Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is getting some new competition from an unexpected source: the European Union. But I don't think the search giant is scared. In fact, Larry and Sergei may even be excited to see some fresh blood in their own neighborhood. The search market just got bigger, dude.
Have you seen the company's mission statement?
"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
Business success and profits may follow when you chase an audacious goal like this one, but it's secondary to the big picture. Change the world. Make everyone's life better. Our great-grandkids may not remember Google, the stock, 50 years from now -- but the company should stick around in the history books as a game-changing information source on par with the ancient Library of Alexandria (Egypt, not Virginia).
That's what makes Big G a Rule Breaker, and that fire in its belly sets the company apart from less passionate, more business-minded rivals like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), or IAC (Nasdaq: IACI). Yahoo comes close with a promising mission to "connect people to their passions, their communities, and the world's knowledge," but there's no commitment to organize the whole mess. And Mr. Softy's mission is to "enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential." Did Tim Robbins write that for them?
So when the EU opens up Europeana, a massive digital library that pulls a wealth of information on European culture out of dusty old museums or private collections and into the digital world, it's like giving Google a helping hand. After all, Google likes to show us the way to important info that somebody else owns.
Its own efforts to digitize university library collections, host historical photographs, and the like are happening because nobody else stepped up to shoulder the responsibility of getting it done. Where's Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) when you need 'em? Those deep, long-standing connections to publishing houses could lead to a massive public-domain library one day.
Welcome to the party, Europeana. Don't be scared when Google's indexing spiders crawl across your back. They're just scratching your back -- and sending more traffic than you could muster on your own. In return, you're scratching Google's back simply by existing. With gentle backrubs all around, everybody wins.
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