• BusinessWeek, Monday, March 23, 2009 11:45 AM

"Google is holding up quite well" despite the downturn, says BusinessWeek writer Sarah Lacy, but current resilience doesn't necessarily mean that still growing company will be in the same position after the recession is over and its business matures further. For example, eBay found itself in a similar position during the last recession, but after its core business matured, it struggled mightily, event before this latest recession.

If Google doesn't want to look like eBay in four years, Lacy says there are a few things it could do to retain its edge. For starters, the search giant should buy Twitter, she says, because "Twitter may end up becoming the first company to crack the so-called natural-language search, where the user types in a question using common language." IAC/InterActive Corp. tried this and failed with Ask.com, but Twitter uses results from real pople to generate answers. Lacy adds that "the marketing capabilities are clear as well."

Generally speaking, Google needs to get better at acquisitions, Lacy says, because like eBay, the search giant is "great at spotting promising companies," but "bad at getting the most out of them." Blogger, Dodgeball, Jaiku and thus far, YouTube, are all examples of that. Google also needs to step up its game in mobile, she says. Android partner T-Mobile is nowhere near getting the sales bump that AT&T got with Apple's iPhone. Meanwhile, Google execs continue to talk about mobile as the company's future. Lacy's other suggestions: Google shouldn't turn its back on good in-house products, and it needs to continue to innovate in search.

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