What is Google?

Will Google suffer—or benefit—from a looming Identity crisis?

Quick—define Google. If it takes you more than a sentence, don’t feel bad. If it doesn’t, take another look.

Far be it for lil’ ole’ me to question the reigning Internet king, but I find myself more and more trying to determine what Google’s endgame is. Is it world/Internet dominance? Or is there some other strategy at play here?

To wit:

Is Google a search engine?

Is Google an online advertising platform?

Is Google a newspaper advertising platform?

Is Google a television advertising platform?

Is Google a social network?

Is Google a customer relationship management module?

Is Google a documents managing solution?

Is Google an online reputation management tool?

Is Google a whole bunch of other stuff too?

Or is it all of the above? Or SHOULD it be all of the above? What do you think? Are we witnessing in real time a brilliant strategy, surging toward Internet dominance? Or will Google fall victim to its own ambition, becoming an ill-defined, nebulous abstraction that is hard to define? The latter is what we in the branding business call an Identity crisis, and it’s unsustainable long-term. The former is what we call foresight.

Again, I’m just one lil’ ole’ observer, and the people at Google are clearly smarter than I. But I’m curious to hear how others would define it. Comment away!