Tom Sherman recently posted "The Downfall of
Google is the single biggest privacy invader of our time. Bigger than the government, bigger than any media company. And Google is a secret empire. They love secrecy. They love to sign e-mails "The Google Team." The supposed Google enginneer who posts on WMW is known only as "GoogleGuy." Google is nothing if not an all-consuming, individuality-stripping BRAND.
And Scott Beale over at Laughing Squid just noted an interesting
Am I catching some faint wafts of fetid rot within Google's happy, yet secretive, empire? Is their brain-vault secret bunker of uberdorks going to be their unraveling? Meanwhile, it seems Yahoo is backing the innovative cool kids and emerging as the company for the people. It looks like a clash between Google's introversion and Yahoo's extroversion. Either way, I know who I'm cheering for. /me shakes fist in air
And so it starts: Google sued over Internet call technology
From Google Rules -- But for How Long?
But analysts see several ways the company could falter in its big ambitions:
It could be overtaken in technology. The field of online search is still young, and while a secret algorithm vaulted Google to the top, others are in the business and could develop better tools.
It could lose credibility with users. "One of the appeals of Google is that it's incredibly sleek and clean," Chanko says. Will that change amid shareholder pressure to boost profits? "That's what we're going to see."
It could execute poorly. Any arrogance or disorganization could be costly. Says Garrett French, at the marketing company Websourced: "One thing Microsoft is not is disorganized."
I still love google. I enjoy the fact that it is a company that is based upon changing the world through Math. That appeals to an uber nerd like myself.
On the other hand if they start to suck, the market will deal with it. I am honestly not worried.
This reminds me of an interesting economics article I read. The aticle was discussing how Americans like business. Americans (generally) want businesses to make as much money as possible and be as successful as possible. But when that success turns into market domination or control, people tend to have a problem with that. Americans fear one company controlling a market or a technology. that was one factor why Standard oil and AT&T were broken up. That is why microsoft has had many problems in the 90s. And that is why google (and Walmart) are having people turn. People don't mind google making money and being big, people dislike google because of the control that they feel google has over the market and the technology.
If google is doing something illegal such as microsoft did using its monoploy status or as Standard oil did by fixing freight rates on railroads for their competitors, then google should by all means have legal action taken against it.
If google is not doing anything illeagal, then people should put their irrational "control" fears aside and let the market determine how long of a reach google should have. Google doesn't control the world, consumers do.
AllsIknow is that Google and MSN are the two main search engines used to find my blog. Yahoo almost doesn't even show up these days.
Is yahoo dying a slow death or what?
Olivier: Not at all. Yahoo still enjoys significant advantage over MSN.
For me, yesterday I had more than 30% more hits from Yahoo than from Google. Go figure.
Lovingly crafted by orangecoat with some rights reserved, and a promise not to spam you.
Back to top
Of course I am too melodramatic with my anti-Google stuff, but I do think the cracks around the Googlelove veneer in the tech community are real. They were there before the AOL deal, but with the "muddying" (and people will debate that) of Google's SERPs with the 5% AOL deal, a lot of Google haters have been coming out of the woodwork.
Truth is, a lot of their recent offerings have been kinda boring. I'd like to try Google Analytics BUT THE SHIT HAS BEEN CLOSED TO NEW USERS FOR A MONTH. Google Talk is like AIM from 2001 (yawn). Or ICQ from 1998 (YAWN). And does anyone actually use that Google Proxy World Domination thing?
I'm beginning to think they have some sort of corporate schedule to get two new Web apps out per month, regardless of whether they're any good or even scalable. Google Base? Please tell me the point of THAT. (Besides being a convenient thing for spammers.)
Anyway, all that whining aside, the proof in Google's pudding is in advertising. I've read some predictions on the adblogs that click fraud will be exposed to be a big problem in 2006 -- not just for AdSense but for other networks too (YPN, Chitika, etc.) -- so we'll see how their bottom line does when the lawsuits start coming in.