It could happen. If you woke up tomorrow morning and Google, the company that eats every useful web service in sight, was gone:
- What e-mail service would you use?
- What web site statisitics software would you use?
- What search engine would you use?
- What search engine would you optimise for?
- What search engine would you advertise on?
- What feed reader would you use?
- What mapping service would you use?
- What calendar service would you use?
- What online document or speadsheet applications would you use?
- What Youtube would you use?
- What Feedburner would you use?
I could go on. I’m sure Google will be around for a very long time, but do you ever worry that more and more they are becoming the web?
UPDATE: Added Feedburner to the list.
9 Comments
yes, fair point. But I think the nature of the web is that it “forgets” very quickly.
I think there are 100’s of startups gunning for position behind google in all sectors and they would just steamroll through, and Google would be forgotten about.
Really? Or is Google squashing those startups with it’s infinite budgets and resources? You’re probably right, but I just feel that Google is exerting a disproportionate amount of pressure on web business for one company.
I think there are hundreds of start ups ready to replace Googles individual apps, but for cross field integration it’d have to be Yahoo! or Microsoft, although both their mail applications are absolute shite.
It’s weird, I started using Google cause someone recommended it to me _way_ back, I wonder who would I look to for recommendations now.
Another interesting thought is “Will a Free software web group ever attempt to offer alternatives to Google in every field?”
If I used Google to provide me with all those services listed above (I purposely don’t) it would worry me more that Google would have access to my complete online (and wuite a bit of my offline) behaviour as well as access to all info stored in Gmail, Google apps etc..
E.
Using Gmail, Google knows who my friends and contacts are and what I’m saying to them, using Google Search history and Google Reader they know exactly what my interests are, using the calendar Google know where I am and what I’m doing at certain times of the day.
Is it time to disengage from the mothership ;)
Adding to that…how are Yahoo, Microsoft et al. any different?
Personally I couldn’t care less what Google does and doesn’t know about me or my dealings. If it got to a point where I thought they were abusing my trust, I’d just stop using their services completely. That’s the only thing that makes Google strong - it’s popularity. Without that, they’re nothing. So I think there’ll always be an amicable balance there. If not, they could take a very quick fall from grace.
Interesting point & it really opens up many topics for discussion for example
Google aren’t the first behemoth that are assumed to have the power to swallow
everything in its path. Bigger operations buying smaller companies is natural way
to gain market dominance & thereby achieve more sustainability. I don’t agree
that they exert disproportionate amount of pressure on web business; or at least the pressure
is to large extent is perceived in that they are the web as most people eyes including the tech savvy
google is the entry point. You do have the choice not to use their services; you aren’t tied to them.
There are good if not better alternatives to their services; at least their big ones, gmail, search and so on.
So if they went under tomorrow I think we’d all move to the alternatives pretty quickly. Why there’s
resistance at the moment to move is because they’re synonymous with the web, how many people
do know type google in the address bar in the browser then type the URL for the page their looking
for in the google web page, I’ve seen this; more than once!
In any case here’s competition in the search space :)
http://www.doogle.org/
Q.
Even if Google the company went away, the really smart people at Google would still be around. They would found or join dozens of new companies, using the Google technology that the newly non-existent company no longer needs. We’d probably be even better off than we are now.
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