Google's week, Google's future
It has been a furious month of news about Google, precipitated by rumors of its ambitions for a free wireless network, heightened this week by release of its free sidebar, and slammed home by the introduction of its free Google Talk, an IM and chat technology.
Many of you, like us, are wondering what it all means. Here's a great piece by Jason Kottke, who writes this even before Google Talk was released. It is about the Google OS, and Ajax and all of the goodies that geek-minded people in the valley should know about. And Om's musings here are one attempt to sum things ups: The Google effect is radical because it is bringing the cost of things to zero, and because Microsoft will go through a lot of pain.
With weeks like this, it is easy to assume things are moving more quickly and more directed than they are. When the dust settles, though, this will remain a long tough slog, and Google too will face challenges. Note that Om apologies for going on a Google "tangent" this week; he even once asked us why we're so preoccupied by Google (and Yahoo) here at SiliconBeat (some readers have asked too). We replied that Google's search offerings (and Yahoo's) seem to have driven so much of the valley's innovation cycle in recent years, something that Battelle in particular has done a good job in explaining. We'll try not to obsess about Google, but will keep a hawk's eye on them nonetheless.
http://www.siliconbeat.com/cgi-bin/mt331/mt-tb.cgi/644
Links to blogs that reference this entry:
Google, the ultimate price deflator
Excerpt: SiliconBeat points us to several great posts on how Google is causing disruption in the marketplace especially when it comes to lowering the pricing none to NOTHING. How many times has Google taken a technology that used to charge the
Tracked: August 27, 2005 8:08 AM
"The Google effect is radical because it is bringing the cost of things to zero, and because Microsoft will go through a lot of pain."
Ummm, have you heard of a little division called MSN with hundreds of millions of users worldwide... using FREE stuff?
on August 26, 2005 5:48 PMComment link
It's a mass syndrome called Google Addicts Syndrome (GAS). ;-)
Warm Regards,
Kavs @ Freelance1.com
Comment link
//We replied that Google's search offerings (and Yahoo's) seem to have driven so much of the valley's innovation cycle in recent years, something that Battelle in particular has done a good job in explaining.//
innovation? what innovation? I've seen people harp on microsoft about not being innovative but what have Google innovated exactly? I thought so....
Why don't you be honest like the rest of the Google brand advocates posing as journalists? There is money factor involved and the only thing driving Google is same hype methodology used in the 90s to drive up unprofitable dotcom stock prices to the same numbers Google have now.
The only thing you and the rest of the Google brand advocates posing as journalist haven't calculated is that you and the Google hype (and stock price) will fall once TRUE INNOVATION appears on the scene and readily accepted by the critical mass.
Ed Dunn on August 27, 2005 4:05 AMComment link
We've tried to poke Google hype before; check our post a while back about Google's inflated stock price (search for "spoil google party"). Regarding "brand advocates" comment, we still haven't received any check from Google. Innovation arguably is always incremental and built upon what has come before. And it can come in various forms, such as implementation, and in business model. Google News was great example of implementation. Google's usage of popularity-ranked ads for Adwords is an example of business model innovation. As for MSN, we'd argue that one reason they're unleashing these free products is precisely because Google's offerings are forcing them too.
Matt Marshall on August 27, 2005 8:36 AMComment link
True. Google undoubtedly has driven innovation. If it were not for Google, we'd not have seen all those offerings from competing companies lined up so soon.
Kavs @ Freelance1.com
Kavs on August 27, 2005 11:42 AMComment link
