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Co-founder turned CEO will need to reinstill culture, deflect social strongholds, attract ad dollars
A decade after nailing the business of search advertising, Google has never been more dominant. Revenue grew by 25% in 2010, its Teflon search business has proven resistant to challenges from Bing and Yahoo, and after years of effort, Google is becoming a bigger player in display advertising. And as the number of people flocking online via PC and mobile devices grows, so too do the ad dollars that follow them, which should ensure Google's future for at least some time. That might make it seem like smooth sailing for co-founder Larry Page, who in a surprise move last week took over as CEO from Eric Schmidt. But looking ahead, Mr. Page faces numerous challenges, from reinstilling some kind of entrepreneurial culture at a bureaucracy of 24,000 employees, to coping with a threatening group of newcomers such as Facebook, Twitter and Groupon, to tapping the bigger reservoir of brand dollars still spent largely on TV. They are the grown-up problems of a grown-up business, and there are several areas in which Mr. Page's Silicon Valley roots will be tested in the coming months and years. SEARCH Google's bedrock business got even sturdier toward the end of 2010 as it increased its slice of the pie to 82.6% from 77% in the same period a year earlier, according to SearchIgnite. Part of that stemmed from buyer hesitancy to try rival Bing...