Web Ownership: You Know the Answer
January 25, 2009
I get a kick out of articles with titles like “Will Google and Microsoft Own the Web?” You can read an exemplary version of this question in PCWorld here. The article is a bit different from the question in my opinion. The core of the story is a view expressed by Sun Microsystems’ Jonathan Schwartz that the Web is drifting away from the openness of bygone days. Keep in mind that Sun has fallen from grace in the eyes of Wall Street, and the company has begun hooking Microsoft’s technology into Java. What’s bubbling under the veneer of this article is the dominance of Google. Forget Microsoft, Facebook, and MySpace. (If you want to believe that Facebook is the real Google killer, read this story. I just don’t buy the argument, however.) None of those companies is in a position to become the Internet in North America, big chunks of Europe, and a number of other countries as well. Instead of coming right out and saying, “Google is in a position to become the Internet, we get the tap dancing around the elephant in search. For me the most interesting comment in the write up was:
Schwartz argues that developers should avoid the “hostile territory” altogether. Instead of the browser, he says, developers should build applications using Sun’s new JavaFX technology. But this seems somewhat disingenuous, considering that JavaFX is so far almost entirely the brainchild of Sun, and is therefore less open than any browser. But there are other reasons to be concerned about Google’s stake in Firefox and Chrome, too. Some privacy advocates worry that Google’s influence over the browser market gives it access to too much user data, which the company collects for the purposes of its massively lucrative online advertising business.
Good point. Just about seven or eight years too late based on my research.
Stephen Arnold, January 24, 2009
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4 Responses to “Web Ownership: You Know the Answer”
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I’m actually curious about the statement that “the company [Sun] has begun hooking Microsoft’s technology into Java”.
What are they connecting?
Bob Carpenter,
I posted a story about Sun including Microsoft toolbar in Java. Use the search function on Beyond Search or search Google’s news archive.
Stephen Arnold, January 26, 2009
I, Keira Marie Battaglia, personally think that African Elephants should be abled to be a legal pet in Arnold,Pa.
Keira,
Now that’s the most intelligent comment about search and content processing I have read today. I bet the geese in Arnold PA are a site to behold too.
Stephen E Arnold, August 7, 2010