Unlike his competitor, Google is not working on software but on user experience. Their main goal is to improve user experience. For search engine, there is three pillars that impact user experience: 

1. Ease of use
2. Rapid response time
3. Pertinence of the result

A bit like Tiger Wood (who is also from Stanford like the founder of Google) they continue to invest heavily on the basic. They always try to improve and expand their search capability. It results in an always-greater lead over their competitors. 

Google understand human attention in human computer interaction. That’s why they came up with a successful add approach consisting in proposing a related link to what your are looking for inside the Useful Field of View (UFOV).

By the way, Google founders were student at Stanford HCI (Human Computer Interaction) group. The Stanford HCI Group is one of the most innovative and dynamic research center in the field. HCI is an instance of cognitive engineering focusing on the Human Computer Interaction. I believe because they have better capability and focus than competitor on what bring value to their customer, they will continue to make more money.  

I can only see them gain more and more value over the next few years.   

UFOV 

It is the single most important concept in effective screen and web page design. It is at the essence of human attention, a central issue in Cognitive Engineering.

What is it?There is a small area in the retina that provides the clearest vision of all. This vision is also called the central vision or foveal vision. It corresponds to a spot making an angle of 3 degrees.   So for someone sitting in front of a computer screen, the size of the spot of visual attention is about 4 cm.  For someone standing behind the shoulder of somebody else in front of a computer screen, the size of the spot is about 8 cm. The spot is about 24 cm when watching television at a normal distance. So somebody standing just behind you will have a broader spot than you and will be more likely to find the information your are looking for on the screen. 

Increasing Sales

In the example above, if information is outside the UFOV, it will not be recognise or perceive. Consequently, if you place adds anywhere, they will not be effective because they are likely to be outside the UFOV. Knowing what users are looking is a fantastic insight when combined with the UFOV notion. A designer can suggest new cross-related option (or add) and present them inside the UFOV.  

Google

This concept is simple and effective and it explains why Google’s Add is so successful.Why not do the same?