The Google Empire.

Sure, we're all going to die. Google has reported its first quarterly drop in sales. OMG! It is also, however, accompanied by a more-than-pocket-change $17.8billion in cash and equivalents...

But I'm not here to talk about their overly boring financial statements, as interesting as some may find that, I'm here to talk about what I've dubbed the "Google Collective Principle". In my mind, it consists of a series of ever more complex statements effectively summarising people's behaviour with Google through my eyes. For your benefit, here is the biggest foundation of my principle in simpler terms: "Anyone who uses a Google service is incredibly likely to continue using other Google services".

Just to be clear, i'm not suggesting that using Google search will make you into an active Google advertiser. What I'm saying is similar to handing someone one end of a piece of string. Eventually, they're going to get mighty curious about what's on the other end and work their way down the string.
What I'm trying to prove here is that once someone starts dabbling in Google, even just for Gmail (but it's not the best example) they are probably going to wind up heading further into Google products. Who knows whether it is a benign curiosity, an overwhelming desire to have an online presence or what, but someone like Google having services for everything and anything gives rise to an explosion in the services used. Google's dominance over Yahoo! and Microsoft helps, but also the differing approach between Yahoo! (everything on one page, whether you like it or not, and loads of ads) and Google (autonomous services, each with a Google touch, and only minimal ads) stands out.

For example, Yours Truly has had a Google account (but not a Gmail one) since about 2005. Since then, i have replaced that with my current Google profile  and it accompanied an explosion in the Google Services I use from a simple Gmail account and iGoogle page, then Google Reader, then the floodgates opened and suddenly I had almost every service they offer. On my account settings page, I now have icons for :
1. AdSense
2. Blogger
3. Calendar
4. Gmail
5. Picasa Web Albums
6.Web History
7. Alerts
8. Bookmarks
9. Docs
10. iGoogle
11. Reader
12. Webmaster Tools
13. Analytics
14. Book Search
15. FeedBurner
16. Notebook
17. Talk
18. Youtube
19. News

Yes, 19 different services. In case you're wondering, Google has only 4 remaining services, being Groups, Directory, Scholar Search and Code. I even use Google Mobile!

This blog is the perfect example of my Google Collective Principle. First, I saw a couple of other people's blogs, and decided I wanted my own. So, already having a Google account, I chose Blogger. My Blog of course needed some tracking, so after my disastrous attempt using StatCounter, I reverted to Google Analytics, which is truly legendary, then I wanted to track my RSS feed, cue FeedBurner, indexing management, cue WebMaster Tools, picture integration, cue Picasa, and if I could be bothered I would have AdWords on my blog by now.

Feel free to comment and tell me I'm horribly, horribly wrong, but I still think that the Google Collective Principle stands...