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| <<<>>> |
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The Corruption of Electronic Information : Part 3/3 |
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| Created by Decius at
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Google's actions in the last few years have indicated an intelligent and effective business strategy that is meant to maximize its foothold over the exchange of information on the internet. This is a valuable commodity and explains why companies like Yahoo! and MSN are currently fighting for market share yet Google still owns over 40% of it.
Unfortunately, Google's strategies mimic other efforts in corporate America and have more to do with coercion than innovation. Google began as a search engine and their results have seen more degradation than improvement over the years. By alienating webmasters through their undisclosed and overly effective filters more and more dissent is beginning to surround the word "Google".
By placing such an importance on blogs Google has corrupted the once personal and artistic purpose of keeping an online diary. As with everything else, the true grit of online blogging will dissolve into the background as savvy webmasters flood the market with blogs on cats and dogs and tomatoes while the genuine tomato enthusiast receives less and less traffic.
The worst effect of Google's greed is its effect on the genuine webmaster and entrepreneur. Similar to the pre-Google internet era when search engines bent webmasters over to be included in their listings, Google is now forcing webmasters to do the same. In an unlikely turn of events, businesses and companies are looking to Microsoft to create a worthy adversary in MSN. Microsoft, doing what they do best, is very efficiently copying everything Google is doing but just a little better. And fortunately for us and unfortunately for Google, Microsoft has double the money that Google does and a lot more pull since they own IE and Windows.
Google is aggressively pursuing the eventual worldwide switch from computers to terminals with massive central hubs of data storage. With the advent of Firebox and Thunderbird (free open source browsers and mail programs) it will be possible for people to check email, write a document, play video games and watch movies from any computer at any location on the planet.
Unfortunately, Google does not have the resources or time to wait for this to happen. Bandwidth speeds must increase ten-fold for the remote desktop to become a reality. Microsoft has already begun launching "Windows Live", their online hub which will provide users the ability to write documents, check email, shop, and do a variety of other things. Since almost everyone still uses Windows and Office, this integration can be very seamless and it provides Microsoft the one-time opportunity to offset the search engine market share.
Of course it would be unrealistic to look at Microsoft with any less distaste than Google. The only reason Microsoft is providing all of these products free is because if they don't, they can't compete with Google. But in the likely case that they succeed in ousting Google from top position, it will only be a matter of time before Microsoft's innovation slows to a crawl and they begin to exploit their customers.
It seems the future of electronic information is certain given what we know now. The unfortunate reality of Google is that most people do not need them if a viable alternative is available. If a faster search engine shows up that receives enough attention, people will switch. And without search results, Google does not make money. People's devotion (or lack thereof) to any one search engine can be clearly seen by how fast Google destroyed its competitors in a short time span.
The remarkable observation about the search engine wars and the eventual collapse of Google is the immense speed of innovation in companies fighting to beat the top dog. Firebox, a browser that didn't exist a few years ago, implements new changes often to improve and steal more market share away from Internet Explorer. Thunderbird does the same for Outlook, and MSN is now innovating against Google. Google has AdWords and Microsoft has adCenter.
It seems that, like the pre-Google era, information will again cost money. In the end, the consumers and distributors of information (humans) will suffer because of a lack of competition brought upon by an infrastructure of monopoly, and the fight for one entity to maintain it.
Resources:
(don't worry, this article is for informational purposes only and I am not receiving any pagerank from these links, nor are there referral ids in them that give me money when you click on them. I just want to provide you with resources that may help expand on what I've written. Unbelievable.)
Browser Usage Distribution
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Search Engine Distribution
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=1 |
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| Created by Decius at
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