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有一天，当我走进一位商学院教授的办公室时，我吃惊地发现他对我非常了解。“我Google了你，”教授回答了我的疑问。
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Walking into the
office of a business school professor the other day, I was
startled to discover quite how much he knew about me. "I
Googled you," he replied.
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他确实用Google搜索了我：如今许多人在得到线索后就是用这种方式找到信息的。Google，这个6年前在斯坦福大学一间密室里创建的网络搜索引擎，现已迅速发展为全球一大奇迹，在Interbrand进行的一项调查中被评为最受欢迎的品牌。它属于那类可用品牌名作为产品代称的优等品牌之列，Hoover、施乐(Xerox)和Portakabin均属这类品牌。
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Of course he did:
that is how a lot of clued-in people find their information these
days. Google, the internet search engine that started six years
ago in a back room of Stanford University, has ballooned into a
global phenomenon, voted best-loved brand in an Interbrand survey.
It is in that select list of brands that enter the language as a
synonym for their product, such as Hoover, Xerox and Portakabin.
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Google每天处理两亿多个搜索要求。根据StatMarket的数据，它是全球顶尖搜索引擎，截至2003年12月，它占全球网络搜索结果50%的份额(其中包括美国在线AOL等使用Google进行的搜索，以及Google在自己站点上的搜索)。如果传闻中的Google上市将在今年进行，那么预计该公司的估价将高达150亿美元，这不禁让人回想起网络公司热潮高峰时期的情形。
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Google handles more
than 200m queries a day. It is the world's top search engine,
boasting an estimated 50 per cent share in December 2003 of
internet search referrals worldwide, according to StatMarket.
(This includes searches via the likes of AOL, which uses Google,
as well as Google's own-branded websites.) If a rumoured flotation
goes ahead this year, it may value the company as high as $15bn
(?.3bn), recalling the heady days of the dotcom boom.
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Google不同于初创的网络公司或真正的传统企业，它没有依靠任何营销预算，就建立了一个全球客户群。它唯一的一次广告只出现在行业出版物中，并直接面对企业营销部门。
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Unlike the dotcom
start-up or indeed conventional businesses, Google has built a
worldwide customer base without a marketing budget of any size.
Its only advertising has run in trade publications and direct to
corporate marketing departments.
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辛蒂•麦卡弗里(Cindy
McCaffrey)在名义上是负责市场营销的副总裁，但她的工作与多数营销类职务鲜有类似之处。作为一家私人拥有的公司，Google审慎地保管全部财务数据，不对外公开。因此很难知道公司收入有多少，但分析师的预测值基本上都在每年10亿美元左右。(不过按照美国证交会的规定，由于Google已达到一定的规模，因此它必须在今年春季晚些时候把一些公司信息提交给证交会备案，但在此之前，它也有可能先上市。)
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Cindy McCaffrey is
nominally vice-president for marketing, but her job bears little
resemblance to most marketing posts. As a privately-owned company,
Google jealously guards all its financial data. So it is difficult
to know what the company's revenues are, though analysts'
estimates converge on about $1bn a year. (SEC rules, however, mean
that because it has reached a certain size, it will have to make
some filings later this spring, though it could float on the stock
market first.)
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麦卡弗里指出，营销预算在收入中只占极小一部分。她只愿意承认该比例“不到5%”，但她从容不迫的态度表明，实际比例或许更小。
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The marketing
budget, McCaffrey indicates, is a tiny fraction of revenues. She
will agree only that it is "less than 5 per cent",
though her readiness suggests it might be much less.
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“我们不需要。”她解释说。她表示，其它公司用于广告宣传的经费，Google却直接投入研究和技术开发。“我们完全把重点放在产品上，”麦卡弗里说。
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"We do not need
it," she explains. The money that in other companies would go
on publicity in Google pours straight into research and technical
development instead, she says. "Our focus is totally on the
product."
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但Google并非总是全然反对广告支出。“我们(在1999年)给很多广告公司打过电话，但没有一家回复我们，”麦卡弗里说。当时那些公司都忙于应付一大批其它网络公司，目前它们已基本上倒闭，若非如此，它们或许已依靠Google这台惊人的生财机赚了钱。当然，Google的命运或许也会截然不同。
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Google was not
always so dead against advertising spend. "We rang lots of
advertising agencies [in 1999], but none of them returned our
calls," says McCaffrey. Had they not been too busy with a
bunch of other dotcoms, now mainly folded, those agencies might
have cashed in on an astonishing money-spinning machine. And the
Google story might have been very different.
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事实上，Google依靠了自己的资源。公司通过人们的口头传播就发展起来了：它的名声从学术界传到懂技术的用户，再到互联网记者的口中，直至更广阔的世界各地。当麦卡弗里1999年加入Google时，公司交给她厚厚一叠媒体报道剪报。虽然公司没有公关预算，但记者们已开始使用Google进行调查研究，然后写文章夸赞这一技术，于是为该网站积聚了更多用户。
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As it was, Google
fell back on its own resources. The company grew by word of mouth,
spreading from academic circles to techie users to internet
journalists to the wider world. When McCaffrey joined in 1999, she
was handed a thick file of press clippings. Though the company had
no PR budget, journalists had begun to use the engine for their
researches, and then wrote articles praising the technology, thus
garnering more users for the site.
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Google的创始人谢尔盖•布林(Sergey
Brin)和拉里•佩奇(Larry Page)很快为他们的搜索引擎确定了三大要求：它必须对搜索到的站点进行排列，最贴近用户要求的站点越靠前；它必须很快；它必须易于使用。
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Google's founders,
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, quickly identified three requirements
for their search engine. It had to rank sites to be of most
relevance to the user; it had to be fast; it had to be easy to
use.
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“这与纯度有关，”麦卡弗里说。意向纯度：避免其它搜索引擎的模式，即企业向那些引擎付费，以便列入其搜索结果。设计纯度：这意味着Google站点没有广告，只有一个供用户输入搜索条件的方框和一个大大的Google标识；第三点，目的纯度：一心一意专注于发展技术和为用户提供服务，除此之外别无其他。Google抵制了冲动，没有成为像雅虎(Yahoo)，MSN，美国在线这样的多用途门户网站。
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"It's about
purity," says McCaffrey. Purity of intent, in eschewing the
model of other search engines where companies pay to be listed in
the results thrown up by the search engine. Purity of design,
which means there is no advertising on the Google site, just a box
for users to type in their search terms and a large Google logo.
And purity of purpose, in a single-minded focus on technology and
the service to the user to the exclusion of all else. Google
resisted the urge to become an all-purpose portal in the manner of
Yahoo, MSN and AOL.
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接连数年，Google的主要业务模式都是将其技术授权给其它公司，随后，公司开始尝试不同的做法。Google未来收入中的大部分将来自其付费排列服务。该服务的内容是，如果用户输入广告客户从Google买来的词或短语，这些企业的网站就能显示在屏幕顶端一个界限分明的方框中。虽然Google向广告客户出售关键词，但它把它们的站点集中放在屏幕的一角，让其它未付费的站点居于屏幕中心。
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After a few years
when Google's main business model was licensing its technology to
other companies, the company tried a different tack. The bulk of
its revenues in future will come from its paid listings service.
These services allow advertisers to have their sites displayed in
a clearly demarcated box at the top of the screen if a word or
phrase they have bought from Google is typed in by the user.
Though Google sells keywords to advertisers, it corrals their
sites into a corner of the screen, allowing the rest of the sites
which have not paid to take centre stage.
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广告客户对这种模式趋之若骛，既因为这使得它们即刻获得了搜索提示，也因为现在大多数人在网上探路都用搜索引擎，而不是依靠门户网站。Overture和Espotting之类的公司曾是搜索引擎市场的领军企业，但Google已快速赶了上来。US
Bancorp Piper Jaffray预测，到2007年该市场的规模将达70亿美元。这种市场增长预测导致雅虎去年收购了Overture，还收购了搜索科技专业公司Inktomi。
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Advertisers have
flocked to the model because it gives them instant leads, and
because most people now use search engines to find their way round
the internet, rather than relying on portals. Companies such as
Overture and Espotting led this market, but Google has caught up
fast. US Bancorp Piper Jaffray estimates the market will be worth
$7bn by 2007. Such growth forecasts led Yahoo to buy Overture last
year and Inktomi, a search technology specialist.
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雅虎已开始大举推出自己的搜索技术，来与Google的技术争锋。这笔潜在的财富也吸引了微软(Microsoft)的目光，该公司计划推出其第一款互联网搜索引擎，但拒绝透露将于何时推出。
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Yahoo has begun
rolling out its own search technology to rival Google's. The
potential riches also caught Microsoft's eye; the company plans to
launch its first internet search engine, though it declines to say
when.
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Google将如何应付这场新的竞争呢？麦卡弗里说：“我们无法预言会发生什么，但我们将继续在自己的技术上投资，并保持业务重点。我们在搜索技术上领先五年半。我们从未止步不前。”
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How will Google cope
with this new competition? McCaffrey says: "We can't predict
what will happen, but we will continue to invest in our technology
and maintain focus. We have five-and-a-half-years' lead in search
technology. We haven't been standing still."
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Google也将充分倚赖其品牌。英国Interbrand公司首席执行官耶斯•弗兰普顿(Jez
Frampton)说，这或许是它最好的策略，“Google已具备了成为一个伟大品牌的首要条件：提供人们真正想要的产品，并坚守对人们所作的承诺。他们保持着一贯的形象，而且从未偏离其重点。可能有其它搜索引擎比Google更快或更准确，但Google受人信赖。”
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The company will
also rely heavily on its brand. This might be its best strategy,
according to Jez Frampton, chief executive of Interbrand in the
UK: "Google has fulfilled the first requisite of a great
brand: providing products that people really want and keeping the
promises made to people. They have maintained a consistent
identity and been unswerving in their focus. There may be other
search engines that are faster or more accurate, but Google has
the trust."
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通过这种方式，Google已与消费者建立了牢固的关系。虽然它的吸引力似乎主要还是功能上的，但用户也能与它培养感情上的联系。麦卡弗里引述了一个男子的故事，他定期发来他的狗本(Ben)的照片。有一次本生病了，兽医不知所措。狗的主人把症状一股脑打进了Google，带出一个有关莱姆病(Lyme’s
disease)的网页。结果表明这就是狗患的病，于是获得了治疗。自那以后，主人不断发来有关本健康状况的最新消息。在Google的办公室里有块告示牌，上面全是与此类似的故事。
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In this way, the
company has built up a strong relationship with consumers.
Although its appeal would seem to be mainly functional, users can
develop emotional ties. McCaffrey cites the story of a man who
regularly sends in pictures of his dog, Ben. When Ben fell sick,
the vet was flummoxed. Its owner fed the symptoms into Google,
bringing up a page on Lyme's disease. This turned out to be the
dog's ailment, and it was treated. The owner has been sending
updates on Ben's health ever since. In Google's offices sits a
noticeboard overflowing with similar stories.
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弗兰普顿说，Google还利用了一样更平常的东西：惰性。“除非有人拿出另一个异常强大的搜索引擎，否则大家使用竞争产品得到的好处微乎其微。如果Google的竞争对手只比Google快0.001秒，谁会在意？大家已经用惯了Google。”
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Frampton says Google
also taps something more commonplace: laziness. "Unless
someone comes up with another search engine of interstellar
proportions, people get only marginal benefits from going to the
competition. Who cares if the competitor is .001 seconds faster?
People are used to Google."
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然而，尽管有品牌资本，但Google还是很容易被伤害。微软拥有操作系统以及人们访问互联网的浏览器，因而把持着巨大的优势。如果微软把搜索引擎嵌入其现有产品，比如通过在Windows系统中放个桌面图标，或在其浏览器上设个按钮，这可能足以使偷懒的用户从Google转向微软的搜索引擎。微软还拥有强大的营销力量，能支持任何捆绑策略。
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Yet for all its
brand equity, Google remains vulnerable. Microsoft retains a huge
advantage in that it owns the operating system and the browser
through which people access the internet. If it were to build its
search engine into its existing products, for instance through a
desktop icon on Windows or a button on its browser, that might be
enough to make lazy users switch. The company also has huge
marketing might to back up any bundling strategy.
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对于微软是否会把搜索功能与现有产品捆绑起来，该公司英国搜索部经理罗宾•凯利特(Robin
Kellett)拒而不答。鉴于欧盟最近对这家软件集团处以4.97亿欧元(合3.34亿英镑)的罚款，捆绑是个热点话题。微软已经击溃了足够多的昔日竞争对手，从Word
Perfect和Novell到网景(Netscape)。或许不需要提醒，你便知道Google的高管的情况：他们中好几个是网景的旧臣。
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Robin Kellett, UK
search manager at Microsoft, refuses to answer whether the company
would bundle search with its existing products. Bundling is a hot
issue, given the European Commission's recent E497m (?34m) fine of
the software group. Microsoft has smashed enough past competitors,
from Word Perfect and Novell to Netscape. Google chiefs probably
do not need reminding: several are ex-Netscapers.
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即使微软的捆绑不会发生，对Google来说，最大的风险可能是一个技术上的超级对手的推出。还记得AltaVista吗？它一度也是市场领头羊。正如弗里斯特研究公司(Forrester
Research)首席执行官乔治•科罗尼(George Colony)所说：“Google的地位没有城墙保护。你在Google之前用的是什么搜索引擎？你转用Google花了多久？几秒钟。你抛弃Google另投他处要花多久？也只要几秒钟。”
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Even if bundling
does not happen, the biggest risk is probably the launch of a
technically superior rival. Remember AltaVista? It was once market
leader, too. As George Colony, chief of Forrester Research,
observes: "There are no walls protecting Google's position.
What was the search engine you used before Google? How long did it
take you to switch to Google? Seconds. How long will it take to
switch out of Google? Seconds."
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作者邮箱：fiona.harvey@ft.com。
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fiona.harvey@ft.com
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译者/李功文
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