Companies from all corners of the economy are growing concerned that the ever-expanding services offered by Google, Inc., soon could threaten their business. Even Wal-Mart, the wealthiest retail giant on Earth, has Google on its radar. With the most efficient search engine on the Internet as well as many developing technologies that could help consumers shop with a local focus, traditional companies are afraid that down the road their customers soon will be able to identify cheaper prices before even setting foot in their stores. Although the concerns of some of those businesses are understandable, the companies will have to get over their anxieties and forge ahead. Google and similar companies are slowly changing the face of the American economy, and businesses should either adapt or get out of the way. Google, Inc. is a seven-year-old company that has expanded to the size and scope many analysts had originally believed such companies as Amazon and eBay would. Its broad mission statement of organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful has manifested itself in a number of unique services, some of them generating controversy. Google Earth employs satellite technology to share images and video feed from all over the world. Google Print is a project to scan entire library's worth of books for easy accessibility on their Web site. Such ventures are exciting, innovative and have yet to be revealed as illegal in any way. Another new service could combine satellite and search technologies at the local level, aiding in shopping and possibly real estate. Those enterprises are exciting and will only benefit consumers, something some businesses will have to deal with.
The evolution of the Internet and the advent of powerful search engines like Google are changing the way many consumers approach their day-to-day purchases. Traditional businesses should be concerned about the effects such developments will have on them, but it would be unwise to allow changing market trends to simply pass them by. America's businesses should adapt to the gradual emergence of a new, more streamlined economy. As exciting as those changes are for the consumer, they could be equally as exciting for businesses if they seize the opportunities the new landscape offers. What Google is doing now is only the beginning of more changes to come, and it is the already-established corporate juggernauts that need to adapt to these new trends.
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Businesses can't resist digital progress
