology, an unbeatable value proposition, monopolistic lock-in? No, no, no!

Google’s secret weapon is a four letter word: SPIN! At Google, Webmaster is trumped by Spin Master.

In “Is Google a public service?” I point out how Google, a $150 billion market cap for-profit, world-wide corporation, positions itself in the same manner that The Library of Congress, a taxpayer funded U.S. government institution does. I underscore the striking similarity between its mission statement and that of The Library of Congress.

GOOGLE: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: Make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.

In “Google dependency is risky business” I dissect the AdSense pitch, analyzing Google’s uncanny ability to envelope the vast sea of rules, regulations and restrictions it imposes on its advertisers and affiliates within a touted mantra that “relevant advertising can be as useful as search results” for users.

In “Google to Microsoft: Wolf in sheep’s clothing?” last August I put forth Google has a knack for launching (hoped for) category killer applications directly aimed at usurping existing market leaders’ positions with its reassuring “we’re not a competitive threat, we complement each other” mantra: 

Matt Glotzbach, head of enterprise products at Google, on Google Apps for Your Domain vs. Microsoft Office: “The right way to view Writely and Google Spreadsheets, especially in the context of a larger business, isn’t necessarily as a replacement for Word or Excel. They’re the collaboration component of that.”

I noted at the time: Who does Google think it is kidding?

Three months later, my Google Apps SPIN suspicions were validated, in-person, by Google itself.

I spent several hours at the NYC Googleplex last November and got a rare inside look at the Google pitch for its impending Google Apps for Enterprise Edition. I heard the Google Enterprise troops gear up for intensified battle against Microsoft with the cry of “Death to the hierarchy,” the Microsoft folder hierarchy. 

In “Google battles Microsoft” I underscore how Google CEO Eric Schmidt is determined to make the Google application cloud “something you'd use everyday in everyday life,” instead of Microsoft Office.

I learned from Google that it is aiming for a Enterprise, or “premium,” version of Google Apps for Your Domain in this first quarter. Google is pitching its “massively scalable, cheap infrastructure” to thousands of executives around the world from corporate, government and not-for-profit organizations, as I report and analyze in "Google Enterprise strategy: ‘Death to the hierarchy’" and “Google: Who needs advertising?”

At the Googleplex, I heard straight from the horse’s (wolf’s?) mouth: “Death to the (Microsoft) hierarchy.”

I asked Michael Lock, Director of North American Sales for Google Enterprise, for a projection of when Google will succeed in bringing “Death to the hierarchy,” but no specific date for an absolute demise of the "hierarchy" was provided.

TAKE THE POLL: IS GOOGLE THE INTERNET?