Pages: 1

Hello, Google, can you spell hypocrisy?

(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: forwardone

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technol..._hypocrisy.html


Google's top lawyer is slagging off Microsoft for doing things that Google does too.

There's an amusing post on the Official Google blog by David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer. What it adds up to is a plea for market intervention by government authorities, which is a bit rich coming from a company that has a monopoly market share of search.

Of course, this is just a bit of evil Google game-playing. If Drummond really thinks that combining Yahoo and Microsoft represents a significant threat to Google, then he could be the only man on earth who does. However, it looks hypocritical to me. Drummond says:

"The openness of the Internet is what made Google -- and Yahoo! -- possible. A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It's what makes the Internet such an exciting place."


Fine. But it was also the (relative) openness of DOS and Windows that helped create a huge compatible PC market, with lots of exciting innovation. (Not open by today's definitions, of course, but open compared to closed, proprietary offerings from Acorn, Apple, Atari, Commodore, Sinclair, Tandy, Wang etc, who all produced their own incompatible machines.) Anybody could (and still can) go into business selling PCs, and anybody could (and still can) write Windows software. Indeed, Google has benefited hugely from exploiting this Microsoft-sponsored market with Google products.

If Google really thinks Microsoft is evil, it can stop marketing the Google Toolbar and Firefox for Windows, and drop even the mediocre support for Office in Google docs. But it seems it would rather take the money and/or market share, and be hypocritical about it.

How far Google is open is another matter. It certainly exploits free open source software, but its "secret sauce" isn't available. Its search algorithms and operations are entirely secret, and Google can delete your site from its index without consulting you or anybody else, and you have no real recourse.

Even if you have created your site specifically following Google's rules -- most sites are written for Google nowadays -- it can delete or downgrade it, and it won't tell you why. That's real power.

Drummond also says:

"While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets. "



There's nothing new in that, of course. Most big companies do exactly the same thing, and the IBM monopoly -- the original Evil Empire -- was a master at it. However, Mr Drummond doesn't seem to have looked at what Google is doing. Seems to me it's taking its monopoly market share in proprietary search and using it to leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets, including email, messaging, blogging, maps, photos, social networking etc etc.

Indeed, Google may even be stifling innovation because its huge market power makes it hard to compete, even if you have a better product. And because Google is hugely rich, it can buy up innovation by taking over other companies such as YouTube, Blogger, Keyhole, Picasa, DoubleClick, Feedburner, Jaiku, Jotspot, Android (to get into phones), Postini, GrandCentral and many more. If you can out-innovate Google, it can, like the borg, absorb you.

Google has every right to do this, of course. I'm simply pointing out that people who live in glass houses should be careful in their choice of stones.....


Posted by: golddust

But is there an agenda?

What Everybody Seems to be Missing About Google
Quote:
By Robert Scoble - Mon, 02/04/2008 - 1:19pm.
I’m surprised that even Kara Swisher has missed this. The bloggers are going nuts, once again, over the email that a Google lawyer sent to Microsoft regarding Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Yahoo.

Here’s what’s really going on:

1. Google doesn’t mind this deal going through at all. Google knows they will be able to outrun a “Microhoo.” Why do they know that? Because they’ve been able to outrun them both separately. As I said on Channel 5 news on Friday night: put two turkeys together and you don’t get an eagle.

2. Google stands to gain HUGE by slowing down this deal. Every month longer that this deal takes is tens of millions in Google’s pockets. Why? Well, the real race today isn’t for search. Isn’t for email. Isn’t for IM. It’s for ownership of your mobile phone. I met the guy who runs China’s telecom last week in Davos. He’s seeing six million new people get a cell phone in China every month. So, every month that Microsoft and Yahoo will be stuck in some courtroom arguing out why this is a good deal means money in the bank for Google as they close mobile phone deal after mobile phone deal.

3. Email is not where the money is. Google knows this. So, who cares that Microsoft and Yahoo have a monopoly there? There’s only one way to make money with the 600 million who are on either Microsoft’s Hotmail or Yahoo’s email: get them to join other services where there ARE ways to make money. Danny Sullivan told me that this deal is all about search. He’s right. But you gotta be able to get those 600 million people to not just use your email, but come over and use your search. Google is trying to slow down these teams from doing that. But Google knows that even if Microsoft and Yahoo join email and do a pretty decent job of integrating search into there that Google will still see more growth in both email and search than Microsoft and Yahoo together will see. Why? Have you compared Google’s offerings to the others? I have (I am a Hotmail user). Even though I am locked into Hotmail cause my email address is all over the Web I’d rather be on Gmail and Google’s offerings are better integrated and better designed.

4. IM is harder to monetize than email is. Do we really think Google is concerned about either email or IM? If they were they’d be pouring lots of resources into Gmail and Google Talk. Hint: Google isn’t doing that. Why not? Because they aren’t taking their eye off the mobile ball. They are hoping that everyone else does, though, by sending this note. It sure did work, too. Damn the bloggers all took the bait and either called Google arrogant or hypocritical or annoying. Google is all of those things here, for sure, but they are damn smart and are doing this for their own purposes.

Now, we can argue about whether this deal is good or not, or whether it’ll work out for Microsoft or not, but people, don’t take your eye off of what Google is really up to here. Google is having fun by causing Microsoft to react, not to mention that if its little note is taken seriously this deal will be slowed down by six months or more while government regulators look it over. Even in the best of situations it’s going to take a year for these two huge companies to integrate and figure out how to work with each other. So, every month that this gets delayed is gold in Google’s pockets.


http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/...ng-about-google



eXTReMe Tracker