| Author |
Topic:
Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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dizfactor
Registered:
Aug '02
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 9:44am
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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padluv posted:
IMO, the argument boils down to the inherent risk of monopolies of anything...hardware, software, or the sorting of information.
How is Google a monopoly? I could start my own search engine tomorrow and there's not a thing Google could do about it.
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padluv
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 12:41pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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dizfactor posted:
padluv posted:
IMO, the argument boils down to the inherent risk of monopolies of anything...hardware, software, or the sorting of information.
How is Google a monopoly? I could start my own search engine tomorrow and there's not a thing Google could do about it.
That's true. But if no one uses it, then eh...
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Jabbadabbado
Title: Senate Floor Moderator
Registered:
Mar '99
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 1:57pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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Over time, Google will have to restructure itself to look increasingly like any other large corporation. Many of its unique qualities will have to give way to the need for order at a multinational corporate scale. Some of the quirks of its corporate culture will survive.
The most you can ask of any large corporation is that it pursue the interests of profit and shareholder value within the boundaries of the law. The problem here is that Google operates in an area where the law doesn't yet know what it's doing, and may take decades still to really catch on.
It doesn't take much cynicism to see the "do no evil" motto as a brilliant marketing stroke designed from the outset to head off potential customer concerns about being at Google's mercy. Job number one for Google, as Jabba-wocky so aptly put it, is to make sure that customers view it as a benign philosopher king rather than a tyrant profit whore the way way everyone sees Microsoft.
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dizfactor
Registered:
Aug '02
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 2:04pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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Jabbadabbado posted:
Over time, Google will have to restructure itself to look increasingly like any other large corporation. Many of its unique qualities will have to give way to the need for order at a multinational corporate scale. Some of the quirks of its corporate culture will survive.
I don't really think that's necessarily true. Corporate culture arises in response to the particular business needs and environment and all that, like any culture arises as a response to the unique evolutionary pressures of its time and place. I don't see what Google would gain by mainstreaming its corporate culture, and it has an awful lot to lose.
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Lowbacca_1977
Title: Senate Moderator
Registered:
Jun '06
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 2:07pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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padluv posted:
dizfactor posted:
padluv posted:
IMO, the argument boils down to the inherent risk of monopolies of anything...hardware, software, or the sorting of information.
How is Google a monopoly? I could start my own search engine tomorrow and there's not a thing Google could do about it.
That's true. But if no one uses it, then eh...
Still not a monopoly. There's others out there as well. Google is dominant, yes, but there are still people that use other search engines.
Heck, if I want anything other than a simple web search, I use Yahoo because I find Yahoo usually does a better job of getting me what I want, esp because much of it is already on the front of Yahoo's page.
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dizfactor
Registered:
Aug '02
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 2:08pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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To add to what I said before, and to be totally cynical, Google is people-driven by necessity. It doesn't make physical products, and it likely never will, at least not in-house. It has no use for the sort of brute-force mass employment culture, because it doesn't do that kind of work. It makes money by finding new ways to exploit its existing technology, which means that its first and foremost business need is to continue to attract top notch creative class employees. The corporate culture is a major, perhaps the major, selling point in attracting new people.
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"Play is going to be for the 21st century what steam was to the 19th century."
Julian Dibbell
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Gryph
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Mr44
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 2:14pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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Does Microsoft have that same internal culture?
I know the Gates Foundation has given billions of dollars out to various charities and tech grants. This wouldn't have been possible if Microsoft wasn't so large- which is a double edged sword, I suppose.
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Ender_Sai
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Feb '01
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 2:56pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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dizfactor posted:
padluv posted:
IMO, the argument boils down to the inherent risk of monopolies of anything...hardware, software, or the sorting of information.
How is Google a monopoly? I could start my own search engine tomorrow and there's not a thing Google could do about it.
I wouldn't call it a monopoly, even though it control's the lion's share, but it does have a somewhat anticompetitive bent to it.
E_S
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Kimball_Kinnison
Registered:
Oct '01
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Date Posted:
9/10/07 6:32pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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Ender_Sai posted:
dizfactor posted:
padluv posted:
IMO, the argument boils down to the inherent risk of monopolies of anything...hardware, software, or the sorting of information.
How is Google a monopoly? I could start my own search engine tomorrow and there's not a thing Google could do about it.
I wouldn't call it a monopoly, even though it control's the lion's share, but it does have a somewhat anticompetitive bent to it.
E_S
If you're going to make claims (all of you), why don't we look at some hard data?
July 2007 Search Engine Stats
As you can see, Google has about half of the total searches, with Yahoo getting about a fifth, and MSN getting another sixth.
Meanwhile, Google and Yahoo are about equal on customer satisfaction.
And if you want to talk about an anticompetitive bent, why don't we discuss the fact that Microsoft has MSN search set up as the default in all Windows installations (unless an OEM makes a deal to change it)? I find it amazing that MSN has as little of a share as they do considering its default status in Windows. Every time someone mistypes a URL in IE, it goes to MSN search, unless you specifically change the defaults (which most people never do).
Kimball Kinnison
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Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?
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GrandAdmiralJello
Title:
Emperor
• EUC
• JCC
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
9/11/07 3:44am
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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Tragic, because there's nothing better than a browser-integrated reprogrammable search bar. Though since my address bar is now google by default, I tend to use that instead.
I'd argue that rather than being anticompetitive, google is simply supremely competitive. It may appear to be similar... but it's not.
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Ender_Sai
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Feb '01
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Date Posted:
9/11/07 2:42pm
Subject:
RE: Inside Google - issues surrounding it
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Except in theory, competition is fantastic, yet in practise Google hardly seems to welcome it. That's my concern and I think in addition to privacy issues they're valid, no matter what Googophiles want to smokescreen as otherwise. Similarly, to suggest "oh well Microsoft is far worse" invokes really unpleasant memories for me of people defending all manner of atrocities like Abu Grahib by saying someone else was worse - the implication being, therefore, that any action is resolved due to the other person's inherent naughtiness.
E_S
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