Google Becomes a Bunny thats Cuddles
September 11, 2009
I was surprised to read in several different stories that Google is tossing olive branches left, right, and sideways. Even the Google is savvy enough to know when lots of guns aim at Googzilla. Googzilla is tough but Googzilla knows that Gulliver ended up hogtied with some small people standing on his forehead. You can get a sense of the shift by reading Wired’s “Amazon Scoffs at Google’s Offer to Share Book Search Sales”. The article explains Google’s olive branch and the Amazon response.
Several comments:
- I think the Google has realized that it may have a fight on its hands with or without its controversial settlement.
- Google’s cavalier attitude may have contributed to the controversy. Its attempts to assuage fear takes place as the company hops in the sleeping bag with Sony, a company with an interesting track record in treating its paying customers with respect.
- The amount of money sunk into the Books project is now sufficiently large that Google wants to craft some type of deal without pushing the button on thermonuclear information war; specifically, Google could go directly to authors and become a publisher. Google can promote, deliver, and collect for these original work.
My hunch is that Google is going to give the Cold War tactics a try. But that button is sitting there begging to be pushed. What happens if shareholders demand that Google maximize its revenues by becoming a full service, vertically integrated publisher. I would jump from my four publishers to Google in a heart beat. The Google can definitely sell online. Someday maybe?
Stephen Arnold, September 11, 2009
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