Editor's Note: you can apply the point in this article to your business in many ways. Here is one important way for online, Internet marketing. If you have a competitor that is selling a lot of the same type of product you are, see what he is doing and do the same thing. Copy his advertising, his website, his linking strategy and whatever else he does.

What Would Google Do?

by Kevin D. Rolle

Brilliant title isn't it? And I know if you have even a shred of desire in your body to be successful online, it definitely caught your attention.

Why? Because we all have that annoying feeling in the back of our minds that a company that mind-blowingly successful, must know something that you and I don't. And it's probably a good idea to study and learn as much as you can from them.

Actually, it's the title of a book by author Jeff Jarvis that was be released by Collins Business, a division of Harper Collins, on January 27, 2009. I first found out about it in a piece written by Michael Fitzgerald on 2nd, February, 2009 on BNET called, "Be Like Google, Or Die?" ( http://blogs.bnet.com/business-books/?p=437 ).

As you can imagine, that title also caught my attention for the very same reasons. Here's an excerpt of the piece...

"Can companies be like Google? I’ve argued on this blog that most cannot, any more than my wearing Nike shoes makes me like that other Mike. But Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor who also writes the blog Buzz Machine, has a new book out, “What Would Google Do?” arguing that all companies should try to think like Google."

I’ve not yet read this book, but it’s getting plenty of buzz — Business Week even put it on its cover this week. The themes of and issues with the book seem clear. Jarvis’s real point is not to be like Google, he tells Newsweek in this interview, but to be like a company that has profitably figured out the Internet — others are Amazon.com, Craigslist and Facebook. He says business people should pick one such firm and try to emulate it wherever possible."

Here's Jarvis's take...

"The idea: I try to reverse-engineer the success of the fastest growing company in the history of the world, the one company that truly understands how to succeed in the internet age, and then take those lessons and apply them to a number of industries, companies, and institutions, from carmakers to restaurants to universities to government."

Here's part of a Newsweek interview...

"Newsweek: Are there any areas in which Google itself doesn’t act very “Google-y?” Not disclosing its advertising revenue splits, for example.

Jarvis: Right. There are areas where Google doesn’t act very Google-y, which are mainly about transparency. It can’t be transparent about its algorithms and how they operate, because then they will get gamed more. And those are special sauce. I wish Google were more open about its advertising arrangements and splits, so we had a better sense of the value of the market; I wish it were more open about the sources that it puts into Google News."

Fitgerald's piece ends with a sobering thought (and question)...

"This comment is telling. It shows that if you want to be like Google, act like its model: Microsoft. Like Microsoft, Google is very protective of the things that make it money. Like Microsoft, it is very aggressive about doing whatever it can to undermine its competitors. Microsoft gave away Internet Explorer to hurt Netscape. Google gives away (or sells very cheaply) Google Docs to hurt Microsoft Office. Google is less ham-fisted about this than Microsoft was when it was killing Netscape. It certainly sounds friendlier when Google and other Web firms tout the idea of open information. But then, these firms all make money off the information we share with them. The strategy is Microsoft’s, applied through a different filter. Clearly, despite what Jarvis says, being transparent and open about everything is not What Google Would Do.

What do you think? Would your company be better off acting like the idealized Google Jarvis presents?"

I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting that book.

By the way, you can check out everything Jarvis has to say about the book here:-
http://www.buzzmachine.com/what-would-google-do/

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Mr. Kevin D. Rolle is the owner of the blog Site Traffic Overload Blog at http://www.sitetrafficoverload.com/blog, and the site Maintaining Money Momentum http://www.maintainingmoneymomentum.com/ where you can get a free excerpt from his book, "Maintaining Money Momentum".