In the next installement of the Google as a Unique Enterprise series, we will discuss how Google has impacted the face of search engine technology and the entire Internet in the course of a few years. What started out as a two man operation turned into a full-fledged company, who now have 1,300 employees stationed into comfortable headquarters nestled in Mountain View, California, formerly owned by Silicon Valley. Early this year, Google became a publicly owned company, offering stock through Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs who are expected to rake in revenue of around $2 billion in cash - a figure that speaks volumes about the success of the company.

In what is the highest valued IPO ever, Google can be valued as much as 20 billion after being sold. Although Google is sitting on Cloud 9 right now lounging in these amazing figures, there is a debate over whether Google can be trumped. When Google began its course, its technology was steps ahead its next competittor. Now, the technical advantage that Google used to have is shared by pretty much all of the search engine companies. Many analysts have stated that budding companies are being developed that will directly rival - and have the capacity of beating - the quality of the Google search engine. Google is slowly seeings it indexing lead fading away to rising companies as well. Allthe Web, another search engine, is right on Google's heels having indexed 3.2 billion webpages to Google's 3.3 billion. Inktomi is right behind with 3 billion. Although there have been reports that Google has exceeded 4 billion, that number is still not a far cry from the rest of the search engines.

In addition to indexing a gargantuan amount of webpages, Google have been sitting pretty with nifty new features like Google News and Froogle, a site that compares online prices to countless products (similar to epinions.com) This has spurred activity in the shopping front, with Microsoft coming up with its own MSN Newsbot and Yahoo coming up with a Product Search feature. In the end, time will tell which web company will command the most respect of all and it will be an exciting journey to live out these "search engine wars."