Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG,NASDAQ:GOOGL) is making Google Search even better. But it is hard to believe that is going to have an impact on GOOG stock. Not because the Google Lens tool isn’t impressive. It is really cool and the innovation that Alphabet is rolling out makes Google Lens even better. The only problem, if you can call it that, is that Alphabet already is the dominant search engine on the planet by a mile. When you already have all the market share, adding even more is really hard. In this case, it may be out of the question.
Look at the numbers, courtesy of GlobalStats. Google has 91.56% of global search traffic. In second place is Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing with 3.1%, followed by Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) at 1.5% and Yahoo at 1.47%. I haven’t seen that kind dominance since a Russian presidential election. How is Google supposed to do better than that? And who, if anyone, will pose a challenge any time soon? Nobody, as long as Alphabet is rolling out more improvements for its Google search engine.
The latest innovation is called Google Lens Multisearch. It allows a user to combine photos and words to come up with specific search terms. According to Belinda Zeng, project manager of Google Search, you can do things like take a photo of your dining set, add the text “coffee table” and find a matching table. She goes on:
“All this is made possible by our latest advancements in artificial intelligence, which is making it easier to understand the world around you in more natural and intuitive ways. We’re also exploring ways in which this feature might be enhanced by MUM – our latest AI model in Search – to improve results for all the questions you could imagine asking.”
GOOG stock down 0.8% this morning, which is more than Nasdaq’s slip today of about 0.14%. So far this year, GOOG stock is down roughly 6.5% while the Nasdaq composite is down 12%. But those losses should be short-lived. With an average price target of $3,435, analysts project a 27% upside for Alphabet stock, which is planning a 20-for-1 stock split this summer.
I still have GOOG stock as a strong buy in my book.
On the date of publication, Patrick Sanders did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
