Google now has a market cap of more than $195 billion. To put that into perspective, Microsoft sits around $218 billion, while Apple is cruising along at $280. Google"s growth is nothing short of impressive. Analysts are constantly calling upon investors to invest in the Mountain View based company, regardless of its staggering $617 share price.
Besides Google"s impressive third quarter earnings, the company has something else it can now be proud of. According to Arbor Networks, big "G" now holds a new Internet traffic record. Since January of this year, Google has gained more than 1% of all Internet traffic. That"s a fairly large increase in less than a year. The site notes that if Google were an ISP, this would make them the second largest on the planet. In the picture above, Google"s all-time Internet traffic percentage is shown. On average, Google accounts for 6.4% of all Internet traffic. Taking other factors not present in the above graph into consideration, Google could actually account for as much as 8-12%.
It"s no secret that Google is a monstrous force to be reckoned with (see our previous coverage regarding its server farms). What"s really shocking is just how fast the company continues to grow. According to Arbor,
"Google is growing considerably faster than overall Internet volumes which are already increasing 40-45% each year."
One may wonder if any other company in the world has ever grown at such an alarming pace. Google has truly become synonymous with search. It"s even become a legitimately recognized word in the English language. Even with Bing"s recent growth and partnership with Yahoo, can Microsoft really compete with such a powerful force? Only time will tell.