Cutting down the (flower) garden to make a bouquet

"We've let a thousand flowers bloom; now we want to put together a coherent bouquet." 

- Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin

Google CEO Larry Page quoted Sergey in his April 2012 letter to shareholders articulating his vision for what Google must do to be successful. What Google is doing is integrating vertically. In recent years, Google has expanded its services to be a content provider and directly answer users' queries instead of its earlier strategy of sending users quickly to the most relevant site. For example, now people searching for local-business information often see links to Google+ business listings and Zagat ratings in Google search results above other sites. Additionally Google is investing more than $350 million to help create and market professional-grade videos for YouTube and has also acquired an equity stake in Machinima Inc., which creates video content mainly for YouTube.

With U.S. online travel sales expected to reach $119.2 billion this year, up from $107.4 billion in 2011. Google has decided to dominate the travel vertical with its latest $25 million acquisition of travel-guide business Frommer's from John Wiley's & Sons Inc. This acquisition comes a year after its acquisition of restaurant, hotel and nightclubs reviewer Zagat Survey for $151 million and airline flight information provider ITA software for $700 million.

Looking to have its fingers in every pie of the digital world, Google is increasingly competing with a wide  range of companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, GroupOn, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Open Table, Yelp, Square, phone companies and a host of others. In mobile devices, for years Google's strategy was to allow manufacturers to freely use its Android operating software, helping them to compete with Apple. This strategy ensured that Google's search engine, which is pre-installed in Android devices, would be widely distributed. But Google recently bought handset maker Motorola and embarked on an effort to build its own mobile devices, thus competing directly with its former allies.

But its actions are not without scrutiny, antitrust authorities are keeping a close eye on Google and currently looking into allegations that Google directs its search engine users to its Google + business listings, undermining other sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. The outcome of these investigations could have serious implication on Google's reputation and relevance as a search engine.