Adam Penenberg:
It turns out that Wal-Mart, the world’s most profitable retailer, and Google, the virtual world’s most profitable search seller, have a lot more in common than you might think.

Founders:



• Wal-Mart: Sam Walton (1918 – 1992), who personified “middle America.”



• Google: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who personify geek America.



Company slogan:



• Wal-Mart: “Always low prices!”



• Google: “Don’t be evil.”



Alternative slogan:



• Wal-Mart: “Always low wages.”



• Google: “Maybe not evil, but after the IPO not so good either.”



Market cap:



• Wal-Mart: $202 billion (not bad for a company that peddles cheap goods imported from China).



• Google: $55 billion (not bad for a company that doesn’t actually make anything).



Reach:



• Wal-Mart: Accounts for almost 9 percent of all retail sales in the United States.



• Google: Accounts for almost four out of five internet searches (which includes sites that license Google’s search technology), and 75 percent of all referrals to websites.



Secrets to success:



• Wal-Mart: Revolutionized the retail industry by offering a wider variety of products (at lower prices) than competitors in a clean, customer-friendly environment.



• Google: Revolutionized the search engine industry by offering faster, more useful searches (for free) than competitors on a clean, user-friendly website.



Key moment in company’s history:



• Wal-Mart: 1988, when it opened up its first Supercenter in Washington, Missouri, thereby giving new meaning to the term “one-stop shopping.”



• Google: 2000, when, following Yahoo’s lead, it began selling advertisements based on keywords, giving new emphasis to the term “relevancy.”



More here.