Google CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters at a New York press conference today that the advertising industry had bottomed out, and indicated that he believes that there are signs of recovery evident in the U.S. and European markets.
This confidence can be seen in Google’s unceasing expansion, which continued right through the teeth of one of the worst recessions in recent history. The company continues to roll out web applications and operating systems, but remains primarily focused on search, which accounts for 90 percent of the company’s revenues, Schmidt pointed out. Search engine optimization (SEO) has remained a strong advertising venue through the troubled economic times.
Company co-founder Sergey Brin appeared alongside Schmidt to answer questions – Brin rarely speaks to reporters – and addressed concerns that Google could not compete in the enterprise market with established firms like Microsoft: "Increasingly, all of our offerings are available to both the enterprise and the consumer."
The bullish attitude displayed by the two could have follow-on effects for the advertising industry, including the fast-growing field of search engine optimization (SEO) which primarily targets Google’s flagship search engine.
