Search Engines, the twenty first century soft drinks

Jeremy Goodrich

Let me start by saying: some companies inspire us to do better things, be better people and make the world a better place. This got me to thinking: search engines are the modern day soft drinks, in some ways.

Number one:
Google is the number one search engine, Coca-cola is the number one soft drink. Google is, in many ways, equivelent to search. Coke is the same thing, for those of us who worship the red can, for soft drinks & soda. It’s the real thing, pure, refreshing…and it’s biggest enemy is itself. New Coke was a failure, let’s hope that Google doesn’t try to become “new Google”.







Number two:
Yahoo is the number two search engine. With their life engine campaign, they confirmed one thing: they’ve been confined to an era of time, a period where the term “engine” has meaning. In the past, it was “horse power”…and in the future, it’ll be a “power source” or “flux capacitor”…by claiming synonym-ship with “engine” Yahoo has confined itself to an era. Pepsi, the number two soft drink, claimed it was the Pepsi Generation when I was growing up. Again, claiming a period in time, putting their stamp on some folks - and leaving eternity, everlasting dominance, to the number one player as a result.





Number three:
MSN (and Live) are the number three search engines. Mountain Dew is also the number three soft drink. I’ve never been able to fathom MSN search results…they seem capricious, unclear…not as murky as Google or Yahoo, but, with a definitely opaque, inconsistant and odd twist. Mountain Dew, I’ve never been able to understand, either. With it’s almost but not quite citrus and X-games positioning…it’ll never be The Real Thing (Google) but, perhaps, just being itself is OK.





Number four:
AOL Search is the number four among search engines, and in soft drinks, fourth place is claimed by Dr. Pepper. When I was younger, I had a certain affinity for the Dr. It was different, cola like yet with a certain special flavor that appealed to my youth. AOL is dominated by those new to the internet, who have yet to throw off their online training wheels & get a real ISP…or those who want a walled garden experience. With maturity, they leave AOL behind. However, there will always be those who are young and new…or young at heart. For those, then, AOL will remain.





Number five:
Ask, or as it used to be known, Ask Jeeves, is the fifth place search engine. As Sprite is clearly not a cola, nor is the experience confusing, so Ask has a simple mandate: get answers to your questions. Their positioning was clear, unlike a typical search engine, where the queries are ambigious and the results extraordinary. Ask is simple, efficient, and clearly, not a cola.

These five search engines have changed the world, and will continue to do so. Hasn’t “have a coke & a smile” changed the world, too? Did you know somebody who was part of the Pepsi (Yahoo) generation? They grew up, and so, too, did their desire for something new. If you do the dew, then you definitely do MSN search…bold, different and unexpected, breaking the rules as it goes. When you had your training wheels on, was Dr Pepper (AOL) beholden to a special place in your heart? Last…if you need answers, is it a search engine, or do you just want to ask? For a minority, it’s ask that’s clearly the answer.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Majors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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