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Nov
07
Google Won’t Last Forever
A tree can only hold so many apples, and the same rule applies to Google when it comes to them trying to acquire every thing that seems within their reach. Google has clearly become the undsiputed king ( so far ) in search engine battles. But google’s interest in acquiring services from every market sector might be like swallowing a bone larger than the throat.
This post highlights as to why I think google is heading the wrong way and why Google is trying to monopolize the internet. The views and opinion expressed here are mine and might and might not be similar to yours. I just had the urge to write how I feel, so here I am writing it all out as to how I feel about the Big G.
Too Many Competitors
Competetion is good but when you are surrounded from four corners it might be a little hard to win in the long run. Case in point, google stepping into every market to become the KING. Ok, so what exactly am I talking about and how do I support this way of my thinking, here we go
#1. Online Payment System
Google introduced Google checkout which makes it a direct competitor to ebay ( paypal ). I am not sure if Google can ever outthrow paypal, but there is one market that Google should have left alone as it is not Google’s market.
#2. Skype
Google’s acquisition of GrandCentral early this year clearly indicates that Google is trying to get into the VOIP ( Voice Over Internet Protocol ) market as well. Again, not google’s market and a direct competitor to SKYPE.
#3. Online Video
Google acquired You Tube and since then its been money machine for google. Although You Tube is one of the most popular online video services available but again google has been able to garner more competition by moving away from its field of competitors.
#4. Online Office Suite
With the introduction of Google Office it became a direct competitor to MS Office and ZOHO etc.
These are just few of the examples as to where google is heading in terms of competition. Yahoo, AOL, MSN are the age old competitors but google is calling for more and although most people don’t see it, EBAY is one of the prime contenders. Too many competitors and from too many market - Not Good!
The Sponsored Search Results
If you are paying a certain amount to be the first to be shown on google’s sponsored results , thats exactly what you want - to be the first. But Google seems to be using the advantage of their own service to benefit themselves. When we search for something the general results are listed according to backlinks and other relevant factors but the sponsored results for that keyword is based on how much advertisers are paying per click.
If you type in “video” google video appears to be the first one on sponsored search results. Isn’t that competing against your advertisers and the ones you are offering services to. If someone buys services from you would you advertise yourself on whatever means of advertising form you are using to to be on top before your own client, I don’t think so.
What Does Google Know About You?
A quick excerpt from Google’s privacy FAQ
Like most Web sites, our servers automatically record the page requests made when users visit our sites. These “server logs” typically include your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.
So there you go. Google knows everything you do. When you are on the internet trying to find those hot images of Jessica Alba, guess what google knows and they can certainly track you down based on your IP address. Also, not to forget, Matt Cutts, one of the key google engineers used to work for the National Security Agency so they have the aids and resources to get more info on you if they want to and I can bet they do.
Also everytime you perform a search on google, google places a unique id on your hard drive and guess when it expires 2038, let me put that in number as well , two thousand thirty eight. Everytime you use google’s search function you get a google cookie and if you haven’t used google’s services yet and are about to, don’t worry they will place one for you. And like me, if you constantly use one they will read and record you unique id with updated info ofcourse.
Google trying to own DoubleClick will give them the advantage to merge behavioral information with personal information collected through google user accounts. Remember, in 2004 google tried to add adsense to gmail which showed ads based on the words user had in their emails? That is a direct attack towards your privacy.
PageRank - The Class System
Why the heck am I writing this article when this blog is predicted a strong PR 5 next update? Exactly, PR has become such an important deal to us bloggers and webmasters that the importance can’t be denied. Because of this we are finding more and more ways that people are practicing black hat methods to gain search engine ranking. And bloggers and webmasters and companies can’t be blamed for buying links either because if a service becomes so iminent to the existence of their business, sometimes you have to do what you have to.
To see why exactly I think Page Rank is a class system please read
The whole purpose of this article is to point out the fact that Google is clearly trying to monopolize the internet by controlling every aspect of it. From advertising to search to entertainment, seems like it all depends on google. If this keeps going at the rate it is, Google is sure to go down because monopoly in any form or format has never succeeded in a free economy and google will realize this as well - sooner or later.
As for now I would hate for google to go but with all the competition and market google is tapping into the fall is certain. So let’s just pray that google becomes a little wiser ( like its users ) and thinks again before it makes its move. Personally, I think by the end 2010 google will start to fade away just like any other businesses and companies that have tried to control every aspect of any market.
So what do you think? Agree or Disagree?
P.S. Once again the views expressed here are solely mine. Please share your views and thoughts via comments. I respect your thoughts and comments but when you leave your comments please show respect towards other commenters opinion and the blogger’s as well.
Google has bought Checkout so that it can follow what you buy, and bought GrandCentral to check who you phone.
Google is certainly “Microsoft-esque” in their efforts to dominate globally, and that could ultimately be a positive or a negative thing, depending on how they play it.
Even after the anti-trust suit that Microsoft had to go through, they do still have great products and the majority of the market share on several levels. I am hardly Microsoft’s biggest fan, but with them as well as Google, the sheer resource power that can be had by sector leaders can create opportunities for both loyal fans as well as people who want to create competing products.
At any rate, it will be interesting to see where things end up with Google over the next 5 years or so.
I fully believe your right. I imagine that at some point they will sell off unprofitable services, to bolster the ones that are still profitable.
I am just wondering how long until they are sued for fraudulent business practices.
Consolidation is inevitable as a company grows. I actually think it’s a good thing.
I’m personally trying to use as much YAHOO search as possible.. but I have to admit, google is usually better in terms of relevance..
LMAO … at 650+ per share… they are laughing at our silly debates all the way to the bank. Not to mention… adcents… i hate google as much as the next guy but dont think they are headed out ANY time soon
Google looks and works fine for me. Since they went public, I’ve been scared but it’s still very reliable and look to it for support.
I think you got i a bit wrong. The fact that google acquired some companies doesn’t also mean that they cannot advertise these companies under their own network. Although youtube and other companies are under the Google family they still run and work as individual companies with their own profit and annual budgets so basically youtube actually pays google to advertise on it’s network no matter if it’s own by the same people.
Who cares? I don’t. Why do I care if Google knows what I search for? I’ve nothing to hide, I’ve got no warrants for my arrest. I use GrandCentral, Google Calendar, Gmail, Maps and Google Analytics and no one from Google has ever knocked on my door and called me by my first name.
I could have a private investigator parked in a car across the street watching my every move. I don’t care. Unless it becomes a point where my daily life or my family is affected. Who cares.
Block cookies in your browser, switch to Firefox and used an analog home phone if you’re that worried. And by the way, don’t go outside for too long - you’re picture might end up on Google Maps taken from satellites that have been able to spy on you since Sputnik.
Thanx for sharing your views guys and by the way I think most of you looked at the post the wrong way.
I am not talking about google from technology aspect but from the business. Think about it, if walmart takes over the whole grocery and shopping and all that how would other businesses survive. For smaller businesses to survive there has to be competition. And if google goes ahead and takes everything into its hand and controls the flow of information on the internet, what are we going to do. Just use google and never give others a chance?
The whole point of this article is how big google is becoming and why it is dangerous. IBM was the same way but not anymore. It was my opinion as written on the post and once again I would like to thank you all for sharing your views here although some of them came out a little ruse.
But at the end its my views and my opinion and I am going to keep it that way. And although google’s acquisitions have their own department or control sector at the end it falls under google’s administration since it is the parent company.
Hi, I beg to disagree with your points. While it would seem true that Google is trying to rule the Internet by gathering as much information and data as possible, it has to do so protect its core search engine market. I mean the google’s search engine market is built around smart user targetted advertising and this requires a shitload of user data to be effective. So look at the services coming up, they have so much money in the bank so why not spend it on (1) a service that collects more data, (2) a service that complements 1 and lastly (3) to enter competitor’s markets to keep them busy enough to not enter Google’s core markets. In my opinion, Google is going to be around for the long run.
what Anon E Mus on Nov 27, 2007 at 3:50 pm said.
I think google acts really clever on the market in a companies point of view and i doubt they`ll be gone that soon. I respect that, it is just clever marketing. There will be always and ever counterparts to google so i am not afraid that they are going to “rule” the internet. Remember it is still your choice which service you are going to use. Usually when companies are getting to powerfull people will pick their products of other, not so powerfull ones. At last people with brains do.We make google and their success will only last as long we are using it.
Google is a tough competitor, I guess whatever market it touches, it masters it and become the king of the sector. Lets just believe in Google, this is the one company that strives to make difference in layman’s life. I am impressed with google.
I don’t think Google will ever die. They may be forced to sell off some of their purchases over time if they don’t perform. Shareholders that get high prices will demand the prices stay high and perform well so the company will have to perform well. I think some components will go - webmasters using google search will not last much longer. The use of google search in browser toolbars will kill that off. Advertisers will not be willing to pay so much for their keywords then. Watch for google making a play for a pay per post company in the future. They don’t like it at present but as advertisers start to use it google will be forced to jump on the band wagon. The one other area that may affect google into the future will be the various corporate laws around the world. Australia has already had a go at them and I am sure into the future the Australian Fair Trading and ante monopoly laws will start to come into play. I am waiting to see if those de-ranked by google for PPP use will try to use some of these laws against google.
time will tell
the radical blogger
google is by far the best, I use googlemail and I would be much more likely to trust my details to them than any other payment website. It is the industry standard and is no doubt the most common homepage. I think it is more like apple than microsoft in terms of company image. If the first thing that came up on any search you did was google, I would be skeptical, but I dont care about the sponsored links anyway..
If you have a web page on the internet/blog post etc and you delete it, it can still be found as a cached page in Google. Does this stay there forever, or is the cached page updated the next time the Google bot does a crawl? In other words, in a few months or so will you be unable to find the deleted post through a Google search? (also, is it the same with other search engines?)