According to online security company Arbor Networks, Google now represents an average of 6.4% of all Internet traffic, and with Internet traffic volume growing at 40 – 45% per year, this is a huge share. Google posted revenue of $7.29 billion for its third quarter, representing a 23% growth from the same period last year. Google now has $33 billion in cash on hand, which is $11 billion more than it had at its disposal last year.
So we know Google traffic is growing along with internet traffic, in fact according to Google 20% of all queries are new each day. From, the World Cup, to Paul the Octupus, to the earthquakes in China, Chile and Haiti, to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – search now presents a snapshot of the past calendar year in a way that the traditional news report cannot. Maybe the main takeaway here is that while Google has created new economies of scale for many industries and commercial operations, it’s also changed the way we look at the world around us.
And as 2010 winds down, Google produced a sort of ‘Year in Search’ video, proving that what people search for is one of the best ways to take the pulse of the planet: