Just when Google seemed anointed as the corporate behemoth ready to take Microsoft's crown, the company has seemingly lost its sheen. A senior executive with the internet search giant admitted this month that growth was slowing. That became evident from the 15 per cent drop in its share value in the first three months of this year.
January's quarterly results statement was less than many analysts forecast, and it led Google's chief financial officer George Reyes to admit that the company was now finding new ways to monetise its business.
The suggestion was that little room remains for growth in the business of web searching. Google was now relying on improvements in the online advertising market to put its numbers back in order. At least, that is how Eckhard Pfeiffer, Accoona chairman and former Compaq chief executive, sees it.
'In making that announcement, they signalled that they believed that search technology had gone as far as it could and that their goals would have to come from other sources,' he said.
'We challenge that notion. We believe that the current well-known and successful search portals have missed an opportunity. They decided long ago that their search ability was good enough. We saw an opportunity to make it better.'
By his own admission, Accoona is not established in the public's mind as a 'current well-known and successful search portal'. But, with somewhat prescient timing, the New Jersey-based company last week unveiled its intention to oust Google from the top of the search engine league. That was with backing from China Daily Information and China Communications Corp.