[AdamFernandez]

Search is not a product for Google since they do not sell it. No matter how much everyone in the world might (including Google) categorize it as such. Products are sold. The only product they sell in relation to their search engine is an advertising platform. That is by definition the product.

[milkytron]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a product is something produced. They produce a search engine, they serve ads on the search engine. Advertisers produce the ads. The ads are a product other than googles unless it is a Google ad.

[theoh]

Advertising "slots" are google's product, just like physical billboard installations are a product of ClearChannel etc. AdWords is the mechanism Google uses to sell this product.

[AznHisoka]

Not worth responding to because it's all semantics. You define product as something that must be sold. Others define it differently.

[vinceguidry]

Search is one of Google's products and not all products are sold directly as a revenue source.

A product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need. That nobody actually pulls out their checkbook and pays for a Google search doesn't mean it's not a product and that there's not a market for search.

[azinman2]

So what is NBC's product? Ads?

I would guess that's not the common perception.

[dchuk]

Their product is advertising, their delivery mechanism is television content.

[vinceguidry]

A TV network's product is television content, their monetization strategy is advertising. The delivery mechanism is cable / airwaves.

Sure there are secondary economic effects and markets that complicate the picture. But the basic business model of a television network isn't all that different than a regular company that sells their products directly.

[jsprogrammer]

Yes, but the product being sold is broadcast time slots, not audio/video.

[azinman2]

If that's true, then what's their programming called?

Programming is their product, and customers buy it by paying attention (or to netflix, hulu, comcast, etc more directly). Attention is the currency, and ads let them exchange attention for USD.

[function_seven]

So AMC and HBO are making different things? No, of course not. They both produce content and distribute it through cable networks. One of them charges advertisers to deliver the product to viewers, while the other one charges the viewers directly.

To be fair, if you're an advertiser, then the product is eyeballs. But if you're a pair of eyeballs, then the product is the content. They're not mutually exclusive. Same with google. If you're a searcher, then the product is results. If you're an advertiser, then the product is relevant searchers.

[1812Overture]

They don't even make the ads. Their product, like Google's is eyeballs.

[babuskov]

Search is a product. In economic terms, it is called: A Loss Leader.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader

Search is sold at $0, to drive customers into the Store where they can see the real product.

[alaskamiller]

Okay folks, Google's one and only product is TRAFFIC.

Search, Maps, Mail, Android are given away free as their competitive strategy of generating huge volume of traffic.

Google's business model is to charge their customers the possibility to redirect some of that traffic. And because advertising is speculative they can reach high profit ceilings.

It's an old-school dot-com point of view. Own eye balls, monetize clicks.

Facebook went and ate Google's lunch by following their playbook and improved upon it by focusing their product around SOCIAL ACTIONS.

Facebook produces huge volumes of interactions. Every like, every heart, every comment, every follow. By the time Google got around moving the battleship they've already lost.

You want to be the next big thing?

What is that one thing everyone does all the time? Catch that.

[zdkl]

Don't I pay with my attention to their ads?

Granted I don't hand cash over, but the user is still paying if you really want to stick with "products are paid for" argument

[Retra]

A product is something that is produced. You don't have to sell it.

[brador]

Search is not a product, users are. The product they sell is searcher eyeballs. That product is sold to advertisers.

[function_seven]

Yeah, I've heard that line before, but it's about as useful as insisting that movie theaters' product is overpriced popcorn and soda. The movies just happen to be there to drive traffic.

Yeah, all of that is true, but it misses the point entirely. The product that is 100% responsible for people going to the movie theater is movies. The product that drives everyone to Google is search. The fact that the revenue isn't directly related to the product doesn't make the product not the product.

[brador]

> The fact that the revenue isn't directly related to the product doesn't make the product not the product.

That is exactly what makes it a product.

Product - Definition - an article or substance that is manufactured or refined for sale. e.g."dairy products"

In this case, the product refined for sale is the users.