Neither feature may seem important two decades later, but at the
time, they were a revelation. They’ve gone a long way to creating trust.
Google’s colorful, uncluttered home page said to even the most
neophyte web surfer: “Go for it. Type in anything you want to know.
There’s no trick involved and no expertise required. We’ll take care of
everything.” Meanwhile, when users realized they were getting the
best answer, not the one most paid for, it was as if—to continue the
biblical analogy—they were seeing the Way, the Truth, and the Light. A
bond of trust was created that has survived now for a generation and
has made Google the most influential of the Four.
This trust didn’t just extend to Google’s users, but just as
important, to its corporate clients. With Google’s auction formula, if
advertisers wanted traffic, customers set the prices for each click. If
demand drops, so do prices, and you pay just above what someone else
was willing to pay, building trust that Google is benign. The result is
that corporate customers believe Google’s business is run by
mathematics, not greed. Once again, the Truth—fair, impartial,
constantly calibrated to be equitable.
Compare this trust to the rest of media. Most media outlets,
literally and intentionally, do not tell you where the bullshit starts or
stops and pretend to have a Chinese wall between editorial and
advertising. Some are cleaner than others, but money talks. If you
want regular coverage in Vogue, then you need to advertise. It’s no
accident Marissa Mayer got a feature in the magazine, photographed
by a top fashion photographer, the same year Yahoo sponsored
Vogue’s Met Ball.
Yahoo shareholders paid $3 million so Ms. Mayer could appear in
Vogue.^14 Google, in contrast, keeps that homepage inviolate: it’s
reserved for search alone, plus the public-service animation of the
logo, the Google Doodles. No amount of advertiser money can buy
space on the Google homepage. Google anticipated the need for a trust
economy in the internet age and helped create it.
In Q3 2016 results, Google had a 42 percent increase in paid clicks.
However, the revenue captured (cost per click) declined 11 percent.
Analysts mistook this as a negative. Declining prices are typically a
reflection of loss of power in the marketplace, as no firm ever willingly
drops prices. However, what we missed is that Google was able to grow