Google the Victim, Poor – Poor Google
June 13, 2009
The Times (London) ran a story on which I was not going to comment. But “Can You Live without Google?” kept popping up in my mind. You can find the story by James Harkin on the Times’s Web site in the Tech & Web section. The angle the essay took was interesting. Listen to Mr. Harkin:
When Google decided to measure the worth of a piece of information by looking at how many other people found it valuable, it sowed into its operation a feedback loop that helped traffic flow around the web much more quickly and smoothly. As a result, it gobbled up about four fifths of the global search business and became one of the richest companies on Earth. Google is now worth roughly £100 billion. The open, collaborative way that Google uses us to organise its material works wonders at finding interesting nuggets of information, but it is far from ideal. Sometimes, for example, the signposts it sends us are topsy-turvy.
The idea is that Google started out on the right path and now, gentle reader, has strayed. Bad, Google.
Mr. Harkin comments on Bing.com and Wolfram Alpha. He then wrote the section that stuck with me:
Google has one of the most powerful brands in the world at its disposal and it will be not to be easy to prise people away from a company whose name is synonymous with searching the net. One thing is clear: the technology is improving and the whiff of change is in the air.
Several comments;
- The Google is a publicly traded company and it has little choice but take steps to generate revenue. I suppose it could follow the path of GM, but I am pretty happy to let market forces operate.
- Google has had 11 years without significant competition, and, in my opinion, it doesn’t have significant competition now. Bing.com is incremental, not a leapfrog. Wolfram Alpha has jumped over the heads of the average Internet user. So what’s Google to do? Help its competitors.
- Google’s Wave is a big deal, and it will work some changes that may leave Mr. Harkin once again hoping for a Henry Turtledove solution.
In short, as I have written before, the horse is gone, the barn has burned, and Wal*Mart built a superstore on the spot.
Stephen Arnold, June 13, 2009
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