Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) have formed an unusual partnership, which should make Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) a little worried.

Instead of purchasing that shiny new Sony laptop and firing it up to surf the web with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, customers will find that the default web browser already installed on the new system will be Google's own Chrome web browser -- which is just now celebrating its first birthday.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is the largest search provider on the entire internet. It handles more advertising than any other company in the world and is extending its reach into multiple areas still to this day, including several disruptive online areas. Yet, the behemoth still thinks it's not that big in the grand scheme of things. Do you agree?

Does Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) really continue to believe that it can grab internet search market share away from giants like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO)? The software company, which time and time again has said it intends to continue competing in the race for search market share, is about to release its latest effort -- Bing.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continued its torrid command of the internet search market in February, powering 72% of all those searches. As always, the next three competitors were way behind: Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) has 17% of the market, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) had 6% and Ask.com had 4%.

Say it isn't so: Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) may be tightening its always-loose belt and reigning in costs as the economy tries to pick its way out of a recession. The company that prepares free gourmet lunches for employees and gives extraordinary time for employees to develop pet projects is pulling things into reality a bit.

Revenue growth at the search giant has slowed in the last year, as even internet advertising has slowed down in the face of a prolonged economic crunch that we're experiencing. Like many of us here at BloggingStocks have said for years, almost all of Google's revenue comes from online advertising. It was late to the game in trying to develop other revenue sources (yes, even a year makes a difference), and the incremental gains the company has seen in revenue still mostly revolve around some form of advertising. What happens when customers have no budget to advertise?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal that "We have to behave as though we don't know" (what's going to happen). Google will be cutting efforts to projects that have not caught on, aren't generating revenue and
also cutting back efforts on products that aren't exciting. Google's leader indicated that the company needs to "prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business." That's great, except the "ads" part..

Google still has the model of envy when it comes to ad-based online revenue, but now it's having to stretch ads into more of its properties, like Google Finance and Google News. Can Google find more revenue engines than those small text ads that appear next to its search results? It has to -- it can't continue the same way of generating its cash flow and expect things to turn out alright in the future. Is Google a one-trick pony? Could be, although it's still too early to tell.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to bet that beating the competition in the wireless arena is not a strategy, but a matter of growth survival. If it wants to rule the wireless search and web application universe like it has the world wide web, it has to be everywhere on every device. To that tune, Google has upgraded its search results for the Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone in an effort to fit better with the device's specific display limitations -- and capabilities.

Yes, Google voice search was just added to the iPhone's capabilities, but Google can't stop there. Google indicated this week that the "side to side" scrolling to view complete search results on the iPhone has been eliminated. In addition, easier "click to call" and "get directions" links are now in place for those mobile searches where Google thinks you may want to call someone or find directions from a web search on the iPhone. Even though the iPhone has a great display, it's nowhere near a standard flat-screen monitor.

Similar to how Google displays itself on a standard cellphone, a "Classic" option exists at the bottom of every Google search performed on the iPhone should iPhone users wish to get the "full Google" experience on the limited screen real estate on the iPhone. For iPhone fanatics (you're probably included if you own one), the new layout will probably be to your liking. And, just like Google wants you too, you'll continue to use Google for all your iPhone web-based search needs forever and ever. At the same time, Yahoo! Mobile employees may be heard collectively screaming.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s will report its second quarter earnings today after the market close. The search engine company will most likely meet or top hyped estimates once again. Literally, Google is becoming an unstoppable force in internet advertising. With more traditional media dollars flowing to the web and away from radio and print mediums, Google stands to grow ever taller.

In June, that sentiment was proven once again as Google's U.S. internet search market share neared 70%. We're talking 69.17% of all searches performed in the U.S. -- home and business -- belonging to Google and its various tentacles. The competition lost market share as Google gained it. Although the gains and drops were small, it's all relative. A 1% drop or gain can mean tens of millions of web searches (or more).

It's taken Google about two years to come from the 60% U.S. search market share level to near 70%, as it crossed the 60% level in July 2006. The company has only grown stronger since then, and Google's advertising inventory increases as its search engine is used -- and that's how Google makes almost all of its money. It can continue to grow its revenues if it continues taking search market share. If that slows down, Google will need to step up the monetization of its other products pretty swiftly. Therein lies the Achilles' Heel for GOOG investors.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) are partnering more than before as the world's largest cellphone maker announced last Tuesday it will now be installing Google as the primary tool in the "Nokia Search" application that will eventually ship with almost every Nokia phone sold worldwide. This is a huge win for Google, already the world's most-used search company.

To begin with, Nokia will set Google up as the search engine used when customers of such handsets like the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 6220 classic perform searches from their handsets. Eventually, Nokia customers in over 100 countries -- and in 40 languages -- will have access to Google search on all those handsets.

And therein lies the power Google has over information on this planet. IIkka Raiskinen with Nokia said, "This integration allows our consumers the ability to use the innovative search technologies, which have made Google almost synonymous with Internet search." There you have it -- Google's market leadership translated into a huge opportunity in the global wireless arena. It's true that competitor Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is also heavily marching into wireless, but with that company's identity crisis right now, Google stands to rule the wireless market as well as the PC desktop.

Another day, more worries about Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s growing global power. The internet advertising juggernaut has so much influence over the spread of information (and the advertising dollars that come along with that) that it's hard to see just how powerful the company has become in just the last three years alone.

So here we are in 2008, and -- again -- government regulators are growing more concerned about the power Google has. In a capitalist society, where does the free market end and the power of government begin? That's a formula nobody can answer. When the U.S. government made its case against Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) a decade ago, it included pieces of how the company trampled on its competitors using illegal tactics. I've never agreed with the Internet Explorer part of that litigation and never will -- since, after all, consumers are free to download any free web browser they please. Is the growing government concern over Google's growth in the same venue? It shouldn't be.

Is anyone forcing you to use Google every single day? Nope -- it's your choice. Google ascended to the top spot in internet search without distributing a single piece of software to its customers or using any kind of illegal tactics at all. It simply provided the best and most complete experience. Customers recognized that and have made Google the top choice in internet search (and advertising along with it).

Does that require regulation? How absurd. It's true that Google could provide privacy details (and much more) to each customer at regular intervals -- but if it screws up, users will leave Google. But, when a company that does so much right for its consumers grows large because of that fact, competitors turn to any tactic they can to try and stem the flood. Making a better product, in the free enterprise tradition, would seem a better tactic.

When Wikipedia was conceived, few would have thought it would end up in the regular top-10 of internet sites -- but it has. The largest encyclopedia in the world has a viewership that any entity on the web would kill for. Its strength remains in the ability of anyone to create and edit encyclopedia entries, giving the power to the people (literally).

What was next, then, for Jimmy Wales, one of Wikipedia's founders? Why, a search engine, of course. Although Google has a tight grip on that market already, the new Wikia.com believes it can contend for the internet search championship belt at some point in time. It's off to a very rocky start (and sorely disappointing to many), but does Wikia.com have a chance to compete against Google where internet stalwarts Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) have so far failed? if so, why?

According to Wales, Wikia.com will succeed because it will be more trustworthy than any other internet search provider. His reason is the same one that has made Wikipedia so popular: anyone will be able to control the results returned from a Wikia.com search. No automated Google algorithms or automated software bots that can be rigged to giving certain search results.

Is Wales correct? Will customers see the value in being able to vote down results that are fluff or not very relevant better than Google's artificially intelligent software? If customers do see this value -- and enough of them start using Wikia.com -- Google could potentially see its largest threat yet in the internet search arena. But it will be years down the road from now before consumers flock to anything other than Google.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) had a very busy 2007 -- initiatives and projects, product launches and a furious growth rate that kept analysts guessing every single quarter. With so much going on at the world's most popular internet search engine, will Google lose focus on the bread-n-butter machine of its revenue -- web searches?

If Google would pour as much focus and resources into all its products as it does the constant refinements it gives its search-related advertising, the company would have many revenue legs to stand on (most likely). However, Google has a history of launching products to see how they do before dedicating too many resources to it. After all, it took years for text advertising on Google searches to produce billions in quarterly revenue. The more products prove themselves, the more attention they get.

What other products from Google will get more and more attention in 2008? The New York Times says that Google could eventually control 80% to 90% of internet searches, up from today's sub-70% level. Can Google really attain search engine growth to attain complete and utter domination of search?

If not, where are supplemental revenues going to come from? Google is lining up products to fill this void, but it can't lose focus on its core search business, even for a nanosecond. To fuel all the growth and the massive product launches from the company, the revenue will have to be there. Right now, that's all search -- and it must continue to be Google's main focus in everything it does.

It continues to seem that no company can catch Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) in the online advertising space. The company -- whose name is a verb now -- has a majority of the search market for web-based advertising and it will be nearly impossible for any company to make a dent in that system with the current business models used by the competitors. Yahoo! Inc.'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) new Project Panama won't do it and Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) AdCenter will not either. Both of these competitors have basically duplicated the biggest pieces of Google's strategy, but great companies are not overthrown by copycats, but by market disruptors.

Microsoft is no spring chicken here -- the company has a very decent search advertising system to compete in the market with, but even the world's largest software company can't catch Google's huge and first-mover lead here. What can Microsoft do? Become more relevant in the field for niche information search requests, that's what.

Would Microsoft partner with high-traffic sites like job search property Monster.com or Technorati.com? If it can't start eking out more share against Google in the general Internet search market, it may have little choice other than to adopt a different strategy, since competing head-on with the Google folks isn't working. That kind of move would not be necessarily bad, either. I'm quite sure PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) likes being a market follower to The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), and Pepsi's niche approach to creating a whole universe of beverages for every need has won it sales accolades. Perhaps Microsoft (and Yahoo!) should be thinking up the same road here.

Today's New York Times [registration required] suggests that a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice may have acted as though he was still on Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) legal team. His memo to state attorney generals encouraged them to dismiss a private lawsuit filed by Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) which alleges that Microsoft's Vista operating system effectively crippled Google's desktop search program.

The official, Thomas O. Barnett, an assistant attorney general, had until 2004 been Vice Chairman of the antitrust department at Covington & Burling, the law firm that has represented Microsoft in several antitrust disputes including its 1998 antitrust dispute involving Netscape -- now a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX).

Google's lawsuit contends that Microsoft's competing desktop search program slows down Google's desktop search tool. Google's suit alleges that this market conduct is in violation of Microsoft's 2002 consent degree that prohibits Microsoft from designing operating systems that limit the choices of consumers.

Is Google, Inc.(NASDAQ: GOOG) taking on so much power that it has no choice but to become an "evil empire" in opposition of its corporate mantra, "don't be evil?" Some think so. Google's partnerships to extend its advertising business into every angle of commerce and media format is well documented by now. Not only that, its latest string of high-profile acquisitions tells the tale of a company not just wanting to compete for viewer eyeballs, but dominate every single market that involves them.

Why is this? It's still my contention that Google's goal is to become the largest advertising network on the planet. It will do this so it can receive a cut of every transaction (as a middleman), which promises to smash revenues and profits of just about every company I can imagine. Note that this will not happen overnight (it's just starting now), and Google has a tough fight ahead with various governments, just like Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has had because of the power it wields.

But an "evil empire?" I'm not sure I agree that Google is "slowly sucking the life out of the mainstream publishing business, and along with it the profession of journalism." Google does make it easy to find content in a very non-preferential way (that's simplifying a very complex problem), and therefore contributes to the democratization of global information on everything as a result. If that ever changes (and there are plenty of watching eyes), Google will indeed become an evil empire. Is information really of less value now that Google controls access to so much of it? What do you think? Information is information regardless of access -- but does the value of it change when access to it changes?

Ask.com, the web search service that is owned and operated by IAC/InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI), has been fighting the good fight over the last year with a television, print and radio campaign that practically begs consumers to give its search service a try instead of just defaulting to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)

While Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) are also competitors, Ask.com has chosen to focus its competitive stirrings directly on Google.

I use Ask.com every day, as some of the features the service provides are actually more intuitive and easier for my line of work that what Google can provide, something I wrote about about this time last year. But I use Google the majority of the time, like most web searchers.

Ask.com's search market share really has not made significant strides against Google lately, although it has grown a bit. The company is again targeting Google with a revamped and enhanced search page that is designed to get more people using Ask.com's service.

In fact, the services that Ask.com is now highlighting look like they were taken from Google's recent "Universal Search" play book. While it's a joy to use Ask.com every day, the company's battle to win more market share will never be easy. Google's brand recognition alone will be nearly impossible for any competitor to topple.

That's not to say Ask.com can't make gains (nor Yahoo! or Microsoft). The only unfortunate part is that even building an equal or semi-equal product does not guarantee customers will dump a competitor to come to you.