Google: The Winner For Now

Is the Internet Search Engine industry a Winner-Take-All business?
Despite the market share that Google currently holds in the Internet Search Engine business, I do not believe it is accurate to say that the industry in which they are currently the dominant player is a Winner-Take-All (WTA) business. Currently, Google is crushing the competition in the Internet Search Engine business not solely due to their "algorithm-based" search capabilities, but also due to the fact they created a numerous other web-based products that allow Google users to access email via GMail, find places using Google Maps, and things of the sort all in a "one-stop shop".

Why has Google gone beyond simply maximizing the Internet user's web search experience? The reason is because even they must realize the barriers to entry to this network platform are not prohibitive and that competition will always be looming. Other players existing in this industry such as Yahoo!, MSN Live, etc. have not been able to capture the market share Google has been able to capture; however, this does not mean that a new search engine will not be introduced in the future that will be "smarter" or provide a better search experience. For this reason, Google must add value via other avenues to the user in addition to their search engine capabilities because when a "smarter" search engine does come along, web users will follow due to the neglible switching costs incurred.