DOES GOOGLE HAVE A COMPETITOR?

It's 6 years now since I joined ICT world. These 6 years, I have lived, eaten, dreamt IT and have always kept myself up-to-date with the latest technologies, softwares, hardwares the geniuses do out there.

So far, in these 6years! I have only and only come across one useful tool that has kept me floating in the ICT world.......................let me make it short. I have come across only ONE LIBRARY in the WORLD that has all WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT IT, WHERE I WANT IT and HOW I WANT IT and guess what it's the "ALMIGHTY GOOGLE".

I keep asking myself how the two "home boys" Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to turn someone's garage into a golden office of developing a MEGA TOOL the world is seeking  every single microsecond of the day!

Its really so amazing to learn that  Larry and Sergey actually came from a point of having no dollar in wallet to point of them now being worth or above $16.6billion. This by the way made them be among the 30 richest people in the whole world, according to Forbes. Now leave alone the two brains behind the GIANT MEGA TOOL GOOGLE, the tool or technology or software or Engine (GOOGLE) its self is estimated to be worth or above $300billion. Isn't that sensational?

From garage to multi-billion life saving tool that has made so many IT managers, programmers, system administrators, network engineers and many more different IT professionals become experts and some called "wizards" at their work places!

Google has turned small business enterprises into shining stones of the ICT world. Google has made some people (self employed) survive for years with their beautiful packaged products in that they can get payments even when they don't move out of their houses. Google has given life to those that didn't have hope in this IT field.

So with the little mentioned above about Google, I still ask a question to all of you "DOES GOOGLE HAVE A COMPETITOR? "

This question is still puzzling me when I reach at point of looking at who is at the other side of the coin....................Is it MSN? YAHOO? ASK.COM? BRING? Or that one developed in your neighborhood?

See why I still believe Google has no competitor when it comes to what she does best:-

• Growth:
  Google's growth has been outstanding since 1998. Google currently has over 8 billion web pages cached and the number is still growing tremendously.
  
  
  Google has developed applications for almost any internet solution in almost all major languages around the world. Among the major products of Google include:-
  - Google Chrome: a browser known for speed, stability and uniqueness. Oooh don't forget it's also secure.
  - Gmail: Worlds growing FREE email community that is actually giving yahoo a run for their money.
  - Others like web, images, scholar, news, blog, directory and alerts search. All these are Google solutions.
  - Document sharing, Group mailing lists, translation of pages to any preferred language.
  - Mobile phone applications.
  
  I can go on and on about Google's products because the list seems not to end. Did you know that:-
  
  May last year Google announced that is to build a Google Global Cache (GGC) in Kenya? This was to help enhance the surfing speeds in our slow internet community in East Africa and Africa in general.  It is to work  in away that once anyone within that exchange point's sphere (Internet Exchange Point-IXP) visits a webpage, the information is cached and it becomes much faster for anyone else visiting that website to access it.
  
  This month Google launched a shopping search in china? Looks like the search giant never goes to sleep!
  
  


• Acquisitions (property ownership):
  Google has been acquiring several small start-up companies, often consisting of innovative teams, solutions and products.  Among the earliest companies google acquired was the Pyra Labs the were the creators of Blogger,  Upstartle brain behind google Docs, Baidu a Chinese search engine,
  
  On the increasing list of acquisitions, in 2006 Google bought YOUTUBE at estimated price of $1.65 billion. This is a booming brand under Google. Am sure so many people in Africa have become fond of it. Let me be honest guys.........I love it. This is one place I was following the United States Elections, Is one place I found those funny, amusing videos that could make my day after long day full of stress.
  
  The list is endless but for those who need more details visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_acquisitions
  
  


• Financing and supporting small businesses.
  Google has continued innovational individuals, companies be worth a penny. Of recent Google sponsored over 15 projects at Joomla..... one of the leading open source content management system.  
  Google provided financial support in the launch of the .mobi top level domain created specifically for the mobile internet
  
  


• Partnerships:
  Google has created partnerships with world's giants in technology. One of them is NASA "Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1-million square foot R&D center at NASA's Ames Reasearch Center." This was highlighted by wikipedia.to provide support to SMEs in and out of America. Google has made
  
  Google in 2005  had partnership with TIME WARNER's AOL unit in which they have 5% stake. On top of that they cut a deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment and the Warner Music Group to deliver video and music onto YOUTUBE.
  
  In January 2009, Google announced a partnership with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, allowing the Pope to have his own channel on YouTube.
  


• Charity or give back to the community


• New technologies

Phew!!!!! ................I can write pages and pages about Google but let me sit back take a glass of water and Google again and again...............because with GOOGLE technology never goes to sleep. Catch you guys later.....