Provide a 4 pages analysis while answering the following question: Employing Strategy in a Competitive Environment. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required. Google’s income still mainly comes from only one source. that means that the company is lacking in product integration. Google has also been on the receiving end of litigation from competitors such as ‘Yahoo!’ and Microsoft. In addition, Google has a lot of competition from a different search engine, Baidu, in China- which is potentially its largest market (Wheelen and Hunger, 2010). Google has also faced accusations of the intrusion of privacy of personal accounts. Google has to look for other ways to make money other than depending on advertisements (Salis, 2009). Diversification will ensure that its profits are not affected even when it is involved in suits initiated by its rivals over different products. Google also has to ensure that it remains at the front of cutting-edge technology in terms of its offerings because its rivals have invested a lot of capital in coming up with offerings that will dislodge Google from its position as the foremost search engine. Google should also invest more in informing customers of its product offerings. It would seem that there are Google has numerous products such as Google+, which mostly remain unknown by its many customers. Even if people know about them, they are unsure of how to operate them. This means that there is a need for more extensive advertising in order to reach customers. Competitive Advantages over Rivals Google enjoys a number of competitive advantages that have propelled it to the front of the search engine market. Google allow customers to be able to access websites in a direct and easy manner. The other search engines often have different advertisements and other offerings that users have to navigate through before reaching their preferred websites. Google has also invested a lot in ensuring that users can surf through different pages at a fast rate. Every search allows the search engine to ‘acquire’ more abilities. thus allowing it to deliver different results at a faster rate (Levy, 2011). To duplicate such operations, Google’s rivals would have to undergo a lengthy re-structuring process. Google also allows its users to be able to make money through the ‘Google AdSense’ program – which is something that is not offered by other search engines (Wheelen and Hunger, 2010). Google also provides analytics tools for its customers that can make different search words more comprehensible. For instance, a word like ‘script’ has different connotations. with each meaning being of great significance to a definite group of people. Google also has additional operations such as book and music applications. Competitors Microsoft Corporation is a global corporation which deals in the information technology industry and is one of Google’s main competitors. Google has cornered the market in software by investing in the transaction of software services. Moreover, it still has a lot of work to do to move clearly ahead of Microsoft. One way in which it can do this is by increasing the rate at which new innovations are made. Google needs to take advantage of collaborative arrangements such as teamwork in realizing objectives so that new products are created at a faster rate. In addition, Google has to further diversify its portfolio so that it has other sources of income and is not just dependent on web advertisements.