In the past search engines were only passive recipients of traffic. They had potential clients and customers in the form of web surfers but were not able to monetize their business.  For a web surfer search engines were just a platform where they can find desired information. Search engines have done a wonderful job by accumulating all the information at one place and thus serving them to web surfers. Ideally Search engines are nothing more than a database of all the web sites on the internet. As a result search engines were flooded with web traffic and serving web surfers quite ethically.

Search engines are designed to help find information stored on a system such as the World Wide Web. Search engine’s functioning is simple. They have a database of all the web sites and then they rank web sites based on a number of criteria which include keyword density, title tags, and a number of other characteristics.

As the web grew search engines were created to track pages and allow people to find things.

Soon the Google search engine rose to prominence.

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The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users. They were attracted to its simple, uncluttered, clean design.

Google desperately needed some way of monetizing search results. In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with the search keyword to produce enhanced search results for the user. This strategy was important for increasing advertising revenue, which is based upon the number of hits users make upon ads. Google had started displaying sponsored listings on top and right side of the organic results.

Over time internet advertising revenues have increased, and Google being a leader of internet advertising, has shared maximum share of this increased advertising revenue.

Advertising revenue has taken Google from zero to a $3 billion company. Soon world’s top search destination has turned into an online advertising’s hottest property. As a result 99% of Google’s revenue is advertising related. This revenue stream will continue to exist as long as google remains the preferred search engine for millions of users.

Search engine results are affected by this revolution in the internet advertising industry. Search engines have transformed their business models from websites that provide a useful service to internet users, to websites that have become focused on the bottom-line. The major catalyst for these problems is that the internet users are unaware that they clicking on paid advertisements. Search engines are profiting at the expense of its users.

To be more specific if Google’s journey from a Search engine to a Public Company is analyzed a clear cut demarcation can be visualized in its business model. It has started its business as a search engine and the basic motive was to help the user in providing relevant information in minimum time after been grown up as a popular search engine and founded as a public company the business model has been changed. The basic motive behind serving the user has been converted from providing intended & relevant information to providing relevant information through which maximum revenue can be generated and that information can be or can not be  intended information of users.

The strongest point to support the above statement is that the advertisement is the major source through which maximum revenue being generated and Google started cashing it. On one hand the revenue generation of Google started growing rapidly and on the other hand discrepancy in results has been noticed like spam and sponsored results started taking over organic results.

Over the time it has also has been noticed that the results are getting distorted intentionally to increase revenues. The unique selling point of Google is trust of user that it is proving intended and relevant information to help out the user but now Google started cashing its USP. It is taking advantage of its monopoly among search engines and also playing with the trust of users and profiting at expense of valuable time of users moreover misguiding them by providing irrelevant and unintended information in spite of helping them out.